Anyone else lose the signing tools after an Acrobat update?

Try turning off the new Acrobat interface from Acrobat’s main menu, then reopen the document. That has brought the tools and signing flow back for some people, though it may not fix every case.

For a Windows-managed setup, there’s also a reported registry workaround using the policy value HKLM\SOFTWARE\Policies\Adobe\Adobe Acrobat\DC\FeatureLockDown\bGenCoverPagesLabelStrings set to 1. It was still being tested, so try it on a small group first and have IT verify the setting before wider deployment.

The symptoms may not be identical for everyone. Some reports involve the whole tools pane disappearing, while another says the Request Signature button does nothing unless Acrobat’s language is set to match the operating system. That language setting may be worth checking if the pane itself is still visible.

Reports mention the issue on more than one recent build, and it has not behaved consistently across machines. If switching interfaces does not help, ask your IT team whether they can temporarily roll back to a known-working version rather than assuming every installation will respond the same way.