You’ve clicked on a link that should open a PDF in Safari. The link goes through, but you can’t see the PDF—there’s just a gray background.
You can Control-click on the PDF, and your Mac says there’s a PDF there, but you just can’t see it. Refreshing the page doesn’t fix anything, nor does restarting Safari.
I’ve been in this unusual situation before, and I can help you fix it. Read on to see how to view a PDF that Safari won’t open, and how to fix Safari so other PDFs will be visible in the future.
The Quick Fixes
If you can’t see or load a PDF in Safari, one of the easiest fixes is to stop using Safari to try to view the PDF. This means copying the PDF’s URL from Safari and pasting it into another browser, like Chrome or Microsoft Edge (Edge works very well on Macs, for the record).
If you don’t want to open another browser though, you do have another option.
If you can Control-click on the PDF to download it or click the download button available for the PDF in the Safari window, do so. You can then open and view the PDF in Preview or your preferred PDF-viewing Preview alternative. You can drag the PDF into the Trash if you don’t end up needing it after you read it. And if you do need it in the future, you’ve already downloaded it!
These options work well, but maybe you really just want to be able to open PDFs in Safari. There are ways to do that, too, which we’ll go over in the next section.
How to Get Safari to View PDFs Again
The first place to check when you can’t view PDFs in Safari is your Safari plug-ins or extensions. It’s possible one of them is hiding the PDF from you or affecting Safari in a negative way.
To access your Safari plug-ins or extensions, open Safari > Preferences and then head to the Websites tab. Scroll down the menu on your left, and you should find the Plug-ins or Extensions headings.
Click on any plug-in in this list to see a list of current websites and whether that plug-in is working on the website where you have the PDF open. If it is, set the drop-down menu beside it to Off. Then refresh the PDF, and see if it’s visible.
With extensions, set their drop-down menus to Deny to prevent them from working. Though, if an extension is the root of the problem, it might be worth updating or removing the extension entirely to see if that improves your PDF visibility issues.
But what if you don’t have any plug-ins or extensions in your Safari preferences? Or you’ve demonstrated that they’re not the issue with seeing PDFs in Safari? The problem-causing plug-in might be hidden away in your Mac Library instead.
Specifically, the AdobePDFViewer plug-ins are likely to be the root of your problem. To find these plugins and remove them, so PDFs become visible in Safari again, head to Finder > Go > Go to Folder.
In the search window that appears, type in or copy and paste /Library/Internet Plug-ins. Locate and select all files with AdobePDFViewer in the name in the Internet Plug-Ins Finder window, and drag them into your Trash.
Your Mac may prompt you to input your password or use Touch ID to confirm you want to move these plug-ins. Do whichever you want to ensure those files go into your Trash.
Refresh the Safari window where you’re trying to view a PDF. The PDF should now be visible to you!
Different Safari PDF Visibility Fixes for Different Moments
I was very excited to find several solutions to the invisible PDF problem in Safari, and I hope my findings can help you out too.
Whether you’re happy opening PDFs in non-Safari browsers to save time or are eager to delve into your Mac’s library to improve your workflow in Safari over the long term, the tips above will help you view PDFs online when you need them.
