If you set a helper application to open pdf files instead, do you get better results? You can set that in Options > Applications > Portable Document Format menu.

Start Firefox in Safe Mode to check if one of the extensions (Firefox/Tools > Add-ons > Extensions) or if hardware acceleration is causing the problem (switch to the DEFAULT theme: Firefox/Tools > Add-ons > Appearance).

• Do NOT click the Reset button on the Safe mode start window or otherwise make changes.

• https://support.mozilla.org/kb/Safe+Mode
• https://support.mozilla.org/kb/Troubleshooting+extensions+and+themes

Thanks but I already tried that. A known PDF file download from a financial institute still downloads as an ASHX file. What is strange is I have downloaded from that site for years without issue. Another strange thing I just discovered is there are some sites that firefox will download PDF properly. It appears the ones I have a problem with are the secure sites like banks and brokerages.

Finally, tried a reset of Firefox but the problem still exists.

I have just noticed that, after I recently downloaded acrobat 10.1.6, I can no longer save pdf documents from Lexis Nexis File&ServeXpress. I appear to saving them in the usual fashion, but then when I go to open the saved document, I get a message saying the file was corrupted (don't recall the exact message).

The problem does not exist with Internet Explorer 8.

So here is what else I've learned. First of all, the process of saving opened pdf documents used to work fine with Firefox. This new glitch did not occur before I down-loaded acrobat 10.1.6.

I went back and repeated the process of opening a pdf document from LexisNexis File & ServeXpress. When I clicked File > save as, I realized that it was prompting me to save as a text file. I had not noticed that before, and that must be why the saved document would not open, and I would receive a corrupted file message. (Again, this prompt did not exist in the previous version of acrobat).

The problem appears to be solved for me if I change the File > save as prompt to "All files." Saving it in that manner allowed me to successfully open the saved pdf document.

The other work-around is as follows. When the pdf document is opened in acrobat, there is an icon / button in the upper right corner of the opened document window that says "open with different viewer." If I click that, it lets me open in a previous version of acrobat, where the described problem does not occur.

Thanks gibman, We could have the same problem but I think I might be seeing something a little different. When I attempt to start a download of a PDF file from certain sites, I see the different file extension(s) on the option window ("View or Save" window) other than PDF, even though the site shows the file as a PDF. Look at the files you already saved using your technique of selecting "All Files". Are they actually saved as .PDF files? When I tried that idea, the file saved with the ASHX or CGI extension even though it would then open with Adobe.

Hi jbrowserh. To answer your question, are they actually saved as .PDF files, yes they are. But it sounds like your issue might be slightly different? If I can think of anything more pertinent to your issue, I'll let you know.

One additional thing I've noticed is that - while the File&ServeXpress documents are opening - the following briefly appears in the tab for the opened documents: "PDF.js viewer" I don't know what pdf.js viewer is. This makes me think perhaps something is going on with their proprietary software, and the way it interacts with acrobat

Again, my problem may simply be different than yours.

Hi gibman, I just did another test using Internet Explorer 9 and the file problem is not there. I suspect one of the most recent updates to either Firefox 19.0 or Adobe Acrobat 9.5 or possibly both is/are the problem(s). They don't seem to be playing well together. I do a fair amount of work with PDFs so I hope one of the two will get it corrected soon. Strange you are getting your files saved as PDF while I am not. On the other hand, some sites are functioning properly like Fidelity Investments.

jbrowserh: I agree with your assessment.

There is a known issue (Bug 738952) with saving PDF files if the integrated PDF viewer is used.

• bug 738952 - "Save as..." File menu entry or Ctrl+S produces unexpected results when having a PDF file opened within PDF Viewer

(please do not comment in bug reports: https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/page.cgi?id=etiquette.html)

You can change the action for Portable Document Format (PDF) from Preview in Firefox to use the Adobe Reader or set to Always Ask in "Firefox > Options > Applications".

You can set the pdfjs.disabled pref to true on the about:config page to disable the build-in PDF viewer.

See also:

• https://support.mozilla.org/kb/view-pdf-files-firefox-without-downloading-them

Thanks for the information.

Thanks cor-el for the info on the bug but, I have already set Firefox to "Ask" to view or open PDFs with Acrobat 9.5 rather than the integrated PDF viewer. To be clear, when I select a PDF from a website to download, the first popup window ("Ask" window) offering to "Save" or "View" shows the PDF I chose is now a different file type. The text in that popup window will say after the file name "which is a PDF file" as if to explain it is a PDF even though it doesn't look like a PDF (but it is not). It doesn't matter if I view or save the file, the file type (Extension) will not be a PDF as offered from the website I got it from. The problem doesn't exist when I use IE. I hope this gets fixed soon. I really do not like IE and very much like Firefox.