PDF attachments in Outlook can sometimes be hard to open or view. There can be few reasons as to why that happens and what you can do about it. This article will go into details and will help you deal with any problems you might be facing regarding that.
PDF Attachment in Outlook
Do you receive a lot of PDF files as attachments with emails? Most users today use emailing platform to send and share files to another users across networks. The files attach to an email are attachments. PDF is the most common format (along with .doc) for reading text (and sometimes even embedded with images).
But to view those PDF files directly from Outlook without downloading may sometimes not work as expected. Many users report that when they click on the PDF attachment icon, it doesn’t open up for them. It may be possible that if you are on a different computer, there it works perfectly, but in your own computer, it’s not.
There are few reasons why it happens. Here are some of the most common ones and what you can do about it:
Check your Default Program to Open PDF Files:
PDF is quite common file type that you can open in several apps. The most popular is Adobe Reader, but there are many other, including Outlook’s own PDF file viewer. Check in Windows settings that the default app for PDF is properly selected.
To do that, go to ‘Settings’ → Search for ‘Default App Settings’ and open the “Default App” settings page. Scroll down and click “Choose Default apps by file type”, look for PDF file and select Adobe Reader to set the default app.
Check the Outlooks’ Trust Settings:
“Trust” settings are Universal to all Office programs including Outlook and it is where you can find the settings for privacy and security. Sometimes, a particular file type may be blocked in all Office programs. That may be the case with the PDF file type too.
To check, go to File → Options → Trust Center and open “Trust Center Settings”, Go to the “File Block Settings” tab and check if the PDF file type is not blocked. If the checkbox next to PDF is selected, uncheck it to allow the file.
Check Your Antivirus/Firewall/Defender Settings:
Often, an Antivirus might interfere with the email attachments. If you have a third-party antivirus installed on your PC, check in the settings if it is blocking the files of certain formats or all email attachments. If you don’t have any antivirus installed, check the Windows default Defender settings.
Download the PDF Attachments:
If nothing else works, the last option is to first download the file and then open it directly through Adobe Reader or any other app. This works almost all the time because the file is located locally on your machine and not as mere attachment to an email, which resolves a lot of conflicts that maybe the cause of the problem.
Hopefully, one of these solutions will work for you to view PDF attachments in Outlook. If not, try to rebuilt your identity or reinstall both Outlook and Adobe Reader to set all settings to default.