Firefox Plugin FAILURE and Mime/Types

[Cadillakin]

Out of the blue, I lost the function of the Xchange Viewer plugin within Firefox. Instead of loading the pdf file in a new tab - which is the normal behavior - FF now asks if I want to save or open that pdf file. And if so, what program should I open it with.

Since I'm getting to be an advanced troubleshooter with Xchange, it bothered me not!!

I'm posting to inform the programmers and others who might be having similar issues.. as I've seen two other threads in the forum, created on the basis that the FF plugin no longer properly functions, and instead tries to save the pdf file. This will be the 3rd such thread I have seen or participated in.

As I proceded with the basic troubleshooting, I noticed in FF Tools - Options - Applications that the Xchange file type was there listed as PDF Xchange Viewer Document, and its action was to "Use PDF Xchange in Firefox." That was properly setup a while back. Somehow that file association lost it's standing.. and no longer functioned like it did just days and weeks before. But there was another pdf file association in Applications called simply, "PDF File." The action associated with this file-type was "Always Ask." That latter association took precedence over the Xchange entries. Everytime I attempted to open a pdf file in Firefox, I was "always asked to save or open."

I know there shouldn't be two separate associations for pdf files within FF, but there was. I suspect that Adobe Reader which I installed a few weeks ago and uninstalled a few days ago had something to do with this issue. Adobe takes liberties with the registry and believes it is the most important application. Anything that came before it should get out of town. I'm guessing that those of us who have more than Xchange on our computers are making things much more difficult for the Xchange programmers to get everything right with the application paths and registry entries. They set something up, and Adobe and the other installed apps counteract or change it. I think accommodating Adobe as an alternate viewer might not be the best idea. I love the fact you guys want to do right by those of us who support you.. but Adobe has no such inclination or sense of fair play. They want to be the only player on our computers. They don't want to share with you.

Anyway, enough of the chat. The fix was to close FF, then delete mimetypes.rdf from the currently active profile in Firefox. The very next time I opened FF, I went back in to check the associations set (Tools - Options - Applications) and the duplicate pdf association; "PDF File," with the action of "Always Ask" was gone.

The Xchange association was back in action!

[Bhikkhu Pesala]

For a default install the file is found in:

C:\Program Files\Mozilla Firefox\defaults\profile

Deleting mimetypes.rdf didn't work for me. PDF files still open in the standalone reader from Firefox, although the plugin is installed and the plugin does work in Opera. I probably need to reinstall Firefox or PDF-XChange, or both.

[BigMike]

For a default install the file is found in:

C:\Program Files\Mozilla Firefox\defaults\profile

Deleting mimetypes.rdf didn't work for me. PDF files still open in the standalone reader from Firefox, although the plugin is installed and the plugin does work in Opera. I probably need to reinstall Firefox or PDF-XChange, or both.

I doubt you deleted the right file. Since I'm not using Firefox, I can't tell you the explicit path, but the current profile is saved beyond the %appdata% directory, not the %programfiles% directory by default. I think these are only templates, if you have to create a new profile, but don't influence your current setup.

[Cadillakin]

For a default install the file is found in:

C:\Program Files\Mozilla Firefox\defaults\profile

Deleting mimetypes.rdf didn't work for me. PDF files still open in the standalone reader from Firefox, although the plugin is installed and the plugin does work in Opera. I probably need to reinstall Firefox or PDF-XChange, or both.

I doubt you deleted the right file. Since I'm not using Firefox, I can't tell you the explicit path, but the current profile is saved beyond the %appdata% directory, not the %programfiles% directory by default. I think these are only templates, if you have to create a new profile, but don't influence your current setup.

That's correct. The wrong mimetypes.rdf was deleted. By default, Firefox creates the mimetypes.rdf file in the C:\Documents and Settings\(User Login Name)\Application Data\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles\(xxxxprofilename). I have a few different profiles that I've created for different purposes. Most users will have just one profile. The relevant profile is the one currently in use by Firefox. If there is more than one profile within that path, check file dates to see which profile is in use. Delete mimetypes.rdf from that profile.

[Vasyl-Tracker Dev Team]

Thanking you, colleagues.

We will check into it and decide how to deal with this issue with Firefox...