Unable to view contents of fillable form in reader - works fine when opened through a browser

[Corey F]

I believe this belongs in this forum. 

We have created a form for potential applicants to fill out and email back to us. Most of the time it works flawlessy. Sometimes though, we get the form back and it appears that it hasn't been filled out at all. This all happens while loading it through Acrobat Reader DC. 

Today, I just realized that if I open it in Edge, I can read this previously "unfilled" documents. I then tested with Chrome and Firefox...both readable. 

Why would I not be able to view the filled out fields on Acrobat Reader, but I can in a web browser?

[ls_rbls]

Maybe change the default web browser integration from internet explorer in acrobat to one of those browsers. I think the problem is with the Adobe Reader PDF Internet plug-in. You can check if this is the problem by removing it from the toolbar and extensions (if you're on MS Windows).

You can also try and see if disabling Protectd Mode at Startup, or Protected View from the Preferences do any difference, although it will open your workflow to vulnerabilities.

If yuo have a paid subscription of Adobe Acrobat Pro DC , I would produce and edit all of my PDFs in Acrobat and distribute tem with Adobe Sign instead.

[Corey F]

Thank you ls_rbls.

I checked the settings with Protected mode and found that I had "Enable Protected Mode at startup" checked, but "Protected view" was off. I set protected view to "Files from potentially unsafe locations" and closed Adobe Reader. I then opened the document in question in Adobe Reader and I am able to see the form filled out now, although the text on each line is clumped and vertical.

If I select "Enable All Features" in the warning bar, the document goes back to the original un-filled form. 

So this gets us a little closer to our desired results. I'm not sure if that helps you figure out what else might be happening.

I did create this via Acrobat Pro DC, but we do not distribute with Adobe sign. 

[ls_rbls]

There is an optional update that was pushed out yesterday or two days ago.

Even though it addresses this issue for SAP GUI and Internet Explorer, see if by applying this optional update the prblem gets completely resolved.

[Corey F]

Unfortunately, this did not resolve the issue.

[Bernd Alheit]

May be that this forms were not filled with Acrobat Reader.

[Corey F]

I had that thought as well. I did attempt to fill out on Safari, Firefox, Chrome, Edge (making sure I had no Adobe Reader extensions running) and then save and email like I would expect it to be done. With the random issues of text appearing vertical vs horizontal, I was able to read them all.