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Forum Discussion
Pdf viewer in web browser
Hi: I used to be able to view pdf files in Chrome's native pdf viewer. Suddenly, I am no longer able to view files through Chrome's viewer, but only through what looks to be some new dropbox proprie...
Hi all:
I finally found a solution that might not be ideal for everyone, but actually solves the problems listed above . . . I've been having issues using the Dropbox viewer to view my pdfs, have not been able to view any larger pdfs, and one other poster mentioned that he was having some difficulty sharing his pdfs with others.
I've been asking for a fix that would allow us to completely bypass the Dropbox viewer so that we can view our pdfs in Chrome's native viewer. Some of the techs were lovely and brilliant enough to come up with the fix that involves "printing" the pdf (and then canceling out of the print dialog box), which allows you to then see the pdf in Chrome viewer. Unfortunately, though, this did not solve the issue of not being able to open larger pdfs - if the pdf couldn't be open in Dropbox viewer, then trying to "print" the pdf does not work, and you also will not be able to view the pdf in Chrome.
The one solution that I have been using that satisfies all the above issues is to abandon Dropbox and use Google Drive to store and share my pdfs. I've been able to open and view ALL pdfs in Google Drive (even 6,000 page legal tomes!!!) without any issue, and GD also allows us to connect all sorts of third party apps so that we can view our pdfs in the third-party viewer of our choosing. I've also had a much easier time sharing these pdfs with my colleagues on GD . . . Dropbox sharing was easy so long as the receiving party also had a Dropbox account.
This has really been a god-send as I work with people all over the country, and these people often access these work documents via Mac OS, Windows, iOS, and Android platforms . . . Google Drive has allowed us the straight-forward ability to download items directly onto the desktop/Google Drive app without having to hunt for the proper methodology for doing so.
So, while I absolutely love Dropbox, I really don't want to have to add several extra key strokes to get things done, or spend time figuring out how to do the simplest things, or have massive changes made to a system that not only wasn't broken in the first place, but also wasn't wanted, warranted, or needed, while ultimately taking away functionality. I work 12 to 15 hours a day, 7 days a week, and I can't afford to have my workflow disrupted so severely every other month when some random new change is rolled out.
So, those looking for maximum functionality when using, storing, and sharing pdfs should consider doing so via Google Drive.
I am customer for years, could you guys please just give us the ability to open pdf with the native chrome viewer? Dropbox PDF viewer is much worst and limited, while you guys don't have a PDF viewer as good as chrome, for example, dont obligate your paying customers to use this. It is like we are paying Dropbox to make the service worst everyday, dont "fix" what wasn't broken to begin with.
apraetor
Super User alumni
Super User alumniActually, it DOES work on OS X, but you need to change the PDF handler from Adobe to Google Chrome. Follow these instructions. Or, do this (same thing):
- Find a PDF file in Finder
- Right-click (control+click) the PDF
- Select "Get Info"
- Under the "Opens With" section select "Google Chrome"
- Click "Change All..."
- Enjoy!
Thanks so much for this information . . .
The problem here, of course, is that you are asking people to change their global pdf viewer so that ALL pdfs open in Chrome . . . and this is only to solve a problem created by Dropbox alone.
I currently have a 2TB account with Dropbox, 70% of which are pdf files . . . so, i use a lot of pdfs and I use them often. I would like to be able to access my pdf files (many of which are large files, as well as forms) from other computers (using public computers, etc) . . . as a supposed "cloud-based" solution, making global systemic changes is untenable and not something that Dropbox should be asking people to do.
I don't have this problem in iOS because I've abandoned using the Dropbox app altogether, and instead access my dropbox account directly through Acrobat's app . . .
Thank you so much for this fix, Jane, it worked really well!
Here are the steps:
(1) Select file to open in new tab (press Ctrl + file or Cmd + file).
(2) You are now in Dropbox viewer, so navigate to the bottom center of the page and press the "Print" icon.
(3) You will be taken to yet another new tab, with a print dialog box overlay. Simply press "Cancel" to get out of the print dialog box overlay and you will now be in Chrome's native pdf viewer.
Note that you can only press the "Print" icon in the bottom center of the page . . . pressing Ctrl + P will take you through a completely different print process.
Please also note that this fix will only allow you to see those pdfs that can already be viewed in Dropbox viewer. If the pdf is too large to be viewed in Dropbox viewer, then it also cannot be viewed using this fix.
Also note that this fix only works in Chrome - I have confirmed that it does not work in Firefox, Safari, Chromium, Opera, or the Tor Browser.
Once again, thanks so much for all of your help with this, Jane, it was really helpful!
- apraetor
jaidgossamer Anytime!
You mentioned that sometimes you receive an error when PDF previews aren't displayed. If it's the "too big to preview" message then you might want to try Adobe's PDF Optimizer, as there's an 80 mb file size limit for Dropbox's preview.
You might also try printing one of your troublesome PDFs on your Mac and choosing "save as PDF"; the reprinting process sometimes fixes situations where non-standard layers in a PDF are causing issues for some PDF handlers (it can also shrink massive PDFs which contain many high-quality layers that weren't sufficiently down-sampled on export). It might be worth finding out if that resolves the issue, as it'll give Dropbox a clue as to where the problem lies. If that fixes the problem then you could use Automator in OS X to automate the process of reprinting them all. Less than ideal work-around, but might get you back to your ideal workflow.
Good luck!
- apraetor
Years? Nah. Given a simple workflow of "open PDF, print PDF" Automator can do thousands of PDFs an hour.
But it sounds like your issue isn't that the PDFs don't open in Dropbox's web UI, but that you want their web UI to use Chrome's renderer, which adds an attack point which Dropbox cannot control or patch. Dropbox likely prefers their own viewer because it is under their control.
I would suggest you click "Download" instead. Whether the file is being downloaded to open in Chrome, or downloaded to be previewed in Dropbox's viewer, either way it has to download to the local machine before you can see it. When the Downloads bar appears in the bottom of Chrome you can click the file and it will open in the Chrome PDF handler. - apraetor
jaidgossamer I assumed that since Google Chrome was your preferred PDF viewer you would want to use it globally. Your last post said that my work-around "doesn't work in Mac OS X", which is untrue. It didn't include details of your use-case.
Thank you for your help in this matter,
Best,
Thanks again for your help . . .
I won't be able to optimize these pdfs as much as I would like as they are mostly 3000+ page legal tomes.
Yes, I'm pretty irritated by Dropbox's 80MB limit . . . Chrome's native pdf viewer has no such limit. I'm pretty sure I can go ahead and take my 15,000+ documents and work towards printing and optimizing each one, and Dropbox would most certainly appreciate the years of effort I put into doing so,
Ultimately, I have been using Chrome's native pdf viewer without issue at all . . . Even the Acrobat app on iOS gives me no issue with very large pdfs.
It would be awesome if I could simply open my pdfs in Chrome's native pdf viewer. Again, this used to be allowed in my Dropbox account, and when they took away this functionality on March 15, 2016, they inserted a fix that allowed us to force open the pdfs in the native viewer. Now, for some reason, they have removed this fix.
So once again, thanks so much for your help, I am hoping that Dropbox finds (or makes) a way that will allow us to bypass their viewer.
Best,
Hi Jane:
Thank you, this really works, and is totally awesome!
The steps to do this are:
(1) Click Ctrl + [file] - (or Cmd + [file] - to open the pdf in a new tab.
(2) In the dropbox viewer, go to the menu that appears in the bottom center of the page to select the "print" icon.
(3) After selecting this icon, the pdf will open in yet another page, with the print document menu overlay. Just select "Cancel" to get rid of the overlay.
Just as a note, you must select the "print" icon in the bottom center of the page while in Dropbox viewer. If you click Ctrl+P, then it will take you through a different print process.
Also, this fix only works for those pdf documents that can be seen in Dropbox preview . . . so if the file is too large, it cannot be seen in Dropbox preview, and it cannot be seen after applying this fix.
This fix also only works for Chrome . . . I have not been able to get it to work on Opera, Safari, Firefox, Chromium, or the Tor Browser.
Thank you once again, Jane, this was amazingly helpful!
Best,
- Jane
Dropbox Staff
Hey all,
