Resume a paused agreement - New

Last updated on Aug 28, 2026

Resume an agreement after a recipient exhausts the allowed authentication attempts.

When a recipient exhausts the allowed authentication attempts, Acrobat Sign pauses the agreement instead of canceling it. The agreement cannot be signed until the sender, or a sharee with the required permissions through advanced account sharing, resumes it.

Acrobat Sign shows the agreement with a Paused status tag on the Manage page.

Pause and resume must be enabled by an administrator before agreements can pause after failed authentication. To review availability and setup, see Configure pause and resume agreements.

You can resume a paused agreement if you are the sender or if you have the required permissions through advanced account sharing. If you can open the agreement but do not see the Resume agreement action, you do not have permission to resume it.

Recipient experience after failed authentication

When a recipient exhausts the allowed authentication attempts, Acrobat Sign displays a message that the recipient cannot continue and pauses the agreement. The recipient cannot continue signing until the agreement is resumed.

Recipient signing error showing a message that the recipient cannot continue after failed authentication attempts.
After the recipient exhausts the allowed authentication attempts, Acrobat Sign prevents the recipient from continuing until the agreement is resumed.

Resume the agreement

Go to the Manage page.

Open the paused agreement record.

Review the agreement details and recipient activity before resuming the agreement.

If needed, change the recipient’s authentication method before resuming the agreement.

The sender, or a sharee with the required permissions through advanced account sharing, can update the recipient’s authentication method. 

For steps, see Change a recipient’s authentication method.

In the Actions panel, select Resume agreement.

Manage page showing a paused agreement and the Resume agreement action.
The Resume agreement action returns the agreement to the normal signing flow.

Acrobat Sign resumes the agreement immediately and sends a new signature request to the pending recipients.

Things to know

  • Pause and resume is available only when an administrator enables pause and resume agreements.
  • 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.
  • Pending recipients receive a new signature request after the agreement resumes. Recipients who already completed their actions are not asked to sign again.
  • Paused agreements remain subject to their expiration dates. If an agreement expires while paused, it expires as expected and cannot be resumed.
  • Pause and resume events are recorded in the audit report and the activity log.