How to stop Adobe Acrobat from Automatically Opening Downloaded PDF Files?

Forum|Forum|1 year ago
April 27, 2024
17 replies
347298 views

Hi Everyone,

I am currently Downloading PDF Files from my Gmail account to my Desktop.

Up until today, I was able to Download these files no problem.

Today however, everytime that a PDF Files completes downloading from Gmail to my Desktop, Adobe Acrobat Automatically Opens the file on my Computer.

This is Driving me MAD!

Is there any way to stop this from happening?

I've attached a file that I got from a Reddit post - where other people were having this issue.

It seems that in the past, that there was a check-box option in Acrobat Reader under Edit -> Preferences -> General to turn off this annoying features. But this option is missing on my Acrobat Reader.

PDF and browsers

Correct answer Steiner359

So, the supposed "solution" (posted May 06, 2024) whereby you switch those Chrome settings back-n-forth did NOT work for me (and yes, I closed the browser and re-opened it before trying agian).

I did find a way, though (see the attached JPG image): Go to Menu [top, left] > Preferences > General, and uncheck these 2 settings:

Always open PDFs from printer.
- *(This was the one that did it for me, since I was using "Print to PDF" at the time.)
Always open PDFs saved from the web.

S

Steiner359Correct answer

New Participant

So, the supposed "solution" (posted May 06, 2024) whereby you switch those Chrome settings back-n-forth did NOT work for me (and yes, I closed the browser and re-opened it before trying agian).

I did find a way, though (see the attached JPG image): Go to Menu [top, left] > Preferences > General, and uncheck these 2 settings:

Always open PDFs from printer.
- *(This was the one that did it for me, since I was using "Print to PDF" at the time.)
Always open PDFs saved from the web.

M

meagan_8282

New Participant

THANK YOU!!! After trying MANY instructions, this one finally worked!

N

nrpardee

New Participant

This is no longer the correct answer. Please see the one pointing to edit preferences in Adobe reader

choose general

uncheck "Always open pdfs saved from the web"

K

KG_OHD

New Participant

As of October 2025 --

Step 1: From the viewing window, select the three lines (kebab or hamburger ellipses) at the upper left corner. You can also use the CTRL+K button combination to open the preferences window as well.

Step 2: Select "Preferences.

Step 3: Select "General" in the "Categories" table on the left side.

Step 4: Unselect the "Always open PDFS saved from the web" box.

Step 5: Click "Okay" at the bottom of the window.

D

Dee_Jonker

New Participant

You need to go to your Adobe.Acrobat.com (online) account > hit you rprofile pic (top right) > select settings.
The open to turn off this feature is at the bottom.

P

pawe?_4494

New Participant

from my end it looks like that despite I have this not marked adobe is opening from default all downloaded pdf's
I hate Adobe more and more after recent changes - it's so aggresive in system and I am not able to change updates settings like pop-ups, display theme always coming back to light every morning and what is the most annoying - reminder to set adobe default, preferences window is not fitting the screen and there is no option to resize.

- "restore last view" does not work

- "disable new acrobat" does not work as well