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.

Avatar for Username

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

This thread was archived. Please ask a new question if you need help.

firefox is reading word files as pdf's when I download them from DropBox.com.

bryansheehan321
bryansheehan321
more options

This is very frustrating.

I store Microsoft Word files in DropBox. When I download them with Chrome or Internet Explorer, there is no problem.. When I use Firefox, it reads all my files as PDFs. It converts my Word files to PDF so I can't edit them when I download them from DropBox.

Please fix this! I love Firefox, but now I have to use other browsers because it's simply a nuisance to switch between browsers to work around this!

This is very frustrating. I store Microsoft Word files in DropBox. When I download them with Chrome or Internet Explorer, there is no problem.. When I use Firefox, it reads all my files as PDFs. It converts my Word files to PDF so I can't edit them when I download them from DropBox. Please fix this! I love Firefox, but now I have to use other browsers because it's simply a nuisance to switch between browsers to work around this!

Chosen solution

I think I see now. Dropbox may push the download directly from the small pop-up, which should always give you a DOC, and may give you a preview featuring Firefox's native PDF viewer. On the preview, you need to use the button the blue frame to get the native format, otherwise you get the converted-to-PDF download. I hadn't noticed this preview before until I used the share button for this document. Now I get the preview window for that document like you do. Apologies for not being aware of how to trigger this much earlier in the discussion.

Read this answer in context 👍 3

All Replies (1)

jscher2000 - Support Volunteer
jscher2000 - Support Volunteer
  • Top 25 Contributor
more options

Hi ezry, the automatic conversion is a feature of Dropbox previews. You can choose how to view the PDF (e.g., Firefox native viewer, Acrobat plugin, external software), but I didn't see a setting to turn off the preview and just go straight to download. (Also, it doesn't seem to affect all links; I am not a frequent enough user of Dropbox to spot the pattern.)

  1. 1
  2. 2