This site will have limited functionality while we undergo maintenance to improve your experience. If an article doesn't solve your issue and you want to ask a question, we have our support community waiting to help you at @FirefoxSupport on Twitter and/r/firefox on Reddit.

Search Support

Avoid support scams. We will never ask you to call or text a phone number or share personal information. Please report suspicious activity using the “Report Abuse” option.

Learn More

Why is Firefox Quantum not displaying PDFs?

  • 1 cavab
  • 1 has this problem
  • 3 views
  • Last reply by philipp

more options

I am not sure if my version of Firefox Quantum is set to update automatically, but all of a sudden the other day a few of my bookmarks (URLs that previously displayed PDFs) stopped displaying PDFs in my Firefox Quantum browser. One URL that I had viewed in my browser everyday (a gym timetable) now automatically downloads the PDF rather than display it in the browser (which is annoying because 1) I have to navigate to my downloads to open the file instead of it being displayed instantly and 2) I have to delete the PDF every time I view it (it is changing constantly so that's why I want to open the PDF in the browser without the hassle of the download). I assumed it was a change that the website manager had made, so I initially asked that question but have not yet received a response. But now I am experiencing problems opening other PDFs - in some cases they won't open OR download at all!

I followed one piece of forum advice which was to disable all extensions and then test to see if that fixed the problem. Unfortunately it did not. Then just now I have updated to the latest version: Firefox Quantum 66.0.2 (64-bit) thinking that that action might solve the problem. But it did not.

I would be so grateful if anyone could shed some light on this. It is most frustrating. I have tried opening the PDFs in Chrome, for example, and they seem to display fine and as normal inside the Chrome browser window. But I want to use Firefox! Help!

I am not sure if my version of Firefox Quantum is set to update automatically, but all of a sudden the other day a few of my bookmarks (URLs that previously displayed PDFs) stopped displaying PDFs in my Firefox Quantum browser. One URL that I had viewed in my browser everyday (a gym timetable) now automatically downloads the PDF rather than display it in the browser (which is annoying because 1) I have to navigate to my downloads to open the file instead of it being displayed instantly and 2) I have to delete the PDF every time I view it (it is changing constantly so that's why I want to open the PDF in the browser without the hassle of the download). I assumed it was a change that the website manager had made, so I initially asked that question but have not yet received a response. But now I am experiencing problems opening other PDFs - in some cases they won't open OR download at all! I followed one piece of forum advice which was to disable all extensions and then test to see if that fixed the problem. Unfortunately it did not. Then just now I have updated to the latest version: Firefox Quantum 66.0.2 (64-bit) thinking that that action might solve the problem. But it did not. I would be so grateful if anyone could shed some light on this. It is most frustrating. I have tried opening the PDFs in Chrome, for example, and they seem to display fine and as normal inside the Chrome browser window. But I want to use Firefox! Help!

All Replies (1)

more options

hi, please make sure that you have set pdf files to "preview in firefox" in order to open them within the integrated pdf viewer of firefox...

Modified by philipp