Unable to see pdf documents on HMRC website

Unable to see pdf documents on HMRC website

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When filing VAT100s online with HMRC, I print off and save a pdf copy to my backup system. When a report was produced as pdf, I used to be able to see it.

However, I recently received a windows update and now when in HMRC's website, when I try to download a VAT100 as a pdf the screen is completely blank.

I believe that I need to make an amendment to my "folder options" in windows; that was how I originally sorted the problem but cannot seem to find the correct section in my windows again.

Can anyone kindly give me some pointers? Much appreciated.

Replies (18)

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By nogammonsinanundoubledgame
18th Jul 2011 19:53

Last time I had that problem ...

... I had to go to Tools/Internet Options/"Advanced" tab

then scroll down to Security settings

and uncheck "do not save encrypted page s to disc".

That was in IE version 8.

Your problem may be different

With kind regards

Clint Westwood

Thanks (1)
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By mrshamilton
18th Jul 2011 21:56

It's Adobe X

I had this problem and I think it's related to Adobe X, I had to uninstall it and reinstall Adobe 9 as I believe the HMRC site isn't compatible with the new version.

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x
By rockallj
19th Jul 2011 00:21

Don't think Abode Reader X is the problem as before my windows update, it seemed to be compatible with my W7.

So I tried Clint Westward's idea and it worked a treat.

 

Thanx guys and gals!

Pam.

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Euan's picture
By Euan MacLennan
19th Jul 2011 14:03

Mmm ...

We have the same problem - the address bar says "about blank" and nothing appears - but we use Firefox and Adobe X, so the "save encrypted pages" fix in IE8 does not help to us.  I am fairly sure that we only started having the problem after we installed Adobe X; I must admit that I don't like its interface as much, but I cannot be bothered to go back and re-install Adobe 9.

We get round the problem by right clicking on the PDF button and saving the file.  It then opens in Adobe X perfectly happily.

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By Swedish Chef
19th Jul 2011 14:55

Adobe X fix

Open Adobe Reader X (that always sounds so sinister to me!)

Click "Edit"

Click "preferences"

Click "internet" on the left hand side

Make sure the "Display PDF in browser" option is unchecked.

Click "OK".

This should work, though you have to save the pdf to your desktop first to view it.

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By mrshamilton
19th Jul 2011 16:20

Adobe 9

It was a bit of a hassle at first but am happier now I've back dated to Adobe 9 and it all works how it used to!!

What a pain though!!

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Euan's picture
By Euan MacLennan
19th Jul 2011 17:05

Adobe X

I have just received an ICAEW Tax Faculty Newswire on which one of the topics is the same as this thread.  Here is one of the comments:

"| by Janet on 19 July 2011, 16:29

The Revenue have confirmed that you will not be able to view statements if you are using Adobe Reader X. They have not yet found a "work around"" Now that I have looked at the VAT Service Issues, I can see it for myself.

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By Swedish Chef
19th Jul 2011 17:20

The fix I mentioned......

....does indeed work for SA and PAYE pdfs (but not tried it on VAT admittedly) - I know because I have done it on my own machine.

What's more, I followed the guidance from here  (solution 2)

http://customs.hmrc.gov.uk/channelsPortalWebApp/channelsPortalWebApp.portal?_nfpb=true&_pageLabel=pageOnlineServices_ShowContent&propertyType=document&id=HMCE_PROD1_029173

 Like others, up until Adobe X, the "do not save encrypted pages to disk" solution worked fine.  Only after installing Adobe X did it fail again, but the above fix soon sorted that out.

Running IE8 by the way.

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Euan's picture
By Euan MacLennan
19th Jul 2011 17:32

OK in IE8

I have tried it using IE8 and the fix does indeed work, but not in Firefox.  However, you can still right click and save the PDF file, then view it in Adobe X.

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John Stokdyk, AccountingWEB head of insight
By John Stokdyk
20th Jul 2011 14:01

You beat me to it

I get this problem intermittently too on sites other than HMRC. Since it's not a permanent issue, I found that Euan's trick of right-clicking and then opening the downloaded file in Acrobat works fine. It's become second nature to me these days.

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By honesty
20th Jul 2011 17:36

Happens to me too.

I have always found that to "file - save as" to the desktop or a folder of your choice results in a download, and the .pdf can then be opened.

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By Healthpay
21st Jul 2011 11:33

Adobe Acrobat is not ideal anyway

 Adobe software has a long and distinguished history of being buggy and open to abuse by malware. I recommend you avoid it totally and use PDF-Xchange PDF viewer, which is faster, safer and free.

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By jndavs
21st Jul 2011 14:18

Firefox
Euan,

I'm running Adobe Reader X, Firefox 5.01 and have not had any problems.

Do you have the Adobe Acrobat plug in (v 10.1.0.534) installed?

Under Tools=>Options=>Applications are the various Pdf options set to 'Use Adobe Acrobat (in Firefox)'?

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By KH
21st Jul 2011 16:30

Time to buy a Mac????

LOL!-- KH

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Euan's picture
By Euan MacLennan
21st Jul 2011 18:06

@jndavs

I think you have got it!

My Adobe Acrobat Document (application/pdf) was set to "Always ask".  I have changed it to "Use Adobe Acrobat (in Firefox)" like the other ones and now I can see the HMRC PDFs!

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By Blackfalcon
21st Jul 2011 18:14

PDF Problem

Hi

I had same problem when I install IE9. After installation I could not see or print any pdf files. I have tried to solve this problem by microsoft updates and made changes on the IE adjustments like other users recomended.

In the end I solved the problem by installing Firefox.

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By thepayrollsite
22nd Jul 2011 09:11

Problems with PDFs over secure Internet connections

I haven't checked on HMRC's site specifically, but when I tested other sites with a range of browsers and Reader versions, I found the problems were mostly associated with using Internet Explorer with the  "do not save encrypted pages to disc" option ticked.

As the behaviour depends on the exact headers supplied by the website, you don't get the same behaviour on each website.

The problems were made worse by the following

- Using Reader X (with any version of IE) or

- Using Internet Explorer version 9 (with any PDF viewer)

In IE9, with the "do not save encrypted pages to disc" option ticked, it won't even let you save the file to disc by choosing "Save Target As" from the right-click menu.  It goes through the motions and then gives you a vague error message, saying the file "could not be downloaded".  I think this is the same across all secure websites, as this setting in IE9 causes it to ignore site-specific caching headers.

I understand that previously, HMRC used a combination of caching headers that only worked with "do not save encrypted pages to disc" unticked, so they used to advise people to tick it.  That broke a load of websites that were designed to work in IE's default configuration.  With the new behaviour of Reader X and IE9, I think HMRC will need to revisit that decision.

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By Helpful Harry
31st Aug 2022 20:16

10 years down the line and this problem still exists. I have spent all day trying to access an HMRC PDF. I've only managed to do it with the help of this post. Thank you

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