PDF Does Not Display on iPhone?

  • Resolved suchipsa

    (@suchipsa)


    2 years, 5 months ago

    I am using the free version of PDF Embed. The embedded PDF displays correctly on a desktop, but does not display on an iPhone in Chrome. Instead, it shows an empty PDF embed frame. In general I put the PDF embeds inside a content toggle, as shown in the page example I provided the link for, but I modified the page for you so the embed is shown outside the content toggle as well, so you can see they both have empty frames when viewed on an iphone.

    On an iphone and Safari, the pdf outside the content toggle displays properly, but inside the content toggle it does not.

    Thank you for your help. I really like PDF Embed and use it a lot on this site. I wish there was a way to allow for embedding it in a “closed” state, that could open by clicking on it. That’s why I had to resort to using the content toggle.

    (EDIT: I did some reading, and see that mobile results are not guaranteed with the free version. Do you think if I upgrade to Premium the phone display issue will resolve?)

    • This topic was modified 2 years, 5 months ago by suchipsa.
    • This topic was modified 2 years, 5 months ago by suchipsa.

    The page I need help with: [log in to see the link]

Viewing 3 replies - 1 through 3 (of 3 total)

  • Hi @suchipsa,

    There are a couple things that you can try if you are experiencing crashing or blank pages:

    1. Take a look to see if your site is caching content differently in mobile devices vs. desktop devices. This is a very common thing and likely to produce errors in the mobile environment (scripts aren’t loaded so the viewer can’t be rendered). Please see https://wp-pdf.com/kb/using-caching-or-minifying-plugins/
    2. Decreasing the file size of the original document as this can cause the file to timeout when requested from the server. We have seen some remarkable compression from this free service https://www.ilovepdf.com/compress_pdf that has helped other customers in the past. This will save data and decrease the loading time for your users in any case
    3. Check the formatting of the document when it was created as a PDF, in particular, look at how the images have been added and if there are any layers or transparencies. These should be flattened when the PDF is rendered as they can create blank pages or other discrepancies in the appearance from the original.
    4. You can also try the following to see if it makes a difference:
    • Open the PDF with Acrobat DC
    • Select “Save as another type”, and Select PDF/A type.
    • Replace with the standard PDF file.

    About PDF/A type: https://helpx.adobe.com/acrobat/using/pdf-x-pdf-a-pdf.html

    Once you adjust the file format, upload it to your site (I would recommend altering the file name slightly so you know you are loading the revised document), and embed it again.

    • Finally, another possibility would be the fonts used within the PDF. Using a more universal font such as Arial / Helvetica may fix the issue.

      • There are some additional options that are availabe in the paid versions of the plugin; however, iOS is quirky so I would recommend going through the above first to see if those options help as they would also help with the paid plugin performance.

    • This reply was modified 2 years, 5 months ago by PDFG Support. Reason: fixed list formatting
    • This reply was modified 2 years, 5 months ago by PDFG Support.
    Thread Starter suchipsa

    (@suchipsa)

    Thank you for this useful information, I will look into these suggestions.

    Can confirm the PDF embed shows on a laptop (Windows/Chrome) but not on iPhone or iPad (Safari). I just get the title with a hyperlink to the PDF file.

Viewing 3 replies - 1 through 3 (of 3 total)
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