04-24-2012, 06:24 AM

I am new to Mac. I have installed adobe pdf. I use firefox which is installed. I regularly download pdf files from two different web sites. One is a local newspaper and one is a web site operated by my employer. Both have been working wonderfully until recently. In past when I downloaded a pdf using firefox a screen would pop up and I would see a blue bar move across a window as the download progressed. That is no longer happening. The pdf never appears now. I also recall recently that I did something unintended at the dock the other day and an icon in the doc disappeared and I have not been able to find it. it was the icon that would display downloads in upwards fan like affair when selected. Downloads perhaps? Not sure if it is related but that did happen and I would like to get it back. Anyway, this pdf download issue is a major problem for me. Any help folks might give would be most appreciated! Thanks.

MORE INFO - I just discovered that if I use Safari I am able to download pdfs with out trouble and adobe works fine. So the issue exists only when using firefox which is my preferred browser.

04-24-2012, 12:42 PM

Both Safari and Chrome have PDF built in whereas Firefox and Opera rely on a plugin. I don't use Adobe (not needed) so I don't really know what may have happened with Firefox.

To get your Downloads folder back... open your Finder. Drag the Downloads folder to the right side of your Dock separator and drop it there. That will reinstate the Downloads folder to the Dock.

04-24-2012, 12:44 PM

Thanks. I disabled the adobe plug in for firefox and now its working fine. Go figure???

04-24-2012, 12:55 PM

I think what may have happened is that Adobe disabled the PDF plugin for Firefox that was installed. When you disabled Adobe, things went back to normal. To be honest, I avoid Adobe even on my Windows machines.

04-30-2012, 03:55 PM

Hello,
I am a student and got the same issue with Adobe recently. I read on another forum that changing the preferences in the Firefox menu would solve the problem, and apparently it did for many people, but it didn't work for me.

I have since trashed my Adobe Reader, emptied trash, and installed Adobe 9.something, only to discover that it didn't work either. I have now trashed Adobe 9.something, and want to know how to disable Adobe and/or if I should even bother. I desperately need to download pdfs as I'm working on my dissertation, and can't afford to pay 20cents/page to print them off on the Library computers here.

ANY advice will be greatly appreciated!!

Oh, and would prefer to not have to switch back to Safari because my email account quit working there, and I would have to bounce back and forth between browsers to do work.

Thanks!