Sidebar Sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

Can't open PDFs in Safari

goodtimes5

goodtimes5

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Apr 4, 2004
778
0
Bay Area
I installed and updated Leopard, and I can't open any PDFs in Safari. Clicking on a pdf link leads me to this dialogue box:

"AdobePDFViewer cannot find a compatible Adobe Acrobat or Adobe Reader to view this PDF." it then proceeds to ask me to select a program to open PDFs.

Apparently PDF support is supposed to be native to Leopard. Not for me though.

EDIT: I have found the solution.
 
goodtimes5 said:
I installed and updated Leopard, and I can't open any PDFs in Safari. Clicking on a pdf link leads me to this dialogue box:

"AdobePDFViewer cannot find a compatible Adobe Acrobat or Adobe Reader to view this PDF." it then proceeds to ask me to select a program to open PDFs.

Apparently PDF support is supposed to be native to Leopard. Not for me though.

EDIT: I have found the solution.
Click to expand...

Were PDFs set to open with something else?
 
My Safari Crashes when Viewing Some PDFs

Some PDFs crash my Safari. I have to download them to view them...VERY FRUSTRATING! :mad:
 
There's absolutely no reason to be using Adobe's Reader app in Leopard. Preview does all PDF functions plus more. Mac OS X is PDF based so it's super redundant to download the Adobe PDF app. Safari for Leopard is made to read PDF's using the Mac system and downloading PDF's to be read by Preview. Get rid of Adobe, restart, repair permissions and things should be better.
 
adobepdfplugin

So I can only find the AdobePDFplugin using my search spotlight, but I can't open or delete it. When I try and open in it prompts "there is no default application specified to open this document."

How do i find it to delete it?
 
delete the plug-in

If you have admin privileges, you can just navigate to it and delete it.

Open your hard-drive icon, open the Library folder, open the Internet Plug-Ins folder, and find the AdobePDFViewer.plugin file. Drag the .plugin to the trash, restart Safari.
 
Not able to view PDF'safter udate

Hello mac Forum users, Thank you to the quick reference I was able to make it getting me back to viewing PDF's. It was an easy fix, I followed these instructions as Referenced:

Dec 9, 2008, 11:51 AM
Open your hard-drive icon, open the Library folder, open the Internet Plug-Ins folder, and find the AdobePDFViewer.plugin file. Drag the .plugin to the trash, restart Safari.

I was so happy with the help that I signed up to respond with a BIG THANK YOU!!!
 
Thanks, fixed a headache...

I was looking in personal profile/library.... not complete system. Thanks for the tip:D
 
nacroyle said:
So I can only find the AdobePDFplugin using my search spotlight, but I can't open or delete it. When I try and open in it prompts "there is no default application specified to open this document."

How do i find it to delete it?
Click to expand...

If you hold the Command key and click on a Spotlight result, it will show you the location (as in open the folder containing that item in the Finder). In fact, if you look just up this page, you'll see the path where that plugin resides.

jW
 
I Promise this works!

I followed the steps given to me on this blog and it works!

Here is what I did step by step:
Clicked on my FINDER and then typed in plug-ins
This gave me a list of files... On that list I found the AdobePDFViewer.plugin and then dragged the AdobePDFViewer.plugin to the Disabled Plug-ins folder.

Next I went back to the website where I was trying to view a pdf file... In my case a pdf file from the pasadena/edu website. When I tried to view it, it opened up immediately!

Afterwards I noticed that some people on here said you could also throw the AdobePDFViewer.plugin in the trash and it should also work for you as well.

Knowing that the Leopard OS system has a built-in viewer for PDF files made all the sense in the world once you taught me to disable or throw away the AdobePDFViewer.plugin.

Thanks everyone!
ge:D
 
Mal said:
If you hold the Command key and click on a Spotlight result, it will show you the location (as in open the folder containing that item in the Finder). In fact, if you look just up this page, you'll see the path where that plugin resides.

jW
Click to expand...

I followed the steps given to me on this blog and it works!

Here is what I did step by step:
Clicked on my FINDER and then typed in plug-ins
This gave me a list of files... On that list I found the AdobePDFViewer.plugin and then dragged the AdobePDFViewer.plugin to the Disabled Plug-ins folder.

Next I went back to the website where I was trying to view a pdf file... In my case a pdf file from the pasadena/edu website. When I tried to view it, it opened up immediately!

Afterwards I noticed that some people on here said you could also throw the AdobePDFViewer.plugin in the trash and it should also work for you as well.

Knowing that the Leopard OS system has a built-in viewer for PDF files made all the sense in the world once you taught me to disable or throw away the AdobePDFViewer.plugin.

Thanks everyone!
ge:D
 
This week there was an update to a ".ASPX" web site that I use for work on a daily basis and I am unable to view PDF files in Safari. Before the update at this site, I was able to view PDF's in Safari without trouble. This website has always stated that supported browsers are Explorer ( no surprise there) and Firefox.

I do not have Adobe Reader or any Adobe plugins installed on my iMac ( I am running Snow Leopard). My short term work around is to visit this website in a XP virtual machine. I prefer to not install Adobe Reader on my Mac if possible.

Does anyone know of a new fix to view PDF's with Safari on websites developed with Microsoft technology (.ASP, .ASPX) ? Thanks.

-Mike
 
linux2mac said:
This week there was an update to a ".ASPX" web site that I use for work on a daily basis and I am unable to view PDF files in Safari. Before the update at this site, I was able to view PDF's in Safari without trouble. This website has always stated that supported browsers are Explorer ( no surprise there) and Firefox.

I do not have Adobe Reader or any Adobe plugins installed on my iMac ( I am running Snow Leopard). My short term work around is to visit this website in a XP virtual machine. I prefer to not install Adobe Reader on my Mac if possible.

Does anyone know of a new fix to view PDF's with Safari on websites developed with Microsoft technology (.ASP, .ASPX) ? Thanks.

-Mike
Click to expand...

I ran into something similar. Turns out, the PDFs were simply downloading as ASP files. I don't know if there are files downloading in your case. But worth a look.

Here is a page describing this:
http://embarksupport.zendesk.com/forums/37468/entries/31765
 
calderone said:
I ran into something similar. Turns out, the PDFs were simply downloading as ASP files. I don't know if there are files downloading in your case. But worth a look.

Here is a page describing this:
http://embarksupport.zendesk.com/forums/37468/entries/31765
Click to expand...

Thanks for the quick response!

In this case they are not downloading at all. The website I am at has a list of hyperlinks to PDF's. When I click on the link, I see "Loading" in the address bar, then a quick flash to a white page, then back to main page.

Last week when I would click on the PDF link, a window would open with the PDF. This week there is nothing.

I really hate having to install Adobe Reader. I am still holding out until a work around is discovered. I don't like it that this web site is forcing one to use Explorer or Firefox.

-Mike
 
Thanks

it worked, it worked, it worked!!! and it was easy for me; someone who is not all that tech savvy. so thank you everyone, and especially to gregorioesparza - your instructions were it. :)
 
ChineseMedicine said:
Hello mac Forum users, Thank you to the quick reference I was able to make it getting me back to viewing PDF's. It was an easy fix, I followed these instructions as Referenced:

Dec 9, 2008, 11:51 AM
Open your hard-drive icon, open the Library folder, open the Internet Plug-Ins folder, and find the AdobePDFViewer.plugin file. Drag the .plugin to the trash, restart Safari.

I was so happy with the help that I signed up to respond with a BIG THANK YOU!!!
Click to expand...

I just want to thank you A MILLIONS for your advice . Thanks for people like you there is still hope!!!!:):apple:
 
nacroyle said:
So I can only find the AdobePDFplugin using my search spotlight, but I can't open or delete it. When I try and open in it prompts "there is no default application specified to open this document."

How do i find it to delete it?
Click to expand...

Open(click on) your start-up disk
scroll down to:Library/Internet Plug-Ins/AdobePDFViewer.plugin
click and hold icon and drag to trash
 
don't need to delete plugin

You don't need to delete the plugin. Just put Adobe Reader in the Applications folder -- not inside of another folder (such as Utilities or even an Adobe folder within Applications).
When I temporarily deleted the plugin, an online PDF opened in Preview. Once I put the plugin back and moved Adobe Reader, the PDF opened in Adobe Reader without any problem.

Update: After needing to transfer to a new hard drive, I had the same problem again. To fix it, I had to uninstall Adobe Reader and the plugin (I left all the preferences alone), then reinstall. That worked.
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back