When forcing a PDF to preview in a browser, it only shows the first page

[joelandamber]

Hi!
I'm running into an issue when previewing a pdf file in dropbox only shows the first page of the file (picture below for reference).

I use the "raw=1" extension at the end of the file, and so far that's worked well.  Now out of the blue, it seems to only display the first page of the file.

Is there any way of fixing this, or possibly use a different file extension to use to preview the file?  We send this file out to many potential clients so it needs to work easily on mobile and desktop browsers. I'd use "dl=1" except that really doesn't work at all on phones.

Thanks!
Joel

[joelandamber]

Hi @Walter !  Thanks so much for replying.

So far this issue seems to only be with Chrome.  IE seems to open them fine.

We have a lot of .pdf files (we're wedding photographers and have created a lot of guides for our couples), so I haven't checked all of them.  But it seems all the newer created pdf files have this issue, as well as one or two older ones.  Yet some seem to work fine, especially ones that we've created awhile ago.  Can't seem to find much of a rhyme or reason beyond that.

Could it be that somehow I changed a .pdf setting when exporting from InDesign that's causing some of this?  No idea where to start looking for that though.

[Walter]

Thanks for your swift response Joe; I appreciate it. 

Since this works fine on IE, it seems like your Chrome browser is acting up; what version are you running exactly? Can you see if there's an update available?

On your last query, I'd check if the files in question are Dynamic PDF documents (including bookmarks, hyperlinks etc.) as there might be a setting within Adobe's InDesign program that's interefering and causing this issue when previewing your PDF files on Chrome. 

Keep us posted anyhow @joelandamber! 

[joelandamber]

Chrome appears to be up to date, running version 80.0.3987.132 (Official Build) (64-bit).

Based on above recommendations, I disabled all the extensions and got it to work for a couple of days, then it stopped working again.  I've tried disabling all extensions, clearing browser, etc again and so far that hasn't helped.

There's a chance I exported using a Dynamic PDF, unfortunately I can't open the InDesign files on this computer... will have to wait until later this week to try a different file type... sorry!

[joelandamber · Accepted solution]

Ok, seems I've finally solved this.  For some reason, any time I tried to compress (use a 3rd party compressor) or checked the "Optimise for Fast Web View" in InDesign, it wouldn't load properly.  I managed to keep the file sizes under 15mb, (most were in the 1-2mb range) without compression and now they all load properly.  So it seems there's something with compressing or optimizing for web view that Chrome didn't like, but at least they all work now!

[Jay]

Thanks for keeping us posted, @joelandamber!

It’s good to know that you were able to narrow down the cause for this issue on Chrome.

[anase]

Hello,

I'm having this very same problem with all my pdfs. Example here [6.7 MB]: [Removed as per Community Guidelines]

I want the preview to be displayed directly with the browser viewer (therefore the raw=1). This link above works just fine in other browsers (e.g., Microsoft Edge and Firefox) but in Google Chrome it does only load the first page. I've tried in several computers with Chrome updated to the last version, and the same happens in all of them. The pdfs are not compressed, they are directly compiled with Latex, and no further processing after.  Any idea what might be going on?

Thanks a lot!

[joelandamber]

Yep, sounds like the same error I had.  I found it was something in the way the .pdf was compressed.  Try with different export options in whatever program you use.  For example, try exporting for print and exporting for web and see if that helps.  Try to avoid any compression (which I know you said you didn't use... but check into any sort of export settings).  Basically play with various settings in your export menu and see if it fixes it.  You could also try exporting it as a different file type (perhaps a .doc) and then convert that to .pdf.

[kandrew1]

I am having the same problem. My PDF files are created via InDesign as well.

I have an online program loaded to my website. People click the link to view the PDF files (using =raw1 so it displays on screen). Any PDF file over 1.1MB only displays the first page.  The same problem arises if I try emailing them the filepath directly.

I can't ask schools across the country to change browsers just to view my files!!

Does anyone have a manageable solution for this other than chaning browsers?

It started in Febuary this year. I worked out if I downsided the files to below 1MB it was ok (but that meant reducing the quality of my images). 

Do I need store all my course content somewhere else?? 

[Jay]

Hi @kandrew1, did you try the steps regarding the 'Optimise for Fast web view' as stated by @joelandamber above?

[kandrew1]

Hi Jay. Still investigating thanks.