Issue Opening PDFs Directly in Adobe from SharePoint Site

Question

Issue Opening PDFs Directly in Adobe from SharePoint Site

Oussama Kebbouche 10

I would like the default application for opening PDF files in SharePoint Online to be Adobe Acrobat Reader. However, even after selecting the "Open with the client application" option in the library settings, the PDFs still do not open directly in Acrobat Reader. Instead, they either download or open in the browser.

This issue disrupts the workflow, and I am looking for a solution to ensure that PDFs open directly in Adobe Acrobat Reader as the default application when accessed from SharePoint Online. Any help in resolving this would be greatly appreciated.

Yanli Jiang - MSFT 31,611 Reputation points Microsoft External Staff

2025-01-10T02:43:36.6833333+00:00

Thanks for your question.

We are currently looking into this issue and will give you an update as soon as possible.

3 answers

Your answer

Yanli Jiang - MSFT 31,611 Reputation points Microsoft External Staff

2025-01-10T02:43:36.6833333+00:00

Thanks for your question.

We are currently looking into this issue and will give you an update as soon as possible.

Answer 1

Yanli Jiang - MSFT 31,611 Microsoft External Staff

Hi @Oussama Kebbouche ，

welcome to Q&A forum!

There are many reasons for this situation. You can try the following steps to see if it can solve the problem:

Activate the feature called Open Documents in Client Applications by Default in Site collection features.
Ensure that Adobe Acrobat Reader is installed on your machine and set as the default PDF viewer.
- On your computer, navigate to "Settings" > "Apps" > "Default apps."
- Scroll down and click on "Choose default apps by file type."
- Find the ".pdf" file type and ensure that Adobe Acrobat Reader is set as the default app.
For some end users, the issue might be related to individual browser settings. Here are steps for common browsers:

Google Chrome:

Go to Chrome settings by clicking the three dots in the upper right corner and selecting Settings.
Scroll down and click on Advanced.
Under Privacy and security, click Site Settings.
Scroll down to PDF documents and ensure the option Download PDFs instead of automatically opening them in Chrome is turned on.

Mozilla Firefox:

Open Firefox menu and select Options.
Go to the Applications section.
Find Portable Document Format (PDF) in the list, and change the action to Open with Adobe Acrobat Reader.

Microsoft Edge:

Open Edge settings by clicking on the three dots in the upper right corner and selecting Settings.
Go to Cookies and site permissions.
Scroll down to PDF documents and turn on Always open PDF files externally.

Ensure that Adobe Acrobat Reader is set as the default PDF handler on the desktop:

Open Adobe Acrobat Reader.
Go to Edit > Preferences.
Select General.
Click on Select as Default PDF Handler.

Please confirm whether this happens to all libraries and users.

Hope these can help.

If the answer is helpful, please click "Accept Answer" and kindly upvote it. If you have extra questions about this answer, please click "Comment".

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Yanli Jiang - MSFT 31,611 Reputation points Microsoft External Staff

2025-01-13T10:11:44.36+00:00

Hi @Oussama Kebbouche ，

I hope you are doing well.

I am writing to confirm if you had a chance to review my previous response which I sent to you on Jan 10th.

I would greatly appreciate an update when time allows, since your input is crucial for the whole troubleshooting progress.

If I can be of any assistance during the information collection process, please let me know.

If the answer is helpful, please click "Accept as Answer" and kindly upvote it.
Yanli Jiang - MSFT 31,611 Reputation points Microsoft External Staff

2025-01-16T09:53:56.0633333+00:00

Hi @Oussama Kebbouche ，

You haven't replied to me for a long time. I know you may have more important things to do. But your reply is very important to the progress of the issue, so I have to bother you. I hope you can give a reply to this issue when it is convenient so that things can proceed smoothly. Thank you.

If the answer is helpful, please click "Accept as Answer" and kindly upvote it.
Ling Zhou_MSFT 23,620 Reputation points Microsoft External Staff

2025-01-20T08:56:16.0733333+00:00

Hi @Oussama Kebbouche ，

Please kindly consider this comment as a warm follow up. We would appreciate it if you would like to share a recent update on your problem.

If the answer is helpful, please click "Accept Answer" and kindly upvote it.

If it doesn't work, please let us know the progress.

By doing so, it will benefit all community members who are having this similar issue. Your contribution is highly appreciated.
Alex Cellarius 0 Reputation points Microsoft Employee

2025-02-09T18:14:24.87+00:00

Where can "Activate the feature called Open Documents in Client Applications by Default in Site collection features." be found?
Yanli Jiang - MSFT 31,611 Reputation points Microsoft External Staff

2025-02-10T02:46:59.9166667+00:00

Go to site settings-->site collection features, then you can enter the following page:
Alex Cellarius 0 Reputation points Microsoft Employee

2025-02-10T03:09:32.14+00:00

I don't see Site Collection Features

Clicking Site Settings here:

leads to

I can get to something similar by going to (Under Site administration) Site Libraries and lists -> "Customize Documents" (for example),

then to Advanced settings

(Under general settings)

and I can see it's set to open in client application already:

But it doesn't, it opens a view that seems to be part of Sharepoint:

This is different than what I see if opening a pdf with Edge
Yanli Jiang - MSFT 31,611 Reputation points Microsoft External Staff

2025-02-10T06:12:19.7466667+00:00

According to the screenshots you provided, you cannot find this feature because you do not have sufficient permissions for this site. You need to have full control permissions for the site to make it. You can contact your administrator and ask him to set it up, or ask him to assign full control permission to you.
userbp 0 Reputation points

2025-04-01T09:46:24.34+00:00

I have followed all the instructions in this forum, but the PDFs still do not open directly.
.Giancarlo7 0 Reputation points

2025-06-05T09:45:01.0366667+00:00

May I add that in the Sharepoint site's Advanced Settings under "Offline and sync" you also need to enable this "Allow people to sync this document library to their computers with Microsoft OneDrive and access it offline"

Answer 2

Alex Cellarius 0 Microsoft Employee

~~I gave a long answer, did it go through? I don't see it here..~~

Alex Cellarius 0 Reputation points Microsoft Employee

2025-02-10T06:18:52.0933333+00:00

From what I can see in this alternate view, the setting is already there, so need for me to change it.

Note that other documents such as Word, Powerpoint etc do following this setting already, so this appears to be either a bug or a feature with how SharePoint is handling PDF document.

This behavior is new.
Yanli Jiang - MSFT 31,611 Reputation points Microsoft External Staff

2025-02-10T06:43:23.6733333+00:00

As I said in my previous answer, Adobe is not an official Microsoft software. If there is no problem with the settings on the SharePoint side, then it may be a problem on Adobe's side, and perhaps some changes have been made there.

Answer 3

.Giancarlo7 0

May I add that in the Sharepoint site's Advanced Settings under "Offline and sync" you also need to enable this "Allow people to sync this document library to their computers with Microsoft OneDrive and access it offline"

This is enabled by default by some admins might have it disabled

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Issue Opening PDFs Directly in Adobe from SharePoint Site

3 answers

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