Around December 2010 I noticed that Google Chrome, in it’s latest update (version 8.0.552.215), slipped in an integrated PDF viewer. So your PDF files are not rendered in the browser using the Adobe plug-ins. So if you’re wondering, for example, why 3D models won’t render, or embedded SWFs are not playing, you should revert to the good old Adobe PDF plug-in.
If you want to revert to the good old Adobe plugins, here’s what you do:
- In the Chrome address bar, type chrome://plugins
- Disable Chrome PDF Viewer.
- Enable the Adobe Acrobat/ Adobe Reader plugin.
Disable Chrome PDF Viewer
Easy as Pie :-)
#1 by Kyle on December 17, 2010 - 1:30 am
Finally! THANK—YOU
#2 by Vasanthan on December 27, 2010 - 8:18 am
Thanks you
#3 by peterliao on October 26, 2011 - 12:40 pm
thank
#4 by Danny on January 16, 2011 - 4:26 am
Sweet! :D
#5 by Deja on February 2, 2011 - 10:00 pm
Great, thanks! Although the Chrome viewer opens the document faster I much prefer to wait a little but then be able to save the document or edit it in different ways.
#6 by blinky on March 1, 2011 - 10:05 am
unfortunately, now PDFs don’t open in chrome. they have to be saved somewhere and then reopened. which sucks. what’s the point of an adobe chrome plugin if it does nothing in chrome?
#7 by Vikrant on March 4, 2011 - 6:02 pm
To view the PDF’s inside the browser, verify that Edit >Preferences > Internet > Display PDF in Browser is enabled, and displays the correct file path to the file. PDFs open inside Chrome just fine.
If you have both Acrobat and Reader installed, the plug-in can’t determine which application must be used to open the PDF, so make the settings consistent and then try again.
#8 by Devyn Calderon on September 8, 2011 - 7:59 am
Hey Vikrant. I am still having problems with opening up pdf files without having to save them in my documents. When i go to the internet part of the preferences in adobe reader it doesn’t give me an option to change the web browser from internet explorer to google chrome; it is just a statement it gives me and is not a clickable option. If you can get back to me as soon as possible it would be great because I need to open a lot of pdf files for my schooling.
Thank you so much
Devyn
#9 by Vikrant on September 8, 2011 - 11:40 am
A couple of questions:
1. What version of Reader are you on? 10 or 9?
2. Are the path/filename valid in the Internet preferences.
As a quick check, if you want you could try re-installing Reader. That’ll probably fix all issues and bring all the settings in sync.
#10 by JCook on July 26, 2012 - 11:13 pm
Is there a way to enable the save button when display pdf in browser is unchecked? thx
#11 by Red on March 10, 2011 - 7:07 am
Sweeeeeet!!!! thanks!! ive been using other browser just to open and save a PDF files.
#12 by Peter Voutov on March 17, 2011 - 2:48 am
Finally I can save PDFs I open in Chrome… The Chrome viewer lacked the ability to Save the file locally.
#13 by allison on March 18, 2011 - 7:47 pm
Finally! , I found a post that isn’t from 2006 and doesn’t apply. They need to get those results in google to not come up!
#14 by Mclean on April 16, 2011 - 3:21 am
Cool. Although the chrome PDF viewer opens the doc much faster, I prefer this because you edit them.
#15 by Carrie Sue Doxsee on April 21, 2011 - 5:31 am
The problem is that while it worked for like a day or so, now it is constantly crashing in version 9.0.
#16 by Robin on May 1, 2011 - 3:21 am
Thank you!
#17 by Saravanan on May 7, 2011 - 5:46 am
Thanks a ton. I am facing trouble specifically when it is required to save a PDF. This helped me a lot.
Thanks again
#18 by Noa on June 15, 2011 - 3:05 pm
Oh, Hallelujah!
Finally, I can save PDFs from the browser again, like I did in Firefox.
Thank you!
(Change is hard, man. You just made it easier!)
#19 by Alison Sedler on July 22, 2011 - 11:32 pm
This does not work. It is still impossible to open a PDF file in Chrome. No matter what I do, the only option I have is to save them. Is there any way to actually open a PDF file without having to save it first?
#20 by Sohil on July 24, 2011 - 6:32 pm
Thanks
#21 by Maher on September 7, 2011 - 1:18 pm
Thank you very much!
Keeping these features buried so simple users can’t do it!! how ridiculous!!
#22 by SallyC on September 10, 2011 - 6:48 am
Thank you for the tip about changing the PDF viewer back in Chrome. My old PC had this and I couldn’t figure out why my new one was not displaying my PDF’s the way I wanted.
I have a new notebook and as I’m installing my software I see I have both Adobe Acrobat 9 Pro and Adobe Reader X installed. Do I need both of these? I would think Acrobat Pro would suffice but I’m not very knowledgeable about it to be honest.
Thank you.
#23 by Fooje on September 11, 2011 - 5:44 am
Hi Vikrant
Re. the instructions: “To view the PDF’s inside the browser, verify that Edit >Preferences > Internet > Display PDF in Browser is enabled, and displays the correct file path to the file. PDFs open inside Chrome just fine.”
For which program are these instructions respective to? I looked inside the Chrome program but can’t find ‘Preferences’ in Edit. Neither can I find Edit inside Chrome>Preferences. Or do you mean in Adobe?
Any assistance gratefully received.
FYI, I’m on a Mac.
#24 by Fooje on September 11, 2011 - 5:52 am
Hi Vikrant
Sorry, having just posted the above, I just fixed the issue via this page: https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/nnbmlagghjjcbdhgmkedmbmedengocbn
Even though my browser was showing this as already enabled, downloading it again seemed to fix the issue.
Thanks anyway for the potential assistance!
#25 by dave on September 27, 2011 - 5:32 pm
thanks A LOT mate.
I wanted to stop using chrome for this reason, but now its fixed. i think google should pay you for saving its ass.
thanks
#26 by Minli on November 12, 2011 - 12:44 am
Thank you . :)
#27 by Kylie on November 14, 2011 - 8:30 am
Awesome…thank you. I know jack shit about computers but was still able to fix this. Cheers
#28 by SAM on November 17, 2011 - 9:35 am
verry good
#29 by Laura :) on November 30, 2011 - 12:45 am
THANK YOU!!!!!! I changed the default to Adobe today and then nothing in pdf would open!!! Geesh!!! Thank you times a million for this info so I could set it back to the default!!!!!!!!!!!
#30 by Kate, Wisdom on December 27, 2011 - 3:00 am
Thank you very much…….Merry Xmas and happy NEW YEAR in advance……………..kdwis
#31 by Ionicman on January 21, 2012 - 3:35 am
I had been using Firefox and switched to Chrome. While with Firefox, I had downloaded an Adobe plugin. When I started Chrome, I did not like the Chrome PDF Viewer (no functionality). So I went to Chrome://Plugins, DISABLED the Chrome PDF Viewer and ENABLED the plug-in listed below to see if it worked. It did, surprisingly. Now I can use almost all the functions of Acrobat without leaving the browser. Not sure what troubles this may cause down the road, but for now it works really well.
Plug-in
Adobe PDF Plug-In For Firefox and Netscape 8.3.1
Name: Adobe Acrobat
Description: Adobe PDF Plug-In For Firefox and Netscape 8.3.1
Version: 8.3.1.289
Location: C:\Program Files\Adobe\Reader 8.0\Reader\Browser\nppdf32.dll
#32 by Josechu on February 15, 2012 - 8:23 pm
many thanks!
#33 by grant on February 28, 2012 - 2:57 pm
Hey still having problems.
Downloaded Adobe Reader – Check
Disabled Chrome PDF Reader – Check
…There’s no Adobe Reader in Chrome Plug Ins…Why? Cant find anything to add a reader to a plug in.
Please assist if anyone has info. I;m on a mac.
Cheers
#34 by Akhil on March 6, 2012 - 8:17 pm
Than You.. :)
#35 by Stephen on April 9, 2012 - 11:13 pm
To get Adobe Reader to launch when viewing a PDF from Chrome do the following:
Disabled – Chrome PDF viewer via
chrome://plugins
Disabled – Display PDF in Browser via Adobe Reader -Edit/Preferences/Internet
Uncheck – Display PDF in brower
NOTE: I had disabled Chrome PDF viewing and was expecting the PDF files to be opened in Acrobat. Chrome just hung and did nothing, I had to tell Acrobat not to open files in browser.
#36 by ruthtransportation@yahoo.com on May 9, 2012 - 2:36 am
make sure the adobe reader plugin is enabled
#37 by ruthtransportation@yahoo.com on May 9, 2012 - 2:38 am
thank you
#38 by Anonymous on May 10, 2012 - 3:20 pm
AWESOME! Thank you very much.
#39 by T. White on May 30, 2012 - 3:16 am
OH MY GOSH!!!!!!!! THANK YOU SO MUCH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
#40 by Luis on September 18, 2012 - 8:36 pm
I cant see the the adobe plugin in chrome plugins list.
I have adobe reader version 9.5.1 and Chrome 21.0.1180.89 for Ubuntu Linux. How can I enable the adobe reader plugin on my chrome browser?
#41 by mark on December 4, 2012 - 8:27 pm
God bless you for this answer.
nearly lost whats left of my hair with this.
#42 by Lyn Hinton on December 13, 2012 - 3:23 am
Please help me disabled the Chrome PDF Viewer
so I can print my Avery labels
#43 by Danielle D on February 17, 2013 - 1:43 am
I am using Chrome Version 24.0.1312.57 and Reader 11.0.01. I disabled the Chrome PDF Viewer, but there is no Adobe Reader plug-in in my list of Chrome Plug-ins. How do I get the plug-in????
#44 by Vikrant on February 17, 2013 - 11:01 am
The plugin gets installed automatically, when you install the free Adobe Reader or Adobe Acrobat. If you don’t have Reader yet, go to http://get.adobe.com/reader
#45 by Rene M on March 20, 2013 - 11:40 pm
I am having the same issue, I installed the latest Adobe Reader but it does not show in the list of chrome plugins. I am using a Mac.
Any advice greatly appreciated
#46 by Christian tyler ritter on February 19, 2013 - 2:16 am
I love you
#47 by Lode V on February 23, 2013 - 3:57 pm
Installed the reader again and the plugins are listed in the folder Library/Internet plug-ins (working on MAC).
The plugins don’t show in Chrome. Restarted mac and chrome several times.
Still not working.
Using Acrobat Reader 11.0.0 and Chrome 25.0.1364.99.
Any suggestions?