Chrome pdf download problems

While turning off hardware acceleration fixes the rendering problems, it might slow down performance when viewing web content. It's a good idea to turn it back on after you complete your task involving the PDF. This might be the most common issue with Chrome's PDF viewer. And it's definitely the most annoying when you want to preview the PDF's content before downloading it.

Chrome comes with a built-in setting that will download PDFs instead of previewing them. This setting is generally disabled by default, but there is a chance you have unknowingly enabled it or a third-party app changed its status. To fix this, you need to disable PDF downloads. Here is how you can do it:. In other words, these PDFs are instructed from the server-side to download, and there is not much that you can do about it.

Don't let any issues with Chrome PDF viewer slow down your work. The solutions mentioned in this article can help you solve this error, letting you go back to viewing PDFs without any hiccups. Want to manage your cookies while browsing? Here's how to modify your settings in Chrome, Edge, and Firefox. Matthew's passions lead him to become a technical writer and blogger. Having a Bachelor's degree in Engineering, he enjoys using his technical knowledge to write informative and useful content.

Here is how you do it: Open Google Chrome. Click the three dots placed in the top right corner of the browser. Select Settings. Open the Advanced menu. Select Reset and clean up from the left menu bar.

Under Reset and clean up , click Restore settings to their original defaults. Share Share Tweet Email. Matthew Wallaker 90 Articles Published. Subscribe to our newsletter Join our newsletter for tech tips, reviews, free ebooks, and exclusive deals! Click here to subscribe. The reason lies when such PDFs are actually instructed from the server-side to download to your hard drive rather than open in-browser. There was an add-on in the Chrome Web Store that supposedly stopped these PDFs from downloading forcibly, but it no longer works.

Barring a poor internet connection , this usually occurs due to conflicting third-party extensions or malicious browser-targeted code on your PC. So, let's see how you can get Chrome back to normal. To determine if this the cause of the issue, try working in Incognito mode. Doing this launches Chrome with all extensions disabled. To do that, point to More Tools on the Chrome menu, and then click Extensions. Once you comes across the problematic plugin, consider removing it or keeping it disabled when using Chrome in normal mode.

If the problem occurs even in Incognito mode, then there might be malware hidden away on your PC that interferes with the browser's basic functions. It should take a while for Chrome to detect and clean up your PC. You may find various instances of missing images, weird-looking text, or laggy scrolling on certain PDFs — and rarely, on all documents that you open.

However, running through the following fixes should make Chrome display PDFs properly. Afterward, check if you still encounter issues when viewing PDFs. An outdated web cache is another common reason for incorrectly rendering or malfunctioning PDFs, especially if the cache gets corrupted or certain web elements change subsequently later on.

Hence, clearing all locally cached data should prompt the browser to download fresh content and hopefully render your PDFs properly. If there are incompatibilities between your video drivers and the Chrome PDF viewer, you are bound to run into all sorts of weird graphical anomalies. Chrome uses hardware acceleration by default, but stopping it from doing so should fix severe lagging or flickering issues.

While disabling hardware acceleration should fix most rendering issues, you may encounter slower performance when viewing certain web content. The procedure is very simple and not as awful as it sounds, but you will find your cookies, browsing data and pinned tabs gone for good. Step 1: On the Chrome Settings screen, click Advanced, and then scroll all the way down to the bottom.

Chrome should function just as new afterward. However, resetting your browser also disables your extensions. When re-enabling them, make sure to keep any unknown plugins disabled just to be on the safer side. Hopefully, Chrome is back to normal and you can view your PDFs without any issues.

Configuring your browser to open PDFs directly, clearing the browser cache, and disabling hardware acceleration are sure-fire ways to get things back on track, while a browser reset should likely work as a last resort.