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

PDF e-mail attachment will not open after FF update

  • 4 replies
  • 10 have this problem
  • 2 views
  • Last reply by cor-el

more options

FF 31 and/or 32 Outlook or GroupWise fat client PDF attachments

After FF updated PDF's were re-associated with FF not the installed PDF program. Used Windows to re associate PDF's to PDF program. No problem, all PDF's open in PDF program UNLESS the PDF is an attachment in an e-mail.

Open e-mail fat client (doesn't matter the client) try and open the PDF and user gets message stating there is no program associated with attachment. Yet, all PDF's still open with correct PDF program as long as they are not in the e-mail. Now here's the really weird part.....

If there are two or more PDF's attachments in the same e-mail the first one will not open but the second, thirds, etc attached PDF's will open with the correct PDF program.

The only temporary solution I have found is to uninstall FF, re-install it and for a 1/2 day the issue goes away. I have not figured out the trigger that resets the issue.

FF is my go-to browser, but since v 31 this has been happening and if it keeps up, I'm switching to Chrome.

Come on Tech Support, help us out with this issue.

FF 31 and/or 32 Outlook or GroupWise fat client PDF attachments After FF updated PDF's were re-associated with FF not the installed PDF program. Used Windows to re associate PDF's to PDF program. No problem, all PDF's open in PDF program UNLESS the PDF is an attachment in an e-mail. Open e-mail fat client (doesn't matter the client) try and open the PDF and user gets message stating there is no program associated with attachment. Yet, all PDF's still open with correct PDF program as long as they are not in the e-mail. Now here's the really weird part..... If there are two or more PDF's attachments in the same e-mail the first one will not open but the second, thirds, etc attached PDF's will open with the correct PDF program. The only temporary solution I have found is to uninstall FF, re-install it and for a 1/2 day the issue goes away. I have not figured out the trigger that resets the issue. FF is my go-to browser, but since v 31 this has been happening and if it keeps up, I'm switching to Chrome. Come on Tech Support, help us out with this issue.

All Replies (4)

more options

Sorry you're having this problem. I think it was previously reported only by Windows XP users.

When you reinstall, were you making Firefox your default browser? Some users have reported that not making Firefox the default browser was an effective workaround.

However, you may have success with this approach, suggested by a user in another thread, which appears to more thoroughly update the Windows registry:

  1. Open Adobe Reader / Acrobat
  2. Edit->Preferences
  3. In the Categories column click 'General'
  4. Near the bottom of the page click the button marked 'Select Default PDF Handler'
  5. In the dialog, select 'Adobe Reader XI' (or Adobe Acrobat, as the case may be) and click 'Apply'
  6. A Windows Configuration screen will appear. Allow it to do its stuff (takes a few minutes), then restart your computer when prompted.

Does that resolve the issue for you?

more options

The answer to your first question is "yes", I was making FF my default. Changing this manually didn't fix the issue. I will uninstall and re-install without making FF the default and see if it lasts. We know uninstalling and re-installing fixes the issue temporarily so it will be about 24 hours before I can test that reported work-around.

We are actually using Nuance Power PDF, but the setting you are referencing is there and was greyed out as I only have the one PDF program. It was set to use the Nuance PDF Program.

And these are Win7 x64 machines that are experiencing the problem. Also some PC's have Adobe and Foxit! readers on them and the results are the same so it seems to be independent of the PDF program in use.

Thank you for the reply

more options

Setting another browser as the default has made no change to the issue as described above. I am still experiencing the problem. This is truly a perplexing problem. If there are any more ideas on what is causing this or how to resolve it, please let me know..

more options

You would have to uninstall Firefox to make Firefox reset (undo) the changes made to registry keys. Then you can reinstall Firefox and make sure not to set it as the default browser.