Chrome is very popular among its users because of the many features it provides. One of its most prized features is the inbuilt PDF viewer that lets you view the files before downloading and removes the need for the installation of any third-party PDF viewer.
However, since Chrome moved away from Adobe’s NPAPI plugin to its own PDF viewer, there are some issues that pop up when trying to view PDF files when using the native PDF viewer. These problems can be of various sorts like auto-downloading PDFs, scrolling issues, and improper content loading.
How To Fix Chrome PDF Viewer Not Working?
There is no need to panic, as I will show you how to overcome this issue using these fixes. The reasons this issue occurs are very trivial and there are very easy fixes you can deploy to solve them. Check these fixes according to the type of error you are facing.
# FIX 1 (Disable Extensions)
If the PDF viewer opens but fails to load a PDF file, this solution may be for you.
Sometimes it happens that the PDF viewer is greyed out, like in the loading phase and it never loads the PDF file. This can happen due to two possible reasons:
- Poor internet connection speed
- Misbehaving extensions
Firstly, check if you have a poor internet connection. This may be the reason that your PDFs take a long time to load.
If the internet connection is fine and you are getting reliable speeds on other websites, there is possibly a broken extension that is causing the PDF viewer to malfunction.
To confirm is a broken extension is causing the mishap, there is a simple method to do so.
⌂ Open an Incognito window of the browser and load the website hosting the PDF file. All the extensions are disabled by default in Incognito mode. If the file loads perfectly in the Incognito mode, it is confirmed that some broken extension is causing this error in the normal Window.
Now you need to disable the extensions and re-enable them one by one to pinpoint which extension is misbehaving.
This may sound tedious, but it is the best way to figure out what is wrong with your browser.
If no extensions are broken, or you have no extensions downloaded whatsoever, the next fix may be for you.
# FIX 2 (Disable Downloads)
One of the most common reasons that this issue occurs is because Chrome is set to download the PDF files that you open instead of viewing them natively in the browser.
This setting may be changed for any reason whatsoever, but disabling this setting changes it back to viewing PDFs in the browser instead of downloading.
To change this setting, follow these steps:
- Open Chrome settings from the hamburger menu (≡) at the top right corner.
- Navigate and click on Advanced.
- Click on Site settings under the ‘Privacy and Security’
- Scroll down to find and click on PDF Documents.
- Turn off the toggle switch next to Download PDF files instead of automatically opening them in Chrome.
- Restart your browser.
Now when you visit a PDF site, it should open the file in Chrome instead of downloading.
Note: However, if the URL hosting the PDF has set Attachment as its Content-Disposition header, the PDF from that website will be downloaded no matter what. Every other website apart from these will let you view the PDFs instead of downloading.
# FIX 3 (Malware Removal)
If the Incognito mode also showed the error and downloads were disabled by default, there may potentially be a malware on your system that is causing this error.
Since Google prioritizes user’s safety and data protection, the developers have provided with Chrome its own malware detection and removal tool.
To use the cleanup tool and find malware, visit the following site:
chrome://settings/cleanup
Click on Find button next to the ‘Find and remove harmful software’ to run the checker tool. After some time, Chrome will show you a search result for all the potentially malicious software on your device that may be causing the error.
# FIX 4 (Update And Clear Cookies)
If there is no malware on your device, it is possible that the files necessary to run Chrome are broken or corrupted. If your browser has an outdated cache, it can show this error.
- Press Ctrl + Shift + Delete key to open Chrome’s ‘Clear browsing data’
- Here select the cookies and cached images and files stored for the browser.
- Click Clear data to clean all the files you selected in the step above.
4. Next, click on the hamburger menu (≡) and hover over Help.
5. Click on About Chrome.
6. If there is an update waiting, Chrome will detect it and prompt you to install it automatically.
This should solve the error you were having with PDFs not loading in the browser.
If this also does not solve your issue, you can alternatively use the Adobe PDF plugin to view files as well.
# FIX 5 (Use Adobe Plugin)
If any of the above fixes did not work for you, you can solve this error by using the adobe acrobat extension from the Chrome Webstore.
Visit this page (Adobe Acrobat extension) and click on Add to Chrome.
Note: If you already have Adobe PDF viewer on your system you don’t need to perform this step.
When you visit a webpage hosting a PDF file, a popup will display over the Chrome’s PDF viewer prompting you to open this page in Adobe Acrobat Reader.
Conclusion
Chrome does not let you perform advanced functions like finding a specific word in the PDF document. But it is a good intermediate to downloading PDF files as you can review if you need the file permanently on your system.
If you were also plagued with PDFs not opening in Chrome, now you know how to fix Chrome PDF viewer not working using the 5 fixes given above. Comment below to tell us which method solved your issue and discuss further for the same.
Excellent and well written article. Resolved my issue with one of the solutions proposed. The extension GradeProof was the culprit.
Many incorrectly coded extensions can break the normal functioning of the browsers. Glad to know the issue was resolved for you.
i had to download the adobe plugin because going to my settings and clicking on privacy has no pdf anywhere there and i have nothing that says privacy and security it just says privacy and i clicked that on and no pdf thing there.
Thank you
All extensions removed – restarted Chrome just to be sure (Version 80.0.3987.116 (Official Build) (64-bit) ), attempted to load PDF – (which works in incognito, edge – but not FF which simply ignores the request). Still dark gray screen – dropdown header shows correct filename – number of pages is correct.
Loaded adobe extension – still gray background but now has the offer to load in Adobe – which works. Chrome does not.
Have reset ALL settings – no love. Chrome is getting more stupid with each release!!!
Have you made any further progress on this one?
I have the same issue. If sign out account in Chrome, PDF works. But if you sign in, it turns gray screen.
Not every account has the problem, hope Google could fix it.
Seems like a Chrome bug specific to your account. Can you log into Chrome on another device and check if Chrome loads PDF there?
This issue popped up in our organization today. Signed in to the browser certain PDFs never load, signed out it works fine. The account has no extensions or anything unusual. I tried all of the recommended steps but some PDFs still don’t load. Not sure what it could be.
Found the problem after trying almost everything.
It is the “Send URLs to Google” option within “Sync and Google services” (2nd from bottom option). Turn this off and all is fine (for me at least).
Thanks! Turning off “Send URLs to Google” worked for me as well.
Wow, a life saver.
This solution worked for me as well, many thanks!
I’m getting the exact same problem.
Opening in incognito mode fixes it, but this isn’t a preferred solution.
Fix your shit Google.
Sadly, none of these resolved my issue, which only started happening this morning. The first PDF I viewed DID display briefly, then disappeared. From there on, none would appear, I just get the blank screen.
I did all of these solutions, even adding the Acrobat extension — all that does is in the blank window there is a button to open it in Acrobat. So another step, though it did work. Nothing has changed recently, I opened PDF docs in the browser all the time, so no idea why just today it stopped working.
Glad to know that the Acrobat fix works for you. There is a possibility that Chrome is unable to handle the resources in the PDF, which Acrobat may possess. i suggest you keep using Acrobat until Google Chrome is updated, and we will look into this as well.
After running all the suggestions I have the same issue at 2 different customer’s sites. Simply cant open PDF’s on websites in Chrome, but can in Edge, Firefox and Chrome incognito. Tried another W10 PC on a totally different 3rd network – same result.
Conclude that its a Chrome issue possibly related to a recent Windows patch (as it all worked before).
Hi. An excellent explanation. I have tried all the possibilities except the Acrobat extension.
I have also done the Google Chrome update – None of it worked for me. Any way – I’m not worried about myself opening PDF – I can use another browser. But I’m worried about the situation that people won’t be able to open and read my uploaded PDFs on my internet sites.
But thanks to your reply here – I understand it’s an actual problem that Google is working on, so I hope it’s going to be solved soon.
Thanks a lot
same issues for me, seems to be related to the Chrome update of late…
I tried all the suggested fixes without success. Then turned off Sync (by clicking on my login name at top right of Chrome) and it immediately fixed the issue. When I click on a PDF link from a website it now opens reliably in Chrome. Yay!
Thanks for the suggestions. Most of it didn’t work for me and I didn’t like the Adobe extension. What I installed and solved the problem for me was the PDF Viewer extension. All good now!
Update (2020)
If you are unable to see PDFs when signed in to Chrome using your Google account, it appears that the latest version of Google Chrome has a bug that does not allow PDFs to load while signed in. Here is a workaround as noted by one of our readers Mike:
1. Turn off sync: To do so, click on your login icon next to the address bar, and click on Sync is on. This should open the You & Google section of Settings. Here, click on Turn off next to sync option.
2. Sign out of Chrome: To do so, click on your login icon again, and click on Guest. The PDF file should open while you are browsing as guest.
Thank you for posting this. For a couple of days, I was suffering from this issue. And now it is fixed, this article helped me a lot to resolve the issue. Mainly using adobe plugin suggestion is working fine. Thank you.