Acrobat Pro DC - Fillable form appears blank when emailed

[emileee22746146]

I have a form I created from excel into a fillable PDF in Acrobat Pro DC and have been noticing a trend when the form is filled in and returned to me.

When I receive an email with the form I can preview the PDF and it shows that the fields are correctly filled in. However, when I open, or save, or print the PDF the fields are blank. If i click into one of the fields it will show me the data, but the text is illegiable as the font appears to duplicate over itself multiple times. And it only shows you one field. If you click into another field the previous one goes blank again.

In most cases the signature field is the only one that remains on the page. Today is the first time that even the signature was blank. This has happened many times but I've always chalked it up to user error to be honest. However, it keeps happening that it just can't be. I would like to find a solution.

[try67 · Accepted solution]

This typically happens when non-Adobe software is used to fill in the form. The most common culprits are Apple Preview and the various PDF plugins in browsers such as Chrome, Firefox, Safari, etc., which no longer support the Adobe plugin.

The solution is to instruct your users to save the file, not open it in a browser window, and then open it using Adobe Acrobat or Reader.

To fix the files you already have try exporting the values to a text file and then import them back in.

[paper1246]

Can anyone provide a demo/tutorial on how to go about importing the text file back in?

[try67]

See: https://helpx.adobe.com/acrobat/using/collecting-pdf-form-data.html

[emileee22746146]

Hi,

Thanks for responding. After many emails back and forth with someone who couldnt figure out how to send correctly (previous people were able to) I figured out they were using their iPhone to fill it in, and saving it in an app called pages or one called files. This follows along with the Apple preview issue. All sorted now.

Thanks for the tip on exporting the values. That works great

[defaultsf9ver9z82i1]

This is super irritating..... for what I pay for full adobe.... they need to fix this!!!!

[Annie33024059m06n]

Easiest method is to save the document on your OneDrive > open the document in your Adobe Acrobat BROWSER (NOT App) > This should show the filled fields. Print as Microsoft pdf or Adobe pdf.

[intuitive_idealist0429]

I am experiencing the same problem with documents signed in Jotform. I am able to download a PDF of the signed document which appears normal when opened on my laptop, but when I try to open it from storage in Google Drive, I receive an error message and the document is blank. I have also uploaded the files to a compliance platform to which I routinely upload PDF docs and when I try to open them the pages are blank. I will try the workaround, but Adobe really needs to fix this problem.