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Firefox won't open locally saved pdf, instead downloads it again

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Hi, Today i tried opening an PDF, but instead of opening the PDF the page is just blank and it downloads another copy of the PDF. even though the address bar is this: file:///C:/Users/[redacted]/Downloads/[redacted].pdf I tried pasting the address into microsoft edge and there it works fine. I also restarted firefox in safe mode but it has the same problem. I have my windows configured to open PDF's with firefox.exe by default, but clicking on the file in windows file explorer gives the same problem. Does anyone know how to solve this?

Hi, Today i tried opening an PDF, but instead of opening the PDF the page is just blank and it downloads another copy of the PDF. even though the address bar is this: file:///C:/Users/[redacted]/Downloads/[redacted].pdf I tried pasting the address into microsoft edge and there it works fine. I also restarted firefox in safe mode but it has the same problem. I have my windows configured to open PDF's with firefox.exe by default, but clicking on the file in windows file explorer gives the same problem. Does anyone know how to solve this?

Chosen solution

RobertJ said

Hello Tjeu, Try an easy fix first. On your local pdf file, change the Open With... to another app like Adobe Reader or Edge. Double-click the file to open in that app. Close the app and change the Open With... back to Firefox. Then, see if it opens in Firefox.

Hi, Thank you for the response!

I changed it to microsoft edge in file properties, hit apply. tested it and opened in edge fine. then changed it back in file properties to open with firefox. Sadly after this i still have the same problem. I tried opening multiple different PDF files and they all suffer from this.

After this i started looking into the firefox settings and saw that under general>applications>content type: PDF was set to action: save file

I changed the action to "always ask" and then when opening the PDF selected "open with firefox", this caused an new tab to open that again downloaded another version of the file. then i changed action to preview in firefox. Then it does open fine.

So i think my problem is solved, thank you for the help!

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All Replies (3)

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Hello Tjeu, Try an easy fix first. On your local pdf file, change the Open With... to another app like Adobe Reader or Edge. Double-click the file to open in that app. Close the app and change the Open With... back to Firefox. Then, see if it opens in Firefox.

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Chosen Solution

RobertJ said

Hello Tjeu, Try an easy fix first. On your local pdf file, change the Open With... to another app like Adobe Reader or Edge. Double-click the file to open in that app. Close the app and change the Open With... back to Firefox. Then, see if it opens in Firefox.

Hi, Thank you for the response!

I changed it to microsoft edge in file properties, hit apply. tested it and opened in edge fine. then changed it back in file properties to open with firefox. Sadly after this i still have the same problem. I tried opening multiple different PDF files and they all suffer from this.

After this i started looking into the firefox settings and saw that under general>applications>content type: PDF was set to action: save file

I changed the action to "always ask" and then when opening the PDF selected "open with firefox", this caused an new tab to open that again downloaded another version of the file. then i changed action to preview in firefox. Then it does open fine.

So i think my problem is solved, thank you for the help!

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Well, you beat me to it. I was going to go there next.

I glad to hear you found it!

Browse Safe!