Fix Adobe Acrobat Cannot Highlight Text on Mac After Update
Question details
The user is unable to highlight text in Adobe Acrobat on a Mac following a recent software update.
- Product
- Adobe Acrobat
- Device & OS
- Mac
- Scenario
- Attempting to highlight, annotate, or comment on a PDF document after updating the application.
- Observed behavior
- The text highlighting tool fails to apply color to the selected text, or the text selection tool becomes entirely unresponsive.
Before altering system settings, restart your Mac and attempt to highlight text in a completely different PDF file to ensure the issue is not caused by document-specific restrictions or a temporary OS glitch.
Reset Adobe Acrobat Preferences
Resetting the application preferences clears out corrupt configurations caused by recent updates, restoring normal tool functionality.
Corrupted preference files are a common cause of tool failures after a software update. Deleting these files forces Acrobat to generate fresh, working configurations on the next launch.
Ensure Adobe Acrobat is completely closed on your Mac. You can right-click the icon in the Dock and select 'Quit'.
Open Finder, hold down the Option key on your keyboard, and click the 'Go' menu at the top of the screen. Select 'Library' from the dropdown list.
Navigate to the 'Preferences' folder. Locate the file named 'com.adobe.Acrobat.Pro.plist' (or similar, depending on your version) and drag it to your Desktop.
Relaunch Adobe Acrobat. The application will create a fresh preferences file automatically. Open your PDF and try highlighting text again.
Test with a New Mac Administrator Profile
If user permissions are corrupted, Acrobat features may fail. Creating a new admin profile helps isolate system-wide issues.
Highlight and Edit PDFs Seamlessly with WPS Office
If Adobe Acrobat continues to experience post-update bugs, WPS Office provides a reliable, lightweight alternative for Mac users. You can easily view, annotate, highlight, and edit PDF documents without hassle.
- 1. Download WPS Office: Install WPS Office for Mac from the official website and launch the application.
- 2. Open Your PDF: Click 'Open' on the home screen and select the PDF document you want to edit.
- 3. Access the Comment Tools: Navigate to the 'Comment' tab located on the top navigation ribbon.
- 4. Highlight Text: Select the 'Highlight' tool, choose your preferred color, and drag your cursor over the text you wish to emphasize.
Frequently Asked Questions
Why does my PDF highlight as a solid block instead of snapping to text?
If the highlight tool draws a freeform box instead of snapping to words, the PDF is likely a scanned image. You need to run OCR (Optical Character Recognition) to convert the image into selectable text before highlighting.
Can a locked PDF prevent text highlighting?
Yes, if a PDF document has security restrictions applied by the author, commenting and editing features will be disabled. You must unlock the document with the permissions password to highlight text.
Does reinstalling Adobe Acrobat fix the text highlight bug?
If resetting preferences and testing a new user profile do not resolve the issue, a clean uninstallation and reinstallation of Adobe Acrobat can often fix persistent bugs caused by corrupted update files.
