Monday, September 9, 2013

Issue with JSTOR & PDFs while using Firefox

Hi folks.  The library staff was alerted to a problem that users were encountering when trying to open PDFs while using Firefox to search in the database JSTOR.  After looking into the technical aspects on the college's end, here's the update that was recently posted by JSTOR Technical Support that we wanted to share with the Coe community:

"With the release of Firefox 23 on August 16, users began to experience problems downloading JSTOR PDFs through the built-in PDF viewer in Firefox. The viewer does not display our PDFs optimally, which may result in slow loading times or download errors. Users report that downloading a PDF through the viewer results in an error message that the file is corrupted or damaged, which prevents users from opening or using the file.

We are aware of this issue and our technical team is currently investigating this problem. We intend to use this page to update users on this issue, and we appreciate your patience as we work to solve this problem as quickly as possible.

As a workaround, we recommend one of two options. You could try a different browser, such as Internet Explorer or Google Chrome. If this is not an option, open the PDF as you normally would. Then, right click anywhere on the page and select "Save Page As...". This will allow you to save the PDF to your computer and should allow for a faster, more successful download. You can then open the file with another PDF viewer (such as Adobe) and use the print controls to print the article.

We are very sorry for the inconvenience this issue may cause. Any questions you may have can be directed to JSTOR Support."

So, in this case, it's not us, it's them.  If you are in JSTOR and experiencing problems, please to refer to the workarounds listed above while doing your research.  Apologies for the inconvenience, here's hoping that JSTOR gets things figured out soon!

-Katelyn, Head of Reference

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