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

Cannot set Firefox as PDF default viewer

  • 2 replies
  • 1 has this problem
  • 5 views
  • Last reply by Steven22

more options

Prior FF option to select "preview PDF in FF" is no longer offered (or visible). But my selecting "just" "Firefox" from the drop-down list of available PDF default viewers does not "stick"--the PDF viewer always remains "Edge"--even though FF is set as the general default browser. The same problem was occurring when Acrobat Reader DC was on the computer and it was the default for PDF's--so I entirely removed that app, but now I get (MS's built-in) Edge as the PDF default but not FF. Changing file associations, etc. just does not have any effect! I am using the current versions of FF and Windows 10 Pro.

Prior FF option to select "preview PDF in FF" is no longer offered (or visible). But my selecting "just" "Firefox" from the drop-down list of available PDF default viewers does not "stick"--the PDF viewer always remains "Edge"--even though FF is set as the general default browser. The same problem was occurring when Acrobat Reader DC was on the computer and it was the default for PDF's--so I entirely removed that app, but now I get (MS's built-in) Edge as the PDF default but not FF. Changing file associations, etc. just does not have any effect! I am using the current versions of FF and Windows 10 Pro.

All Replies (2)

more options

Hello Steven22, as for "Preview PDF in Firefox" it is still exist Click the menu button then choose Options. Select the General panel and scroll down to the Applications section. Select the Portable Document Format (PDF) entry and double check that the action is set to "Preview in Firefox".

This option for links within browsers, if you want and PDF file to be opened outside the browser, then on your Windows 10 Go to Settings -> Apps -> Default Apps then at bottom of the window you have 3 options : Choose default Apps by File Type, Choose Default Apps by Protocol and Set Default by App . in "Choose Apps by File Type" scroll down to .pdf and change the default app to Firefox :)

Modified by Ruba

more options

Ruba, thanks for responding. But I tried your suggestions before I posted the problem, and they did not work. I also reset Firefox and that did not work either. As I noted, selecting he choice that now says "Firefox" simply does not work, and the link that used to say "preview PDFs in Firefox" (which worked) does not appear at all.