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Lately when I download a PDF in Chrome and click the downloaded file in the bar at the bottom, it opens in chrome. I would like it to open in adobe as default, since I download mostly files with comments or stuff Chrome doesn't support anyway. I have seen this, but it makes chrome download all files and open them in Adobe.

So what I want is: if I click a random PDF, it should open in the chrome browser, if I click a downloaded file from the bar at the bottom or from chrome://downloads it should open the file in Adobe. (Just as it used to be two weeks ago). Is that still possible?

Stevoisiak
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Ramzi Kahil
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7 Answers7

28

Always open PDFs using your system's viewer

Open the download list popup, right click on a PDF download from the list and select the option to Always open with the system viewer.

Always open with system viewer

This works if want only downloaded PDFs to open in your external PDF viewer (Adobe Acrobat, Foxit Reader, etc.), you don't need to disable the Chrome PDF Viewer.

Turn off auto-open of PDFs in the system viewer

UPDATE 6/7/2017

As of Chrome version 59, the option below no longer exists in Settings. I'll leave these instructions, because if they ever add it back it'll probably be in the same place.

  1. Click on the Chrome Menu icon Chrome hamburger icon
  2. Click on Settings
  3. Scroll down and click Show advanced settings
  4. Scroll down to Downloads. If you have enabled any file types to open using the system viewer, you'll see a button to Clear auto-opening settings. Clicking this will reset the settings for all file types.

Download settings

More info

Relevant SuperUser discussion here: How to automatically open "saved" pdfs in system viewer on chrome?

Mauricio Gracia Gutierrez
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Jake Bathman
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10

You should try this:

  1. Open Chrome.
  2. Type chrome://plugins/ in the address bar, hit enter.
  3. Browse the list for Adobe PDF viewer or Adobe reader (and chrome pdf viewer)
  4. Disable both (although disabling adobe reader would work alone.)

Hope this helps.

Sandman
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5

In Chrome, type chrome://plugins/
Find the Chrome PDF Viewer and click Disable
From your browser, click a PDF file; it should show at the bottom as a downloaded file.
Click the arrow next to the downloaded file, and choose Always open files of this type (You may need to manually click Open on any recent files you want to view, otherwise...)
The next time you click a PDF file, it should open however your computer is configured to open PDF files. If that method is via Adobe Reader or Adobe Acrobat (standard, pro), then that should meet the need you expressed in your question.

Cristian Ciupitu
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pedaler
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3
1- Go to chrome://settings.

2- Click on "Privacy" --> "Content Settings".

3- At the bottom, click on: 
"PDF Documents" --> "Open PDF files in the default PDF viewer application".

This should solve the problem!

PS:

1- Instead of 1 & 2, you can navigate to: chrome://settings/content

2- You can click on the file name's small (upside) arrow in the "Downloads bar" at the bottom, and, click on "Always open with system viewer". However, this works only for this downloaded file, not other downloads (it should be a bug though)!

3- After doing the above three steps, when you click on a file in the download bar, it first opens another tab and closes it quickly (another bug, which is a little annoying)! But then opens the file in your PDF viewer anyway.

4- Previously you could control this from chrome://plugins which is now removed from Chrome (57 and later versions). So you just ignore what you found on the web about chrome://plugins.

Alisa
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I liked @Jake Bathman's answer, which doesn't disable the Chrome PDF viewer entirely (e.g., PDF links can still open in Chrome), and instead just changes the preference for downloaded PDFs.

Since version 124.0.6367.155 (and probably several previous versions), the UI is different, and those settings no longer appear in the same place. Here's the updated steps.

Always open PDFs using the system viewer

When a PDF is downloaded, right-click on the file in the Downloads pop-up, and click Always open with system viewer

Chrome setting: "Always open with system viewer"

Disable auto-open of PDFs in the system viewer

Same in reverse; when you right-click a file in Downloads, you can click Always open with system viewer again to deselect it.

murchu27
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1

Slightly simpler way with latest Chrome browser:

  1. Navigate to: chrome://settings/content/pdfDocuments
  2. Then set that to on.
Sathyajith Bhat
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trees_are_great
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0

This is what worked for me.

  1. Click on the three vertical menu dots in the right hand corner of the Chrome bar and choose SETTINGS.

  2. Under settings, click on EXTENSIONS.

  3. A new tab opens and displays the software which uses file extensions for document management. Click on the DETAILS tab which appears in the Adobe box. The page titled at the top, "Adobe Acrobat: PDF edit, convert, sign tools", appears.

  4. Click on EXTENSION OPTIONS which appears toward the bottom of that page.

  5. A new tab opens titled, "Adobe Acrobat Preferences". Turn on the "OPEN PDFS IN ACROBAT" option by clicking the gray/blue toggle bottom to its right. It is the first option. Click SAVE PREFERENCES at the bottom of the page.

  6. You may want to clear history and cache in Chrome and in your computer. For Chrome: Right hand three vertical dot menu-->Settings-->Privacy and security-->Clear browsing data-->Under Advanced, for ALL TIME, check Browsing history, Download history, Cookies and other site data, and Cached images and files. Click CLEAR DATA.

  7. Close Chrome, turn the computer off, and restart the computer. Check your PDF files. They should now display as PDFs and open in Acrobat.

I am using Google Chrome v. 109.0.5414.120 and Adobe Acrobat Pro DC v. 2015.006.30527.

Nothing else worked for me. Going through the EXTENSIONS OPTIONS did.

Hope this helps, Mark J. Miller

Mark J. Miller
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