Open PDF files in Adobe Acrobat Reader instead of browser

Hi, my name is Kelly, and I'm an independent consultant and I'm here to help.

To make sure that PDF files always open in Adobe Acrobat Reader instead of the browser, you can try the following steps:

Open Adobe Acrobat Reader.

Go to Edit > Preferences.

In the Categories section on the left, select "General".

Under "Basic Tools", click on "Select Default PDF Handler".

Select "Adobe Acrobat Reader DC" from the list and click "Apply".

If the above steps don't work, you can try the following:

Right-click on a PDF file in Windows Explorer.

Select "Open With" and then "Choose another app".

Select "Adobe Acrobat Reader DC" from the list and check the box that says "Always use this app to open .pdf files".

Click "OK".

If the issue persists, you may want to check your browser settings to make sure that it is not set to open PDF files in the browser by default. Here's how to do it for some common browsers:

Microsoft Edge:

Open Edge and click on the three dots in the upper right corner.

Select "Settings" and then "Cookies and site permissions".

Scroll down to "PDF documents" and toggle off the switch.

Google Chrome:

Open Chrome and type "chrome://settings/content/pdfDocuments" into the address bar.

Toggle off "Download PDF files instead of automatically opening them in Chrome".

Mozilla Firefox:

Open Firefox and type "about:preferences" into the address bar.

Click on "Applications" in the left-hand menu.

Scroll down to "Portable Document Format (PDF)" and select "Use Adobe Acrobat Reader DC (in Firefox)" from the dropdown.

I hope this helps! Let me know if you have any further questions.

Hello Kelly,

Thank you for your quick response.

I followed all your steps, but it didn't change anything:

1. I followed the steps for the settings in Acrobat Reader. Basically I think it is the same as setting the default app in the Windows Settings, but I tried it all the same. However it didn't resolve the issue.
2. To change the default app using the properties of a file is usually the first thing I do. In the properties it shows that it should open PDF file with Acrobat reader.
3. In Edge The PDF option a second pane with 2 options: "Always download PDF files" and "PDF view settings". Both options are on.
4. In Chrome I would assume the setting you mention should be toggled on. In my Chrome browser I have two options which are mutually exclusive: "Download PDF' s" and "Open PDF's in Chrome". The setting "Download PDF' s" is active.
5. In Firefox I changed the setting, but it did not resolve the issue.

Do you have any other suggestions?

In all my searching I think i've found a solution. In the 'recent download history', little down arrow on a bracket, right click on the downloaded pdf and select 'Always open with system viewer'. It will check that option and your done.

Hello James,

Thank you for your reply, bit this is not the issue. Please read my original post:

----- quote -----

I have set Acrobat Reader as default application to open PDF files.

When I double-click a PDF file in Windows explorer this works. It also works when I open PDF file in my OneDrive folder using Windows Explorer.

However: when I go online to my OneDrive folder and click it, it opens in the browser, thus disregarding the Windows setting to use Acrobat Reader as default application. This is in Microsoft Edge, Google Chrome and Mozilla Firefox. The same goes for PDF files in SharePoint sites: they always open in the browser, not in Acrobat Reader.

----- unquote -----

Kind regards,

Axel van Moorsel.

Great instructions thank you! Worked first pop :)