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Electronic Resources: Troubleshooting ... and Beyond

A guide to assist with electronic resources access and alerting users to temporary outages.

PDF Troubleshooting: Introduction

PDF display issues are rather common when trying to open these files.  The problem could result from any of the following:

  • Corrupted PDF
  • Version of Adobe Acrobat
  • Web browser (in general)
  • Web browser security
  • Web browser settings
  • Web browser cookies
  • Server hosting the PDF
  • Website from where the PDF is accessed
  • Internet connection

Keeping this in mind, let's start with troubleshooting the Reader or Adobe Acrobat.

First Troubleshooting Steps: Adobe Acrobat

Please try these preliminary troubleshooting steps in the order presented here in this guide.

Open PDF directly

  1. Right click (Windows) or Control click (Mac) on the link to the PDF.
  2. Choose the appropriate save option:
  •  IE - Save Target As
  •  Firefox - Save Link As
  • Safari - Download Linked File 

      3. Save as the file type: "Adobe Acrobat Document" and save the file. Save to a location that the file is easily retrievable.

      4.  Locate the saved file and double-click the PDF to open it

Update Acrobat

  1. Open Acrobat
  2. Help -> Check for Updates

Repair Acrobat

  1. Choose Help -> Repair Acrobat Installation

If none of these steps resolve the problem, then proceed to to the web browser troubleshooting steps below.

First Troubleshooting Steps: Web Browser

Make sure your Adobe PDF plug-in is enabled in your browser. 

Internet Explorer

  1. Select Tools -> Manage Add-ons
  2. Select All Add-ons
  3. Scroll to Adobe System and select Adobe PDF Reader
  4. Click the Enable button

Firefox

  1. Select Tools -> Options
  2. Click the General tab, then click Manage Add-ons
  3. Click the Plug-ins tab
  4. Find and select Adobe Acrobat or Adobe Reader
  5. If the Enable button is displayed, then click Enabled (Do not select Disable--this means that Acrobat is Enabled!)

Safari (Mac)

Troubleshooting PDFs in Safari is a bit more complicated.  Please refer to this article about PDFs and Safari

For even more information please refer Adobe's documentation.

Google Chrome

By default, Chrome uses a built-in PDF viewer to open PDFs. If you've disabled the built-in PDF viewer, Chrome will use Adobe Acrobat or Adobe Reader to display PDFs. Follow the suggestions below if you're having trouble viewing PDFs within Chrome, using Adobe Acrobat or Adobe Reader.

First check if the issue is specific to Chrome. Try opening PDFs in another browser on your computer, such as Firefox. If you experience similar problems viewing PDFs in another browser, the issue is likely not related to Chrome.

If the problem resides with Chrome, then try the following:

  1. Check for Chrome updates
  2. Search and/or post in the Chrome forum

PDF Files Troubleshooting Matrix

Problem

Possible Remedies

There is an error message during the PDF download stating that it could not open the PDF and that it was not a supported file type.

         Close the browser

         Try to open the file in a different browser

         If does not work, then try the next remedy option below.

 

         Close the browser

         Open Adobe Reader

         Go to Edit->Select Preferences

         Select “Internet” and uncheck “Display PDF in browser

         Click OK

         Next time you open the PDF save it to your computer.

    The browser seems stuck during the PDF download and the PDF does not open. 

         Close the browser

         Open Adobe Reader

         Go to Edit->Select Preferences

         Select “Internet” and uncheck “Display PDF in browser

         Click OK

         Retry

 

     Browser displays a white screen while trying to open the PDF.

         Close the browser

         Open Adobe Reader

         Go to Edit->Select Preferences

         Select “Internet” and uncheck “Display PDF in browser

         Click OK

         Retry


     PDF download is slow

       You can wait (go grab a drink, etc.) OR

        Close the browser       

       Open Adobe Reader

         Go to Edit->Select Preferences

         Select “Update” and uncheck “Display PDF in browser

         Check “Do not automatically check for critical updates”

         Click OK

         Retry


Unable to print PDF

Acrobat Printing

 

Common Mac PDF Problems

Tutorial courtesy of MacMost.

URL: https://libguides.colostate.edu/eresources | Print Page