Yonke imikhiqizo Community Forum

When viewing a PDF in Firefox the URL bar indicates the file was downloaded to a temporary folder. If I then select "Save" from the PDF toolbar; or if I right click and select "Save page as" it opens a save dialog to the location I previously saved the same category of PDF to. For example I have separate folders for invoices, if the PDF is my electricity invoice it somehow knows and opens the electricity folder. If it is a water invoice, it automatically opens the water folder.

Whilst this is indeed quite handy, I do not understand how Firefox is doing this; nor do I understand whether this may be a privacy risk in some circumstances and should therefore be configurable.

I have my settings set to open PDF files in Adobe Acrobat, but the latest version of Firefox has started opening them in their own viewer, which is NOT near as useful, and I then have to download it to open in Acrobat like I used to do. Why? Is there any way to fix it back?

I hope this is a simple setting issue. I believe I have tried everything others have recommended.

When I open a PDF I get a black background and a grey block. One for every page in the PDF.

Previous to the recent update I was able to click on a hyperlink, it would load then automatically download the pdf and then automatically open in Adobe. Now it just opens in Firefox. I have changed the settings to open downloaded pdfs to Adobe but it still opens in Firefox and does not download. I have tried changing the PDF setting to save automatically and it still does not download or save it just opens in a new tab in Firefox.

Firefox 157.0 (aarch64) macOS Tahoe 26.7.1

When I click on the link to a PDF to open it in Firefox and click on the Save icon in the file viewing UI (see attached image pdf-save-icon.png) to save it to my local device, no File Save dialog box opens and nothing happens.

If I right click on the link to the file instead of opening the file, the file is saved silently to the Downloads folder with a name that ends in .pdf.part (see attached image filename.png). That typically indicates a partial, failed download, but in this case, if I remove the .part from the filename, the result is a viable PDF.

When I select text in firefox's built in pdf viewer, a menu with comment and highlight options automatically pops up. I haven't been able to figure out any way to turn this off. This is a problem because when I'm using the viewer at work firefox now puts this menu exactly over the next piece of information I need. (eg blocks the next row in a process log)

I am using Firefox 153.0.4 (64-bit). Windows 11.

open downloaded pdf from "download tab" in new tab always. Opening in the same last tab, destroys the opened tab which often not support back option e. g. Banking websites.

Pls give option of new tab opening of downloaded files.

Hello Mozilla Support Team,

I have been using Firefox for a long time, and recently I upgraded my Windows system. Before the upgrade, I had set Firefox to open PDFs directly in a PDF Reader other than Firefox’s built-in PDF viewer, and it worked perfectly. However, after the upgrade, Firefox now shows the "Opening when completed" message and opens PDFs slowly, instead of opening them immediately in my chosen PDF Reader.

I have checked the settings, cleared the cache, refreshed Firefox, and even tested with other software, but the issue persists. The settings for handling PDFs are still the same, but they don't seem to work as they used to.

Can you please assist me in resolving this issue? Any help would be much appreciated.

Thank you

I am using the FireFox PDF Editor to annotate a PDF, however, no method of me saving the document (whether that is save as, or save as PDF) will allow me to save any annotations on the document. If I try doing save as PDF, the preview shows up as blank sheets of paper, when I click "save as" it only saves one page of the 31 as BLANK. If I try doing normal save as, the saved file is un-annotated.

Please help... thanks

Since this morning, Firefox previews any PDF I click on, and then I have to manually download it for it to open in Acrobat. Acrobat is set as my system default. I have tried other suggestions found here, such as going into the troubleshooting and checking the folder profile, but nothing works. It is very frustrating.

There should be an option whether the pdfs should be opened in the app or just DOWNLOAD, because sometimes the pdf is long enough that it takes much time to load and after that we are able to download.

Opening PDFs automatically with Firefox and, without any changes I might make, saving them with the download function in Firefox, actually ruins the functionality and data entry function of that file. Specifically this happens with PDF files downloaded from the (not all that amusing) PDFs from the FINCEN, (US Financial Crimes Enforcement Network). I do not see why and how Firefox thinks it is allowed to change files that are simply downloaded and saved on Firefox.

In other words, it seems that Firefox strips away certain "permissions" and/or "functions" (like built-in lookup, menu or choice boxes). This means that the file so downloaded via Firefox can no longer be used to properly fill in data, or to look up and choose data items within the file. (I see many times that ANYTHING having to do with "permissions" tends to be an intractable and unsolvable problem for software makers & experts, so, if you do not know right away how to solve the problem, it will probably take you several years to figure this out.)

The PDF in question is created by a government agency. If you have ever dealt with a government agency, then you know that they act sort of like Adobe or Microsoft: "They don't respond, or they do respond & say they do not understand, and if they understand, they are either unwilling or unable to fix the problem."

If there is a switch or option within Firefox, which lets me tell Firefox "Save this file exactly like it is received, nothing added or removed!", that would be nice. I just have not found such an option yet, and it would be nice if it might get provided someday.

I will share my browser data, but I am sort of convinced that a detailed question like mine will not be addressed within that shared data.

I closed a PDF file but can not move it to another folder. Windows says it is open in firefox. I closed firefox and it still says it is open in firefox. I even restarted windows and it still says it is open in firefox. How do I get firefox to close and release the file?

I am happy that FF has added great PDF capabilities. I have a problem with signatures. When I add my signature as an image, the result is a very poor resolution / quality signature image. Adobe Reader inserts the signature as a very high resolution / quality image.

Is there any update / solution to this? FYI I am using the same signature image but FF makes it BW and poor quality while Adobe Reader maintains the color and resolution.

Hello, I have Firefox for Android 151.0.4 on a Samsung A50 with Android 9. On the SD card of the device I have several pdf files which can be opened with Adobe Acrobat with no problems. Instead, when I go to the device's file manager, move to that SD card, long-tap on one of those pdf files, tap on the three dots to see more options, choose "Open with" and finally select Firefox, I have that Firefox opens with a "File not found" page and the address bar shows, for instance "content://media/external/file/22098" while the pdf file I tried opening is "/SD Card/Test.pdf".

Is it possible to open local pdf files on my device with Firefox for Android? In the positive case, how can I do it in my case?

Thank you

idk, what i did, but i assume it's most likely user error. but i don't even know where to go from where i'm at.

ok, i'm going to attempt to identify what is happening. [guess] .pdf website previews are messing up the font when converting the .pdf to an image asset for the website to use as a current web asset, when the .pdf is updated. (makes sense really, smart drag & drop update of a .pdf menu, has instruction to make the end users browser do the work for you. kind of a one and done webpage coding for older guys that can't type, let alone edit Html, or even use Wix. some people just don't "compute" hard R or not. lol )

i don't even know where to start. i mean Mozilla is probably referencing it's own "lib.moz" which is just probably it's own personal link to an existing Lib file so it can pull it in and do what it needs to do with it without Root etc.

that is probably working fine as it renders (opens) the .pdf fine whence it's downloaded it. so all that i've talked about might not be the problem.

there is probably some mozilla function calling that to convert the .pdf as an image web asset so that it can show a preview of the current .pdf available for download.

that converter is messing up the font recognition, and building a preview image with messed up font characters (why it looks like Wing-Dings). but i don't even know where to start, and i don't think a new install will solve this (kinda overkill, and any residual files may still remain.)

i'm adding a fastfetch

─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
BIOS (UEFI)          F20 (4.6)
Board                X79-UD3 (1.1)
─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
CPU                  Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-3820 (8) @ 3.80 GHz
CPU Cache (L1)       4x32.00 KiB (D), 4x32.00 KiB (I)
CPU Cache (L2)       4x256.00 KiB (U)
CPU Cache (L3)       10.00 MiB (U)
─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
GPU                  NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1660 SUPER [Discrete]
Vulkan               1.4.341 - NVIDIA [610.43.02]
OpenCL               3.0 CUDA 13.3.44
OpenGL               4.6.0 NVIDIA 610.43.02
─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
Display (VG248)      1920x1080 @ 1.5x in 24", 60 Hz [External] *
Display (VG248)      1920x1080 @ 1.5x in 24", 60 Hz [External]
Display (TOSHIBA-TV) 1920x1080 @ 1.5x in 72", 60 Hz [External]
─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
Memory               9.66 GiB / 31.26 GiB (31%)
Swap                 12.00 KiB / 1.91 GiB (0%)
Disk (/)             675.49 GiB / 7.22 TiB (9%) - ext4
─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
OS                   Linux Mint 22.3 x86_64
OS Age               99 days
Uptime               5 days, 2 hours, 40 mins
Packages             2452 (dpkg), 18 (flatpak)
─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
Kernel               Linux 6.17.0-35-generic
Bootmgr              Ubuntu - shimx64.efi
gcc                  13.3.0
Init System          systemd 255.4-1ubuntu8.16
Shell                bash 5.2.21
LM                   lightdm-autologin 1.30.0 (X11)
DE                   Cinnamon 6.6.7
WM                   Muffin (X11)
Terminal             GNOME Terminal 3.52.0
Terminal Font        MesloLGS Nerd Font Mono (12pt)
─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────

Mozilla Firefox 152.0.1 " updates are manage by your operating system."

re-posted from; [[Why is Firefox PDF printing so strange?|https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/questions/1275786#answer-1276068]] and edited: reasons; support ticket gudelines [[Posting support requests|https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/mozilla-support-rules-guidelines#w_subjects-covered-in-the-support-forum]]

[[i somewhat found an "answer" though i'd hardly call that "solved."|https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/questions/1275786#answer-1276068]]

i still say a Lib in a repo needs updated, within, or perhaps up stream of the project to reflect "commonly used fonts" if applicable (i know that's the trick, 'is it FOSS') yet other browsers use it, though idk if they're FOSS... i'd need to know what i'm looking for to confirm that or not, and do something about that (again most likely upstream, as the PDF Viewer is probably it's own project (or even several), retooled by Mozilla for Firefox.