PDFs don't open upon download; download fails

Clicking on PDFs starts download, but download terminates with message such as this one (per Grab). Very frustrating. Work around of Ctrl-save file to a location, then go to the location to open, is poor solution.
I'm not able to post the .tif here, but the message runs:
Download Error
/.../{filename}.pdf could not be opened, because an unknown error occurred.
Try saving to disk first and then opening the file.

HI Bernard
Welcome to  Discussions and Mac Computing
Open either Adobe Reader or Adobe Acrobat, whichever is installed in your system. In the Adobe Menu, go to Preferences>Internet. There uncheck "display PDF etc.". Also, just to be sure, go to your Finder: In the spotlight panel, copy/paste AdobePDFViewer.plugin. If this file appears in the search return, highlight it, then command key/delete to move it to the trash.
Restart Safari and try a PDF.
Good way to familiarize yourself with OS X is to pick up a copy of Scott Kelby's book OS X Tiger: Killer Tips.
Post back

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.pdf files don't open after having download the creative cloud because of a previous trial version

Dear,
I used a trial version of acrobat pro for a month. After the trial I downloaded the creative cloud to enjoy all the programs.
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Have you accepted the EULA as suggested in your other topic?

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I have a website that loads PDFs to the user's browser. In the PDF are links to Quicktime MOV files which open floating windows in which users can see videos. These work fine in both Firefox and Windows Internet Explorer on both of my Win 7 64-bit PCs. And they work in Safari on my son-in-law's Mac laptop, which runs OS 10.5.8, although not in Firefox on his laptop. The symptom is that the PDF (or browser) does not seem to even know that the cursor is positioned on a link; that is, the cursor does not change to a pointing finger as it should, and of course clicking on it has no effect.
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The PDFs do open in Safari (version 4.1.3) on this G4 booted to OS 11.4.11, and the links in the PDFs are recognized as such, but when I click on them the little Multimedia Player Finder window comes up, telling me I need to download the correct media player, even though Quicktime 7.6.4 is sitting just below on the dock, and opens the identical MOV files with no problem directly from the hard drive itself (actually a different hard drive, but wait...yes, it also opens fine when the MOV is copied to the hard drive on which the currently booted OS10.4.11 resides).
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Thanks in advance for your help.

>With Perian you just goto System Preferences>Other Row, right click or Control+click on Perian, choose Remove Perian Pref Pane.
That sounds like Perian is NOT one of those you can just delete. How does one know which is which?
>But Perian would only help if you want to display the movie in the Browsers.
In fact, due to issues of publisher's permission regarding about half the video clips, for the present I would prefer the user NOT to be able to download them, but only to be able to open them in the browser, or even better, in a floating window that's a child of the browser, as I specified to Acrobat, and as in fact happens on my Win 7 PCs.
>Do you need PDFs to be downloaded, or could you do this in HTML and have the Movie links right on the site?
I'd rather they NOT be downloaded, at least in the sense of winding up in the Mac's Download folder and opening in a separate window. I want them to open directly in the browser window, as the do in my Win 7. (MOre on this below.)
As to HTML instead of a PDF, what I need is to be able to provide commentary about each video clip, which HTML could do just fine, and I could get free of the VERY troublesome problem that any time I make more than a trivial change to the text, I must re-link every stinking one of the MOVs in a time-consuming process. So far, however, all of my attempts to show video via the <OBJECT> or <EMBED> tags have either failed, or opened the clip directly in the page, not in a floating window as I prefer. I believe there's a new <VIDEO> (or is it <MEDIA>?) tag in HTML 5 I may look into.
> Check System Preferences>Accounts>Login Items window to see if it or something relevant is listed.
Also look in these if they exist, some are invisible... /private/var/run/StartupItems; /Library/StartupItems;
/System/Library/StartupItems; /System/Library/LaunchDaemons; /Library/LaunchDaemons
Thanks much for this tip. Indeed Protools itself is in the System Preferences>Accounts>Login Items folder, and I'll be removing it from there, but I'll still have the 'In use by another application' problem when I load Protools as a conscious choice. There's a bunch of Digidesign (a.k.a. Protools) stuff in /Library/StartupItems, but ... (I was about to say I would investigate further because Protools is notorious for placing files all over the place and not have a clean uninstall, but I just realized these are StartupItems - meaning, I suppose, *boot-up* items, as opposed to any time one starts up Protools? If only boot-up, there should be no harm in deleting them.
>I don't think that is any part of the problem.
Thank goodness! Just guessing: can I assume that (in principle, at least) any app from a prior OS Applications folder should run in a later OS, but generally not vice versa? That's the default assumption in Windows. However, I know of at least one app I have that was written for OS 9 and they announce does not run in higher OS's, though to be honest I've never tried it.
>The problem seems to be that the ones that do not display the links, or display the links but won't play it, are looking for the Movie file in the Download folder. No expert, but I kind of think it's some MS "stanrd" involved, which Apple trys to keep pace with, but...
I'm convinced you have the right answer here - except perhaps for the Microsoft part, because the 'Cannot play media because file not found' problem also occurs in Foxfire on my two XP PCs (although not in Internet Explorer where everything works properly on those two XP PCs). The evidence that you're right? I noticed an instance - TenFourFox when booted in 10.4, I believe - where not only the links to the MOV clips have that problem, but also links from within one PDF to another PDF, which generally *were* working in most scenarios tested so far when the MOV clips were not. For what it's worth, the links to the other PDFs specify another folder on the server, while those to the MOV files specify no folder at all since they're all in the same folder as the PDF that links to them. Which is why the Mac assumes they must be in the Download folder. Depending on the situation, apparently, in some circumstances if you do specify a folder Mac figures it must be on the server if not found locally.
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But now... guess what?
Today, suddenly, when I access the site with Safari while booted in 10.5.8, EVERYTHING IS WORKING! All the clips open, and they open in floating windows just like I want. This, remember, is the situation in which the links were not even recognized earlier. I have no idea which if any of the changes we've discussed could have brought this about. I've not even been able to find out how to tell Safari it should be using Acrobat Reader and Quicktime. But somehow, it is! (I'm not making this up, nor, despite my admission of memory lapses on occasion, is this a case of a memory lapse. I described this situation early in my initial post, when I had just verified it.)
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Hello Tim Murray,
You might run updates and use the latest patch of Acrobat X i.e. 10.1.13
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Error: "The document is damaged..." | Opening PDF
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http://support.mozilla.com/en-US/kb/Managing+file+types
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Ignore the instructions about "edit options", to install Adobe Reader download the installer from http://get.adobe.com/reader/ and run the installer. Alternatively, a direct link for the latest version of Adobe Reader is:
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Dear Mr. xxxxxxx,
Thank you for your email. We apologize for any difficulty you've
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If you have Adobe Reader 10.0 or higher installed but are experiencing
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If you need further technical assistance, please call us at 888-353-0547.
Our specialists are available Monday through Friday between the hours of 8
a.m. and 7 p.m., Eastern time.
Sincerely,
Michelle xxxxxxx
Support Specialist
Vanguard Web Technical Support Services
Hope this helps someone...
Russ

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PDFs don't open upon download; download fails

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