Safari adds an extra file extension to PDF documents. Preview and Acrobat cannot open these files.

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Level 1

9 points

Safari adds an extra file extension to PDF documents. Preview and Acrobat cannot open these files.

I have a MacBook Air, 11 inches, mid-2013. I have been upgrading the operating system as it is available so right now, the OS in this MBA is El Capitán. Since Mavericks, Safari in this MBA displays PDFs but they cannot be downloaded or opened with either Preview or Acrobat. I have searched the web extensively and use every suggestion given. For example, I deleted the Acrobat plug-ins that change the functionality to open downloaded PDFs from Preview to Acrobat. I uninstalled and reinstalled Acrobat (X10 Pro, part of the CS5 suite). I deleted two .plist files supposedly keeping personalization of Safari parameters. Nothing worked.

I was asked to check if in the other user accounts of the MBA have the same problem. I created a new account and checked. The problem is present also in this new account. I went further and checked other Macs at home. Interestingly, of the two Mac desktops I checked, one with El Capitán and the other still with Yosemite neither have the problem.

In the process, I learned that there is a shortcut to download files like JPEGs or PDFs from Safari (Option+Return while on the command line). Using this shortcut, I was able to download PDFs to my computer from Safari. However, the files stored have a double file extension (.pdf.lspdf). Trying to open the file as stored, both Acrobat and Preview failed. Double clicking the file took me to an app called EchoDesktop that is a companion app for my Echo smartpen. This app also failed to open the files.

The way to resolve the problem was to delete the extra file extension (.lspdf) to allow the system to consider the file a PDF. In doing so, the file opened in both Acrobat and Preview. I do not see any changes in the behavior of these two apps (i.e., slowing down, freezing, etc.) while such files are open, so I am assuming the file structure is not affected. But, I do not have a way to check this issue properly.

I tried to understand the reason for this file extension addition. I found that similar problems had been lurking without a solution for several years. Several people have reported finding a similar problem, although the extra extensions added differ. Among others, there are .pdf.exe, .pdf.htm, and one affecting files from Numbers/Mac, csv.xls. Regrettably, no answer has ever been reported. Additionally, I went to the Livescribe/Echo website, and I found a single response to some other users complaining of the .pdf.lspdf double file extension.The answer from Livescribe was that the problem was in Safari with no other solution whatsoever.

I found an extra issue that could be of help with the double file extension problem. When I use the Option+Return shortcut multiple times for the same PDF, the extra file extension changes making different "versions" of the same file. The double extension then changes from pdf.lspdf to .pdf.-2lspdf, .pdf.-3lspdf and so on. It looks that the double file extension problem is related to the creation of versions when Safari saves files. But even if this is so, there is no way to understand why the original file extension does not get deleted or the added file extension is not .pdf but .lspdf (or .htm, or .exe).

MacBook Air, OS X El Capitan (10.11), double file extension in PDF files

Posted on Oct 10, 2015 5:45 AM

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Answer 1

Feb 23, 2017 9:50 AM in response to FernandoAM

I have two problems with this solution. The first and most obvious is that removing the livescribe app means that I will be unable to access any of my livescribe files. I need access to those files so this solution does nothing to help that. The second problem is that I had livescribe desktop on my computer for several years before this problem suddenly popped up. That seems to say that something in an update from safari or livescribe added the bug. These two companies need to research and find the bug.

In the meantime, a short workaround is to find a file management program (I am thinking Hazel might work here) to rename the files that get downloaded so that I don't have to do it manually.

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Answer 2

viaTech

Level 1

4 points

Apr 2, 2016 8:54 AM in response to FernandoAM

The culprit, in all likelihood, is Echo Desktop or some other Livescribe application installed on your Mac.

Symptoms:

The floating Download hover-button normally available in Safari PDF document display is disabled.
You can still download PDF documents using the File » Save As…, File » Export as PDF…, or File » Print… Save As PDF menu dialog, but Safari tacks on an extra “.lspdf” extension to the resulting document (akin to filename.pdf.lspdf), which cannot be opened with Preview, Adobe Reader, or any other PDF app.
The downloaded document remains a valid PDF, but you must manually edit the filename and remove the obtrusive ".lspdf" extension, in order to open it with Preview, Adobe Reader, or any other PDF app.

In my case, the problem began after I installed Echo Desktop on my MacBook Air. I did some digging and found that the .lspdf file extension is solely associated with Livescribe Echo/Pulse documents. Not surprisingly, clueless Livescribe support had no answers and chose instead to blame the problem on Safari. Like me, you may have scoured Safari's Installed Plug-ins, looking for a possible plugin-priority override, but to no avail.

After months of lingering frustration, it was time to put away the surgical blade and bring out the sledgehammer. I had nothing to lose, since I wasn't using Echo Desktop much anyway — my Livescribe Echo smart pen has long been a museum piece destined for the technology graveyard of also-rans, once it became clear that Livescribe has no intention of ever evolving it to a true digitizer. Yes, I, too, was caught up in the shiny-object syndrome and should've known that the only reason for the existence of Livescribe smart pens is to sell their funky digital paper consumables. But I digress.

Solution:

By removing Echo Desktop and all of its Library associations, I was able to get Safari to heel and behave the way it was designed to, with PDF downloads. Follow these steps to make your ".pdf.lspdf" double-extension quagmire with Safari PDF downloads go away:

Remove Echo Desktop and all associated Library containers and references. Please be advised that simply deleting the Echo Desktop application won't do — unless you use a bona fide uninstaller to remove Echo Desktop, you will also need to go to the Library folder in Finder (Option + Go > Library) and manually delete all containers and references associated with Echo Desktop.
If you don't have other Livescribe apps installed, it would be a good idea to also remove any remnant Livescribe-associated containers and references left in the Library, as described above.
Quit Safari, preferably after emptying cache — Develop » Empty Caches menu item.
Restart Safari.

Voila! You should be good to go, with no further hindrance to downloading PDFs the Safari way.

If the above procedure doesn't work for you, you may have to also remove any and all other Livescribe apps installed on your Mac, following the steps outlined above. Good luck!

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