How to prevent google chrome from downloading pdf

Try wikiHow's PDF Toolkit , a free and easy-to-use custom tool to help you be more productive with your documents. Log in Social login does not work in incognito and private browsers. Please log in with your username or email to continue. No account yet?

Create an account. Edit this Article. We use cookies to make wikiHow great. By using our site, you agree to our cookie policy. Cookie Settings. Learn why people trust wikiHow. Download Article Explore this Article methods. Related Articles. Method 1. Open Google Chrome on your computer. It's near the top-right corner of Chrome. Click Settings. Scroll down and click Advanced. It's at the bottom of the page.

Scroll down and click Content settings. Scroll down and click PDF documents. It's near the bottom of the list. Method 2. The advantage is that there is no need to install additional third-party software to open and view these files.

But, if you want to download a PDF-file on the hard disk for storage or editing, it first opens in a browser, and only after that the download pop-up panel will be available which will make it possible to save the file. It turns out that this file loads twice. For the first — when you open it in Chrome, and for the second time — when it is stored on the disk. Therefore, it is better to forbid Google Chrome to open PDF files in preview mode, and enable the option to be asked if you want the file to be saved on your computer.

Now, before downloading PDF-files, Chrome will not open them, but will offer you to save them in the specified folder. If this is the case, you might have a poor internet connection, or there is an incompatible third-party extension. Before changing Chrome's settings, check your internet connection. To check for a faulty extension, switch to Incognito Mode. To open it, click the three dots placed in the top-right corner and select New incognito window.

If you can view PDFs while using Incognito mode, the problem is caused by one of your extensions. To find out which extension is causing you trouble, turn off all extensions and then enable them one by one. If you can't open PDFs even if you are using Incognito mode, hidden malware might be causing issues. Luckily, Chrome comes with a malware detection and removal tool for these cases. Opened PDFs might have odd-looking text, missing images, or even laggy scrolling.

These problems might be caused by an outdated Chrome version. While Chrome updates itself automatically, you can start an update manually. Follow these steps to do so:. If the opened PDFs are still looking odd, you might have to clear the browser's cached data and cookies.

Your web cache might be the reason Chrome has difficulties rendering PDFs, especially if the cache is corrupted.