Enable of combining PDF documents after it was signed via Adobe Sign

[Anton247989539pqo]

Hello to everyone!

We are using a corporate Adobe Sign and experiencing an issue when after sign a document and then trying to combine via Nitro Pro, it requests a permission password. Right after you sign a document, it becomes SECURED and it`s impossible to remove restrictions, because you need to know a permission password for that.
I have read some articles regarding that topic, and it says that the document owner the one who sets a password, but as a document owner I didn`t set one. And as a solution, they offer to "damage" the document through printing, and it works, you can combine the signed document with others, but the validation is breaking too, you can`t go through the hyperlink of the signature and check the validation, it becomes inactive.

If you could help me with this one, it would be much appreciated.
I would like to know how can I find out the permission password which sets right after the document is signed? Or maybe it`s possible to turn off the automatically setting of a password?

As an example, I attached the signed doc.

Thank you a lot for your time!

[Bernd Alheit]

You can combine the file with other files as a portfolio.

[Anton247989539pqo]

Hi there. Can you please tell me how can I do it?
I just didn`t noticed such a tool in Adobe

[Anton247989539pqo]

Well, I got it, we have only Acrobat Reader DC, not DC or Pro, that`s why there is no Portfolio or any combine tool

[Meenakshi Negi · Accepted solution]

Hi Anton,

Thank you for reaching out.

It is not possible to combine the signed files via Acrobat Sign with other PDFs or files.

Once the document is signed, it gets encrypted. You cannot make any changes to files after that.

The only way is to create a PDF portfolio, as suggested by Bernd Alheit. However, you will require an Acrobat Pro DC subscription for that.

Or you may use the workaround by flattening the PDF, which will remove the signature validation from the document.

Thanks,

Meenakshi

[Denise.N]

Hi Meenakshi, sorry to jump in here but we are currently going through a similar issue. We have 100+ signed PDFs (bulk signing) that we want to combine into a single PDF so the suppervisor can sign all of them faster. If I put them all in a Portfolio I can't save as a single PDF, only print it. You mention flattening the PDF, could you elaborate on how to do this?

[Anton247989539pqo]

Hi Denise!
You can flatten the PDF via printing:

Step 1 Right Click on File>Choose open with Chrome

Step 2 Press Ctrl+p, Select Print as PDF
But you will have to do it with each document, so if you have more than a hundred of them, it would be kinda tedious.

The easier way is to use one of the Megre PDF websites like this one: (link removed by moderator)
You just have to upload all your PDFs and then download the combined one.