Accessing PDF Files with Lion

lovinlife · Sep 21, 2012

I am a newbie for Mac and to a forum so here goes....I updated to Mountain Lion and now I lost the ability to pull up and read PDF files. I have set "Preview" as default and even downloaded "Reader"...still no luck. All my online important documents are now coming in as PDF's and I can no longer access them. Help!!:

Gandalph · Sep 21, 2012

Have you tried going to your PDF file and right clicking on the PDF you wish to open, then open with, then Preview.

lovinlife · Sep 21, 2012

PDF files

I have. That works with a PDF document that I get in email but when I go to a site such as my banking site and click of the PDF I get a black screen in Safari and a blank screen in Firefox. I even tried to pull up a PDF tax form from an unrelated site and get nothing.

Gandalph · Sep 21, 2012

Just double click the PDF on the Bank site and it will download, then go to your downloads folder and drag it to your PDF Folder. You will be able to open it with Preview from there.

I had the same problem with my Credit Card account and my Bank until I discovered that method.

lovinlife · Sep 21, 2012

Thanks, I will try that again. Maybe I missed something. I can get to that last step when it is supposed to open the file. That's when I get the black or blank screen. I will give it another try. I appreciate your trying to help me.

bboggess · Sep 21, 2012

The same question was just asked on the Mac FixIt Q and A. Their response can be found here:

Q&A MacFixIt Answers | MacFixIt - CNET Reviews

Hope this helps,

Bill

lovinlife · Sep 21, 2012

Thanks Bill. I followed the instructions and am still getting a black screen. Sounds like a visit to the Apple store to me.
I really appreciate the responses I have received.

Gandalph · Sep 21, 2012

@loveinlife, as bboggess suggests remove all traces of Adobe Reader. After you have downloaded the PDF you could always open it in Preview by Right Clicking it in your downloads folder and then Open With and select Preview.

lovinlife · Sep 21, 2012

The page never gives me the option to download the document; for instance it gives me the highlighted date which I click on and when I watch the address bar it says statement.pdf but then the screen goes black. In Firefox the same thing happens except the page keeps reloading. "Preview" is my default PDF opener but it is not doing what it is supposed to do. Oh Well. Thanks anyway. Like I said before, Apple store, here I come. It worked before I upgraded to Mountain Lion. Thanks for trying to help with this issue.

Gandalph · Sep 21, 2012

Sorry we couldn't get you sorted out. One of the 'Old Sweats' could possibly come along later, so keep an eye on your post to see if there are any further suggestions that might get you sorted out.

lovinlife · Sep 22, 2012

Thank you so much for trying. I really appreciate it! I will post if I get it worked out. Thanks again!

xdunlapx · Sep 23, 2012

I don't know about Preview but I have to use Adobe Reader for my school assignments, and other things and it wouldn't open in the browser for me using Reader. I had to change a setting I think in the browser to get it to work right. Here is probably what I did to get it working again.

Question: PDF files appearing black when opened in a Web browser
MacFixIt reader Sierra asks:

I have a MacBook Pro. I can no longer read PDFs. I have reloaded Adobe Acrobat/Reader/Flash. My MacBook states that all three are already installed. The PDFs are black in color, with no text. Is there anything I can do to restore my ability to read the PDFs? Please keep in mind my computer stills are extremely limited. Thank you in advance for your time and assistance.

Answer:
Try uninstalling Adobe Reader to see if that helps. OS X has built-in ability to read PDF documents, and should not need the Adobe Reader plug-in. Some versions of Adobe Reader have also been known to give a black screen when viewing PDFs in Safari.

Specifically, remove Adobe-related plug-ins from your Macintosh HD > Library > Internet Plug-ins folder if you are experiencing black PDFs in Safari.

lovinlife · Sep 23, 2012

Thanks for trying. I have done all of that and still no luck. I uninstalled; installed Adobe and all plug-ins several times and still the same thing. I just cannot open PDF files from the web. The black screen in safari is still persistent and a blank white screen in Firefox won't quit. I appreciate all suggestions and am totally frustrated. I started out with Leopard and upgraded to snow Leopard and so on until just a few weeks ago upgrading to Mountain Lion With each upgrade I lost something along the way. Makes me wish I kept my PC. Thanks a bunch.

bboggess · Sep 23, 2012

If you have done the upgrade shuffle from leopard all the way along the line, you may want to backup your data and do a clean install, then reinstall your data. I rarely do an "upgrade" instead opting to perform a clean install of a major software release. This goes for all operating systems that I have used, from Windows variants (1.3, 3.0, 3.1, 95, 98, 98SE, XP, Vista, Win 7) to Linux ( user for 8 years). Even though upgrades usually function flawlessly, if in doubt, do a clean install and restore.

Bill

lovinlife · Sep 29, 2012

Thanks one and all....Headed to the Genius Bar on Monday. I appreciate all who tried to help.