Losing changes when unstabile wifi connection

[KasparsKursiss]

Apparently, there is an issue with the app once there is unstable wifi connection, both with locally and remotely (iCloud) stored files.

First I get message that this document has been suddenly seen as "Read-only"

If I choose by-pass the error and create a local copy of the file...

So ultimately this has led me to lose pages of markups over and over again. Super frustrating situation.

I'm on an iPad running latest iOS and app updates.

I've filed a report form, but I would love to see if anyone else is getting this.

[Calibadger5544]

I don't think it's the wifi connection - this started happening after the latest update 18.01.15. Extremely frustrating. Hopefully they will fix this ASAP

[MobileDeveloperCK]

Hi KasparsKursiss​, calibadger5544​,

We apologize for the lost changes.  I can confirm that the problem is not related to Wi-Fi connection.

We are actively investigating the cause of the problem.  However, we would like to collect more information about the problem so that we understand all variations of the problem.  Would you please help us by answering questions?

Q1: What is the iOS version?  (Go to Settings > General > About > Version.)

Q2: What is the Acrobat Reader version?  (Go to Settings > Adobe Acrobat > Version.)

Q3: Does the problem happen to "Local" PDF documents and/or the documents stored in cloud storage (e.g. iCloud Drive, Dropbox, Google Drive)?

Q4: What is the typical file size of the PDF documents that exhibit the problem?

Q5: How do you open your PDF document?  Do you open it from the "Local" or "Recent" file browser in Acrobat or some other app (e.g. the iOS 11 Files app)?

Q6: Does the problem happen to all of your PDF documents all the time (100% of the time)?

Q7: How do you close the PDF document with pending changes?  Do you tap the < (Back) button or do something else?

Q8: Do you always see the "Document saved" toast message when you close the PDF document?

Q9: If it's all possible, would you please describe what you do step-by-step?

Example:

1. Launch Acrobat.
2. Go to My Documents > "Local".
3. Open a PDF document under "Local".
4. Add Highlight annotations.
5. Tap the < (Back) button to go back to My Documents.
6. Open the same PDF document from "Recent".

Thank you for your help.

[Calibadger5544]

See my answers below

[MobileDeveloperCK]

Hi calibadger5544​,

I am sorry but your answers did not come through.

You must have replied to the email from the Adobe user forum.

Would you please open the following link with a web browser, sign in with your Adobe ID, and copy & paste your answers in your next forum message?

Re: Losing changes when unstabile wifi connection

Thank you for your help.

[Calibadger5544]

Q1: What is the iOS version?  (Go to Settings > General > About > Version.)

Version 9.3.5

Q2: What is the Acrobat Reader version?  (Go to Settings > Adobe Acrobat > Version.)

18.01.15 (180932)

Q3: Does the problem happen to "Local" PDF documents and/or the documents stored in cloud storage (e.g. iCloud Drive, Dropbox, Google Drive)?

Local documents on adobe reader 

Q4: What is the typical file size of the PDF documents that exhibit the problem?

A few hundred KB

Q5: How do you open your PDF document?  Do you open it from the "Local" or "Recent" file browser in Acrobat or some other app (e.g. the iOS 11 Files app)?

Recent but I imagine this could happen in local

Q6: Does the problem happen to all of your PDF documents all the time (100% of the time)?

It did this morning after I updated

Q7: How do you close the PDF document with pending changes?  Do you tap the < (Back) button or do something else?

Back

Q8: Do you always see the "Document saved" toast message when you close the PDF document?

No

https://forums.adobe.com/servlet/JiveServlet/downloadImage/2-10101359-1394455/Document+saved.png

Q9: If it's all possible, would you please describe what you do step-by-step?

I was just reading and making notes / highlighting text and after a while – that prompt saying the doc was read only and it would save a copy came up 

[MobileDeveloperCK]

HI Calibadger5544​,

Thank you so much for the information!  That's very helpful to our investigation of the problem.

A couple of follow-up questions for you...

Did you see the "Read-Only Document" alert after you (a) switched back to Acrobat from other apps or (b) woke up your device from sleep?

Did you see another alert with the message "The file "<your_filename>" couldn't be opened because there is no such file. The file doesn't exist." as the other user (KasparsKursiss) did?  Please see the screenshot in the first post in this thread.

https://forums.adobe.com/servlet/JiveServlet/showImage/2-10100825-1394273/Acrobat-iPad-error+2.png

Thank you.

[Calibadger5544]

I'm not sure if i saw the read only message after switching but it's very possible since i switch all the time between acrobat and notes because i use my notepad to write general thoughts about what i'm reading. I did not see the same error message that Kaspars saw

Thx

Allard

[KasparsKursiss]

Genuinely happy to hear back from you.

Q1:

11.2.1

Q2: 18.01.15 

Q3: I rely on using iCloud drive documents, when the errors started to happen I tried to store the file locally on my iPad in the Adobe Acrobat folder, but when the same thing happened once with the locally stored file I discontinued this attempt. I'm fairly sure I had it stored locally, but maybe I messed something up. So I would say that the main issue is with the files I have on the iCloud drive.

Q4: Lately I've been working with files with the size of 319KB to 2,6MB, text only.

Q5: I usually open the files from the "Recent" tab, since I don't use locally stored files (for me it is essential to work with files that will be accessible across my devices)

Q6: I have a hard time recalling, but for the last days I've worked on a single file where I have experienced problems. But I believe they could have occurred on some other file too. I could try and keep track of this. The problem occurs randomly, I can't notice a pattern that would correspond to errors. Why I blame is that during a 4+ hour session in a room where the connection is rather stable I don't recall experiencing this problem, maybe only just once, but that too could potentially be due to wifi, since it drops down sometimes. While working in a room with a much worse wifi stability the error occurs much more often. But then again—there might be a completely different issue. I just know that without updates I've seen both stable and unstable behavior.

Q7: Affirmative, back button. But the error appears when clicking "Done" after annotating or when finishing a pencil drawing.

Q8: First of all I love that its called a "Toast message. But no, I think I have had times when the document has been saved and I don't see it. But again, the error happens BEFORE I leave the document. The error gets me caught up in a loop where I can neither save changes locally nor push them out to the server. Looks like the app is not able to resolve a momentarily issue and gets stuck. Then the only course of action is to force-closing the app then.

Q9: If it's all possible, would you please describe what you do step-by-step?

Same as Calibadger5544, I am working on a doc and during my work, I get the messages in the order shown in the screenshots in the original post.

The file I have been working and getting errors with:

WeTransfer

[MobileDeveloperCK]

Hi KasparsKursiss​,

Thank you for the information!

Apparently, your case involves iCloud Drive.  But there is definitely a bug/defect in Acrobat.

We will continue our investigation and try to provide a fix soon.

KasparsKursiss​, Calibadger5544​ - We really appreciate your help!  We will keep you posted on our progress.

[KasparsKursiss]

I really appreciate that you got back so soon and that you are trying to find a way how to reproduce the error and ultimately to resolve it. It's a pity that there is no error log you could grab from the iPad app!

Good luck and will respond if I notice anything more particular about the error production.

[Techie2278]

I’ve been having the same issue as the Calibadger5544 and KasparsKursiss.  I noticed it a couple of days ago. I’m a Cross stitcher and most of my patterns are in PDF format. I use Acrobat to highlight stitches in the pattern so I can keep up with where I am.  Along with the answers to the the questions below, I wanted to add that if my IPad sits idle for awhile this same thing happens. My device goes to sleep after 10 minutes, so there have been times, before then, that I tried to highlight on the document and tap Save only to be met with the create local document pop up. I have to close the app and reopen it every time to be able to continue and always lose the previous highlights I made.

Q1: What is the iOS version?  (Go to Settings > General > About > Version.)

11.2.2

Q2: What is the Acrobat Reader version?  (Go to Settings > Adobe Acrobat > Version.)

18.01.15 (180932)

Q3: Does the problem happen to "Local" PDF documents and/or the documents stored in cloud storage (e.g. iCloud Drive, Dropbox, Google Drive)?

Local documents. I haven’t tried cloud storage.

Q4: What is the typical file size of the PDF documents that exhibit the problem?

Typical size is 2 to 3 megs

Q5: How do you open your PDF document?  Do you open it from the "Local" or "Recent" file browser in Acrobat or some other app (e.g. the iOS 11 Files app)?

I always open from Local

Q6: Does the problem happen to all of your PDF documents all the time (100% of the time)?

100%

Q7: How do you close the PDF document with pending changes?  Do you tap the < (Back) button or do something else?

After I tap Save, then I tap the back button.

Q8: Do you always see the "Document saved" toast message when you close the PDF document?

Sometimes I see the toast message after I tap Save, others I see it when I close the document.

Q9: If it's all possible, would you please describe what you do step-by-step?

I added one more step to the example you gave but I do this every time.

1. Launch Acrobat.
2. Go to My Documents > "Local".
3. Open a PDF document under "Local".
4. Add Highlight annotations.
5. Tap the Save button to save highlights.
6. Tap the < (Back) button to go back to My Documents.

Did you see the "Read-Only Document" alert after you (a) switched back to Acrobat from other apps or (b) woke up your device from sleep?

It happens both when I switch apps and also when wake my IPad up from sleep.

[MobileDeveloperCK]

Hi Techie2278​,

Thank you!  The information that you provided also confirms our team's findings as well.

[MobileDeveloperCK]

Hi everyone,

Acrobat displays the "Read-Only Document" alert and fails to save pending changes

• when you switch to other apps
• when your iPad/iPhone goes to sleep

A short-term workaround for the problem is to tap the < (Back) button to close your PDF document to save changes before switching to other apps or letting your iPad/iPhone go to sleep.

However, it is not a feasible solution in the long term.

Currently, we are working on a proper fix for the problem.

I will post a new message again once a new update containing the fix is made available in the App Store.

Thank you all for your help and patience!

[MobileDeveloperCK]

Hi KasparsKursiss, Calibadger5544, Techie2278,

We believe that we fixed the problems that you've experienced with Acrobat Reader 18.01.15.

I sent forum private messages to all of you to see if you are interested in evaluating the pre-release version of Acrobat Reader that contains the fix.

Thank you for your help!

[MobileDeveloperCK · Accepted solution]

Hi KasparsKursiss, Calibadger5544, Techie2278,

We just released Acrobat Reader 18.01.22 to the App Store.

As of January 23, this is the latest official release (that is identical to the pre-release version that some of you have already installed).

Please let us know if it works for you.

We apologize for the inconvenience caused.

[KasparsKursiss]

Haven't used Acrobat PDF so intensively since then, but so far so good – haven't had any issues! I'm really glad that you were so quick to respond and to fix the issue.

[Tami5D19]

The exact same thing happened to me today. I lost hours of work on an adobe document. The wifi failed while I was working. I continued to take notes, then exited the file, then when I re-entered the file, everything was gone and I was looking at a blank page!