How to disable the built-in PDF viewer in Opera [closed]

Asked 6/5, 2015 at 7:36 Answered 12/1, 2019 at 18:30

Opera 29 comes with a built-in PDF viewer. PDFs are now opened with this viewer by default. How can I configure Opera to use an external plug-in (like Adobe reader) instead?

I could not find any preferences in Opera to configure how to handle certain mime types.

Bridoon answered 6/5, 2015 at 7:36 Comment(4)

I don't think that the Acrobat plug-in does support Opera; so, the best thing you could do is to deactivate the built-in PDF viewer and force a download. – Grisby 7/5, 2015 at 6:37

Deactivating the built-in PDF viewer would help. Is there a way to do that? – Bridoon 7/5, 2015 at 12:56

Here in October 2017 it is in the settings menu. If you Check the box it looks for an external "default PDF Viewer" but if you leave it unchecked it will do it internally. Note that this affects the print function, so choose wisely. i.e., let Opera keep to itself and not to use an external - Unless you install the Print add-on. – Hereat 3/10, 2017 at 18:14

Also, keep in mind that by now we have all learned to remove all Adobe products from our systems. They are malware disguised as useful products. Flash and Reader are the two worst. They are rife full of exploits and there are plenty of other PDF viewers out there. Flash is now gone (except for on hulu) in favor of HTML5. – Hereat 3/10, 2017 at 18:16

Opera's plug-ins are deeply hidden in a developer menu. To show them (in Opera 29.0) select the following:

Main menu > "More tools" > "Show developer menu"
Main menu > "Developer" > "Plug-ins"
Button "Disable" for "Chrome PDF Viewer"

This brings back the system's PDF Viewer.

Council answered 27/5, 2015 at 8:44 Comment(2)

That's what I was searching for. Works perfectly. Thanks Holger! – Bridoon 1/6, 2015 at 9:16

Thanks man. I have to admit that it's getting more or more annoyed because programs are made for stupid people... more and more settings are removed or hidden unnecessarily. Hopefully Vivaldi wont follow this Chrome/Opera trend. – Ditch 22/11, 2016 at 11:20

I am posting this answer from Opera 43.0, which has recently updated. For me, the "Disable" checkbox for the Chromium PDF Viewer cannot be toggled off.

Instead, in Settings > Basic > PDF documents, toggle Open PDF files in the default PDF viewer application checkbox. With that, PDF files are not open in browser, but in your default desktop application instead.

Using Opera 46.0 the check-box instead is found under: Settings/Websites/PDF documents

Collyer answered 10/3, 2017 at 7:56 Comment(1)

In Opera 55, the "Search settings" box located in the settings (upper right corner) helped me find the checkbox. – Tankersley 24/9, 2018 at 8:5

Just enable the check-box by the following settings-path

opera://settings/content/pdfDocuments?search=pdf

Obligatory answered 12/1, 2019 at 18:30 Comment(2)

Couldn't find the setting using other methods, but this one found it, thanks! – Venus 30/6, 2020 at 9:9

Thank you very much, I was unable to find it until I try your link – Cormick 6/9, 2022 at 15:8

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