Cannot display PDF from Zotero in Firefox 53

cristophd
edited April 21, 2017
hello,

I've been experiencing troubles while attempting to display pdf in zotero. I've got the mozilla version.

When I click on a pdf file in Zotero, a new tab opens up in Mozilla (for example, at the address zotero://attachment/2995/). The page is blank.

Can anyone help me ? Thanks a lot !
  • adamsmith
    how about when you right-click on the PDF --> Open in external viewer?
  • AliceAnnelin
    So is there a problem with the pdf viewer in firefox?
  • cristophd
    Thanks a lot for your quick answer!

    Yes it works out when I open the file in external viewer (ie acrobat reader dc). So it may be a problem with the firefox viewer. Any idea to fix it?
  • LiborA
    Because the Firefox version will be close in same time after Zotero v5 will be launched I recommend to use Standalone version. I also recommend installing the new 5.0 beta, is stable enough for everyday use.
  • dstillman
    It looks like displaying PDFs within Firefox broke in Firefox 53. We're working on a fix. In the meantime, you can right-click -> Open in External Viewer or switch to Zotero Standalone, which, as LiborA says, will be the only version once 5.0 comes out. Sorry for the inconvenience.
  • dstillman
    OK, this is fixed in Zotero 4.0.29.18, available now for Firefox.
  • cristophd
    Ok, once again thank you very much!
  • AliceAnnelin
    Thank you!
  • cesarborie
    Problem not solved in Zotero 4.0.29.18. Still can only open odf in rxternal viewer but not in frefox 53, any clue?
  • cesarborie
    Sorry, again: Problem not solved in Zotero 4.0.29.18. Still can only open pdf in external viewer but not in frefox 53, any clue?
  • dstillman
    @cesarborie: Can you provide a Report ID? As far as we know this is fixed — it works for us, and there've been no other reports.
  • adamsmith
    same questions -- make sure you have 4.0.29.18 installed, then provide an error report ID right after opening a PDF:
    https://www.zotero.org/support/reporting_problems#provide_a_report_id
  • cesarborie
    Report sent, here is the ID number 176114263
  • dstillman
    edited May 9, 2017
    @cesarborie: Try with your other extensions disabled (particularly Avast). The latest version just opens attachment files as file:// URLs in Firefox, so there's not much to go wrong (it'd be the same as doing right-click -> Show File and opening the PDF file from the filesystem), but Avast could definitely prevent Firefox from accessing local files.
  • cesarborie
    I've tried disabling Avast but still Zotero only opens pdf files in external viewer. Don't know what the problem is
  • dstillman
    edited May 9, 2017
    What exactly happens when you try to open in Firefox? Again, Zotero is just loading a file:// URL. If you right-click on the attachment and select Show File, and then double-click the HTML file drag the PDF to Firefox from the filesystem, does the file open?
  • cesarborie
    When I right-click and slect show file only 3 files are displayed: the pdf file, .zotero-ft-cache and .zotero-ft-info
  • dstillman
    Sorry, I meant the PDF file. If you drag the PDF file from there into Firefox, what happens?
  • cesarborie
    When I choose to open the pdf file with firefox it gets in to a loop opening blank browser pages.
  • dstillman
    edited May 9, 2017
    OK, so that's a Firefox problem, unrelated to Zotero, since it's happening just opening a file on your hard drive. (You can copy the PDF file to your desktop and try from there to confirm that it's not related to the location of the file.)

    The top step here might help. Beyond that, you'd have to ask Mozilla (focusing just on opening the PDF from your filesystem).
  • cesarborie
    Ok thanks for all the help
  • cesarborie
    Uninstalling and reinstalling Firefox did the job. Thanks

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