Dropbox won't show my pdfs properly

Question

Dropbox won't show my pdfs properly

It's been about 10 days that Safari seems to have a problem with Dropbox.

Problem is this: I run a webiste and I link my pdf files to my Dropbox account (visitor clicks on a photo and gets redirected to Dropbox to get the pdf). Ten days ago, everything worked ok, now ALL my pdfs look like this

Yet, when I downloaded some of them, they are ok and only SEEM to be ruined. I already contacted Dropbox Support and replied to me that this is not something they can do about it, since everything looks as it should when I use Google Chrome! Here is a snapshot of the document above as it should appear (shot taken using Chrome).

(It's in greek, don't bother trying to understand it, unless you're Greek, lol).

Why is this happening? What's wrong? I haven't messed up with any of Safari's preferances. Oh, by the way, a friend of mine was seeing everything ok in his Safari, while another one no (in Safari as well).

Thank you in advance!

iMac (21.5-inch Mid 2011), OS X Mountain Lion (10.8.3)

Posted on Apr 20, 2013 3:54 PM

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Answer 1

Linc Davis

Level 10

209,541 points

Apr 20, 2013 5:47 PM in response to Dimitris Moshopoulos

Back up all data.

Triple-click the line of text below to select it, the copy the selected text to the Clipboard (command-C):

/Library/Internet Plug-ins

In the Finder, select

Go ▹ Go to Folder

from the menu bar, or press the key combination shift-command-G. Paste into the text box that opens (command-V), then press return.

From the folder that opens, remove any items that have the letters “PDF” in the name. You may be prompted for your login password. Then quit and relaunch Safari, and test.

The "Silverlight" web plugin distributed by Microsoft can also interfere with PDF display in Safari, so you may need to remove it as well, if it's present.

If you still have the issue, repeat with this line:

~/Library/Internet Plug-ins

If you don’t like the results of this procedure, restore the items from the backup you made before you started. Relaunch Safari again.

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Answer 2

Apr 20, 2013 6:21 PM in response to Linc Davis

Thank you very much for your answer, I did everything you told me to do, but the problem still stands 😟 I had Silverlight and unistalled it (don't know when I installed it in the first place...). Here's a snapshot of what Finder gave me in the "Internet Plug-Ins" section

I quit and reopened Safari a couple of times, but to no effect 😕 Chrome still shows the pdf as it should, but not Safari !

I really hope you can give me the solution to this stupid problem. Once again, thank you in advance for everything 🙂

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Answer 3

Linc Davis

Level 10

209,541 points

Apr 20, 2013 6:34 PM in response to Dimitris Moshopoulos

Do you have this problem only with PDF's on Dropbox, or with all PDF's on all websites? For example, can you view the PDF's on this page:

Apple - Support - Manuals

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Answer 4

Apr 20, 2013 6:49 PM in response to Linc Davis

I can read the pdf you gave me, plus others that I just tried from other websites.

By the way, I forgot to mention something in my original post; when I open a pdf from my Dropbox account, it's ok, it appears as it should. When I go and get the link though, pdf gets ruined ! I just tried it through Chrome and nothing bad happened, even when I got the link.

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Answer 5

Apr 20, 2013 7:01 PM in response to Dimitris Moshopoulos

Just installed Firefox for Mac right now and tested. Same results as with Chrome, everything works properly, both reading and getting the link. So, we must say that something goes wrong with Safari... 😟

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Answer 6

Linc Davis

Level 10

209,541 points

Apr 20, 2013 7:09 PM in response to Dimitris Moshopoulos

when I open a pdf from my Dropbox account, it's ok, it appears as it should. When I go and get the link though, pdf gets ruined !

I'm not sure I understand what that means, but I get the idea that you can't display PDF's on the Dropbox website in Safari.

From the Safari menu bar, select

Safari ▹ Preferences ▹ Extensions

Turn all extensions OFF and test. If the problem is resolved, turn extensions back ON and then uninstall them one or a few at a time until you find the culprit.

If you wish, you may be able to salvage the malfunctioning extension by reinstalling it. That will revert its settings to the defaults.

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Answer 7

Apr 23, 2013 12:25 PM in response to Linc Davis

Unfortunately, none of the above worked 😟 In addition, I got this message a while ago while I tried once again to open one of my documents linked to Dropbox:

Safari seems to be acting up lately... Another friend of mine, Mac and Safari user as well, reported to me the same problem I am describing in this thread (also, he got the same message shown in the screenshot above). I hope these issues get fixed soon.

Oh, by the way, Chrome and Firefox that I tried, didn't come up with the message above.

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Answer 8

Linc Davis

Level 10

209,541 points

Apr 23, 2013 12:41 PM in response to Dimitris Moshopoulos

That's a Dropbox error, not a Safari error. It looks like Dropbox is causing your problem.

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Answer 9

Apr 23, 2013 12:53 PM in response to Linc Davis

Mr. Davis, thank you for all your repiles, but I'm questioned by the fact that Chrome and Firefox don't create any of the above... Judging by the questions that others have posted on similar issues on Safari, I guess there's something goin' on here... 😕

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Answer 10

Linc Davis

Level 10

209,541 points

Apr 23, 2013 1:06 PM in response to Dimitris Moshopoulos

Unless I'm much mistaken, we've established that Safari has no trouble displaying PDF's as long as they're not hosted on Dropbox. So there's no question about the fact that the problem is in the interaction between Dropbox and Safari. As for which is to blame, I don't have an opinion about that. I suggest that if Chrome and Firefox are working well for you, you should use them. If you like, you can post feedback for Apple here:

Apple - Mac OS X - Feedback

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Answer 11

Apr 23, 2013 1:20 PM in response to Linc Davis

Mr. Davis, thank you for dealing with my problem, I really appreciate it 🙂 I have a small objection on what you said about Safari having no trouble with pdfs, as long as they're not hosted on Dropbox, but I'll drop this. I already sent an email to Apple about the problem we were talking about.

Last, I was referring to Chrome and Firefox not to point that they are better than Safari, but to show that they didn't pose any problems on the subject. I'll stick to Safari, find my way out of the problem and come back with the solution. Once again, thank you for your time 🙂

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Answer 12

Apr 29, 2013 2:35 PM in response to Dimitris Moshopoulos

I have found that the problem is this:

I logged in my iMac as a Guest and everything worked as it should with Safari, all my Dropbox pdfs are displayed properly. When I logged back in as Admin though, the problem got back!

So, what's with it? What can I do about it? It seems, after all, that it wasn't Safari's problem, but something going on with my Admin account in my iMac.

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Answer 13

Linc Davis

Level 10

209,541 points

Apr 29, 2013 4:03 PM in response to Dimitris Moshopoulos

From the Safari menu bar, select

Safari ▹ Preferences... ▹ Privacy ▹ Remove All Website Data

and confirm. Test.

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Answer 14

May 10, 2013 4:06 AM in response to Dimitris Moshopoulos

I'm having the exact same problem. Were you able to find a solution that worked?

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Answer 15

May 10, 2013 4:13 AM in response to Richard Meislin

There seems to be a solution, reinstalling Mountain Lion, but I wouldn't try it myself, since I'm a rookie in Macs (only been using them for a year or so). Maybe, if you're more familiar with Macs... 😉

Unfortunately, all the solutions that Mr. Davis kindly suggested, didn't work 😟

Funny thing is, I must log in my Mac as a guest and Safari works properly (being a guest in my own "home", lol).

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