Troubleshooting: PDF Documents not displaying all content in SharePoint Modern Document Library


PDF Documents not displaying all content in SharePoint Modern Document Library

PDF documents with filled in content (i.e. form fields that have been completed and saved) may not display properly in a SharePoint document library. The fields do not appear to be filled out unless the document is downloaded and reopened.

This affects:

Other types of PDFs that have issues rendering content in the browser are:

Files may only show partial content, open blank, or direct the user to use Acrobat Reader to open. This is because they feature Adobe proprietary functionality. The default MS previewer does not support custom Adobe features.

For some PDFs created with older Adobe suites, the files will not display in any browser--regardless if it is in SharePoint or not.

Troubleshooting

In the browser, PDF files will open in a Microsoft viewer. If the PDF does not render, select Open > Open in Browser.

If the PDF still does not open properly in the browser, then it is because of the PDF type and you'll need to move on the workarounds listed below.

Recommended Workarounds

  1. Switch the document library experience to classic. In the library, select Return to classic SharePoint (bottom left corner). Refresh your page. You can return to the modern look by selecting Exit classic experience. The .PDFs may open in the classic viewer and displayed the filled content. If they do not display in Classic mode then the issue is with the particular product used to create the PDF. Instructions can be found in here.
  2. Set up a connection to your Adobe program to open the SharePoint document directly in Adobe. Instructions can be found here.
  3. Use Sync to sync the SharePoint library to your File Explorer. In this case, the files will open in your default app for handling PDFs and not in the browser. Instructions can be found here.