Edge won't open pdf file in external application

Question

Edge won't open pdf file in external application

Chris Hansen 51

Hello and does anyone have a fix for this?

I'm trying to get Edge to open PDF files externally in Adobe Acrobat and none of the fixes I've been able to find have worked. It looks like the files actually are opening in Adobe but it's inside the Edge browser with no option to download the file or open outside of Edge.

I tried the "fixes" listed below and none of them had any effect.

The Right-Click menu doesn't give an option to download the file, as shown in the screenshot below.
I verified that the default PDF viewer is set to Adobe.
The Downloads setting in Edge is set to "Ask me what to do with each download".
The Site Permissions / PDF Documents setting in Edge is set to "Download PDF files to your device".
I even created a new registry entry in HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Edge for AlwaysOpenPdfExternally with value set to 1.

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Answer 1

Anonymous

Hi @Chris Hansen ,

I try to check the issue on my side with the Edge browser.

I try to download the Adobe Reader on my machine and I noticed that it also installs the Adobe Reader extension in the browser.

This could be the reason that why your PDF files are getting loaded into Adobe Reader in the Edge browser after configuring the Edge settings to download the file.

There are several options, you could try to fix the said issue.

Disable/ Remove the Adobe extension from the edge://extensions/
Go to Extension Options by clicking [...] button beside the extension and disable the option Open PDFs in Acrobat. Then click the Save Preferences button.

After doing steps above, make sure below settings are configured.

In the Edge browser, check Always Download PDF files option is enabled in edge://settings/content/pdfDocuments
On your Windows OS, set Adobe Reader as Default app to open PDF files.

Then, try to click the PDF file link in the Edge browser, it should download the file and show you the option to Open file. Click on the Open file option and it should open the file in the Adobe Reader app on your Windows OS.

Test Result on my side with the Edge Version 109.0.1518.55

Let us know your test results, if needed I could provide further suggestions.

Best Regards,

Deepak

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Chris Hansen 51 Reputation points

2023-01-20T16:00:04.55+00:00

@Anonymous Thanks for the suggestions.

I checked and my Edge browser does not have an Adobe extension. And the Always download PDF files option is checked but the file doesn't download. It's like the settings don't do or change anything. I checked with some of my colleagues and it's the same with them.

I did test it with the Chrome browser and everything works fine there. Chrome has a similar setting and that works as advertised.
Anonymous

2023-01-26T02:28:02.3466667+00:00
Hi @Chris Hansen ,

Thanks for getting back to us.

To better understand the issue, kindly provide the details below.

Which MS Edge version you are using? Which Windows OS you are using?

Please share the screenshot or GIF video that shows the PDF file gets opened via Adobe in the Edge browser.

As you had configured many settings, I would suggest reverting those settings back to original and enabled the Always Download PDF files option in Edge.

If the issue persists, I suggest Reset the MS Edge browser from edge://settings/reset then enabled the Always Download PDF files option in Edge and see if it works.

Try to click any other file types(e.g. jpeg, docx, etc.) see if gets downloaded.

Try to test the above points on your side and let us know the results.

Best Regards,

Deepak
Plateau, Roman [HR] 0 Reputation points

2023-05-15T16:02:18.9533333+00:00

This worked for me, thank you Deepak.
Pavlo 6 Reputation points

2023-07-21T11:36:08.0833333+00:00

Setting Adobe Reader as Default app to open PDF files in Windows Settings solved this problem. Thank you Deepak-MSFT
Nielebock, Philipp 0 Reputation points

2023-07-21T11:58:32.09+00:00

Worked, thank you

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Edge won't open pdf file in external application

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