Configure pause and resume agreements - New

Allow agreements to pause when recipients exhaust authentication attempts.

Enable pause and resume to prevent agreements from being canceled immediately when a recipient exhausts the allowed authentication attempts. Instead, Acrobat Sign pauses the agreement so the sender can resolve the authentication issue. The sender, or a sharee with send permissions through advanced account sharing, can then resume the transaction without recreating the agreement.

When an agreement is paused, all recipient activity stops until the agreement is resumed. Completed recipient actions remain intact.

Configuration

Availability

• Acrobat Sign Solutions: Supported
• Acrobat Sign for Government: Supported
• Acrobat Standard: Not supported
• Acrobat Pro: Not supported

Configuration scope

• Account and group.
  • Group-level settings override account-level settings.

Default value

• Disabled
• The default pause period is 7 days when pause and resume is enabled.
  • Administrators can set the pause period between 1 and 30 days.

In-flight impact

Changing this setting affects agreements that are already in progress.

Acrobat Sign checks the pause and resume setting when a recipient exhausts the allowed authentication attempts and pauses or cancels the agreement based on the setting value.

Enable or disable pause and resume agreements

Controls

Allow senders to pause and resume agreements after authentication failures

• When enabled, Acrobat Sign pauses an agreement when a recipient exhausts the allowed authentication attempts.
• When disabled, the agreement follows the standard failure behavior and is canceled when the recipient exhausts the allowed authentication attempts.

Pause period

Sets how long an agreement can remain paused before Acrobat Sign automatically cancels it.

The default pause period is 7 days. Administrators can set the pause period between 1 and 30 days.

Dependencies

Pause and resume applies to all recipient authentication methods that enforce a limited number of authentication attempts.

Pause and resume does not change how recipient authentication is edited. Before resuming a paused agreement, the sender can change the recipient’s authentication method.

A sharee with send permissions through advanced account sharing can also resume a paused agreement. Sharees without send permissions can view the shared agreement according to their sharing permissions, but cannot resume it.

How the setting works

When enabled, Acrobat Sign pauses an agreement when a recipient exhausts the allowed authentication attempts instead of canceling the agreement.

Pause and resume applies to the agreement lifecycle after authentication failure. It does not change the authentication method, the number of allowed attempts, or how recipient authentication is configured. Administrators should continue to configure authentication methods separately.

The pause applies to the entire agreement, not only the recipient who failed authentication. This includes agreements with parallel recipient routing and recipient groups.

While an agreement is paused:

• Recipient activity stops.
• Reminder delivery stops.
• Completed recipient actions remain intact.
• The agreement remains subject to its expiration date.
• The agreement remains in a Paused status until it is resumed, canceled, or expires.

The sender receives an email notification when an agreement is paused. A sender, or a sharee with send permissions through advanced account sharing, can resume the agreement from the Manage page.

For sender steps, see Resume a paused agreement.

API and webhook behavior

Paused agreements remain available through supported agreement APIs. Pause and resume can apply to agreements created through supported APIs.

Webhook events are available for agreement pause and resume activity.

Best practices

Enable pause and resume when users send agreements that use recipient authentication methods with limited attempts.

Use a pause period that gives senders enough time to resolve authentication issues without leaving agreements paused longer than needed.

Tell senders and permitted sharees to review paused agreements promptly. If a paused agreement reaches the end of the configured pause period, Acrobat Sign cancels the agreement.

Update authentication guidance so senders understand that failed authentication can pause an agreement when this setting is enabled.

Things to know

• When an agreement is paused, all recipient activity stops until the agreement is resumed.
• The pause applies to the entire agreement, including agreements with parallel recipient routing and recipient groups.
• Recipients who open a paused agreement see a banner notification that the agreement is paused and should try again later.
• Reminders are not sent while an agreement is paused. This includes scheduled reminders, new reminders, and immediate reminders.
• The reminder schedule continues to age while the agreement is paused. After the agreement resumes, reminders continue based on the existing reminder schedule.
• Paused agreements remain subject to their expiration dates. Senders cannot change the expiration date while the agreement is paused. If the agreement expires while paused, it expires as expected and cannot be resumed.
• A sharee with send permissions through advanced account sharing can resume a paused agreement.
• Pause and resume events are recorded in the audit report and the activity log.
• Pause and resume is not available for Send in Bulk agreements.
• Pause and resume is not available for web forms.
• When pause and resume is not enabled, agreements are canceled when recipients exhaust the allowed authentication attempts.