On Android, save PDF Forms from Acrobat Reader back to SMB Share

Report · Jul 22, 2023

On Android, I can use Adobe Reader without problems to fill PDF forms on a Cloud Device, e.g. Dropbox. On Close, these are written back to Dropbox.

I can also connect to my local network via SMB and open a PDF file, but on Open it is always written to the Download folder and after editing saved back to that folder.

How can I automatically open from and save back to SMB?

Report · Jul 29, 2023

Hi @Dieter312429260cm4,

Hope you are doing well. Thank you for writing in!

Acrobat Reader Mobile is still in development, and we would love to know more about your workflow to get it implemented in the upcoming releases.

Would you mind sharing a few pieces of information for further investigation:

1. The app version of Acrobat Reader Mobile you are using (go to Profile-> About Adobe Acrobat);

2. The service you are referring to;

3. A screen recording which depicts the entire workflow for a better understanding.

Look forward to hearing from you.

-Souvik

Report · Jul 29, 2023

Version 23.6.0.28188
Pdf File is provided on a SMB Share of a Windows Network. Full read/write access, provided by Solid Explorer, but tested with other SMB clients, same result
Select "Other devices" (I am on German version, some texts may be different), select the share via Solid Explorer.
Adobe displays a popup that file is copied to download folder. There I can do whatever I need, works ok, but on write a new copy is created on the download folder.
This is not what I want, it should write back to the SMB share

Current workaround: Synchronize folders with FolderSyncPro every minute to some other directory. Adobe Reader works fine there, but the syncronization every minute creates problem.

Workflow is simple: I want to editor with Reader on a SMB share without manually copying.

Report · Jul 29, 2023

"whatever I need" is ambiguous: I have Adobe Forms that the user has to fill in, e.g. a patient questionnaire. No "editing" of pdf required.

Report · Jul 29, 2023

@Dieter312429260cm4 Thank you for writing back.

Let me share this with the team for further information and I will update the thread here once I hear back from them.

-Souvik

Report · Jul 29, 2023

As a luxury, it would be nice if I could limit access to that single SMB share only. Dreaming...

Report · Aug 14, 2023

Hi @Dieter312429260cm4.

Sorry for the delay. Got some updates from the team.

The team would like to have a few more details from your end to set up the environment locally to test:

Detailed Steps to connect via SMB share on Android.
Video of the workflow.

Please log in to the community when responding to the thread, as Email attachments might not be recognized when posting.

Look forward to hearing from you.

-Souvik

Report · Aug 20, 2023

Thank you for following up on this - the question has dropped on our priority list, because we had to get something to work and thus told the customer that at the moment Adobe Reader Edits on SMB shares only works on Windows tablets. She was not very happy.

In the long run, we will try with Android, however.

I checked again with three different SMB Clients: Total Commander with LAN Plugin, FX Explorer, Solid Explorer. To be sure: I asserted full write permissions on the SMB share provided by these three by creating/deleting a file. I also can edit/save Acrobat Forms on Dropbox/Google Drive without any problems.

All three clients show the same behavior: any file that is opened is copied to the download folder, and then this file name is sent to Adobe Reader, so that edits always end up in the download folder. So it is not a problem of Adobe Reader, but one of the SMB file

So the question remains: is there a right way to connect to SMB to edit forms?

In the attached video, at the end of the recording I had to remove the header for privacy reasons.

Report · Aug 20, 2023

Hi @Dieter296782539y20,

Thank you for sharing the screen recording.

Let me share this with the team to check the following steps and get back to you.

-Souvik

Report · Aug 23, 2023

Krzysztof Głodowski from Neatbytes, Author of Solid Explorer, kindly answered my query. He mentioned that this is a bug in his client, it should have noted that a temporary file was created, which should be copied back to SMB after changes.

So when this should be fixed, Adobe Reader on SMB via a separate client should work. Nevertheless, it would be great if Reader could read these files without extra client. This should open the app for many applications in clinical environment, if the security issue can be resolved.

Report · Aug 28, 2023

Hi @Dieter296782539y20,

From what we have seen till now, this should be workable on Android.

Just a few additional pieces of information we would need to completely reproduce the workflow at our end:

Steps to connect with SMB share on Android.
What’s the behavior when you open the file in the same way on the Acrobat desktop?

-Souvik

Report · Aug 28, 2023

1) Use FXExplorer App, Total Commander or Solid Explorer (my main choice). You can then use "Search other Files" (German "Weitere Dateien durchsuchen" to connect via Solid Explorer to SMB.

2) File opens and form fields can be filled, edited; I do not have the full version of Adobe desktop (too expensive), but using PDF Studio (Quoppa) I can also edit the fields.

Report · Aug 28, 2023

Thanks @Dieter296782539y20,

Added the information to the conversation.

-Souvik

Report · Aug 28, 2023

I tried another SMB Client: CIFS. Same result, file copied to the download folder, where I can edit it (with the nasty exception that (1)(2) is appended by default), but not update it on the SMD share