Cannot open a PDF download from a subscription newspaper

Report · Jan 14, 2019

I wrote several months ago but, since then, nothing has improved. I have a subscription to our city's newspaper which allows me online access and the ability to download articles via PDF. The download appears to take place but will not open. I have tried multiple browsers and it will not work in any of them. I have even tried other readers and still the articles will not open. I have tried all of Acrobat's update info and have the latest versions. The browsers are also the latest updates. I have contacted the newspaper and their response is that they're using the same process I am and the articles open for them. I do have to login to the newspaper but mostly I stay logged in. I empty the cache. The oddity is it used to work and, on rare occasions, it works but generally it does not. I should mention that I can open any other PDFs sent to me with Acrobat. I do have a need for this to work so wondered if anyone has advice.

Here is the error message.

Report · Feb 06, 2019

Hey Regalhank,

Your description given above, clearly shows that the newspaper site doesn't allow you to open or download the files neither from any web browser nor using any of the pdf viewer.

What method they are following to view the pdf , we aren't sure about it as they might be using Acrobat DC to convert the web page to pdf and save it locally. Adobe Reader DC is a free application of Adobe that helps you viewing the PDF saved locally on your computer.

If its not downloading or saving in your system, then there isn't anything that can be done from our end. As error message indicates that the file format either not supported or file is damage. It could be any of the scenario.

As a work around you can try this- Use Reader extension to open pdfs from chrome Open PDFs in Acrobat Reader from Chrome and see if gets opened.
If you have any internet security software, turn it off for testing. It might be damaging the download.

[Antivirus software can help protect your computer against viruses and other security threats. In most cases, you shouldn't disable your antivirus software. If you have to temporarily disable it to install or activate other software, you should re-enable it as soon as you're done.]

Regards,

Akanchha

Report · Feb 07, 2019

Open the file you downloaded in a plain-text editor, like Notepad.

What does the first line say?