When I download pdf file from FF it tries to convert the file to a Word document
Starting today, I went to download a .pdf file to open automatically with Adobe Acrobat as I usually do. However, this time I got a pop-up from Microsoft Word stating, "Word will now convert your PDF to an editable Word document. This may take a while. The resulting Word document will be optimized to allow you to edit the text, so it might not look exactly like the original PDF, especially if the original file contained lots of graphics."
I went to Settings - General - Applications, went down Contents list to Portable Document Format (PDF), and tried the various settings under the Action column, to include "Save File," "Always Ask," "Use Acrobat Adobe 2020." None of these worked or made any difference. I open numerous .pdf files every day and I need to be able to just click on them in the website and have them open in my Adobe Acrobat program - as they have up until today. What do I have to do to fix this? I am using Version 102.0.1 (64-bit).
Chosen solution
On your Settings page, Applications list, do you have ANY content types that are set to "Use Microsoft Word"? If so, try switching those to "Always ask" and see whether there is any change in the PDF opening behavior.
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I do not believe it is a problem with Word. However, to make certain I did go over all my Word settings, and did not find any settings that would take over .pdf files and try to convert them to Word. If you know of something specific, please let me know.
I do believe it is something to do with the FF browser as it is sending the file to my computer incorrectly; even though the settings are set to, say, "Always Ask" I do not get a pop-up asking me how I want to save or open the file, it just automatically tries to open it in Word - and as I said, up until today it was working correctly. Just not sure what is going on. I do thank you for your idea, but did not solve the issue. Any ideas out there, anyone?
Suluhisho teule
On your Settings page, Applications list, do you have ANY content types that are set to "Use Microsoft Word"? If so, try switching those to "Always ask" and see whether there is any change in the PDF opening behavior.
Oh, wow. Amazing! So, I went through the Applications list and found that the Microsoft Word Document was set to open with "Use Microsoft Word." So, I changed that to "Always Ask" and then went to upload and open a .pdf file from the website, and got a pop-up asking me what I wanted to do. So I set it for download to Adobe Acrobat default, and voila! Problem solved!
As a further note, for someone who might be trying this, when I went to download a Microsoft Word .docx file from the website it now opened as a .pdf file! So, I went back into Applications - Microsoft Word Document and changed the "Always Ask" action. Instead of changing it back to "Use Microsoft Word" I changed it to one of the other options, "Use Word (default)." Once I did that, my .docx files again downloaded to my Word program. And my .pdf files are now downloading to Adobe Acrobat. So everything works! Yay!
Thank you so much, jscher!!! You're a lifesaver!
Firefox has a settings file named handlers.json which has the content types/actions you see on the Settings page AND various file extension (like .pdf and .docx) associated with those content types. Maybe PDF and DOCX somehow are crossed up in the file. If you decide to explore further, I'll describe how to view the file contents.
Yes, absolutely. That would be great! I figure since I had an issue here, it would behoove me to learn more about how FF works. If you could let me know how to view the file contents that would be excellent. Thanks!