I have Chrome installed on my desktop, ipad, phone and laptop. When I click on a pdf in Chrome on the desktop or ipad, it opens and displays normally. When I click on a pdf on the laptop, it downloads it and asks what helper app I want to use to open it in the browser. I have tried 3-4 pdf programs and none will open the file. Incidentally, it downloads to Google Drive. Similarly, when I click on the pdf on my android phone, it downloads rather than opens the file. Some of these apps open the file to a “generic” page that starts with “hello world” but not the real page. I may be wrong, but I think all the helper apps are converters, not readers. I have been told I have to download Adobe, which, even if I could, I don’t want to do.
I update all software as soon as its available. So, all the devices and programs are up to date. I don’t see a setting that will adjust this behavior in Chrome. Any ideas?
I’m using Tumbleweed. I, too, have virtually identical installs on the desktop and Dell Laptop. I’m thinking some flag got switched on the laptop and it is downloading pdf without even trying to open. Then, opening them with another program fails. I had my ipad, Android phone and laptop side-by-side and clicked on the same pdf at the same time. Only the laptop failed. Back at home, the desktop opens the pdf immediately upon clicking.
I’m embarrassed to say, I’m supposed to be a resource in a retirement community; demonstrating how easy it is to use their portal.:shame: I have to sort this out!
The only thing I can think of that causes PDF’s to want to download in Chrome instead of open in an tab is:
Open Chrome Settings, got to the Contents section, look for PDF, click the little arrow on the right of that, and make sure it is in the OFF position(no color in the radio box).
Usually it is defaulted to the OFF position,
It works like that in Chrome regardless of OS.
Just curious, do you really need Tumbleweed? It is a development edition.
Tried all this plus other tips on the internet and none worked. I stopped the automatic downloading of the pdf but the file opened as html code when I clicked on it.
HOWEVER, the issue is solved! There was an extension from Google to read pdf files instead of downloading. I removed that extension and the problem went away! Clicking on a pdf opens a page to read as it should.
Glad to hear it! IMO Google is NOT always your friend regardless.
I rarely use anything Google, except chromium based browsers. I use Opera on Leap 15, and in all Windows OS’s
My opinion, Chrome is okay, but just. There are other chromium based browsers that take out all the Google call home stuff.
Google insists on adding a load of garbage that, regardless of your settings, still keeps track of what you are doing with it.
Good luck with your endeavors, some of us OF’s need the hand holding.
To avoid the “Google knows everything” tracking, I sometimes use the Tor browser. It’s Firefox based and works pretty well, although a bit slow. I presume that is because of some security measures.
Yes, when you use Tor, your path to your remote server is increased by at least one randomly selected note on the internet which itself may be under some load or may not have the fastest network connection. And, nowadays, after a period of time the node will change to combat attempts to hack that path.
Also,
I’d surprised if there is any kind of PDF conversion to another format like HTML.
Web browser extensions are typically only viewers, so you’re viewing the PDF as it was and is originally… a PDF.
You can check this easily by clicking on your web browser’s “View Page Source” – You should see a page with relatively little code referencing a PDF file. If there is for example an HTML conversion then you will an enormously long HTML page with tags and text content of what is in the PDF.
This is exactly what I saw. In attempting to get this to work, I gave permission to several apps to access my Google Drive. Now that I’m thinking about that, I’ll go and change permissions.