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Setting preferences to bypass the new PDF viewer

  • 4 replies
  • 1 has this problem
  • 7 views
  • Last reply by Amanda9

Amanda9
Amanda9
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My Firefox preferences for all types of PDFs are set to "always ask," which is what I want. What happens instead is that they automatically open (very slowly) in the new Firefox PDF viewer. I want to have what I used to have: the opportunity to decide whether to open or save, and if I choose open, have that happen in Acrobat or Reader. I realize that I can (at least theoretically) set the preferences to automatically open in Acrobat, but that's not what I want. Is there any way to set preferences so I still get the functionality I had before the upgrade to Firefox 19? (I'm using Firefox 19.0.2 on a Mac.) Thank you.

My Firefox preferences for all types of PDFs are set to "always ask," which is what I want. What happens instead is that they automatically open (very slowly) in the new Firefox PDF viewer. I want to have what I used to have: the opportunity to decide whether to open or save, and if I choose open, have that happen in Acrobat or Reader. I realize that I can (at least theoretically) set the preferences to automatically open in Acrobat, but that's not what I want. Is there any way to set preferences so I still get the functionality I had before the upgrade to Firefox 19? (I'm using Firefox 19.0.2 on a Mac.) Thank you.

Chosen solution

please also make sure that the default action for the entry named portable document format (pdf) in the preferences > applications tab is set to always ask. then it should work as intended...

(the screenshot is taken on windows but it will look similar on your system).

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All Replies (4)

philipp
philipp
  • Moderator
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hello, enter about:config into the firefox location bar (confirm the info message in case it shows up) & search for the preference named pdfjs.disabled. double-click it and change its value to true.

Amanda9
Amanda9 Question owner
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That's helpful, but not exactly what I was looking for. This makes the PDF automatically download, which is a definite improvement, but ideally I'd like to have the old open-or-download option back so I could decide on a case-by-case basis (and then if I choose "open," get it to open in Acrobat). Or, it would also help to know for sure that that's no longer an option.

Still, huge improvement (and I can definitely live with this if it turns out there's no way to do the thing I'm describing) -- thank you very much.

philipp
philipp
  • Moderator
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Chosen Solution

please also make sure that the default action for the entry named portable document format (pdf) in the preferences > applications tab is set to always ask. then it should work as intended...

(the screenshot is taken on windows but it will look similar on your system).

Amanda9
Amanda9 Question owner
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YES! It's working now. Thanks so much.