Waterfox: Previewing large PDFs freezes Waterfox

[flolilo]

Describe the bug
If you open a (large enough) PDF in Waterfox's preview, Waterfox will permanently freeze.

To Reproduce

1. Have Waterfox set to preview PDF-files (default)
2. Open any larger PDF in-browser (preferably in a new tab). Here's an example of a file It does not matter if the PDF was already visited before or not.

Now, the load-circle in the PDF's tab-header is spinning ad infinitum, while all other tabs freeze (i.e. you cannot write into text boxes any more). Closing the PDF-tab does not un-freeze Waterfox. Task Manager does not show any network activity at all.

Other browsers like Firefox and Vivaldi do not show this behavior.

Edit: Now something interesting has happened: While I can reproduce this behavior when opening a link to a file at duckduckgo.com or stackexchange.com, I cannot reproduce it when opening my example file from this very issue. Perhaps it would be best, then, to look up any camera's manual (e.g. Canon EOS 5D Mark IV manual) in DuckDuckGo to reproduce this issue.

Edit 2: What I already tried:

• Safe mode _(no change)_
• Creating a new profile _(no change)_
• (De)activating plug-ins _(no change)_
• Deactivating my Antivirus _(no change)_

Expected behavior
PDF should load, Waterfox should not freeze (obviously ;-) )

Screenshots
Can deliver a screen capture, if you need that.

Desktop (please complete the following information):

• OS: Windows 10 Pro v1803 x64, latest updates. Multiple systems with different hardware configurations are subject to this bug.
• Windows Defender as A/V
• Waterfox: 5.6.2.2 & 5.6.2.3 (64 bit)

[grahamperrin]

Initial load of http://gdlp01.c-wss.com/gds/0/0300024970/01/eos5d-mk4-im-en.pdf in 56.2.2 on FreeBSD-CURRENT:

• no problem.

From the properties dialogue:

• File size: 36.1 MB (37,840,304 bytes)
• Creator: FrameMaker 6.0
• PDF Producer: Acrobat Distiller 6.0.1 (Windows)
• PDF Version: 1.5
• Page Count: 676

Is the issue reproducible with Waterfox in safe mode?

[flolilo]

Yes, the problem persists in Safe Mode.

As said, it is interesting that I cannot reproduce it reliably when I click on my own link here at GitHub, while on every other site I use (and click on PDFs) this problem is there 100% of the time. It is not even specific to this PDF - any PDF that has more than, say, a few MB will lead to a permanent freeze.

[grahamperrin]

Thanks. Reproducible with a new profile?

• about:profiles

[flolilo]

Just tested this now - same behavior as with the default profile.
As said, this problem occurs on all computers that I maintain - all have Win10 v1803 x64 installed, but here, the similarities end.

Thanks for the great support!

[Squall-Leonhart]

antivirus url filtering

[grahamperrin]

about:plugins

What's there?

[flolilo]

• OpenH264-Videocodec 1.7.1
• Widevine Content Decryption Module 1.4.8.1008
• AdobeExManDetect 1.1.0.0 _(deactivated)_
• WacomTabletPlugin 2.1.0.7 _(deactivated)_
• VLC Web Plugin 3.0.3.0

As to Antivirus: I am using Windows's Defender. Tried deactivating it just now: No difference in behavior.

[grahamperrin]

… Edit: … cannot reproduce it when opening my example file …

This reminds me of a recent _Firefox_ for Windows (10) case that ended as inexplicably as it began:

• Firefox PDF Preview not working for already downloaded files : firefox

Try this:

1. about:preferences#applications
2. for PDF, prefer anything other than _Preview in Waterfox_
3. exit
4. start Waterfox
5. reopen a previously affected PDF (how, exactly, do you choose to reopen?)
6. about:preferences#applications
7. for PDF, revert to _Preview in Waterfox_
8. exit
9. start Waterfox
10. reopen the previously affected PDF.

Is it previewed?

If not:

• for test purposes, create a new profile.

---

Defocusing from Waterfox (which I began using only a few months ago) and PDF: over the years I have lost count of the number of times that Firefox stubbornly refused to respect application handling preferences. Maybe more often bugged on Windows than on other platforms.

I lost track of relevant bugs (sorry) but I did get a sense that Mozilla fixed a few things. Maybe this Waterfox case has remnants of one of those bugs.

When you first used Waterfox, can you recall, did you accept the invitation to import from Firefox?

[flolilo]

@grahamperrin There is no difference in trying it with already downloaded files or new ones. Also, that reopen-sequence (I tried that before, but without knowing about this issue) does not help.

When you first used Waterfox, can you recall, did you accept the invitation to import from Firefox?

No, as I have not even had installed Firefox at the time of installing Waterfox - I just tried to reproduce this issue with it later on. Also, I did not import anything from other browsers.

Note: I updated the initial post, so that people do not have to read through all of it again.