Adobe Reader in IE11 grays out displayed document when another PDF is downloaded

Report · Sep 25, 2017

We are using latest Adobe Reader X (11.0.10), and IE11 uses the same to display embedded PDF files.

There is a simple HTML file which embeds a PDF using iframe, and it gets displayed fine on IE11. But on that same page if we just try downloading another PDF file, then as soon as that download is over, the currently displayed PDF gets greyed out.

The HTML code is:

<html>
<head>
  <script type="text/javascript">
        function dl() {
            location.href = 'pdf-dl';
        }
  </script>
</head>
<body>
  <h1>Test PDF</h1>
  <iframe width="500" height="500" src="pdf-inline"></iframe>
  <br/>
  <button type="button" onclick="dl()">Download</button>
</body>
</html>

Here "pdf-inline" URL sends the PDF content with following response header:

Content-Disposition: inline;filename="test.pdf"

And "pdf-dl" URL sends another PDF content with following header (this forces the file to be donwloaded instead of being displayed inline):

Content-Disposition: attachment;filename="another.pdf"

We have already tried many options, and none of those work:

Set "TabProcGrowth" registry entry
Disabled all protection in Adobe Reader preferences
Tried downloading same PDF instead of another one

Things that worked:

Upgrade to Adobe Reader DC - it works! Unfortunately, we can't upgrade Reader for current users.
Using Chrome - it uses its own PDF renderer and so no issues.

Another observation is that if we download something else (e.g. zip file) instead of another PDF file, then it works fine. The issue happens only when 1 PDF is already displayed and tried to download another PDF.

Please help.

Report · Oct 26, 2017

Hello Syvaidya,

Sorry for the delay in response to your query and apologize for the inconvenience caused. Asper the description above, the currently displayed PDf file is greyed out when you open any other PDF file, Is that correct?

The latest version for Adobe Reader 10 is 10.1.16 and you mentioned the version in braces (11.0.10) for Acrobat 11.

Please download the latest patch/update for Reader from Overview — Acrobat and Adobe Reader Release Notes Link: http://www.adobe.com/devnet-docs/acrobatetk/tools/ReleaseNotes/index.html#

For testing purpose, you can try to disable the Protected mode from preferences, and enable it back.

if the issue still persists and comes to be a bug, then you have to download and install the Reader DC, as the Acrobat 11 is declared as End of Support product. You can refer to End of support for Adobe Acrobat XI and Reader XI Link: https://helpx.adobe.com/acrobat/kb/end-of-support-acrobat-xi-reader-xi.html

Hope this helps, and let us know how it goes.

Regards,

Anand Sri.