cannot open PDFs by double clicking them in Zotero for Firefox

leungks1 · November 23, 2016

When I double click an item (with a pdf file attachment) in Zotero for Firefox, Zotero displays a window "Enter name of file to save to" instead of opening the pdf file using the system PDF viewer. However "Open in external viewer" of the context menu works fine. Deleting mimeTypes.rdf doesn't help.

This problem occurs in Zotero for Firefox only. Pdf files open correctly in Zotero Standalone when double clicking them.

dstillman · November 23, 2016

Did you delete mimeTypes.rdf with Firefox closed?

What happens when you try to open a PDF in Firefox itself?

Does this happen with a new PDF that you download (e.g., this one), or just some existing files?

Can you provide a Debug ID for an attempt to open a PDF that doesn't work?

leungks1 · November 24, 2016

Thanks for the prompt reply. I find out that the problem is due to the setting for viewing PDFs in FireFox (under Preferences > Applications). Changing the PDF setting from "save file" to my chosen PDF viewer solves the problem. So now double-clicking on a pdf file in Zotero opens it in my chosen viewer. (I have used Zotero in this way before without any problem, and I didn't change any Firefox settings recently. Did an automatic updating of Firefox (to FF 50.0 released Nov 15) change the viewing PDF setting to "save file"? I don't know ... but things work as before and I am happy now.)