Critical workflow regression: Missing modification asterisk, broken autosave indicators, and forced UI changes in new Acrobat
This report describes multiple regressions introduced by the forced New Acrobat experience that significantly disrupted my workflow and removed essential functionality.
Description:
I want to report several issues caused by the forced rollout of the new Acrobat experience. These changes significantly disrupted my workflow and required extensive troubleshooting to restore basic functionality.
1. Removal of the modification asterisk
The classic asterisk indicator (showing when a PDF has unsaved changes) no longer appears, even in Classic mode. This is a critical regression. Without it, there is no clear visual confirmation that edits have been registered. The new UI’s Favorites star icon looks similar and adds confusion.
2. Autosave and recovery behavior is undocumented and inconsistent
Acrobat no longer uses the traditional AutoSave folder under the user profile. The folder exists but remains empty, even when autosave and recovery are active. Recovery now appears to rely on session metadata rather than autosave files, but this is not documented anywhere. This made troubleshooting extremely difficult.
3. Forced UI transitions removed essential tools
Switching between the new and classic interfaces caused annotation and drawing tools to disappear temporarily. The new interface also opened documents in modes that allowed editing but did not mark the file as modified.
4. No warnings when autosave or modification tracking is inactive
When Acrobat cannot write to its autosave location, there is no alert or error message. This leads to silent failures that put documents at risk.
5. Windows user-folder naming confusion worsened the problem
Windows displays a friendly user name (“Barbara Johnston”) that does not match the actual user folder (“cello”). Acrobat’s error messages did not clarify this, making it extremely difficult to diagnose why autosave was not functioning.
Impact:
These issues caused days of lost time and significant frustration. Acrobat is a critical tool for my work, and reliability is essential. The lack of documentation, silent failures, and removal of long standing indicators made the transition unnecessarily difficult.
Requested improvements:
• Restore the modification asterisk in Classic mode
• Provide clear warnings when autosave or recovery cannot run
• Automatically create required folders (AutoSave, Temp, etc.)
• Improve transparency around editing modes and document state
• Avoid forced UI rollouts that remove essential tools
• Provide documentation for the new autosave/recovery architecture
Thank you for considering this feedback. I hope it helps improve the experience for other users.