Opening pdf in browser requires a retry

[carabele]

I just updated to the newest version of Reader 10.  On Windows 7 Home - 64 bit, using Internet Explorer 9 - 32 bit, now when I click on a pdf link from within the browser, the pdf does not immediately load.  Instead I see a gray Adobe screen often with the download bar just stalled.  Oddly, if I click on the link in the address bar of the browser (which shows correctly), the pdf file then loads.

I didn't have this problem with the previous version of Reader 10.  Anyone else experiencing this?  Is there a known solution?

[Ankit_Jain]

Does this behavior happen with all the PDFs?

Please try opening the below mentioned URL:

http://kb2.adobe.com/cps/837/cpsid_83709/attachments/Acrobat_Enterprise_Administration.pdf

and see if you face the same issue.

Thanks

Ankit

[carabele]

No, it doesn't seem to be happening with all PDFs.  The link you provided downloaded without an interruption and no need for a resume.

It seems to only be happening on the pdfs on my own website.  That site is on the Trusted Sites list in IE 9 and, prior to the most recent update in Adobe, I did not have this problem with the download being interrupted and needing to be resumed from the address bar.

What would cause this behavior?

[Guest]

I agree, this is a problem with 10.1.2.

When trying to view an embedded PDF statement on the Citibank Australia website I just get a grey box where PDF should be.

Any solutiuons anyone? Citibank customer services are, well, useless (and I'm being polite).

[Selenor]

Hi, same problem here on an intranet web app.

Grey page, while a retry allow the user to see the file most of time.

I'm collecting datas about IE and windows version impacted.

object tag is writed as :

<OBJECT id=pdfViewer class="pdf" codeType=application/pdf width="100%" height="100%">

<param name="src" value="PagePdfViewer.aspx?p1=20052689&MODE=DocuView&p2=3"/>

</OBJECT>

There are some dom strange behaviours :

some tags are added : <PARAM NAME="_cx" VALUE="43920"><PARAM NAME="_cy" VALUE="24341"> but I can't see them in IE dev tools dom inspector, only in the InnerHtml property of the Object tag.

Additionaly the src param is shown in the dom inspector, but not in the innerHtml proprty...

This work thought on my developer computer, so probably not the cause of the issue.

Server side is (asp.net c#, filename is function parameter) :

FileInfo fi = new FileInfo(fileName);

Response.ClearHeaders();

Response.ClearContent();

Response.ContentType = "application/pdf";

Response.CacheControl = "No-cache";

Response.Cache.SetCacheability(System.Web.HttpCacheability.NoCache);

Response.AddHeader("Content-Length", fi.Length.ToString());

Response.AddHeader("Content-Disposition", "attachment" + "; filename=\"" + fi.Name + "\"");

int chunkSize = 8192;

byte[] buffer = new byte[chunkSize];

int offset = 0;

int read = 0;

using (FileStream fs = File.Open(fileName, FileMode.Open, FileAccess.Read, FileShare.Read))

{

    while ((read = fs.Read(buffer, offset, chunkSize)) > 0)

    {

        if (!Response.IsClientConnected)

            break;

        Response.OutputStream.Write(buffer, 0, read);

        Response.Flush();

    }

}

I'm currently unable to reproduce it under development platforms...

compression is not activated on IIS server side (in reference to the workaround for apache described in another thread)

Is there something I can push on server side to workaround the issue ?

Thanks for your support.

Regards,

[Selenor]

I'm currently unable to find why some computer have the issue, and some others not.

Issue founded on IE8 -XP, IE9 Win7 32/64, with or without compatibility mode, with or without protected mode.

Server side, the problem can occurs with or without IIS compression.

We are currently evaluating the possibility to block all reader update (even minor release), and force reinstall 10.1.0 on all computers (34.000 ...)

An adobe communication for a fix release date, or even a "we are working on it" message is welcome...

In the future, please create a major release if you introduce flakiness features, so we can evaluate the impacts before we authorize the upgrade through the "allow only minor release update" feature of adobe updated.

And test your software...

[Guest]

Having same issue,  get grey page when trying to open a PDF in IE8.

using  Win 7 (64 bit),  IE8,  Adobe 10.1.2

F5  or browser reload makes PDF viewable.

PDF"s were created by Cognos 7

New we are getting multiple calls (60- 70) on our Canadian helpdesk for the same issue  all users have 10.1.2 that are having issues. 

Issue does not occur with Adobe 10.1.1  we've tested in our GM Canada PC lab.

[J_Perkinson]

It appears that this issue has been going on at least since November 2010: http://forums.adobe.com/message/3305681

Windows 7 32 bit Adobe 10.1.2, Adobe plugins 10.1.2.45, IE9.  Only in IE, try to load a streamed(generated) PDF and it gets a blank gray screen.  If you switch tabs and come back it shows the previous (cached?) screen.  Hit refresh (f5) and it loads.  Redirecting so that it does not load in the browser works, but doesn't really fix the problem.

The actual cause (as discussed in another thread that I can't find at the moment) seems to be something about how IE interprets (or fails to) specific cachecontrol statements in the header of the PDF.  If I read it correctly, it doesn't pass that along to the Adobe plug-in, but when refreshed, it does.  The cache piece deals with the security of the streamed (generated at the time of request, say for a bank statement) PDF where they don't want your browser to be able to grab and store that information.  So when IE is told to not cache, it doesn't, and passes along nothing to the plug-in, so blank screen.  I don't recall the specifics as to why the refresh worked, though it was discussed.  It then went into server side (which I don't have access to in my situation) work around discussions and the discussion of why the cachecontrol is needed for secure documents.

It doesn't appear to happen with static documents (ones that have a link to an actual file on the web), but that may just be that most static documents don't come with the security concerns that require the special header info.

[carabele]

The pdf documents I was attempting to get were all from links on my own website and are most definitely static documents.  So this problem has to do with more that just those documents being told by IE not to cache.

By the by, those pdf documents were all created from Word file through the Adobe "cloud" app, CreatePDF.  So if there is something odd in the header of the pdf, that app is itself putting it there in the conversion process.

[J_Perkinson]

Oops. That’s what I get for reading too many similar threads and not being careful to recheck the original message before I comment. You are correct, the problem I am referring to is unrelated to yours.

[david_mcmahon · Accepted solution]

There is a patch available for an issue related to accessing PDF files from secure sites (i.e. HTTPS), where only a blank grey screen is displayed.  You can try the hotfix to see if it resolves your issue:

http://kb2.adobe.com/cps/930/cpsid_93026.html

[carabele]

Yes, this resolved the issue for me!

[GooglerPrincess]

This issue applies to all browsers or specific to IE only?

[Ankit_Jain]

The fix would fix the issue across all browsers, though the issue was specifically seen with IE only.