Help needed reading .ashx files; advice most welcome

Question

Level 1

28 points

Help needed reading .ashx files; advice most welcome

I urgently need to read .ashx files provided online by my insurance company, but I am absolutely stumped as to how to open them. The files are readable neither within the browser itself nor elsewhere on my machine. Safari won't do display them, and neither will Preview, Firefox, Opera, Chrome, Adobe Reader, or Adobe Acrobat Pro.

I've scoured the Web for advice, and many people suggest replacing the .ashx extension with a .pdf extension, but doing this has not helped me at all, unfortunately.

Double clicking the file results in nothing (whether it's the original or .ashx or the renamed .pdf). I've also tried right-clicking or control-clicking the files and selecting the above-named applications in an attempt to open the downloaded .ashx files, but nothing happens. Sometimes I get a blank/empty browser window.

I would be HUGELY grateful for any advice anyone may have. Thanks, in advance!

Macbook Pro 15.4" 2.33 GHz / 4 GB RAM / 111 GB HD, Mac OS X (10.6.3), iPhone 3G

Posted on Apr 13, 2010 6:00 PM

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Answer 1

dbsneddon

Level 4

1,536 points

Apr 13, 2010 6:29 PM in response to catstein

.ashx files are a Microsoft file format. You need to contact your insurance
company and tell them that you are not a Microsoft user and that they need
to provide you with the information in a format that is usable by you.

Dave

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Answer 2

catstein Author

Level 1

28 points

Apr 13, 2010 6:40 PM in response to dbsneddon

I hear you. But I have already spoken to my insurance company on the phone about this, and they insist that their other Mac customers are having no problems.

Actually, my scan of advice on the Web suggests that many Safari users are in fact able to read these .ashx files in their browsers.

That's why I posted to this forum; I assume there is something I can do to reconfigure/reset my Safari to fix this--I just have no idea what. So if anyone has any suggestions, I'll be very grateful. Thanks!

Message was edited by: catstein

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Answer 3

dbsneddon

Level 4

1,536 points

Apr 13, 2010 6:42 PM in response to catstein

Have a look at

http://www.maclife.com/forums/topic/111030

it seems that Adobe Reader can read them within Safari

Dave

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Answer 4

catstein Author

Level 1

28 points

Apr 13, 2010 6:53 PM in response to dbsneddon

Hi again and thanks. Actually, I read that very discussion among several others. People there and elsewhere are saying that .ashx files open with Adobe Reader, or they open in Safari with Adobe Reader, or in Firefox.... But I can't get that any of that to happen on my machine. I even reinstalled Adobe Reader, to no avail. Adobe Reader seems to work fine when I download or view PDF files on the Web, but it isn't working with these .ashx files. I am stumped. I have been working on this problem for several days and can't think what else to try.

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Answer 5

dbsneddon

Level 4

1,536 points

Apr 13, 2010 6:57 PM in response to catstein

Have you tried saving one of the files to disk then opening it in TextEdit
or other text editor to try to determine what the content is?
It may not be a PDF and therefore not readable by Adobe Reader.

Dave

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Answer 6

catstein Author

Level 1

28 points

Apr 13, 2010 7:03 PM in response to dbsneddon

Hi and thanks for the suggestion. That's a good point; maybe these aren't readable using PDF readers. I hadn't tried opening the downloaded files in TextEdit, but I just did so. TextEdit warned me that the file "might be an application" but I clicked OK. Then I got a string of gibberish text embedded in which I see some of my personal information (presumably because it's an insurance statement) along with a bunch of what looks like code. I don't know how to tell from this text what kind of document the .ashx file is. According to my insurance company, they upload the document as a PDF and it "becomes" an .ashx once it is on their Web site. It's supposed to be a filled-out insurance claim form. Not sure where to go from here. Any advice?

I appreciate your help very much.

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Answer 7

Klaus1

Level 9

52,811 points

Apr 14, 2010 2:11 AM in response to catstein

This has come up before:

http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=10814769

Try the suggested solution, namely to change the suffix of the file to pdf.

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Answer 8

catstein Author

Level 1

28 points

Apr 14, 2010 1:01 PM in response to Klaus1

Hi, Klaus1,

Yes, I know this has come up before, and, as I noted in my original post, I've already read the old threads and tried the strategies suggested--including changing the extension from .ashx to .pdf. Unfortunately this did not work for me. That's why I posted the question.

I'd still be very grateful for any suggestions. Apparently other Safari users can read these files while I cannot.

Thanks!

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Answer 9

catstein Author

Level 1

28 points

Apr 15, 2010 10:38 AM in response to catstein

Just making another bid for help. Is there anyone out there who might be able to offer advice on this problem?

Thanks again.

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Answer 10

TildeBee

Level 7

31,923 points

Apr 15, 2010 10:59 AM in response to catstein

Is it possible to highlight the file,
then do a "Get Info?"

If you can, you can see what app is specified under "Open With . . ."
If you bring the selection bar down to "Other" perhaps you could change
it to Safari, Adobe Reader, or Preview.

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Answer 11

catstein Author

Level 1

28 points

Apr 15, 2010 1:38 PM in response to TildeBee

Hi, ~Bee, and thanks for the suggestion. I tried what you suggest with Adobe Reader, Acrobat Pro, Safari, Firefox, and Preview, but no luck. The result was similar when I right-clicked the file and tried opening it with various applications. I'd still be grateful for further suggestions. It's not clear why these files are unreadable by my system while they are apparently easily readable by other Mac systems. Thanks very much.

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