Skip to main content
New Participant
March 7, 2022
Question

Cannot fill PDFs in Acrobat Reader mobile app even though security allows for filling in form fields

  • March 7, 2022
  • 2 replies
  • 1642 views

I recently added security settings to some PDFs to prevent editing and commenting; we only want them to be able to fill the fields. (There are no signatures on these documents so signing is not required.) For some reason users can no longer fill them out in the Acrobat Reader iOS mobile app. The fields no longer appear blue and the following message appears:

 

These forms worked fine when there was no security applied to them. Users also have no issues filling the same forms out on the desktop app for Acrobat Reader DC and Acrobat DC.

These are the current permissions under the password security settings:
Printing Allowed: High Resolution
Changes Allowed: Filling in form fields and signing existing signature fields
Compatibility: Acrobat 7.0 and later


I also tried broadening the permissions and decreasing the compatability, however the fields could still not be filled:
Printing Allowed: High Resolution
Changes Allowed: Commenting, filling in form fields, and signing existing signature fields

Compatability: Acrobat 6.0 and later

 

Is this a bug or are there some additional security settings that I'm missing in order to restrict editing/commenting and enable mobile document-filling?

2 replies

Harsh Vardhan Pareek
Community Manager
Community Manager
March 8, 2022

Hi @christylee123 

 

Thanks for providing the details. As it is a password-protected PDF, and the reader mobile app has some limitations that actions that change the file are blocked on mobile devices, including Fill & Sign, commenting, and editing.

Here is a help document you can refer to:

https://community.adobe.com/t5/acrobat-reader-mobile-discussions/pdf-opens-as-read-only-on-i-phone/td-p/12797307

 

Thanks,

Harsh

New Participant
March 8, 2022

Thanks very much for your reply @Harsh Vardhan Pareek.

 

So in other words, documents currently need to have no security applied in order to be filled out in the mobile app. Do you  know if Adobe is planning any future updates to the app so that it recognizes when fill-and-sign security is enabled?

Harsh Vardhan Pareek
Community Manager
Community Manager
March 14, 2022

Yes, with security enabled there are certain limitations on the Reader mobile app, you can refer to this help document to understand this better.

https://www.adobe.com/devnet-docs/acrobat/android/en/managingsubscriptions.html?password-protect-pdfs#protect

 

Thanks,

Harsh

Bernd Alheit
Community Expert
March 8, 2022

This is not a bug.