Crashes when loading PDFs
There are a couple of know causes for Firefox crashing when loading PDF files...
Download Embedded extension
The Download Embedded extension can cause Firefox to crash when trying to load a PDF file. You can disable this extension by following the steps below:
- At the top of the Firefox windowOn the menu bar, click the Tools menu and select Add-ons. The Add-ons window will open.
- In the Add-ons window, select the Extensions panel if it is not already selected. The set of installed extensions is displayed.
- Select Download Embedded to display the "OptionsPreferences", "Disable", and "Uninstall" buttons for that extension.
- Click the
Disable
button. - Download Embedded will be disabled when you restart Firefox.
User agent longer than 128 characters
The user agent is the text that Firefox reports to websites and external programs identifying its version. With some versions of Adobe Acrobat Reader, when Firefox has a user agent that has been modified to be unusually long (over 128 characters) Firefox will crash when loading PDFs.
- In the Location bar, type about:config, and press EnterReturn.
- In the Filter box, enter the following: general.useragent. This will show only the preferences that contain the text general.useragent.
- For each of these preferences that begin with general.useragent, right-clickhold down the Ctrl key while you click on the preference and select Reset. This will return your user agent to the Firefox default.