When I click on a PDF link in Chrome, it opens automatically inside the browser window. How can I get it to download instead and open with an external viewer?
Update: I implemented djhowell's solution but Chrome still seems to be handling PDF files differently from regular files. When I click a PDF link it opens in Adobe Reader, but normally files download to a folder first.
I also find it weird that this is controlled by Reader and not Chrome. Are there not any file-type controls in Chrome anywhere?
415 Answers
You can disable the Adobe plugin in Chrome, which will force Chrome to download the PDF.
It's under Settings > Privacy and security > Site Settings > PDF documents. Or enter chrome://settings/content/pdfDocuments in your browser address bar to go straight there.
browse to chrome://plugins and disable Chrome PDF Viewer
1Are you using Adobe Acrobat/Adobe Reader to display the PDFs? If so, it is probably Abode's behavior you need to modify.
Here are the steps I had to take:
- Open Adobe Reader
- Edit menu, Preferences
- Select Internet from the Categories list
- Uncheck Display PDF in browser
- Press OK
If you are using another application to view PDFs the steps are likely similar.
Re: Update
By any chance do you have both Adobe Reader and Adobe Acrobat installed? You may have to repeat the above steps in the other application.
Chrome is a little weird in that its default behavior is to download everything and make you open it yourself. When you click a PDF link do you see the filename in the "download bar" along the bottom of the window? If so, try right-clicking on it and un-check "Always open files of this type" if it is checked.
4In Google-Chrome: open a new tab, go to about:plugins and disable "Chrome PDF Viewer". This seems to have done the trick for me.
Another option is that Chrome, instead of downloading PDF's, launches them in the system defined PDF Reader.
The way to stop it is in the Content Settings in Chrome's Settings:
Kind of sorted this; I uninstalled Adobe Reader and installed SumatraPDF instead! Much better and lightweight app.
that depends on your default PDF reader, for Adobe try this:
Edit > Preferences > Internet
clear the box Display PDF in Browser
How about pressing CTRL + S and saving the file after it opens it? Works ok if you are not into downloading a lot of PDF's
3According to Adobe's page on displaying PDFs in various browsers, in order to have Chrome not open the PDF within the browser, after you've opened a new tab to chrome://plugins, you'll need to shift-click "Disable" on the currently enabled plug-in to display PDFs.
Otherwise, it will still open in the browser, it just uses different plug-ins to display it.
To have Chrome download PDFs instead of displaying them in the browser, shift-click Disable for the currently enabled viewer. This leaves both viewer plug-ins disabled so the PDFs won't display in the browser.
Once you do this, it will download the PDF, instead of opening it within Chrome.
Edit: as pointed by @Tanath in the comments, this method not seems to work anymore!
To me seems that the desired behavior was to be able to save the files instead of open them in another application, so, I think a more accurate answer should be:
Press and Hold down the Alt (Meta) key in your keyboard while you click in the PDF link.
3As of April 2017, (Google Chrome 57.0.2987.98) the chrome://plugins page has been removed. Google has been moving everything to the settings page. This answer has been said in several different ways above, but the fastest way to shut it off is to go here:
chrome://settings/content/pdfDocuments
There is a single toggle "Open PDFs Using a Different Application". Turn this on.
Ref: What Happened to chrome://plugins in Google Chrome?
Ref: Depreceate chrome://plugins (on bugs.chromium.org)
The following worked for me:
- Go to
chrome://settings/ - Click
+ Show advanced setting in Downloads
3a. check 'Ask where to save each file before downloading'
3b. click on the button
Clear auto-open settings
Note: 3b is fundamental to override the fact that PDFs are handled differently from other files.
Background: this happened to me as well because once I downloaded a pdf file, clicked on the small arrow next to the file in the download bar at the bottom, and choose 'always open with system viewer'. Since then, PDF files were saved in the "Download" folder and opened directly.
3The actual problem is not that you have a PDF extension, it is that at one point you checked the box that said "always open with system viewer" it is very easy to do by mistake.
To fix this (for Chrome) you need to go into settings and in the search bar, search: "auto-open" then under the downloads section you will notice a button that states "Clear auto-opening settings", click that (a couple times, just to make sure) and that's it, now the files will just download and be sitting in your downloads section/file.Screenshot of Chrom Settings_Clear Auto-Open
1As per the new settings in the Chrome Version 59.0.3071.115 (Official Build) (64-bit):
Settings> Advanced Options> Privacy and Security (Look under this)> Content Settings> PDF Documents> Open PDF using a different application
I was looking for a code-side solution, not a browser solution. Turn out, just had to change my POST to a GET. Worked like a charm. Then Chrome didn't give me any more trouble with PDF downloading.
