If a pdf file won’t open properly, it is likely a browser issue of some sort. The easiest fix for this is to download the pdf file first and then open it. Often, browsers are set to try to automatically open a pdf within the browser using browser tools, rather than opening it within a pdf reader. First, make sure you have Adobe Acrobat DC Reader installed.
You can handle this one file at a time by choosing to download rather than open. For example:
- Safari instructions for various ways to download a pdf file
- Chrome instructions for downloading a pdf file
- Firefox instructions for downloading a pdf file (and lots of other things related to troubleshooting pdf viewing)
If you want pdf files to always download rather than open in the browser, check the settings in your browser to ensure that it will download rather than automatically open. This varies by browser type and version.
Some specific Firefox instructions.
