Trouble related to the Sharepoint foundation 2010 open PDF

Trouble related to the Sharepoint foundation 2010 open PDF

Hi Chester,

This is common problem which several others have been facing too. There's nothing wrong the version of adobe reader.

The problem lies elsewhere, this issue started with SharePoint 2010, its an intended feature and not a bug. Its due to SharePoint 2010 's mechanism of handling files being downloaded. SharePoint does not consider PDF's to be safe and thus it does not allow opening a PDF in the browser.

Several fixes and approaches are available which can help relax this behavior –

1. Approach 1 – It involves changing a setting so Strict to Permissive so that.
   1. Navigate to SharePoint 2010 Central Administration > Application Management > Manage Web Applications.
   2. Click General Settings available for your web application.
   3. Scroll down to Browser File Handling and choose Permissive.
   4. Save your changes by clicking Ok.
   5. Try opening a PDF and it should now open in the browser.
2. Approach 2 – While approach 1 solves the problem, it does so by slightly increasing the risks because with the setting change all documents can now open in the browser. So there exists a better and safer method which requires minor programming via PowerShell.
   1. Revert the setting change made in Approach 1 by setting Browser File Handling to Strict.
   2. get into the PowerShell and execute one by one the commands given below
   3. $webapp = Get-SPWebApplication <this will get your web URL>
   4. $webapp.AllowedInlineDownloadedMimeTypes.Add("application/pdf")
   5. This change will now allow PDFs to open in the browser, so try opening one and see if it opens.

Either of the approaches will definitely fix the issue, however, I would suggest taking Approach 2 route.