Comments on: Why can't I open pdf's in Firefox?

Question: Why can't I open pdf's in Firefox?

gilsonal — Wed, 19 Apr 2006 22:45:10 -0800

Recently, Acrobat has stopped opening pdf's in my firefox browser. It works fine in internet explorer, but I'd rather stay away from that particular program. I've tried reinstalling, updating, changing preferences and more. Anybody else experiencing this?

When I click on a pdf link in my firefox browser, i get the error message "cannot use Adobe Reader to view pdf in your web browser. Reader will now exit. Please try again." Needless to say, retrying doesn't work.

I have uninstalled version 7.0, then reinstalled. I also made sure all older copies are removed completely. I set the prefrences on Acrobat so it wouldnt try to open files in the browser, but open seperately, but that had no effect either.

I use Norton Antivirus, and Zone Alarm, but I didnt see any place for program permissions on Norton, and Zone Alarm has Adobe set as having full permission.

I've tried googling my problem, but even that has failed me. Please help! I'm working on my thesis, and things would work a lot more smoothly if I didnt have to switch to IE just to read articles.

By: weapons-grade pandemonium

weapons-grade pandemonium — Wed, 19 Apr 2006 22:59:33 -0800

Since Firefox has automatically downloaded updates to my browser I have noticed a few bugs. I don't know if this is related. Try system restore back a month, and see if Acrobat works. You can always undo the restore.

By: Manjusri

Manjusri — Wed, 19 Apr 2006 23:58:34 -0800

I recommend Foxit.

By: junesix

junesix — Thu, 20 Apr 2006 00:03:19 -0800

Have you also reinstalled Firefox followed by reinstalling Reader?

By: unmake

unmake — Thu, 20 Apr 2006 00:34:08 -0800

Have you disabled any of Reader's plugins (normally done as a speed tweak). Other things to check would be about:plugins, and to check Tools>Options>Downloads>View & Edit Actions.

By: Aster

Aster — Thu, 20 Apr 2006 01:05:20 -0800

Did you recently upgrade to Acrobat 7? I had the same problem, and I was finally able to solve it this way (this assumes you are running Windows):

Go to c:\Program Files\Adobe\Acrobat 7.0\Reader\Browser (or whatever the corresponding path is on your computer)

Find nppdf32.dll.

Copy it into your Firefox plugins folder, which is probably at c:\Program Files\Mozilla Firefox\plugins. (There might already be a copy there; if so, this is the old version, so go ahead and overwrite it with the version you copied from the Acrobat 7 folder.)

This fixed the problem for me, and hopefully it will for you too.

By: flabdablet

flabdablet — Thu, 20 Apr 2006 02:42:48 -0800

Aster's fix looks right to me, assuming you actually want to stick with Acrobat. Me, I haven't used anything but Foxit Reader since first trying it. Firefox treats it as a helper application rather than a plugin, but for me the slight inconvenience of having to close a blank tab for each PDF is more than made up for by Foxit's sheer unbloated speed. It's a beauty.

By: purephase

purephase — Thu, 20 Apr 2006 05:11:27 -0800

I second the FoxIt reader suggestion.

By: gilsonal

gilsonal — Thu, 20 Apr 2006 05:54:04 -0800

Aster, I tried looking in the browser folder, but it was totally empty. Maybe thats the reason I'm having a problem. Odd, because the install said it worked fine.

I've also tried installing foxit and setting it as default, but Adobe keeps popping up. I'll uninstall it and see if I cant get it to work. Thanks!

By: jikel_morten

jikel_morten — Thu, 20 Apr 2006 06:11:00 -0800

Get foxit, unless you're prohibited for whatever reason. I find it so much faster than Acrobat that it's laughable. heh.

By: gilsonal

gilsonal — Thu, 20 Apr 2006 06:45:51 -0800

Well, unfortunately, now with Foxit installed and Adobe gone, pdf's dont open at all. Any other ideas, besides a system restore?

By: gilsonal

gilsonal — Thu, 20 Apr 2006 06:56:38 -0800

Ok, I think I fixed it. Even with it set to have FoxIt as my default, my Firefox still had pdf extensions set to open with Adobe. I changed that, and now everything works fine. Thanks for all the help, everybody.

By: weapons-grade pandemonium

weapons-grade pandemonium — Thu, 20 Apr 2006 08:06:54 -0800

And now I have Foxit, also, and don't have to wait for all those Acrobatics to load.
Thanks, Manjusri.