Firefox downloads PDF with wrong extension instead of opening a websites' PDF viewer
I have a problem with websites that want to provide their own PDF viewer. Instead of launching their viewer, Firefox wants to download the PDF. I'd be perfectly fine with that ***if it downloaded with the correct .pdf extension so that Preview would actually open the PDF***. But that's not what happens; I end up with something like "RetrieveDocument.aspx" or "Retrieve.srv".
I've tried resetting my download options (http://kb.mozillazine.org/File_types_and_download_actions). Didn't help.
I saw some stuff about other plugins I can install. Here's the thing: *this stuff works fine in Chrome and Safari*. Maybe websites aren't tagging their content correctly or something, but this stuff works fine in two other browsers.
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Hello,
In order to change the default reader for PDF files (to not open PDF files with Firefox's internal PDF reader), follow these steps:
- Go to Tools > Options (or Firefox > Options).
- In the Options window, select the Applications tab.
- In the Search field, type PDF. You should find Portable Document Format (PDF).
- On the right handside you should find an Action column. Use that to select your favorite PDF reader. In order to view PDF files in Firefox, choose Preview in Firefox.
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Thank you.
If the server sends the PDF file in a way (type="application/pdf") that Firefox doesn't recognize it as such or even sends the file with a generic file extension then you will have to correct the file extension yourself and/or select the correct application yourself.
You can also contact the website and ask them to send these files in a better way.
I thought Glamdring's post solved this, but it introduces a new problem. When I set firefox to use it's internal viewer the website that initially had a problem (site A) worked, but then other websites (site B) end up asking to download, at which point I'm stuck having to trawl around to find the saved download or I tell it to use Preview which gets me back to a broken status on site A.
Chrome and Safari both handle this.
cor-el: You really think Citibank or my insurance company are going to fix their "broken" website that works perfectly fine with Chrome, Safari and (presumably) IE? I understand that it sucks when people don't follow standards but ultimately it's Firefox users that are the losers here.