Firefox 22 won't open PDFs
Ever since updating Firefox/Mac to v.22, the built-in Firefox PDF viewer won't open PDFs. Any PDF link automatically downloads the file.
I've set the Applications control for PDFs to "Preview in Firefox". I've also reset the mimeTypes.rdf file, but none of this has helped. The files download to my HD. Firefox won't open PDFs on its own. I've had to resort to installing the Shubert plugin to get PDFs to display. It works, but I'd rather get Firefox's native reader to work.
Is there, perhaps, a setting under about:config that might need changed? I don't have to enable Java, do I?
Firefox 22/Mac OSX 10.6.8
Thanks.
All Replies (17)
I disabled the Adobe plugin years ago. In any case, my problem isn't that PDFs are blank or can't download. It's that the built-in Firefox viewer isn't working.
Thanks, though.
Are you getting a error message, you may have to reset firefox.
No. No error messages. Firefox will simply download the PDF file whenever I click on a link, or when I right-click on a link and select "Open in new tab". It's like Firefox doesn't know it's supposed to be able to read PDFs.
In order to be able to find the correct solution to your problem, we require some more non-personal information from you. Please do the following:
- Click the Firefox button at the top left, then click the Help menu and select Troubleshooting Information from the submenu. If you don't have a Firefox button, click the Help menu at the top and select Troubleshooting Information from the menu.
Now, a new tab containing your troubleshooting information should open.
- At the top of the page, you should see a button that says "Copy text to clipboard". Click it.
- Now, go back to your forum post and click inside the reply box. Press Ctrl+V to paste all the information you copied into the forum post.
If you need further information about the Troubleshooting information page, please read the article Use the Troubleshooting Information page to help fix Firefox issues.
Thanks in advance for your help!
As requested:
Application Basics
Name
Firefox
Version
22.0
User Agent
Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; Intel Mac OS X 10.6; rv:22.0) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/22.0
Build Configuration
about:buildconfig
Extensions
Name
Version
Enabled
ID
Adblock Plus
2.2.1
true
{d10d0bf8-f5b5-c8b4-a8b2-2b9879e08c5d}
Adblock Plus Pop-up Addon
0.5
true
[email protected]
Google Analytics Opt-out Browser Add-on
0.9.6
true
{6d96bb5e-1175-4ebf-8ab5-5f56f1c79f65}
Old Default Image Style
2.2
true
olddefaultimagestyle@dagger2-addons.mozilla.org
Status-4-Evar
2012.07.08.17
true
[email protected]
Stylish
1.3.1
true
{46551EC9-40F0-4e47-8E18-8E5CF550CFB8}
Adobe Acrobat - Create PDF
1.1
false
[email protected]
Greasemonkey
1.5
false
{e4a8a97b-f2ed-450b-b12d-ee082ba24781}
NoScript
2.6.4.2
false
{73a6fe31-595d-460b-a920-fcc0f8843232}
PDF Viewer
0.7.1
false
[email protected]
PrivacyChoice TrackerBlock
2.2
false
[email protected]
TACO with Abine
4.50
false
[email protected]
Important Modified Preferences
Name
Value
accessibility.typeaheadfind.flashBar
0
browser.cache.disk.capacity
25600
browser.cache.disk.smart_size.first_run
false
browser.history_expire_days.mirror
180
browser.places.smartBookmarksVersion
4
browser.search.update
false
browser.search.useDBForOrder
true
browser.startup.homepage
http://www.metafilter.com/
browser.startup.homepage_override.buildID
20130618035212
browser.startup.homepage_override.mstone
22.0
browser.tabs.loadInBackground
false
browser.tabs.onTop
false
browser.tabs.warnOnClose
false
browser.tabs.warnOnOpen
false
browser.urlbar.autocomplete.enabled
false
browser.zoom.full
false
dom.disable_window_move_resize
true
dom.event.contextmenu.enabled
false
dom.mozApps.used
true
dom.w3c_touch_events.expose
false
extensions.lastAppVersion
22.0
font.default.x-western
sans-serif
font.internaluseonly.changed
false
font.name.monospace.x-western
Arial Unicode MS
font.name.sans-serif.x-western
Arial Unicode MS
font.name.serif.x-western
Adobe Caslon Pro
font.size.variable.x-western
13
gfx.blacklist.webgl.msaa
4
gfx.color_management.enablev4
true
image.mem.decodeondraw
false
network.cookie.cookieBehavior
1
network.cookie.prefsMigrated
true
network.dns.disableIPv6
true
places.database.lastMaintenance
1375198743
places.history.enabled
false
places.history.expiration.transient_current_max_pages
104858
places.history.expiration.transient_optimal_database_size
161061272
places.last_vacuum
1296483807
plugin.disable_full_page_plugin_for_types
plugin.importedState
true
plugin.state.adobeexmandetect
0
plugin.state.adobepdfviewernpapi
0
plugin.state.amazonmp3downloaderplugin
0
plugin.state.iphotophotocast
0
plugin.state.java
0
plugin.state.officelivebrowserplugin
0
plugin.state.pdf browser plugin
2
plugin.state.wacomnetscape
0
plugin.state.wacomtabletplugin
0
print.macosx.pagesetup-2
PD94bWwgdmVyc2lvbj0iMS4wIiBlbmNvZGluZz0iVVRGLTgiPz4KPCFET0NUWVBFIHBsaXN0IFBVQkxJQyAiLS8vQXBwbGUvL0RURCBQTElTVCAxLjAvL0VO
print.print_bgcolor
true
print.print_bgimages
true
print.print_command
print.print_downloadfonts
false
print.print_evenpages
true
print.print_footerleft
print.print_footerright
print.print_headerleft
print.print_headerright
print.print_in_color
true
print.print_margin_bottom
0.5
print.print_margin_left
0.5
print.print_margin_right
0.5
print.print_margin_top
0.5
print.print_oddpages
true
print.print_orientation
0
print.print_page_delay
50
print.print_pagedelay
500
print.print_paper_data
0
print.print_paper_height
11.00
print.print_paper_size_type
1
print.print_paper_size_unit
0
print.print_paper_width
8.50
print.print_printer
print.print_reversed
false
print.print_scaling
1.00
print.print_shrink_to_fit
true
print.print_to_file
false
print.print_unwriteable_margin_bottom
56
print.print_unwriteable_margin_left
25
print.print_unwriteable_margin_right
25
print.print_unwriteable_margin_top
25
privacy.clearOnShutdown.cookies
false
privacy.clearOnShutdown.sessions
false
privacy.cpd.offlineApps
true
privacy.cpd.sessions
false
privacy.donottrackheader.enabled
true
privacy.popups.showBrowserMessage
false
privacy.sanitize.migrateFx3Prefs
true
privacy.sanitize.sanitizeOnShutdown
true
privacy.sanitize.timeSpan
4
security.disable_button.openCertManager
false
security.warn_viewing_mixed
false
storage.vacuum.last.index
1
storage.vacuum.last.places.sqlite
1373201529
Graphics
Device ID
0x 869
GPU Accelerated Windows
1/1 OpenGL
Vendor ID
0x10de
WebGL Renderer
NVIDIA Corporation -- NVIDIA GeForce 9400 OpenGL Engine
AzureCanvasBackend
quartz
AzureContentBackend
none
AzureFallbackCanvasBackend
none
JavaScript
Incremental GC
true
Accessibility
Activated
false
Prevent Accessibility
0
Library Versions
Expected minimum version
Version in use
NSPR
4.9.6
4.9.6
NSS
3.14.3.0 Basic ECC
3.14.3.0 Basic ECC
NSSSMIME
3.14.3.0 Basic ECC
3.14.3.0 Basic ECC
NSSSSL
3.14.3.0 Basic ECC
3.14.3.0 Basic ECC
NSSUTIL
3.14.3.0
3.14.3.0
have you tried safe mode?
Occasionally the file that stores your download preferences becomes corrupted. Although in theory it's an editable file, it typically is easier to rename the file and have Firefox regenerate it from scratch. Since Preview in Firefox is the default, hopefully that will restore normal functioning. If it creates new issues, you can reverse the operation (delete the newly generated file and rename the old one back).
Open your current Firefox settings (AKA Firefox profile) folder using
Help > Troubleshooting Information > "Show in Finder" button
Switch back to Firefox and Exit/Quit
Pause while Firefox finishes its cleanup, then rename mimeTypes.rdf to something like mimeTypes.old
Restart Firefox. Any improvement?
jscher2000...If you read my original post, you'll see that I already did that. It didn't change anything.
Hi Thorzdad, sorry, the rest of the thread apparently overflowed my buffer.
If you open that file in a text editor and search for PDF, do you have this?
<RDF:Description RDF:about="urn:mimetype:handler:application/pdf" NC:handleInternal="true" NC:alwaysAsk="false" />
Do you see any other entries that have both "handler" and "pdf" that might have contrary directions?
There is a preference in Firefox that can disable the built-in viewer independently from your download preferences. You can check it here:
(1) In a new tab, type or paste about:config in the address bar and press Enter. Click the button promising to be careful.
(2) In the filter box, type or paste pdfjs and pause while the list is filtered
(3) Make sure pdfjs.disabled is set to false. (Double-clicking toggles the value.)
I didn't notice the reply by jscher2000 so try that first! If that didn't help then try my suggestion:
You have two pdf plugins showing in your Important Modified Preferences list:
The disabled Adobe PDF Viewer plugin,
plugin.state.adobepdfviewernpapi
0
...and a PDF Browser Plugin, which is enabled:
plugin.state.pdf browser plugin
2
Go to the Firefox Tools menu, then click on Add-ons. In the Addons Manager, go to the Plugins panel, find the PDF Browser Plugin and disable it. See if that helps. If not, go to your Firefox Preferences, Applications panel and make sure you have Portable Document Format (PDF) set to "Preview in Firefox".
Modified by AliceWyman
pdfjs.disabled is set to False.
In the mimeTypes.rdf file, the "handleInternal" flag is true, and the "alwaysAsk" flag is false.
There are a couple of other pdf entries...
<RDF:Seq RDF:about="urn:mimetypes:root"> <RDF:li RDF:resource="urn:mimetype:application/pdf"/>
</RDF:Seq>
<RDF:Description RDF:about="urn:mimetype:application/pdf"
NC:value="application/pdf"> <NC:handlerProp RDF:resource="urn:mimetype:handler:application/pdf"/> </RDF:Description>
Are those two possible problems?
AliceWyman...The enabled PDF plugin is the new Shubert plugin I installed just today. Firefox was having this problem long before I installed the new plugin.
Try downloading the Adobe Reader plugin.
Hi Thorzdad, those other two entries are okay. So that definitely leaves the problem unsolved.
If the file downloads without giving you the option to open it:
Could it be related to some kind of downloader add-on? If you already tried Firefox Safe Mode or Firefox Reset, then an add-on issue is unlikely, but if you didn't try either of those, please check your extensions in case one of them is overriding the default handling.
Tools menu > Add-ons > Extensions category
If Firefox displays the Open/Save/Cancel dialog:
Does it show the content type application/pdf matching up with the mimeTypes.rdf entry?
If Portable Document Format (PDF) is set to "Preview in Firefox" in the Applications panel, as shown in this KB article for Windows (Mac OS will be similar except for your default PDF viewer application ...Preview?... and available PDF Browser plugin, Shubert's)
And, if the issue isn't
- a downloader add-on
- another installed add-on (I see you have the Adobe Acrobat - Create PDF extension disabled; you also have PDF Viewer extension v 0.7.1 installed and disabled. I would uninstall PDF Viewer since it's now built-in to Firefox, since Firefox 19) or
- other profile issue (you could also try creating a new Firefox profile for testing)
Then:
Another possible route you could take would be to file a bug report at bugzilla.mozilla.org since your issue may be related to a change made in Firefox 22. For example, see these possibly related bugs (fixed in Firefox 22):
- Bug 738967 - pdf.js doesn't work for embedded PDFs
- Bug 855666 - Firefox Nighty 22.0a1 opens blank page instead of calling the third-party PDF reader plugin
go here! >>> https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/cant-download-or-save-files#w_disable-virus-scanning-in-firefox-preferences
the firefox automatic virus scanner may be preventing your files from opening or working. this will tell you how to turn it off in "about:config". I did it and FINALLY my downloads work!