Safari in iOS 8.0 can not display a PDF embedded in a HTML page(with embed tag).

This issue happens in Safari in iOS 8 because it now uses WKWebView. Applications (web browsers) that still use UIWebView will continue to render the PDF document in an <embed> tag.

Instead of using the <embed> tag to render the first page of the PDF document, a better approach would be to use an <img> tag. Another alternative would be to use an <iframe> to render the PDF, although (in Safari on iOS 8) there is another bug that only renders the first page of a multi-page PDF document inside an <iframe>: After iOS8 upgrade, safari can't display PDF in iframes again

I have the same problem. What can one do? Does one need to wait for the next iOS update? I am on iOS 8.02.

Is it even possible to insert a PDF with an <img> tag? Have never used <iframe> before, but as you say it has its problems too.

These PDF bugs are not fixed as of iOS 8.1.

Yes, you can use a PDF as the source for an <img> tag in Safari. However, the limitation is that only the first page is rendered, and it may not work across all web browsers. If you have a single-page PDF document, though, that's a fine solution.

Just noticed this problem today. It's a real bummer that they changed this feature, as it was very useful. Does anyone know if this bug has been reported? I am not an Apple Developer, so I cannot report it

When is Apple FINALLY going to make this work again. We are now at at least the fourth major release of iOS 8!!!

It makes one wonder whether they really care. Perhaps the new Chinese buyers of the iPhone 6 Big don't need PDF.

Go to Settings - General - Restrictions and make sure Websites is set to Allow all Websites. That fixed it for me if you use Restrictions in your Settings.

Well, it won't help with embedding but you can add this in your header and it will redirect iOS devices directly to the pdf instead of the embedded page.

<script type="text/javascript"> // <![CDATA[

if ((navigator.userAgent.indexOf('iPhone') != -1) || (navigator.userAgent.indexOf('iPod') != -1) || (navigator.userAgent.indexOf('iPad') != -1)) {

document.location = "path/to/your.pdf";

} // ]]>

</script>

Or if that won't help make a copy of the page with a link to the pdf instead of embedding it and redirect the iOS devices to the page where they need to click a link.

<script type="text/javascript"> // <![CDATA[

if ((navigator.userAgent.indexOf('iPhone') != -1) || (navigator.userAgent.indexOf('iPod') != -1) || (navigator.userAgent.indexOf('iPad') != -1)) {

document.location = "iOSversion.html";

} // ]]>

</script>

Not nearly as good as Apple just fixing their problem but it will let your PDF be embedded for most while still being functional for Apple people.

It sounds like iOS 8.3 may have fixed the bug, so I apologize for not posting this earlier (although it might still be preferable for some):

If you are okay with it linking to Google Docs, here are instructions for that: http://googlesystem.blogspot.com/2009/09/embeddable-google-document-viewer.html

It provides this code:

<iframe src="http://docs.google.com/gview?url=http://YOUR-URL.pdf&embedded=true" style="width:600px; height:500px;" frameborder="0"></iframe>

You need to replace the emphasized text with your own URL, and you can customize dimensions, etc

(Note, there is no need to actually create a Google document; just use this line of code)

This will show up in Safari, whereas when I simply embed in ios 8.2, it doesn't on my phone

shimax21

Today I upgraded iOS to 8.3, and found an improvement for this issue.

Before there were no contents shown in iOS 8.2 or below in the case of an embedded PDF.

But now the first page of the PDF is shown. So maybe a kind of progress!

Even though originally with an "iframe" tag instead of an "embed" tag the first page of any PDF was successfully displayed even in the iOS8.2 or below.

Thanks for the news. I still use 8.1 and problem still exist, I'm going to upgrade it to iso 8.3.

I was able to get safari to open an embedded pdf with the following

<div id="pdf" class="text_color" style="align:center; width: 100%; height:100%;">

<table border="0" style="width: 100%; border-collapse:collapse; border-spacing: 0px;">

<tr>

<td style="width: 100%; text-align: center; color: red;">

<a style="color: red;" href="NameOfPdf.pdf?xslFile=NameOfXsl.xsl">Click here to open the pdf.</a>

</td>

</tr>

</table>

</div>

This has been verified to work in IOS 9.1. PDF is opened upon clicking on the link. PDF is scrollable with multiple pages. You

also have the option to open the page in IBooks or Adobe Reader with the Open with Option located on the top of page.

Hope this helps.

I still had this problem on iOS 9, with my iPhone SE, when using some websites like when viewing decisions from the Brazilian local labor court.

However, I finally managed to find a workaround using Firefox for iOS: when displaying the same website, Firefox offers a "open in..." (displayed as "abrir no...", as my app is in PT-BR) option that isn't available on Safari.

By using the new available option, I could save the PDF to my Dropbox, by simply renaming it using the correct .pdf extension.