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Participating Frequently
August 20, 2015
Answered

Downloading PDF attachments in email using Google Chrome

  • August 20, 2015
  • 3 replies
  • 42394 views

Recently (within the last few days) I have all of a suddent not been able to open or save any PDF attachments to my emails when I access my email through Google Chrome.

I have AOL as my email provider, and the issue I am having (now) I am experiencing on both my laptop as well as my PC. I have only started having this issue over the last few days, prior to this, I was able to download attachments without an issue. Also I am currently not having this issue if I an accessing my email/AOL using Internet Explorer or Firefox.

If I receive a message that has a PDF attachment, when I click on the attachment, it does nothing (previously it would open a box and ask me where I wanted to save the download to). If the attachment is something other than a PDF I have no issue downloading the attachments, but in Chrome, nothing when I select it (I'll see a spinning circle next to the name in the "tab" for a second or two, but then nothing..).

Please note that I have tried a few things including selecting "reset" on Google Chrome, I uninstalled and reinstalled google Chrome, I unselected the google chrome plugin for PDF reader and selected the Acrobat plug in reader, I turned my computer off and on, I signed out and back into Google Chrome, I updated both Acrobat X as well as Google Chrome.Nothing that I have done has made a difference.

Thank you very much for any assistance, this is driving me crazy.....

This topic has been closed for replies.
Correct answer ceg12345

I had the same problem but something juliand said prompted to me to realize that

any punctuation in the name other than an underscore does not work in the online version.

Have the files send as only letters or numbers.

When I had the client remove, (in this case a comma) in the name then it would download on any device.

I suspect when Juliand changed the name he eliminated the punctuation.

3 replies

ceg12345Correct answer
New Participant
May 7, 2016

I had the same problem but something juliand said prompted to me to realize that

any punctuation in the name other than an underscore does not work in the online version.

Have the files send as only letters or numbers.

When I had the client remove, (in this case a comma) in the name then it would download on any device.

I suspect when Juliand changed the name he eliminated the punctuation.

juliand86222020
New Participant
January 25, 2016

I know this post is old but I just came across the exact same problem with one of my clients. It ended up being the length of the file name of the pdf. I shortened the name and resent it to the client and he is able to open it on the AOL mail page inside of Chrome now like normal. Hope this helps anybody.

August 21, 2015

1.First open the firebox press the ALT key in your keyboard once.You see the screen show you file,view & edit and then click the tools options.

2.you see the your browser pricey tab on top to the click clear your recent history options.

3.To click remove individual cookies (or) remove all cookies.

4.To click start search box internet options top advanced tab click the reset button.Check the box next new small windows screen click on.Finally click again close windows.

jms101Author
Participating Frequently
August 21, 2015

Thank you, I tried everything you suggested, but the problem still exists.... Please note, the issue I have been having I have had exclusively with Google Chrome as my browser that I have been using to access my email. I have NOT had the issue with Firefox (but I did do the steps you suggested to clear the history and cookies using firefox however I was not able to find the reset under the advanced tab.

Thank you for trying, any other suggestions? I cannot find a way to contact Google

jms101Author
Participating Frequently
August 21, 2015

If you want to work with pdf files within a browser, you will need to choose something other than Google Chrome for a while at least. Google Chrome does not support the Adobe Reader plug-in any more and uses it's own pdf viewer.


I've selected using their (Google Chrome) viewer, but it doesn't work either... It has been up until Tuesday this week, then all of a sudden it stopped being able to work.

I understand that it can't be viewed "through" Google Chrome, but why won't it let me even download the attachment???

I have Acrobat X so viewing the file won't be an issue for me, but it won't even let me download the PDF attachment to my computer...?

Thank you for your assistance!!!