So I was really excited about the new integrated pdf viewer in chrome. However when I click on a pdf file link, chrome offers to download it instead of opening it inside its viewer. How do i get it to open pdfs inside its viewer? Edit: I have found that it behaves kinda randomly. Sometimes it does open it inside its viewer and sometimes it asks to download it. In gmail though it always asks to download it. Note: I already have the 'ask where to save each file before downloading' option unchecked.
asked Dec 8, 2010 at 20:43 1,891 4 4 gold badges 21 21 silver badges 26 26 bronze badges Do the reverse of this - superuser.com/questions/107700/… Commented Dec 8, 2010 at 20:47 possible duplicate of Make Chrome always open PDFs itself Commented Aug 24, 2013 at 13:16Not sure if Chrome does this, but Firefox will offer you an option to open instead of download PDFs served with application/octet-stream now.
Commented Feb 25, 2022 at 2:49I think that the problem sometimes occurs when the web server you are downloading the PDF from does not serve the PDF with the correct MIME type.
When the web server serves a PDF with the correct MIME type, Chrome previews it. When the web server serves a PDF with the incorrect or generic MIME type ( application/octet-stream ), Chrome downloads it.
If the server returns a Content-Type of text/html Chrome will display/open the PDF directly in the browser. However, if the server returns a Content-Type of application/pdf then the browser will prompt the user to save/download the PDF.
231k 71 71 gold badges 622 622 silver badges 603 603 bronze badges answered Dec 6, 2012 at 11:59 starbeamrainbowlabs starbeamrainbowlabs 1,290 4 4 gold badges 18 18 silver badges 30 30 bronze badges Yep, content-disposition inline ain't enough, it also needs mime application/pdf. Commented Feb 25, 2014 at 9:10 Thank you for your answer, now I know why some PDF's are opened inside Chrome and others are not. Commented Aug 5, 2015 at 6:53Download a PDF file, then when it is done, left click on the download icon at the bottom and select "always open this type of file" Now It should open any PDF link you click in that window without downloading it to a permanent location.
To undo it go into Options>Under the Hood tab>Clear Auto Opening Settings.
I also have the box ticked, "ask where to save each file before download", not sure if this has any affect on the behavior of automatically opening a file.
There may be some PDFs that chrome cannot display properly, so it offers you to download it to view with another PDF viewer. It is not a full featured viewer like Foxit or Adobe
I use it this way and can find no PDF that chrome has saved, it has to cache it somewhere to read it, but I am not sure where it does.
Hidden experimental features for version 8