Aug 19, 2019

"Built in PDF viewer is missing"

I have about 20 users who are unable to get past the print preview screen when trying to print anything through Chrome.

The preview pane says "Google Chrome cannot show the print preview when the built-in PDF viewer is missing." The print menu on the left is stuck on a spinning icon.

Users who experience this issue will also get a "Couldn't load plugin" error if they try to open a PDF in Chrome, although this is resolved by changing the default app for PDFs back to Adobe.

Steps tried:

Resetting Chrome to default settings

Turning off PDF Isolation in chrome://flags

Uninstalling and reinstalling Chrome has resolved the issue for most users, I still have 3 who cannot print after reinstalling.

Details

Other Chrome Questions and Issues,Windows,Stable (Default)

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All Replies (20)

Shelby Daniel

Aug 26, 2019

I am having the exact same issue and it started the same day as well... I have tried EVERYTHING... I am 99% sure this has got to be a chrome/windows update conflict... help!!!

Zhou Chunting

Oct 2, 2019

I am having this problem on Mac OS High Sierra. My chrome version is 76.0.3809.132.

Jason Edwards 4818

Oct 7, 2019

We are currently running Windows 8.1 and it is affecting our computers as well. Before last Friday, I was able to just uninstall and reinstall Chrome and everything was fine. Lately, when i uninstall/reinstall, I still get the same error.

Google user

Oct 27, 2019

Also having this problem on High Sierra 10.13.6 with Chrome 77.0.3865.90

User 13823834647727217349

Nov 4, 2019

We have this issue for a few months now. It is only occurring on our Terminal Servers (which run Windows 2012 R2). Quite problematic for our finance people who drag-and-drop pdf's on an hourly basis ;).

JACKSON KUNNEL

Nov 4, 2019

In downloads pdf files I can't open directly

Google user

Nov 14, 2019

Having the same issue. Using chrome version 78.0.3904.87 in Windows 10.

Can't do my job either :(

User 39485547373

Dec 2, 2019

I am have the same issue:

Google Chrome Version 77.0.3865.120 (Official Build) (64-bit)

MacOS Mojave 10.14.6 (18G95)

Alex R 1656

Dec 4, 2019

Me too. Version 77.0.3865.120 (Official Build) (64-bit) on Mac OSX El Capitan 10.11.6

Alex R 1656

Dec 5, 2019

I just needed to restart Chrome for it to complete installing an updated plugin. Now it works.

Tech Services

Dec 26, 2019

Same problem running Version 79.0.3945.88 (Official Build) (64-bit). Uninstalled, reinstalled, don't know what else to try besides reimage the whole computer.

red phone

Jan 3, 2020

i was able to download my label and open in internet explorer and then it let me print

Trandafir-Iurist Octavian Ștefan

Feb 17, 2020

Hi guys! I believe I have the same problem here. The thing is that when I'm attaching a PDF file I use the preview pane from explorer to double check the file that I'm sending. The preview, as you can see in the attachment, is too small to see anything. The preview works just fine when accessing the file from windows explorer. I mention that I'm using a 4k monitor but this issue started only a few days ago as until then it worked OK. Also the preview works fine in Mozilla Firefox but I'm would prefer using Chrome!