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

Adobe reader will not open documents in the browser. What do I do?

more options

I do not know anything about technical jargon or anything about add-ons or plug-ins, I just know that typically if I open a PDF file from a website it opens just fine in the browser. However, I am unable to open PDFs inside of Adobe Reader. When I do, the error message reads as follows:

"Adobe Reader cannot show documents in this browser. 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."

I have no idea how to fix this, as Adobe Reader is installed and I assume it is installed correctly? Please, any help would be fantastic.

I do not know anything about technical jargon or anything about add-ons or plug-ins, I just know that typically if I open a PDF file from a website it opens just fine in the browser. However, I am unable to open PDFs inside of Adobe Reader. When I do, the error message reads as follows: "Adobe Reader cannot show documents in this browser. 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." I have no idea how to fix this, as Adobe Reader is installed and I assume it is installed correctly? Please, any help would be fantastic.

All Replies (4)

more options

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

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

PDF files may also be found under another entry like Portable document.

more options

Opening PDF's outside of the browser is not an option for me. I specifically need the Adobe Reader plug-in to function, allowing me to open (and more importantly) edit PDF's in Firefox for a reason. Whenever I download/open in Reader, I am unable to save my changes or data entered into form fields. Typically I open the PDF on the website I use for work (Form Simplicity) and edit the form fields there, save it on the site, and then email it from the site for eSignatures. If I can't save the information put into the PDF then it defeats the whole purpose of trying to keep the process electronic, rather than on paper. Please help me find a solution. I have uninstalled ALL BROWSERS, Adobe Reader, Flash, run the Adobe Creative Suite Cleanup tool just in case I had left-overs from a CS5 trial, and reinstalled everything from scratch. Problem still remains. Is it simply the fact that I'm using a Mac?

more options

condition1ftw, you should have started your own thread as there has been a change with the way Firefox handles PDF files since this thread was started almost 6 months ago and we can't see what version of Firefox you have installed. Specifically, the built-in PDF.JS viewer is engaged by default as of Firefox 19.0.

Please see this support article - https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/disable-built-pdf-viewer-and-use-another-viewer

more options

the-edmeister, I have troubleshooted using the page linked without success and have started a new thread to hopefully resolve this issue.

Thank you.

https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/questions/958155