PDF Forcedownload Blocker

This extension prevents webservers from forcing pdfs to download rather than open in browser

Total ratings

3.17 (Rating count: 41)

Review summary

These summaries are automatically generated weekly using AI based on recent user reviews. Chrome Web Store does not verify user reviews, so some user reviews may be inaccurate, spammy, or outdated.
Pros
  • Works as described for sites using '?forcedownload=1' in PDF URLs.
  • Can open PDFs directly from links if browser settings are configured properly.
  • Some users reported it working well in specific contexts (e.g., Smartsheet, Outlook).
Cons
  • Does not work on all sites or PDF links (e.g., GitHub releases, fcc.gov).
  • Some users experienced issues with the extension not preventing downloads at all.
  • Limited effectiveness with links that do not contain 'pdf' in the URL or differ in language.
Most mentioned
  • Doesn't work on many sites.
  • Requires specific browser settings to function correctly.
  • Works only in certain scenarios and many users find it unreliable.
See reviews for PDF Forcedownload Blocker on Chrome Web Store
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Recent reviews

Recent rating average: 2.70
All time rating average: 3.17
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Rating filters

5 star
34% (21)
4 star
7% (4)
3 star
10% (6)
2 star
13% (8)
1 star
36% (22)
Date Author Rating Lang Comment
2024-09-20
Santiago Panozzo
en People writing bad reviews don't understand what this extension is for. It's for those sites that append a "?forcedownload=1" to the end of PDF file URLs to force you to download them instead of reading on the browser. It will not prevent normal PDF downloads from happening. It works perfectly the sites that do add "forceDownload" to their PDFs
2024-04-04
Scott Davis
en doesn't work
2023-12-02
Frank K.
en Useless...browser immediately opens "save file" window.
2022-09-14
Forever Thatter
It sucks.
2022-09-14
Forever Thatter
en It sucks.
2022-03-30
Christoph Thiede
This sounds very promising, but it doesn't seem to work for GitHub releases such as this one: https://github.com/LinqLover/sonyx/releases/download/v0.2/sonyx-study-final.pdf
2022-03-30
Christoph Thiede
en This sounds very promising, but it doesn't seem to work for GitHub releases such as this one: https://github.com/LinqLover/sonyx/releases/download/v0.2/sonyx-study-final.pdf
2022-03-07
M. W.
Works as described! For those who say it doesn't: Make sure your default browser behaviour is also set to open PDFs instead of downloading them as this blocker only sets forcedownload=0. (For Chrome: Settings > Security and privacy > Site settings > Additional content settings > PDF documents)
2022-03-07
Luc Y.
en Works as described! For those who say it doesn't: Make sure your default browser behaviour is also set to open PDFs instead of downloading them as this blocker only sets forcedownload=0. (For Chrome: Settings > Security and privacy > Site settings > Additional content settings > PDF documents)
2021-12-07
Jay Bingham
It did not work for me on the web page where I tried it; the link still forces a download. The URL that I clicked does not contain PDF in it instead it has this string at the end: AttachmentViewer.ashx?AttachmentID=57723&ItemID=35671, which may mean that the extension will not detect that a PDF is is being forced to download, I don't know. I do know that if it does not work or only works in limited cases it is of little use to me.
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