Where apps hide your files

Acrobat signatures and AutoSave on a Mac

Updated 2026-10-28 · 6 min read

Acrobat has three different things people call a signature, plus an AutoSave recovery file that is easy to lose. Each is in a different place, and one of them is not a file you can browse to at all.

Which kind of signature do you mean

Acrobat's signature and security files on a Mac live in one documented folder:

~/Library/Application Support/Adobe/Acrobat/DC/Security

Adobe's Acrobat enterprise documentation gives this as /Users/<user name>/Library/Application Support/Adobe/Acrobat/<version>/Security, and for Acrobat DC the version folder is DC. Whether your signature is in it depends on what you mean by signature:

What it is	Where it lives
A custom appearance for certificate signatures (for example with an image of your handwriting)	appearances.acrodata in the Security folder
A digital ID (certificate) you created in Acrobat	A .pfx or .p12 file at the location shown in Acrobat's preferences, or an entry in the macOS keychain
The drawn, typed or image signature you add with Fill & Sign	Managed inside Acrobat. Adobe does not document a file for it on a Mac
The signature already placed inside a PDF	The PDF itself
Recovery copies after a crash	Possibly an AutoSave folder (see further down)

Signature appearances and digital IDs

Adobe says all signature appearance data is stored in appearances.acrodata in the Security folder. It is one of four .acrodata files Acrobat may keep there; addressbook.acrodata holds the certificates you trust. Acrobat reads the appearances file when you open the signature appearance settings or sign a document. The folder may not exist until you create an appearance or a digital ID.

To see where a digital ID file really is, ask Acrobat. Choose Acrobat > Preferences (the menu item may read Settings in recent versions), select Signatures, then under Identities & Trusted Certificates click More, and select a digital ID to see its details and file location. A digital ID file ends in .pfx or .p12 and holds a private key, so keep a copy somewhere safe and never email it. If an ID lives in the macOS keychain, it appears in Keychain Access, and there is no separate file to copy.

To move appearances to another Mac, quit Acrobat on both and copy appearances.acrodata into the same Security folder; Adobe's enterprise guide describes deploying appearance files to that folder in the same way. For trust settings and digital IDs, the guide also documents Preferences > Security > Security Settings > Export, which writes a signed .acrobatsecuritysettings file (digital ID passwords are not included).

The signature you draw in Fill & Sign

Acrobat remembers your signature and initials so you can sign without redrawing them. Adobe's help describes the controls in the app: open the Fill & Sign tool, click the sign button, and hover over a saved entry to reveal the icon that deletes it. One user on Adobe's forum found that deleting a saved signature in the desktop app did nothing until they removed it in Acrobat on the web, which suggests it can be tied to your Adobe account when you are signed in.

No Adobe page names a file on disk for saved Fill & Sign signatures, so this page does not point you to one. If you need the image itself, sign a blank page, then export or screenshot it.

A signature inside a PDF

Once a PDF is saved with your signature on it, the signature is part of that PDF. Adobe says that before you save, you can select the Fill & Sign tool, hover over your signature and click the bin icon to delete it. After saving you cannot remove it with Acrobat, and saving changes to a digitally signed PDF invalidates the signature. Keep the unsigned original.

AutoSave and recovery files

Acrobat can save changes to a temporary file in the background. Community answers point to Acrobat > Preferences > Documents, in the save settings, where a checkbox turns on automatic saving of document changes to a temporary file. If it is off, there is nothing to recover.

Where that temporary file lands is not clearly documented. An Adobe employee on the community forum suggested checking:

/Library/Application Support/Adobe/Acrobat/DC

for an AutoSave folder, and also checking /tmp through Go > Go to Folder. A third-party recovery site cites /Library/Application Support/Adobe/Acrobat/AutoSave. Users report that the temporary files are cleared when Acrobat closes normally, so look straight after a crash.

If Acrobat crashed:

1. Do not reopen and edit the same document straight away.
2. Check the locations above, and ~/Library/Application Support/Adobe/Acrobat.
3. Look in the original PDF's folder, in case Acrobat left a partial file next to it.
4. If you find a file, copy it to the Desktop before opening it.

AutoSave is for crashes, not a version history. If the file matters, use File > Save As to make a copy while you work.

Other folders you may see

Distiller keeps its own ~/Library/Application Support/Adobe/Acrobat/Distiller DC folder (a font cache and a message log), which has nothing to do with signatures. Acrobat's preferences are in ~/Library/Preferences/com.adobe.Acrobat.Pro.plist and in ~/Library/Preferences/Adobe/Acrobat/DC. Do not share the plist, as it can include recent file paths.

Backups

Digital ID files are tiny. Back up the .pfx or .p12 file, and keep its password separately in a password manager. Time Machine backs up ~/Library/Application Support, so the Security folder is covered.

Why a Finder search finds nothing

Spotlight and Finder searches leave out ~/Library, which is where the Security folder lives, and a digital ID's file name is whatever you gave it, such as work.pfx.

Finding the file next time

Type appearances.acrodata into Everywhere to jump to your signature appearances, or .pfx to list every digital ID file on the Mac, including ones inside ~/Library. The Security folder is in the part of ~/Library Everywhere scans without extra permission. It matches names only, never the contents, so it will not tell you what is inside a certificate. Press ⌘↵ to reveal a result in Finder.

Common questions

Where does Acrobat store my saved signature on a Mac?

Certificate signature appearances are in appearances.acrodata in ~/Library/Application Support/Adobe/Acrobat/DC/Security. Adobe does not document a file for Fill & Sign signatures; manage those in the Fill & Sign tool.

Where are Acrobat digital IDs stored on a Mac?

Wherever the file was saved when the ID was created, or in the macOS keychain. Acrobat > Preferences > Signatures > Identities & Trusted Certificates > More shows each ID's location.

Where is the Acrobat AutoSave folder on a Mac?

It is not clearly documented. Check that the temporary-file option is on in Acrobat > Preferences > Documents, then look under /Library/Application Support/Adobe/Acrobat/DC and /tmp right after a crash.

How do I delete a signature from a saved PDF?

Adobe says you cannot once the file is saved. Before saving, select the Fill & Sign tool, hover over your signature and click the bin icon, or go back to your unsigned original.