Adobe Acrobat Reader: Edit PDF Ratings and Reviews

New AI Feature is Awesome!

They just added an AI feature that will analyze the content of a document then you can ask specific questions and it answers them so you can understand it. You can keep documentation of the information it provides. Just had it answer questions on a contract that I was wanting a lawyer look at and I felt that they had lied to me, also didn’t provide all the facts. While that part is still true the AI saw what I hadn’t seen, the services they provided were just specified without any other information related to those services. There was definition of those services, just a broad overview of the service by name. But, they were very specific about all their disclaimers, and basically that they were not liable for when those services would take place and was not liable if I lost money and many additional things if I was displeased with basically anything. I never saw all of that and could have paid several hundreds of dollars for a lawyer to tell me the exact same thing. Amazing is all I can say, completely amazing.

Premium seems to be a waste

I pay for a Premium subscription yet this app and Adobe Scan continue to identify me as a free user. Whenever I attempt to use Premium features such as “Create PDF” or “Edit PDF” it takes me to a screen and asks me to subscribe. Whenever I choose the subscribe button it informs me I already have a subscription. It then processed indefinitely. I’ve checked for updates of the app. That does not seem to be the issue. Ive uninstalled and reinstalled the app several times. I’ve logged out and back in several times. I’ve tried to reach out to customer service representative (which does not seem to be an option). I’ve turned to Adobe troubleshooting forums to fix this issue. Attempts to troubleshoot are infuriating to put it lightly and result in no helpful resolution. This seems to be a consistent problem for Premium users as there are numerous posts on a few different threads all posing a similar issue. The options offered don’t seem to be helpful. Some of the posed options under these threads were buying PDF packs, not using Reader and instead downloading Adobe Acrobat Pro on to desktop computer to use features from there, etc. Yet these all do not fix the issue and defeat the purpose of a Premium subscription: why have a Premium subscription for an app when the user cannot use the Premium features using that particular app? Disappointing

Developer Response ,

Hi there! Sorry you're having trouble! 😔 Your subscription should automatically activate. If you have an issue, you can reactivate or restore your purchase as follows:
1. Tap the profile icon.
2. Tap Subscriptions.
3. Tap Restore purchases.
After a dialogue appears stating your purchase is restored, relaunch the app and try using your paid services.
If the issue persists, please contact our community of experts at (adobe.ly/readercommunity). We would love to help you. Thanks! 🙂 ^VB

Could not understand customer service reps

I had to call in 4 x until I was able to get someone who spoke slowly and pronounced their words. I could not understand what they were saying because of their accent. I had to ask several times can I cancel without being charged a cancellation fee I did not know about. No one answers my question and kept beating around the bush trying to get me to use a program I did not understand and continues to freeze and crash.

I had been billed several months for a subscription that was supposed to cancel. I asked for them to cancel the subscription without more fees and they refused. I used one program and I didn’t understand it. It was too confusing for me. I also was not informed when I signed up there was a cancellation fee. I shouldn’t be charge for a cancellation fee if I did not understand the product and only used it once. It’s like you’re holding a customer hostage for something they don’t want. Even if I wanted to try adobe again in the future or try a different program I refuse to, because of this experience. I didn’t ask for a refund or free months. I just wanted to cancel the service because it doesn’t work for me. I should be able to do this without forcing me to commit to something I don’t understand and continues to crash and freeze on my computer.

I shouldn’t be charged $200 in fees just to cancel. That’s insane.

Developer Response ,

Hi there! Sorry to hear about the experience you had. 🥺 Can you please reach out to our community of experts at (adobe.ly/readercommunity) so we can help you better?? We're here to help! Thanks! ^VB

Adobe Acrobat Reader Review

I have been a user of Adobe Acrobat Reader and their family of products for literally decades. Several Adobe products have become the de-facto standard in many areas. Such as (***.PDF) being a common identifier for documents that crossed platforms and allowed people to share documents. Just as Xerox became the commonplace word embraced for all by a copy machine. Adobe has been the word for documents or attachments and such.

Adobe Acrobat Reader used to be a free product! The Adobe family of products is now so vast that much or their applications are by subscription service only. Some Adobe applications will offer you a free install but all of the desirable features are only available through a subscription. It is like being given free addicting drugs then once hooked, and unable or undesirable to change, they start selling you a product that once was free.

Don’t get me wrong, I like their products but I am questioning if maybe another providers product may be more suitable going forward.

Latest updates killed me

I use this app primarily for work purposes. I save all my service receipts to this app and also fill out and submit safety and order forms daily. The recent update changed alot of things. First of all, the new design I don't like. That I can get used to but it's made it more difficult to use in my opinion. Some of the buttons are not labeled now, they only have icons so I have to guess what they do until I press them and find out if I'm right or wrong. More importantly, there are functions/operations that changed. For example, sharing a file through email no longer takes the file name and automatically makes it the subject line of the email. Also, when you sort by name,files with letters now follow files with numbers. I have to scroll through a hundred files (which have dates) to get to my template (which starts with letters). So I had to through a random zero at the beginning so it's at the top. There is more I could write but I think you get my point. I realize it may sound like nitpicking but when you use the app as much as I do it becomes very annoying. I am disappointed you made such a big change and it doesn't seem to be for the better. Let's get some of this fixed so I can change this back to 5 stars.

Developer Response ,

Hi there! I was just going through some of the top reviews in the App Store and noticed yours. Even though it is more than 2 years old, it still shows up as most helpful. I understand that you faced some challenges back then. However, our software team has evolved a lot in these 2 years and the interface has improved as well. Do let us know if you are still facing any similar issues now on our community (community.adobe.com) and we would love to help you out with your concerns. Thanks! ^VB

If you care about backing up your documents, steer clear!

I paid $10 for this app probably 6 years ago or more. I remember when the newest $10 version came out a few years back and I didn’t have access to it, that was a pretty big kick in the junk but I kept using it because I liked some of its features and it’s what I had been using for years. The most annoying part about using this app was that when I changed IPads, I had to find some creative way to transfer all of the documents that I used in the app to the newest device because they aren’t saved in the cloud anywhere. Well, I knew I should have changed after that but I didn’t because it’s what I had been using and I have a hard time changing. The worst case scenario just happened and I changed my iPad passcode after years of using the same one (again, don’t like change) and I forgot that passcode. I had to restore my iPad from my iCloud backup today and the worst thing happened. All my most important documents were lost, many of them for good. It will be very difficult, in some cases impossible, to get those again. Don’t use this app if you want your important documents to be secure and safe unless you’re manually backing them up every time you bring a new one in.

Does What It Should

In general I find Adobe products (I have many) do what they should do without much of a problem and Acrobat DC is no different... once you climb the learning curve, which is often steep considering the range of functionality. Though some object to subscription models, the need to keep programs updated to meet requirements of your OS is a great convenience. Apple keeps up a regular pace of changes, most of which are positive, so having other programs kept up to date is critical. I often turn Word, Pages (Mac OS), images, scans, etc. into PDF’s for convenience, especially when sending by email, some needing passwords for sensitive documents, or messaging app on an iMac. One improvement I would recommend is that the program ought to enable “tagging” that is compatible with Mac OS tagging. I haven’t a clue about how Windows PC folks find Acrobat DC but in general my forays into the Windows PC world have left me feeling that the Windows version of anything is clunkier, less user friendly and more frustrating than the Apple version.

Developer Response ,

Hey there! This is Vaibhav from Acrobat Reader Team. I was just going through some of the top reviews in the App Store and noticed yours. We are incredibly grateful that you took time out to leave us this lovely feedback for our services. Our users deserve nothing but the best service and experience.
Thank you for your request. We have made a note of the same and shall try to incorporate it soon. You can learn more and see tips & tricks here: (adobe.com/support/acrobat) If you ever face an issue, please let us know in our community: (community.adobe.com) Thanks again! :)

Not user-friendly

Keep t it simple. Isn’t that an Apple product. This sure isn't if you have to you use a windows based app or software to complete anything. I’ve been at this for longer than necessary to try and convert a few photos that were taken with the iPad into a pdf to send to someone who I only has windows. What a pain in the everything. Annoying, time-consuming, oh and buy this, and that to complete this task. I’m so over all of it. Let me go back in time and use a flatbed scanner that was direct to my computer. Wow, that worked in one easy swipe. Adobe was installed on all of my products and didn’t nickel and dime me for everything. Now if I want to open something I have to have this app or this specific product to be able to even think about getting to the first step. I love my Apple products and shouldn’t be penalized because I don’t want to have to have a windows based anything to do a simple task for one document. OHHHHHH, unless I pay, again. I did, when it came out, but since it’s not compatible with the new and improved and updated versions I have to pay again and again and again. I wish I bought stock back in the day, I’d be rich.

There are easier, FREE pdf apps

I typically don't write reviews, but I had such a hard time with this app that I felt like it was necessary. I'm sure this app is just fine if you already have Adobe for desktop and want to use it for quick work on the go. I downloaded it for the express purpose that I needed to edit and merge some documents quickly. I am thankful I decided to do the free trial first rather than pay the $10 for a month of it. Immediately, I started getting error messages that my files couldn't be merged or edited. There is a virtual AI assistant now, which I think is neat; however, there was no feature to actually get help with the error messages as the AI can only really offer writing tools. After a lot of googling and fiddling with it, I decided to cut my losses and try another actually free pdf app. Immediately it worked. No error messages and I was able to download my edited documents with no problem. Like I said, I'm sure this app would be fine for certain daily tasks, but I don't think it's worth the money unless you're already super familiar with Adobe software or already have a subscription to it.

What happened

As a subscriber of the Adobe creative cloud I am very displeased to see the industry standard for PDF software become practically unusable! In fact Adobe Acrobat no longer works on my iPhone XS! When I choose to download or simply view a pdf file, Adobe Acrobat nor the Adobe Creative Cloud app appear in the list of apps to choose from in the iOS share to/open menu! I tried a workaround by saving the PDF file to "files" both locally and via iCloud drive then attempted to open the saved PDF file via Adobe Acrobat which incredibly failed to open with a message stating "File type unsupported"... This is unacceptable! Can't open the very file format Adobe Acrobat is meant to not only open but create and manage! Wow just wow! Not sure what is going on but Adobe is slacking with other apps as well! I'm contemplating canceling my CC subscription since $50 a month is a price only worth paying for the best and I am literally seeing more and more apps that offer more! The mobile apps are terrible besides a select few! Out of all, I never thought Acrobat would ever lose the crown but here I am having to find an alternative in order to save the PDF I need! Verbal apologies won't change the fact that I'm dishing out money for software that isn't working properly!

Developer Response ,

Hi -
The symptoms you are describing sound very much like you don't have a PDF or the PDF you are trying to open is invalid. This would explain both why it wouldn't appear in the share menu and why it fails to open from files. The things you are describing are intended to work. If you are having issues, please reach out to us at https://www.adobe.com/go/appstoresupport We'd love to hear more about how you are trying to open the file and get a copy of the file itself. Thanks!