Adobe Acrobat Reader Mobile forcefully switches orientation

[maxw69113377]

Hiya,

so... I get my dutyplan everytime in horizontal A4 PDF format (usually 2 pages).

Now, for years and years that wasn't any problem.

But the last few months or so the app keeps forcing the orientation into landscape viewing mode.

Whilst the dutyplan comes as a horizontal A4, there are three columns more or less dividing the horizontal plane in 3 vertical planes.

These individual planes when zoomed in on, fill the whole screen of my smartphone nicely, which fit portrait viewing just fine.

So... I want to keep viewing the horizontal pdf file in portrait smartphone orientation.

But... everytime, also with auto-rotate disabled (which I do not want to have set up that way as a default), it forces the viewing mode with the smartphone app to landscape viewing.

               "Switching orientation for a better reading experience", it says

But I don't want to turn my head or smartphone 90 degrees. Besides, because of the columns, it's less readable like that.

I can use other apps, but they have different default fonts which is not right for the document.

• How can I get Adobe Acrobat Reader Mobile on my Huawei P20 Pro to stop forcing the orientation of the pdf source file to be viewed in landscape mode?

I had a look through the app, but I couldn't find any options. Not via Android - Settings>Apps or something either.

Any help would be appreciated, because it's quite annoying. Thanks.

[MeenakshiNegi]

Hi Maxw,

As you have mentioned above, the app keeps forcing the orientation in the landscape mode when you open the PDF.

In Adobe Acrobat Reader, the PDF open in the portrait mode by default.

There is no option in the application settings to change that behavior.

PDF rotates the orientation only when the auto rotate feature of the mobile device is enabled.

Could you please provide us the details as asked below:

- Application version

- OS version on the Android device

- Did you check if it occurs with all the PDFs or with some particular files?

- Are you able to replicate the similar behavior on an alternate device?

- Is it possible to share the problematic PDF with us, so we can check it on our end? To share the file, refer the steps provided here How to share a file using Adobe Document Cloud.

We will be waiting for your response.

Let us know if you have any questions.

Regards,

Meenakshi

[maxw69113377]

'PDF rotates the orientation only when the auto rotate feature of the mobile device is enabled', actually this seems to be true. When I tried yesterday this didn't seem to be the case as I remember. Still, having auto-rotate disable by default is not a great idea (I turn my screen sometimes to read a txt message, website or video in landscape). For the same reason... if I wanted to look at my pdf in landscape I would turn it myself. Now the app forces it upon me. But I just want to be able to look at the horizontal pdf in portrait orientation.

• file

Running Adobe Acrobat Reader (for Android) latest version 18.4.1

Android 8.1.0 on Huawei P20 Pro

The issue is with every horizontal oriented pdf file you'd want to watch in portrait mode

For the life of me I don't understand why this is forced and not an option you can disable. If I wanted to change orientation to read it better... I would have turn my phone around myself, no wouldn't I? I don't want Adobe to decide for me how I should view my files. ( "Switching orientation for a better reading experience" , no thank you!)

[maxw69113377]

So...? There's no way to disable it from switching orientation by default?

And there's no way that when it switches orientation to switch it back for that file easily and/or permanently?

Because you can go to thumbnails and sort and rotate there. But the next time you're opening the file, you've got the same problem again and I need to check my roster frequently, so it's highly annoying and why I don't want to have my phone setup by default to have autorotate disabled, because I don't want to have that just so that Acrobat Reader works fine. There's lots of times I either want to use portrait OR landscape mode. But the selection of the mode should be initiated by me. By turning my phone. Not by an app turning on its side all by itself with no means to change it.

[maxw69113377]

hum... ?

[Ask98A4]

better idea....uninstall this bull**** and use some other application such as Microsoft Office.  Why the **** I need to turn my phone when this bull**** forcing me to do so.

[dannyt36211067]

I have the same problem as you! This is a very stupid automatically feature and without disable it!  Thinking to switch other app rather than using Adobe!

[maxw69113377]

Yeah, it's quite unbelievable that they changed it like that without an option in the settings or something to turn 'forced orientation to landscape' off.

I did find an easier work-around than before the other day when I noticed that once it forces the phone to landscape. If you turn your phone to landscape for a sec and then turn it back to normal handheld portrait orientation, the document .pdf will also turn back to portrait orientation.

Wouldn't call it a solution, but I don't find alternative apps the solution either.

Adobe should do something about this, but not even their Santa helpers are responding to this thread anymore. Probably because they know it's B$ what the app is doing, but can't get the programmers/project managers etc to actually do something about it.

[Adorobat]

Hi All,

Sorry for the inconvenience caused to you. Please use the following link to share your feedback to the product team: Adobe Acrobat for Android - Feature Request/Bug Report Form

Thanks,

Shivam

[AbuT]

Is there any update on this? Has the option been added to disable forced orientation silwitiching? It's been two years now since the thread started.... 

[hyper_bloke]

Yes! This annoys the living bejeeebus out of me. To get it back to portrait, you have to turn it to match what adobe have decided that you want, and then turn it back again, but it is a serious faf to do that every time i want to open a landscape file that i want to read in portrait mode.

I'll be leaving feedback.

[AllAboutAdode]

Dear Adobe,

You get so many things right with design of your apps. For example your document scanner is the best compared to all the other apps.

I'm really surprised that this is still an issue. Please can you fix it. 

I doubt it would take more than 30 minutes to add an option in the menu.

As mentioned above it's incredibly frustrating!!

[StefanB_]

3 years later, this problem still exists! When will this be fixed? Why isn't there a switch in the settings for this auto-rotate "feature"?

On my "Huawei P8 Lite 2017" (Android 8) and my ""Teclast M40 Pro" tablet (Android 11) this problem didn't exist, but it does on my nwq "Google Pixel 4a" (Android 11).

Can the PDF files modified somehow to prevent this automatical screen rotation?

[bgf2726939]

I just unistalled it because of this HIGHLY annoying issue. Google drive default viewer does the job right. Silly thing that it is not fixed after so many years. Get rid of it and forget. 

[Harsh Vardhan Pareek]

Hi @bgf2726939 

Sorry for the delayed response. Could you please share a few more details to understand the issue better?

1. Is the liquid mode option on or is it off in the app preferences?

2. Could you share some screenshots or a video that shows the issue clearly?

3. Application version?

Try to disable liquid mode and then check if it is working as expected.

Acrobat Reade mobile> preferences> Disable "Convert to liquid mode automatically"

Let us know if that works.

Thanks,

Harsh

[StefanB_]

Hi Harsh,

thanky for your reply. Here are the requested details:

1. The Liquif mode is off in my case; actually it says that it's not available for this file when I try to enable it.

2. See attached video.

As soon as I click on the upper left shortcut ("Bahnen"), Acrobat opens it and switches the entire screen to the landscape mode.

After closing the PDF file via the Back button, the screen switches back to portrait mode.

3. Version is 21.10.0.19961

Regards

Stefan

[Harsh Vardhan Pareek]

Hi Stefan,

Thanks for providing the details. As you are viewing a PPT PDF. In this case, our app intentionally switches to landscape mode to give a better reading experience. This would not happen for all types of files. However, you can rotate the device to see the pdf in portrait mode if required.

Hope this will help.

Thanks,

Harsh

[StefanB_]

Hi Harsh,

well, as you can read in this thread, not all users agree that automatically switching to landscape mode gives a better reading experience. In my case, the PDF file is a tube map of Munich. I use a very high zoom level while holding the phone upright. It's extreemly annoying having to rotate the phone twice by 90 degrees in order to switch back to portrait mode. Please provide at least a switch in the settings to allow the user to disable this "feature".

Or is there any other way to prevent Acrobat Reader from automatically rotating the screen orientation? If I understood you correctly, this doesn't happen for all PDF files, only "PPT PDF" (whatever this may be...). Can PDF files converted somehow so that they won't trigger this automatical rotation switching?

Thanks

Stefan

[Ryan23860017dod0]

This is NOT a better reading experience! It sucks! I hate it every time I open a file. Please let us decide what is a better reading experience and get rid of this "feature." It's a bug. It's terrible. Get rid of it or give us an option to get rid of it. Don't turn my screen without my permission. 

[Daniel23719990l6w5]

Adobe acrobat is junk, so many bugs and broken features. 

Switching to bluebeam asap.

Can't believe this is still not fixed.

And other issues to many to list

..