359670 - Opening some .pdf files creates endless series of tabs. Difficult to abort.

Status: RESOLVED WORKSFORME

(Firefox :: Tabbed Browser, defect)

Description

[Bill Shipp]

User-Agent:       Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.8.1) Gecko/20061010 Firefox/2.0
Build Identifier: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.8.1) Gecko/20061010 Firefox/2.0

When opening .pdf files, a seemingly endless series of tabs are created. Using Adobe Reader/Acrobat 7.0.8 (latest version). Problem CAN be avoided if .pdf file type assigned to open with Reader, not Firefox. Even after Firefox aborted, restarting results in browser opening in the same loop, sometimes regardless of clicking "start new session" in pop up. If "restore previous session" clicked, it always goes into loop. Uninstalling and reinstalling latest Adobe Reader/Plug-ins had no effect. Problem not seen with version 1.5.

Reproducible: Always




I can supply a pdf file where this happens every time. This seems to be different than all other .pdf file problems reported. I tried to see if I could overcome the problem via various setting in the PDF-Download Options extension but was not successful.

Comment 1

[Bob Clary [:bc] (inactive)]

Please attach the pdf that illustrates the problem to this bug or give its url on the web. I don't see this behavior on winxp.

Comment 2

[Bob Clary [:bc] (inactive)]

Bill I can't reproduce the problem you are seeing. Can you test this in safe mode <http://kb.mozillazine.org/Safe_mode> and see if you can reproduce? 

Comment 3

[Bill Shipp]

Symptom: Two entries for PDF are found in Tools-Content-Filetype table. The normal PDF entry's action is "Open with Adobe Reader". A second anomalous entry for PDF occurs and has no action associated with it. The entry reads "Open with ". In other words, there is a blank space for the application.

To create the 2 PDF situation, one can download a pdf. A window appears asking if you want to open the file with (Adobe Reader in this case) or save to disk. Check open with Adobe Reader. There is a check box for opening automatically for files of this type. Check this option box. After this option is checked, you find a SECOND PDF entry that says "Open with ". 

When the two PDF entries are present, I observe an endless series of tabs are created when I download a pdf or open one. When I remove the odd PDF entry without an assignment, things return to normal. When the 2 PDF assignments are present, it seems any pdf you try and open results in the creation of an endless stream of tabs.
Also note the program seems to restart on its own sometimes and must be aborted with the Task Manager.

Example pdf to test: http://www.tiaa-cref.org/pdf/f7381.pdf

Other test suggested by bclary: Problem can be repeated in SAFE-MODE.(In reply to comment #2)
> Bill I can't reproduce the problem you are seeing. Can you test this in safe
> mode <http://kb.mozillazine.org/Safe_mode> and see if you can reproduce? 
> 

Comment 4

[Henrik Skupin [:whimboo][⌚️UTC+1]]

Reporter, is it still a problem with Firefox 3.5.2?

Comment 5

[Henrik Skupin [:whimboo][⌚️UTC+1]]

WFM with Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.9.2a2pre) Gecko/20090905 Namoroka/3.6a2pre (.NET CLR 3.5.30729) ID:20090905053521