Hi Geowit, what happens when you try to download a PDF? For example:

• opens in a tab
• tab or window opens but immediately closes
• error message (what does it say?)
• no action occurs when clicking the link/button
• something else

Is this a site-specific problem? Or in other words, do PDFs work normally on some sites but not others, or are they impossible to open/download from anywhere?

Hi jscher. Thank You for replying.

I can't download pdf's period - from anywhere. And when I click a link to download nothing happens. It won't open. No error message, nothing. I've had this problem on yahoo finance, and forexfactory, to mention 2 different sites. Something is awry somewhere.

Could you try this link:

https://www.jeffersonscher.com/temp/mixed-orientation-PL.pdf

For example:

(1) Does a simple click have any effect?

(2) Does right-click > Save Link As let you save it?

When all sites are affected, this can help:

Sometimes the settings file that stores download handling preferences becomes corrupted. You can rename the file and have Firefox rebuild it. Here's how:

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

• "3-bar" menu button > "?" Help > 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, on the Profile Folder row, click the "Open 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 > Exit
• (menu bar) File > Exit

Pause while Firefox finishes its cleanup, then rename handlers.json to something like handlersOLD.json. If you see a file named mimeTypes.rdf, rename that one to mimeTypesOLD.rdf.

Start Firefox back up again. Any improvement in downloading PDFs?

Yes, I opened your link. As per your instructions, I'll have to give tham a try.

Pause while Firefox finishes its cleanup, then rename handlers.json to something like handlersOLD.json. If you see a file named mimeTypes.rdf, rename that one to mimeTypesOLD.rdf.

I don't understand the above. I don't see handlers.json or mimeTypes.rdf anywhere? Where do I look to find these? The troubleshooting page?

OK. I found them. But it says re json that if I rename it it won't be usable anymore. I changed the mimetypes no problem.

When you rename handlers.json, make sure not to change the .json part. Or actually, since our goal is to hide it from Firefox, don't worry about it. As long as we can get it back in case we need it, the extension doesn't matter.

OKay. I added the old to the end of json. After these 2 changes, I still can't open any files.

I see 3 files below json that read: logins.json.corrupt logins.json-1.corrupt logins.json-2.corrupt

Geowit said

I see 3 files below json that read: logins.json.corrupt logins.json-1.corrupt logins.json-2.corrupt

Those are related to saved passwords. Is there a problem with those?

Geowit said

OKay. I added the old to the end of json. After these 2 changes, I still can't open any files.

What about the example link I gave earlier for the test PDF on my site? Did anything happen with that link?

The word corrupt under file type garnered my attention. I don't know if this is okay or not. As for the link you provided, yes I could open and save it.

Okay, some PDFs work, and some do not. Let's see if we can figure out the difference.

For a non-working PDF link/button, does it generate a new tab or window? Just wondering whether Firefox's pop-up blocker or an overly aggressive add-on popup blocker could be blocking that initial step, preventing the download dialog from ever coming up.

You can temporarily turn off the built-in popup blocker on the Options page. You can check that here:

• Windows: "3-bar" menu button (or Tools menu) > Options
• Mac: "3-bar" menu button (or Firefox menu) > Preferences
• Linux: "3-bar" menu button (or Edit menu) > Preferences
• Any system: type or paste about:preferences into the address bar and press Enter/Return to load it

In the search box at the top of the page, type pop and Firefox should filter to the "Permissions" section.

Here you can uncheck the box for "Block pop-up windows" and then test trusted sites.

Any improvement?

If not, try disabling AdBlocker Ultimate on the Add-ons page. Either:

• Ctrl+Shift+a (Mac: Command+Shift+a)
• "3-bar" menu button (or Tools menu) > Add-ons
• type or paste about:addons in the address bar and press Enter/Return

In the left column of the Add-ons page, click Extensions.

Then find the extension on the right side and click Disable.

Reload the page with the PDF link/button (Ctrl+r or F5) and then try again.

Any improvement?

Nothing happens when I try to download a pdf - no tab or new window. Nothing. It's as if I wasn't even trying to open a pdf. I'll try what you mention, but the problem existed prior to adblocker ultimate.

Turning off the pop up blocker in Options didn't work.

It appears I can download pdf's from some sites (a book pdf), but not from others. In trying to download an excel file from yahoo finance, it won't open it, or a pdf file from forexfactory. Strange.

Geowit said

In trying to download an excel file from yahoo finance, it won't open it, or a pdf file from forexfactory. Strange.

Hmm, do you have any issues connecting to secure sites? Sometimes downloads are sent from a different server than the page you're viewing, so a connection failure is invisible (unless maybe it appears on the little panel you can view using the Downloads arrow on the toolbar).

I don't know whether to suggest trying the Network Monitor. That's a panel of Firefox's developer tools that shows all the requests Firefox makes in a tab and what kind of response was received from the server. You could take a look at it to see whether Firefox generates a request for the download and, if so, whether there is an error code coming back, or the request just dies.

To open the Network Monitor it the lower part of the tab, you can use either:

• "3-bar" menu button > Web Developer > Network
• (menu bar) Tools > Web Developer > Network
• (Windows) Ctrl+Shift+e

Then click the link/button for the download and usually a request will appear. Sometimes more than one, for example, when the initial request is redirected or when the site has link/button tracking set up and a request is sent to the analytics service.

Each request usually has a code at the left end indicating the result. Anything above 400 indicates a problem. A completely missing code indicates a problem, too, although it may not be obvious what went wrong.

More info: https://developer.mozilla.org/docs/Tools/Network_Monitor

I don't have any problems connecting to any sites. In clicking on the download request, it says 200 under status on the extreme left.

It has a 200 code for the download -- does it show the expected type (e.g., XLS or PDF)? If it shows a text or html type, click that line and on the right-side, take a look at the "Response" panel to see if you can read what it says.

I don't see XLS or pdf anywhere. I see see Beacon under cause and under type gif.

Oh, beacon GIF sounds like some tracking and not the actual download. I don't know why there isn't an additional request for the download itself.

Speaking of tracking, though, is Firefox applying Tracking Protection to the page? There would be a "shield" icon toward the left end of the address bar in that case, and you could click that to temporarily turn off Tracking Protection for the page to see whether that makes any difference.

Otherwise, I'm running out of ideas for what might be causing the problem.