I cannot open pdf files. when i click on the link, the screen is blank

MikeLV describes my situation exactly (except I'm running Safari v5.1.5). Clicking a (pdf) link in Safari gives me a black screen, but nothing downloads or opens. This is a relatively recent problem with Safari, appearing after one of the updates. I'm not having this problem with Firefox 11.0, but I prefer Safari. Can I set Safari to always open pdfs in Preview rather than in the browser? Other suggestions? I, too, feel MikeLV's pain.

Hi,

Had the same problem. I'm sure it happened in the last Adobe update. I was getting a blank white screen in a new window whenever I tried to open a PDF. I'm Using Lion and Firefox as a web browser. I fixed it by following these instructions.

1. Open Firefox>Preferences>Applications

2. Search in list for - Preview Document (application/pdf)

3. Change the Action to - Use Adobe Reader

Mine was set at always ask for some reason.

Hope this helps.

I cannot see Pdf documents on web by using Safari (my browser) or Firefox

I did'nt find any way to save the document I can't see.

The only way I've to see these documents, when I need it, it's to use Crome as a browser to do it. even if I don't like Crome very much.

I gave up (see earlier post) and took my MBP to a genius at the Apple Store. After a few things that did not work, he threw out these two files: AdobePDFViewer.plugin and AdobePDFViewerNPAPI.plugin. He said these plugins were "taking precedence" over Safari's PDF viewer and preventing the downloading and display of PDF web links. I had updated Adobe Reader a few weeks ago for a special situation, but since I use normally use Preview to open PDF files, I don't need these Adobe plugins which broke Safari. Safari displays web-linked PDFs just fine now.

For any one interested...HD/ Library/ Internet Plug-ins........

And to get the version # and list of plug-ins.....Safari menu/ Help/ Installed Plug-ins

(My version number of the NPAPI plug-in that works in Snow Leopard is:10.1.3)

I remember there was an issue with one of Adobes update that broke Safari but couldn't remember which one or find a link to it but I'm pretty sure it started in Leopard and it did have something to do with the NPAPI plugin.

I think Adobe even had mentioned it at one time on their web site on it.

Thank you for coming back and let every one know at least this worked for you....

As reported in an earlier post, by me, I too was having this problem. I found this article on Adobe's website:

http://helpx.adobe.com/acrobat/kb/troubleshoot-safari-plug-acrobat-x.html

Here's what I did and it worked for me:

1) I discovered I had two versions of Adobe Reader in my applications. I trashed them both.

2) As Jaygyver and lawrence5M indicated, I went to HD/library/Internet Plug-ins and trashed the two AdobePDF plugins that were there. Viewer and ViewerNPAPI

3) Went to Adobe's website, downloaded and installed a fresh version of Reader X.

Lo and behold - it worked!!! Now pdf's open in Safari just like you would expect them to.

Thanks a bunch. I dumped the two files and my problem is solved 🙂

I have recently seen this same problem.

I'm using Safari 5.1.7 in 10.7.4.

In trying to track this down, I deleted Adobe Reader 9 and downloaded and installed Adobe Reader 10.1.3.

I then quit Adobe Reader and trashed the two files cited above. Restarted.

Still no pdf I've tried will display in Safari. They all download automatically. (And yes, I've looked carefully at the URLs to make sure it's just a raw pdf file in a folder.)

MikeLV below appears to have installed Adobe Reader 10. That automatically makes it the default pdf viewer. Then he left it that way. That's not what I'm after here. I want Safari to display the pdfs natively.

Hello Klahane, (and the other affected by that problem)

If you want to see the PDF inside Safari's window again :

1. Go to the folder : Your Hard Drive / Library / Internet Plug-ins.
2. If you see a file (or more) with PDF in its name drag it to the trash.
3. Quit and restart Safari to test with a PDF.
4. If it works you can empty the trash.

Hope this will help. 🙂

As I wrote above, I did delete those two plugins, immediately after installing Reader 10.1.3. I also checked for any other copies of the files. There were none.

Just to doublecheck, I reinstalled Reader 10.1.3 and left the files in place. Safari displays pdfs in the browser using the Adobe plugins, as expected.

But if I then delete the plugins again, Safari returns to only downloading pdfs (the same ones it will happily display using the Adobe Reader plugins). So far, I have no luck at getting Safari to use its built-in pdf display.

So this is embarrassing. But there's a moral at the end of the story.

I was obsessing about this problem. It didn't feel like a bug. It felt like a setting. I recalled that I used to prefer Safari to always download pdfs.

Then it began to dawn on me that there might be a Terminal command that affects Safari's ability to display pdfs inline.

Some minutes of googling produced this Terminal command, which forces Safari to always download pdfs:

defaults write com.apple.Safari WebKitOmitPDFSupport -bool YES [Disables native pdf viewing in Safari.]

Some of the sites noting this were pretty old, but others were newer. So, I guessed that I'd applied this Terminal command in the past. With Safari off, I entered the following in Terminal

defaults write com.apple.Safari WebKitOmitPDFSupport -bool NO [Enables native pdf viewing in Safari.]

Worked like a charm in Safari 5.1.7, Lion 10.7.4.

BTW, Safari's native pdf support has improved so much that it's a better way to deal with pdfs, unless you always want to save the pdf.

Oh, and that moral I promised? Pay attention when you use "secret" settings using Terminal. Some, at least, persist even when the software is updated. It might even be worthwhile to keep notes.

Thanks this worked for me! Appreciate the help.

Thank you all so very much! Deleted those two pesky plug-ins, and I'm good to go! Cheers! 😍

Note, however, that if you update Adobe Reader or Adobe Acrobat, the installer will replace those files. This just happened to me last week.

Interestingly, Adobe has set the default on their in-browser viewer to a setting that looks quite like Safari's native viewer.

excellent Steve. It worked as you described it.!!!