uploading a PDF via Firefox, told the file is not a PDF
I know the way to fix this problem is by deleting or renaming mimetypes.rdf in my firefox profile. The only problem is that on several computers, the problem is repeatable. I have one user that has to delete or rename the mimetype.rdf file in her profile every day.
Yesterday I created a brand new firefox profile for the user and only imported her bookmarks. Nothing else. Today she was unable to upload a pdf to a website, she was told her file "wasn't a pdf." I deleted her mimetypes.rdf and we were able to upload the pdf.
Any idea what could cause this to repeat on the same pc even with a new firefox profile?
User has a Windows 7 64bit pc using Firefox 29.0.1. All Windows updates are current. Adobe Reader 11.
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I don't have an immediate answer for you. Could you save the "working" mimeTypes.rdf file and compare it with a non-working mimeTypes.rdf file? If you do not have a tool you like, I usually use WinMerge for such things.
What I'm curious to know is what PDF-related differences you find in the working vs. non-working files.
I used winmerge to compare the 2 files. What info should I post for you to look at?
I'm interested in the PDF-related differences. I don't know if there is a way to copy them side by side, but you could paste those parts sequentially.
I am noticing that the "bad" file has a lot more entries than the good file for pdf. I can't get them side by side.
Good file <RDF:Seq RDF:about="urn:mimetypes:root">
<RDF:li RDF:resource="urn:mimetype:application/pdf"/>
</RDF:Seq>
<RDF:Description RDF:about="urn:mimetype:application/pdf"
NC:value="application/pdf"
NC:editable="true"
NC:fileExtensions="pdf"
NC:description="Adobe Acrobat Document">
<NC:handlerProp RDF:resource="urn:mimetype:handler:application/pdf"/> </RDF:Description> <RDF:Description RDF:about="urn:mimetype:handler:application/pdf"
NC:alwaysAsk="true"
NC:saveToDisk="true">
<NC:externalApplication RDF:resource="urn:mimetype:externalApplication:application/pdf"/> </RDF:Description>
Bad file
<NC:externalApplication RDF:resource="urn:mimetype:externalApplication:application/pdf"/>
</RDF:Description>
<RDF:Description RDF:about="urn:mimetype:application/pdf"
NC:fileExtensions="pdf"
NC:description="Adobe Acrobat Document"
NC:value="application/pdf"
NC:editable="true">
<NC:handlerProp RDF:resource="urn:mimetype:handler:application/pdf"/> </RDF:Description>
<RDF:Seq RDF:about="urn:mimetypes:root">
<RDF:li RDF:resource="urn:mimetype:application/pdf"/>
<RDF:Description RDF:about="urn:mimetype:application/x-download"
NC:value="application/x-download"
NC:editable="true"
NC:fileExtensions="pdf"
NC:description="Adobe Acrobat Document">
<NC:handlerProp RDF:resource="urn:mimetype:handler:application/x-download"/> </RDF:Description>
<RDF:Description RDF:about="urn:mimetype:handler:application/pdf"
NC:alwaysAsk="true"
NC:useSystemDefault="true"
NC:saveToDisk="false">
<NC:externalApplication RDF:resource="urn:mimetype:externalApplication:application/pdf"/> </RDF:Description>
The main differences I see are:
(1) The options for how to handle PDFs are a bit different:
<RDF:Description RDF:about="urn:mimetype:handler:application/pdf" NC:alwaysAsk="true" NC:useSystemDefault="true" NC:saveToDisk="false"> <NC:externalApplication RDF:resource="urn:mimetype:externalApplication:application/pdf"/> </RDF:Description>
(2) An additional PDF content type is defined, which :
<RDF:Description RDF:about="urn:mimetype:application/x-download" NC:value="application/x-download" NC:editable="true" NC:fileExtensions="pdf" NC:description="Adobe Acrobat Document"> <NC:handlerProp RDF:resource="urn:mimetype:handler:application/x-download"/> </RDF:Description>
There is a bug on file about problems uploading when PDF is associated with the application/download or application/x-download content type, but it isn't solved, suggesting that no one has found the reason for the association.
Is it possible that the user is downloading a PDF that Firefox does not recognize as a PDF (because the site is sending the application/x-download content type), and the user assigned it to Acrobat, and this is how it gets added to mimeTypes.rdf?
Bug 373621 – File upload set mime type as application/download instead of application/pdf
Note about the bug tracking system: it's generally not helpful to add non-code-related comments to bugs (like "hurry up" or "me to"), but you can register on the Bugzilla site and "vote" for them to be fixed. See:
In this case today, I was the user. I was emailed a PDF, I saved it to my desktop, tried to upload it via FF and got the message the file wasn't a PDF. I deleted my mimetypes.rdf and tried uploading the same file and it worked no problem.
I made no changes to the PDF between the uploads. All I did was save it to my desktop.
The download was just a save without opening?
Can you tell me what email site it was (e.g., Yahoo, Gmail, Outlook/Hotmail, OWA, etc.)?
Just a save without opening from my google apps account. (Web based gmail)