“I can’t view PDF’s in Safari 3.0 or 3.0.4… anyone know how to fix it?”
I’ve experienced this problem myself, starting with Safari 3.0 (beta) and then with the new Safari 3.0.4 in OS X Leopard. I’ve read numerous posts in forums but couldn’t seem to find a fix for it … UNTIL TODAY!
After many searches on the web and finding no solutions that worked, I used the info I had found, did some trial & error and figured it out on my own.
I’m using the Safari 3.0.4 browser in Leopard and Adobe Acrobat 8.1.1 Professional. Here’s what I did to make it work:
- 1: DELETE the AdobePDFViewer.plugin. From all the forums I read, they said to remove it from this location Harddrive/Library/Internet Plug-Ins. This was the only place I had been deleting it from and I still couldn’t view the PDF’s in Safari. THEN I discovered it’s also in another place… Users/”user name”/Library/Internet Plug-Ins. When I had deleted it from BOTH places, and then followed the next steps, I was finally able to view PDF’s in Safari again.

- 2: Now open Adobe Acrobat and go to Preferences. In the Preferences window, select Internet in the list on the left side. A list of options will show up. (see pic below) Check the box Display PDF in browser using: and in the drop down menu, select your version of Acrobat. Then click on OK.
3: Still in Acrobat, click on Help in the menu bar and select Repair Acrobat Installation.

4: In the window that comes up, check the box Adobe PDFViewer Safari Plugin. Then click on Continue and a fresh version of the PDFViewer plugin will be installed.

That should be it. Now fire up Safari and open up a PDF file.
This is all I did and it worked for me.
Let me know if it works for you… please leave a comment.

Unfortunately this procedure did not work for me.
I could find not 2nd version of the AdobePDFViewer.plugin anywhere in the users file
Following through with the rest of the procedure did not work for me.
But at least this is something to work from..I haven’t had any success through other means.
So thanks
RE: Issues
What version of Acrobat are you using?
What Operating System?
It work’s perfectly!
thank you
OS 10.4.11, Reader 7.0.9
Still grey page on some pdf
Re: Christian
Have you tried upgrading to Acrobat Reader 8.1.1?
It could be that some of the PDF’s you’re trying to view aren’t compatible with 7.0.9.
Thanks, it worked.
I also did not find anything in the users file but emptied the trash. Then followed the remaining steps and “repaired” the safari plug in and it works.
Thanks again.
I found your helpful page through a Google search. I did find the Adobe PDF Viewer plugin in the Internet Plug-ins folder on my hard drive (not in my user Library, just in the hard drive Library), and I deleted it. I’m delighted to report that not only does it work– it allows me to view PDFs in Safari’s own PDF viewer rather than Adobe’s. It seems Adobe would like to be one’s PDF viewer of choice, but I prefer to stick with Safari’s own and Preview (on the Mac, of course).
Re: Daniel Greene
Good to hear that it worked for you.
As a Graphic Designer I still prefer to use Adobe Acrobat Professional to view, edit, save, etc. my PDF’s in Safari.
I have used the Preview app to view PDF’s in Safari and it does work very well, actually alot FASTER than Acrobat if you ask me.
Brilliant, worked for me as well. Even with 7.09.