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_Mary_Y__Smith_
Participant
July 5, 2008
Question

Reader 9 won't open PDF from web browser

  • July 5, 2008
  • 167 replies
  • 116096 views
I just installed Reader 9, and now when I click on a link to a PDF on a web page I get this message: "The Adobe Acrobat/Reader that is running cannot be used to view PDF files in a web browser. Adobe Acrobat/Reader version 8 or 9 is required. Please exit and try again." Since I AM running version 9, this seems peculiar. Any ideas?

Mary
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    167 replies

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    _Ginger_Pete_
    Participant
    July 8, 2008
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    _Daniel_Y__
    Participant
    July 7, 2008
    I have recently installed Reader 9 and have encountered the same problem: PDFs do not open in browsers. I have Internet Explorer 8 beta 1 and Mozilla Firefox 2.0.0.15. No matter what websites the PDFs come from, they all open in the Reader 9 client.

    I've also tried toggling the 'Display PDF in browser' checkbox in Edit > Preferences > Internet. It has had no effect. Previously in Reader 8.1.2, toggling this checkbox would prompt for a restart of the computer, but not in Reader 9.

    Is there any solution other than reinstalling an older version of Reader?

    -Dan
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    _Mary_Y__Smith_Author
    Participant
    July 6, 2008
    Acrobat will not automatically open when you click on a PDF link in a website; in fact, with no Reader installed there isn't even a PDF file type recognized. I tried adding it and associating it with Acrobat, but it wouldn't let me do that. I have now solved my problem by installing Reader version 7, which seems to work fine.
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    _Aandi_Inston_
    Participating Frequently
    July 6, 2008
    >Acrobat will not automatically open when you click on a PDF link in a website; in fact, with no Reader installed there isn't even a PDF file type recognized.

    Then something is wrong. Acrobat is designed to do everything Reader
    does, and manage web site viewing in the same way (but with more
    features).

    Aandi Inston
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      _Mary_Y__Smith_Author
      Participant
      July 6, 2008
      No to all three questions. I'm wondering if it has something to do with the fact that I have Adobe CS3 (including Acrobat) installed on both these computers, but can have only one activated at a time. I started having trouble with Reader 8 when I had CS3 de-activated on the XP computer, but the trouble continued when I reactivated it, so that's when I tried to install Reader 9. On the Vista computer I was having no trouble until I installed Reader 9 (in both cases I uninstalled the older version first).
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      _Aandi_Inston_
      Participating Frequently
      July 6, 2008
      If you have CS3, is this one of those with Acrobat? If so I would
      certainly advise against having Reader too.

      Aandi Inston
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      _Mary_Y__Smith_Author
      Participant
      July 5, 2008
      Actually, the PDF I was trying to open is from my own website, and it opened fine before I installed Reader 9. Now I think I'd like to find an older version to reinstall and see if that works. I can't get version 9 to work on my XP or my Vista computer.
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      _Aandi_Inston_
      Participating Frequently
      July 6, 2008
      Interesting. So we have to assume this message isn't from the web
      site.

      Three questions
      1. Do you have more than one version of Adobe Reader installed on this
      computer?
      2. What happens if you start Adobe Reader first, from the START menu,
      and LEAVE IT RUNNING when trying to view the file?
      3. Do PDF files on other sites work OK, or not?

      Aandi Inston
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      _Aandi_Inston_
      Participating Frequently
      July 5, 2008
      This instruction is probably coming from the web site, rather than any
      of the software on your computer. If this is the case, you need to
      contact the site operator.

      You could, if it is public, share the URL so someone else can try it.

      Aandi Inston
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      _Tom_Baum_
      Participant
      July 5, 2008
      Same here since yesterday. (V9)
      "The Adobe Acrobat/Reader that is running can not be used to view PDF files in a Web Browser. Please exit Adobe Acrobat/Reader and exit your Web Browser and try again."

      Guess what happend if I follow the instructions?
      Right.

      Tom
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