Download PDF Files Directly By Disabling The PDF Viewer In Chrome & Firefox

Both Google Chrome and Firefox have a built-in PDF reader and whenever you click a link to a PDF file, your browser opens it in a new tab. That’s all perfectly fine except that if it’s a large file you have to first wait for it to load and then save it. Once saved, if you click the file in the download bar (in Chrome), it will again open in a Chrome tab. This feature is meant to provide users with an always-available-PDF-reader in the form of their browser but it becomes obtrusive if you really prefer to open PDFs in a desktop reader. Fortunately, there is an easy way around this in both Chrome and Firefox that allows the PDF viewer to easily be disabled and enabled to suit your needs.

Disable PDF Viewer In Chrome

Open a new Chrome tab and type the following in the URL bar, and hit enter.

Chrome://plugins/

You can use the find feature to look for the ‘Chrome PDF Viewer’ plug-in. Click ‘Disable’ and you’re done. You can easily revert the change by enabling the plug-in.

What does disabling Chrome PDF Viewer do?

Disabling this plug-in has two effects; first, whenever you click on a link to a PDF file in your browser, the file will no longer open in a new tab. Instead, it will go straight to the download manager and begin to download.

Second; whenever a PDF file is downloaded, clicking it in the downloads bar will open the file in your default desktop PDF reader.

Disable PDF Viewer in Firefox

To disable the PDF viewer in Firefox, type the following in the URL bar, and accept the warning from the page.

about:config

Using the search bar, look for the following preference and double click it to set its value to ‘True’.

pdfjs.disabled

To revert this change, return to the about:config page and reset the value to False (just double click it).

What does disabling pdfjs.disabled do?

After disabling this preference, any link to a PDF file that you click will begin to download the file automatically. You will not be asked if you want to save the file or open it. If you click the file in the download pop-up once it has downloaded, Firefox will ask you which program to open the file with.

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Fatima Wahab

Fatima has been writing for AddictiveTips for six years. She began as a junior writer and has been working as the Editor in Chief since 2014. Fatima gets an adrenaline rush from figuring out how technology works, and how to manipulate it. A well-designed app, something that solves a common everyday problem and looks

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