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

When using Firefox, PDFs won't load natively on Mac Mountain Lion (10.8.2), even when all add-ons are disabled. No issue using Firefox on PC

  • 2 iimpendulo
  • 4 inale ngxaki
  • 1 view
  • Impendulo yokugqibela ngu modenaryder

more options

Whenever I click on a web link, do download a PDF form, for example, I get this error message:

"We are sorry, but Adobe Reader is unable to show documents in this browser configuration.

Please use your browser to download this file and open it in Adobe Reader or Adobe Acrobat.

To avoid this message in the future, many browsers provide a way to turn off certain add-ons, and some are able to show this document natively. Please contact your browser vendor for more details."

This problem only manifested recently. I have recently added Adobe CS6, but the problem manifests itself even when this is disabled. Any help much appreciated.

Whenever I click on a web link, do download a PDF form, for example, I get this error message: "We are sorry, but Adobe Reader is unable to show documents in this browser configuration. Please use your browser to download this file and open it in Adobe Reader or Adobe Acrobat. To avoid this message in the future, many browsers provide a way to turn off certain add-ons, and some are able to show this document natively. Please contact your browser vendor for more details." This problem only manifested recently. I have recently added Adobe CS6, but the problem manifests itself even when this is disabled. Any help much appreciated.

All Replies (2)

more options

The Adobe Reader plugin may not be working properly on Mac.

Disable the Adobe Reader plugin in Firefox (Tools > Add-ons > Plugins) and use the external Adobe Reader application or Preview application instead.

PDF files may be found under entries like Portable document or Adobe PDF document.

  • Firefox > Preferences > Applications > Adobe PDF document : Use Adobe Reader
more options

Thanks to you, Cor-el, for the advice. Issue sorted. Disabled the Acrobat plugin as suggested. I see that it is known to cause instability.