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Firefox won't open any PDF files

  • 6 replies
  • 9 have this problem
  • 158 views
  • Last reply by John99

seggbizo
seggbizo
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Firefox has been refusing to open any PDF files with the built-in PDF-viewer from my computer for a few days now, and it's pretty annoying / frustrating. It only offers me to either open or save the file as..., and when I click on opening it, Firefox opens a new blank tab and offers the same thing again, and again, and on and on. :) With online PDF files there's no such problem.

Application settings are set to; Portable Document Format (PDF): Preview in Firefox - PDF file: always ask

I'm using the latest version of Firefox (47.0.1 currently) and Windows 8.1 Pro x64, and no other PDF-viewer application is installed.

Firefox has been refusing to open any PDF files with the built-in PDF-viewer from my computer for a few days now, and it's pretty annoying / frustrating. It only offers me to either open or save the file as..., and when I click on opening it, Firefox opens a new blank tab and offers the same thing again, and again, and on and on. :) With online PDF files there's no such problem. Application settings are set to; Portable Document Format (PDF): Preview in Firefox - PDF file: always ask I'm using the latest version of Firefox (47.0.1 currently) and Windows 8.1 Pro x64, and no other PDF-viewer application is installed.

Modified by seggbizo

Chosen solution

Sometimes the file that stores your Application preferences becomes corrupted and needs to be regenerated. Here are the steps for that:

Open your current Firefox settings (AKA Firefox profile) folder using either

  • "3-bar" menu button > "?" button > Troubleshooting Information
  • (menu bar) Help > Troubleshooting Information
  • type or paste about:support in the address bar and press Enter

In the first table on the page, click the "Show Folder" button. This should launch a new window listing various files and folders in Windows Explorer.

Leaving that window open, switch back to Firefox and Exit, either:

  • "3-bar" menu button > "power" button
  • (menu bar) File > Exit

Pause while Firefox finishes its cleanup, then rename mimeTypes.rdf to something like mimeTypes.old.

Start Firefox back up again. PDF should be set to "Preview in Firefox" by default. Does it work?

Read this answer in context 👍 3

All Replies (6)

Oxylatium
Oxylatium
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I think it's an issue with file association (.pdf) in your OS. Did you associate pdf to firefox.exe?

jscher2000 - Support Volunteer
jscher2000 - Support Volunteer
  • Top 10 Contributor
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Chosen Solution

Sometimes the file that stores your Application preferences becomes corrupted and needs to be regenerated. Here are the steps for that:

Open your current Firefox settings (AKA Firefox profile) folder using either

  • "3-bar" menu button > "?" button > Troubleshooting Information
  • (menu bar) Help > Troubleshooting Information
  • type or paste about:support in the address bar and press Enter

In the first table on the page, click the "Show Folder" button. This should launch a new window listing various files and folders in Windows Explorer.

Leaving that window open, switch back to Firefox and Exit, either:

  • "3-bar" menu button > "power" button
  • (menu bar) File > Exit

Pause while Firefox finishes its cleanup, then rename mimeTypes.rdf to something like mimeTypes.old.

Start Firefox back up again. PDF should be set to "Preview in Firefox" by default. Does it work?

seggbizo
seggbizo Question owner
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Oxylatium said

I think it's an issue with file association (.pdf) in your OS. Did you associate pdf to firefox.exe?

I didn't have to, it was automatically associated to Firefox.

seggbizo
seggbizo Question owner
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jscher2000 said

Sometimes the file that stores your Application preferences becomes corrupted and needs to be regenerated. Here are the steps for that: Open your current Firefox settings (AKA Firefox profile) folder using either
  • "3-bar" menu button > "?" button > Troubleshooting Information
  • (menu bar) Help > Troubleshooting Information
  • type or paste about:support in the address bar and press Enter
In the first table on the page, click the "Show Folder" button. This should launch a new window listing various files and folders in Windows Explorer. Leaving that window open, switch back to Firefox and Exit, either:
  • "3-bar" menu button > "power" button
  • (menu bar) File > Exit
Pause while Firefox finishes its cleanup, then rename mimeTypes.rdf to something like mimeTypes.old. Start Firefox back up again. PDF should be set to "Preview in Firefox" by default. Does it work?

It does work! Thank you very much, my friend! :)

sjds_lkc
sjds_lkc
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I have pretty much the opposite problem (similar to here: https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/questions/1012676). I do not want my pdfs to open firefox. Atm all my pdf files have been converted to Firefox HTML documents and i find that extremely inconvenient. Especially because this just happened without me ever giving permission for this. When i try to open them by simple double click, firefox opens a new window that is empty and asks me if i want to save the pdf i already have saved before. If i click save nothing happens and my pdf is still not open. I just want to delete the Firefox HTML document type from my computer so that all files revert back to pdf. Anyway I can do this easily?

John99
John99
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sjds_lkc It would appear to be a Windows issue. As in your question

  • How to disable pdf documents from getting opened and stored as Firefix HTML Documents /questions/1135178