Tell me more ×
Ask Different is a question and answer site for power users of Apple hardware and software. It's 100% free, no registration required.
up vote 10 down vote favorite
3

In Safari, the default PDF-Viewer in Safari is "Preview".

Unfortunately, since I installed the Acrobat Reader, this default changed to the Acrobat Reader, which is extremely annoying.

How can I change this back to "Preview"?

share|improve this question

2 Answers

up vote 12 down vote accepted

Go to the "Help" menu in Safari and select "Installed Plug-ins". This will open a new tab displaying information about all of the currently installed plug-ins. Find the entry for Adobe Acrobat. Below it will be a line that reads something like:

Adobe® Acrobat® Plug-in for Web Browsers — from file “AdobePDFViewer.plugin”.

Note the name of the file from that line.

On your hard drive you will find a Library folder. In that folder will be another folder called Internet Plug-Ins. Inside that folder you should find the file that was shown in the "Installed Plug-ins" tab. The full path should be /Library/Internet Plug-Ins/AdobePDFViewer.plugin. That file needs to be deleted. Dragging it to the trash will do the trick.

If you are not sure you want to delete the file, you can move it to another location. For instance, you could create a new folder named "Disabled Plug-Ins" in the "Installed Plug-Ins" folder, and move the file to the new folder.

Then quit & relaunch Safari.

Adobe acknowledges this is a "known issue" and recommends this procedure.

share|improve this answer
up vote 3 down vote

A thread on macworld covers this. Should work by either by removing the plugin from the internet plugins folder or by changing the settings in the Adobe Reader preferences. The plugin is pretty annoying, I never installed the Adobe Reader again.

share|improve this answer
Changing the preference in the Acrobat viewer app (either Reader or Acrobat) is probably better; I have a feeling that if you remove the plugin, then Acrobat will think that it's install is "damaged" and may pester you to "repair" it. This might not seem like an issue, but intentionally creating a false positive doesn't help you detect when the installation is damaged for some other reason. – Viktor Haag May 25 '11 at 12:59
2  
Unfortunately the "Display pdf in browser using..." was not uncheckable (grayed out). Adobe Reader is an incredible trashy application on the mac! – daefu May 30 '11 at 6:56
1  
Whilst this may theoretically answer the question, it would be preferable to include the essential parts of the answer here, and provide the link for reference. – daviesgeek Apr 26 '12 at 16:33

Your Answer

 
discard

By posting your answer, you agree to the privacy policy and terms of service.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged or ask your own question.