Skip to main content
fabioc63202642
fabioc63202642
Participant
February 21, 2015
Question

Notes and highlights disappeared after reopening the file on the iPad Adobe Reader app

  • February 21, 2015
  • 8 replies
  • 48920 views

This morning I opened a new PDF document using the Adobe Reader app for iPad (latest version). I spent the entire morning annotating the file (with the freehand tool, highlights and balloon notes). Mobile link was on. I tapped "Done" before closing the app. Now, in the evening of the same day, when I returned to finish reviewing the document, to my surprise and despair, all the notes have disappeared. I am pretty sure I did not delete the newer version of the file in any way. I simply closed the app, and when I reopened it all my work was gone. Is there a way to revert to a previous version of the document? I logged in to Acrobat.com on the desktop and the file is there (sync'ed via Mobile link), but only the version without the annotations. Help!!!! One can't loose hours of work this way!

    8 replies

    J
    Juan Diego29613159fju0
    Participant
    August 14, 2023

    Had exactly the same issue as you (8 years later) and none of the fixes worked. Crazy to think that Adobe doesn't fix these types of glitches even after all this time has passed. Time to start highlighting again i guess...

     

      S_S
      Community Manager
      S_SCommunity Manager
      Community Manager
      August 16, 2023

      @Juan Diego29613159fju0,

       

      Sorry for the experience. This has been a long trail issue, and the team is aware of it.

       

      There have been constant changes to how the touch sensitivity works on Apple iOS versions while the team works on a fix.

       

      The team has this up on priority and is working to get the fix released in future releases.

       

      I request your kind understanding and patience while we work on it.

       

      -Souvik

      T
      Treconnek
      Participant
      September 22, 2023

      This is sloppy and unacceptable by Adobe.  I spent a few hours highlighting a very long file with regular saves in the latest (expensive) version of Adobe Creative Cloud for Mac.  The highlights have simply disappeared.  Including in my automatically saved backup files using Time Machine.  There should be a warning.  Abode are meant to save us time not cost it.  This is a long-standing issue and my patience has run out.  

        H
        Helder26895184ak0x
        Participant
        November 1, 2022

        Is there a solution for this problem? It has just happened to me. Interestingly, it happened to one document but not all. 

        E
        Erica2513206868cj
        Participant
        July 5, 2022

        I'm having the same issue now and none of these fixes are working. I had worked on a +300 pg book manuscript over a few weeks, writing comments in margins and underlining. Now that I'm writing up the reviewer report, I'm going back through the manuscript and looking for the comments. I see that they saved up until p. 105 but for the rest of the doc they are gone! I'm using the Acrobat app on my ipad

         

          S_S
          Community Manager
          S_SCommunity Manager
          Community Manager
          July 5, 2022

          @Erica2513206868cj Hi,

          Sorry for the trouble.

          We have logged a bug on this issue and it will be fixed in the upcoming updates.

          Thanks,

          Souvik.

          T
          tillh84851291
          Participant
          June 19, 2022

          Had the same issue on my macbook just now, my blood froze... 

          simply logged out - in again and the highlights etc reappeared. puh 

          S_S
          Community Manager
          S_SCommunity Manager
          Community Manager
          June 20, 2022

          @tillh84851291 

          Hi,

          Great to know that it worked out for you.

          A
          Abuchery
          Participant
          May 19, 2021

          SOLVED!!!

           

          I had a similar issue. I had opened up a PDF document on Adobe DC. I did some edits (mostly just highlighting an annotating for a presentation) on the document and then without closing the document, (because I wasn't done) I did some cleaning on my downloads, which involved moving my document on edit to a specific folder for easy retrival. Previously this document was on Downloads (including when I began commenting and highlighting the pdf). When I tried to save changes, it could not allow me to save, and then all the text on the pdf just disappeared. I could see the annotated sections and when I clicked on them I could see my notes, but no text. I moved the document in question back to downloads, then when I tried to save the pdf it saved just fine with all of my annotations. I then moved this document back to its organized folder and when opened, it opens with the annotated changes.

           

          Sometimes the solution is simple and requires you to track all changes made to the entire document; including the reversal of any movememts you had made on the documents.

          A
          al_md3@hotmail.com
          Participant
          April 29, 2020

          mohammad alsharari

          A
          amanfra
          Participant
          September 26, 2017

          I'm using the current android app. My document froze--I couldn't scroll or highlight--so I just left it alone for a couple minutes and went to the restroom. When I got back, the document had closed itself and when I re-opened it, the highlights from the last 5 hours had all been deleted (highlights and notes from over 6 hours ago remain). The same amount of highlights shows up when I open the document on my laptop.

          Is there any way to recover the highlights that closed out for some reason? Is there anything analagous to when the desktop program crashes and it offers a recovery file of what was open?

            C
            ceciliac91175136
            Participant
            September 2, 2018

            Did you solve the problem? I'm in the same situation now...

              kdfincher
              kdfincher
              Participant
              September 24, 2018

              Hi Cecilia,

              This may not help you but just realized I was losing my highlights because I was viewing documents in the Sepia color (instead of black or white).  So my highlights weren’t gone, they were just too close to the viewing color to see.

              -k

              RahulTyagi_
              Community Manager
              RahulTyagi_Community Manager
              Community Manager
              February 21, 2015

              Hi Fabio Costa,

              I Understand your frustration, and we regret for the inconvenience caused to you.

              However i would like to know certain things, in order to assist you more accurately:

              • Are you connected to the Internet on your iPad?
              • Are you able to see any other document files saved on the Acrobat server, using 'Acrobat.com' pane on your iPad device?

              I tried to replicate the same on my iPad device but everything is working fine at my end.

              I would recommend you to try signing out and sign-in back in your reader application.

              Regards,

              Rahul Tyagi

                B
                Babar38684208nfra
                Participant
                July 18, 2024

                Hello dear

                i highlighted a lot of things in a file in Acrobat in my iPad, but suddenly a message appeared that a system error has happened and files closed automatically. When I reopened it , there was no highlighted area, no notes, no nothing. I am very upset at it, please can you help me out? Thank you 🙏 

                S_S
                Community Manager
                S_SCommunity Manager
                Community Manager
                July 24, 2024

                Hi @Babar38684208nfra,

                 

                Hope you are doing well. Thanks for writing in!

                 

                From the description and the error you mentioned, this is an error that is triggered by your iPadOS due to overloading memory usage. 

                Acrobat has nothing to do in this. Such errors can occur due to multiple reasons, like apps running in the background, file being too heavy for the device.

                Such issues can lead to a system crash and we have no control on them. Any recovery from such crashes can only be done if the device OS allows it.

                 

                -Souvik

                Terms & ConditionsAccessibility statement
                Using the community Terms of use Privacy Cookie preferences Do not sell or share my personal information ad choicesAdChoices