Whenever I save a pdf form from the internet to my Mac desktop I cannot open it and get the following message:
Adobe Reader could not open 'Name-of-File.pdf' because it is either not a supported file type or because the file has been damaged (for example, it was sent as an email attachment and wasn't correctly decoded).
This used to work just fine, the Adobe Reader is updated.
Can anybody help me out? Thanks!
Mac Pro, OS X Mavericks (10.9.2)
Can you open the files with the Preview app that comes with your Mac?
For Adobe stuff, also check the forums run by the people who make it
No, it says The file ".... . pdf" could not be opened because it is empty...
Could you provide the url for downloading one of those files so we can also try it?
Sure, here it is: http://www.floridabar.org/TFB/TFBResources.nsf/0/15DC879C979FBFCD8525770E0049535 A/$FILE/single%20family%20lease.pdf?OpenElement
However, this happens to every pdf file I download and save to my desktop.
Thanks!
I've been running into that with Firefox and the way it displays those; every website seems to behave differently (for instance one of my banks is especially difficult); but, most of the time, if I hit the little icon (at the right edge) and then save as PDF, it'll open.
That may be the website and not your Mac. I tried every way in Safari to save that file and get a 0 byte PDF. It would not allow me to print it to PDF via the print dialogue box.
Disregard, I can't save a manual from Apple either.
Back up all data before making any changes. Please take each of the following steps until the problem is resolved.
Step 1
If Adobe Reader or Acrobat is installed, and the problem is just that you can't print PDF's displayed in Safari, you may be able to print by moving the cursor to the the bottom edge of the page, somewhere near the middle. A black toolbar may appear under the cursor. Click the printer icon.
Step 2
There should be a setting in its preferences of the Adobe application such as Display PDF in Browser. I don't use those applications myself, so I can't be more precise. Deselect that setting, if it's selected.
Step 3
If you get a message such as ""Adobe Reader blocked for this website," then from the Safari menu bar, select
Safari ▹ Preferences... ▹ Security
and check the box marked
Allow Plug-ins
Then click
Manage Website Settings...
and make any required changes to the security settings for the Adobe PDF plugin.
Step 4
Triple-click anywhere in the line of text below on this page to select it, the copy the selected text to the Clipboard by pressing the key combination 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 by pressing command-V, then press return.
From the folder that opens, move to the Trash any items that have "Adobe" or “PDF” in the name. You may be prompted for your login password. Then quit and relaunch Safari.
Step 5
The "Silverlight" web plugin distributed by Microsoft can interfere with PDF display in Safari, so you may need to remove it, if it's present. The same goes for a plugin called "iGetter," and perhaps others—I don't have a complete list. Don't remove Silverlight if you use the "Netflix" video-streaming service.
Step 6
Do as in Step 4 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.
Hi Linc Davis,
Thank you so much for your reply but I'm really not tech savy enough to do this. I thought there would be an easy solution to this problem since everything worked well in the past. I guess that means I have to make an appointment at an apple store in order for them to help me out.
that's weird: I have Safari 7.0.3, which has Export as PDF feature, when I do that, the document comes up as "single family lease". did you try clicking on the "print" button, then save as pdf?
sorry I can't be of more help
JB
Hi Johnb-one,
just tried doing the export as pdf but it's basically the same story. If I try opening the file I get exactely the same error message. If I do File and Print it shows and empty page, so that won't work either. If I right click and print it won't give me the pdf option.
ok, thanks for the reply. what browser are you using?
to change from firefox's internal pdf browser, go to Preferences, then select the Applications tab. in the "search' field, type PDF. You should find Portable Document Format. on the right hand side, you should see an 'action' column. use that to select your favourite pdf reader. you should be able to choose "save as" and that may work
I have Firefox 29, so your mileage may vary if you have a different version of firefox. also, maybe update Java?
I thought I could help, but....I got nothing, maybe mess around with Adobe Reader...I have safari 7.0.x (whatever the latest version is) . see if you need software update, under the big Apple, lefthand side of the screen
sorry--it was worth a shot, maybe?
JB
Adobe Reader can't open pdf file
