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I can't open a PDF in Firefox 5.0.1 running on Mac OS X Lion -what plugin is needed?

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I just installed Mac OS X Lion on my iMac, and now when I click on a web page with an embedded PDF, I get a blank page with the "click here to download plugin" icon. But when I click on the icon, I get a window saying a plugin can't be found. I am NOT running Abode Reader (apparently it doesn't work to open browser PDF's), just the native Preview app.

Can you help?

I just installed Mac OS X Lion on my iMac, and now when I click on a web page with an embedded PDF, I get a blank page with the "click here to download plugin" icon. But when I click on the icon, I get a window saying a plugin can't be found. I am NOT running Abode Reader (apparently it doesn't work to open browser PDF's), just the native Preview app. Can you help?

All Replies (8)

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You need to install the Adobe Acrobat browser plugin to display a PDF in Firefox.

See these articles for further instructions:
Use Adobe Reader to view PDF files in Firefox
View PDF files in Firefox or choose another viewer

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Hi, dynamite,

Thanks for the reply, but Sam Gross' PDF extension "does not work with Firefox 5.0.1" which I'm running with MacOS X Lion. Ouch.

Does that mean all of us who moved to Lion are going to have troubles with PDF's in the latest version of Firefox for Mac?

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Sam Gross' PDF extension is not the only way of viewing PDF in Firefox. There are other ways too!
One of them is the Adobe reader plugin that I mentioned earlier. Follow the instructions in this article to install it:
Use Adobe Reader to view PDF files in Firefox.

After installation, you will be able to view PDFs in Firefox.

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Hi, dynamite,

I did try installing Adobe Reader, but no success in Firefox 5.0.1 or Safari 5.1. In fact, Adobe has posted a long note about problems with Acrobat products in the Lion environment. They'll be fixed sometime, they say.

In the meantime, I'm able to access PDF's in the latest version of Chrome for Mac. Go figure!

What does Chrome know that Firefox and Safari don't? I'm puzzled!

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My current version of Chrome is having problems, too! It's so annoying. Anyone have any suggestions now? I basically can't view or download any PDFs because of this.

Does anyone else think this is a problem not only with Adobe? I would think Apple would have something to do with this? Wouldn't they get some idea from the developer versions that no browser can open PDFs while running Lion!? Pretty bad customer service on the part of a company that prides itself on being VERY customer-friendly. Wouldn't you say?

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This my question, and I can't open "pdf files" on my new iMac.

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When I try to use Adobe, I get a msg on screen that Adobe Reader cannot be installed.

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I think the problem is that someone at Mozilla entered an erroneous filetype in the list of file associations. Instead of PDF, there is an FDF.

I am in the process of moving to Chrome after numerous problems like this. I prefer Firefox and hope these problem can be fixed.