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I have updated to firefox 38 and can no longer download or preview pdfs

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After updating firefox to 38 no pdf will download or preview. It comes up as an http address eg http://r.duckduckgo.com/l/?kh=-1&uddg=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.myscience8.com%2Fhuman_biology%2Fmuscular_system_lab_2007.pdf andget a blank page. i use duckduckgo as a search engine and it had been previewing them previously. I have 2 pdf readers as add ons but I still can't open any pdf Using pdf viewer and have now tried pdf download.

After updating firefox to 38 no pdf will download or preview. It comes up as an http address eg http://r.duckduckgo.com/l/?kh=-1&uddg=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.myscience8.com%2Fhuman_biology%2Fmuscular_system_lab_2007.pdf andget a blank page. i use duckduckgo as a search engine and it had been previewing them previously. I have 2 pdf readers as add ons but I still can't open any pdf Using pdf viewer and have now tried pdf download.

Chosen solution

Maybe you have an add-on which blocks the redirect from the DuckDuckGo page to the PDF destination. But it would be odd if it only affects PDFs and not other kinds of search results.

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All Replies (8)

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Does this happen with the URL in the location/address bar as well or only if you click a link on a web page?

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That downloads or views in Firefox for me ok. http://www.myscience8.com/human_biology/muscular_system_lab_2007.pdf

I also see previews in of images in ddg e.g

I don't actually see any settings in ddg that block the previews.

And I do not actually see previews of pdfs in the ddg results. I do sometimes have DDG set as the default search engine but I am not sure I recall it having previews of the pdf files.

More importantly once you find a suitable pdf hit are you able to see it in Firefox.

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cor-el said

Does this happen with the URL in the location/address bar as well or only if you click a link on a web page?
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Astrobubles, Please note the forum has a Post a Reply box where you may write your reply and a blue [Post Reply] button to use once you have typed your reply.

You need to scroll down to see these. The forum was changed a while back and it possibly was not thought out too well and needs modifying. Too many people seem to have problems with the current design.

Cheers, John

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Chosen Solution

Maybe you have an add-on which blocks the redirect from the DuckDuckGo page to the PDF destination. But it would be odd if it only affects PDFs and not other kinds of search results.

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Been going through my add ons and disabled any related pdf add on. While checking adobe found it had changed the os to xp while I run 7. Also to never activate in drop down box. So now I can view and download pdfs.

Something with adobe reader addon though is that it is showing it is out of date when I have updated several times. But it works ok at least.

Thanks for the help to find it.

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Sounds like progress. There is a minor update available for Adobe Reader/Acrobat XI, which is version 11.0.11. It is only available using the Help menu in your Adobe product to "Check for Updates"; it is not available for direct download using the regular download site.

Mozilla's plugin checker may still show that version out of date due to the release of the new Adobe Reader/Acrobat DC product, but I don't recommend rushing to install DC if you are productive with XI.

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I checked which version of adobe reader I had and as I only recently updated it found I was running DC version and unable to find the XL to revert back to. Maybe that was what upset my system when I did that. As it is running okay I won't worry too much and hopefully the plug in checker will catch up and say it is up to date eventually. The dc version does not seem to be causing any issues now it is recognising the right OS. So thanks again