[Bug]: Cant render PDF:s on any phone devices. Neither with custom code or with pdf.js example app

[DanielssonWilliam]

Attach (recommended) or Link to PDF file

On desktop: Renders correctly

On phone: Does not render

I have had problem rendering PDF:s on phone devices on my project using PDF:js. I first thought it was my fault. But after doing very heavy testing I have come to the conclusion that it most likely is a bug in pdf.js. Which I found wierd that no one has reported yet.

The bug is present on both iOS and Android and on all standard mobile web-browsers. Chrome, Safari, Firefox, Edge

I can get the pdf renderer to work no problem on desktop by cloning down the pdf.js repository and running the mobile-viewer example app.

But when running the same example on a phone. Emulator or real device then it is just blank. Nothing renderers.
The example uses a local PDF file. So it cant be CORS related. And I run in to the same problem when using my own PDF renderer in my own project that uses pdfjs-dist v. 5.2.133 which is the latest as of today.

I have also tried with lower versions and they have faced the same problem.

By doing some debugging I have found that it is the getDocument() function that is not resolving that is causing this problem. It fails silently which makes the pdf never load since it cant retrieve the document. This happens with local documents as well as documents that is fetched over the internet. Even mozillas own demo documents that are hosted does not load.

Web browser and its version

Google Chrome: Version 136.0.7103.48

Operating system and its version

macOS Version: 15.3.2 (24D81)

PDF.js version

pdfjs-dist: 5.2.133 and also latest version from cloning the repository and running the mobile-viewer example

Is the bug present in the latest PDF.js version?

Yes

Is a browser extension

No

Steps to reproduce the problem

How to replicate

• Clone down the pdf.js repo

git clone https://github.com/mozilla/pdf.js.git

cd pdf.js

• Run

npm install

• Go into webserver.mjs and replace

this.host = host || "localhost";

with

this.host = "0.0.0.0";

To be able to run it on a phone by hosting the app over the local network instead of localhost.

• run gulp dist-install and run gulp server
• Open the app on any physical phone device by entering your local networks ip-address followed by :8888/examples/mobile-viewer/viewer.html
• See that the renderer is white and nothing renders.
• Open the same link on your desktop device and see that it renders correctly

What is the expected behavior?

The PDF should render the same way as it does on a desktop in mobile-view. See image:

What went wrong?

Page is blank on any phone device, emulator or physical. And on both Android and iOS on any mobile browser. Firefox, Chrome, Safari or Edge

Example is on a Android emulator. But same behaviour is observed on a physical Iphone 12 device.

Link to a viewer

No response

Additional context

No response

[Snuffleupagus]

You probably need to use the legacy build, note https://github.com/mozilla/pdf.js/wiki/Frequently-Asked-Questions#faq-support

[DanielssonWilliam]

Hey thanks for reaching out :D

Why was this moved to a discussion? Is not not a bug?

Also I tried your recommendation and used one of the legacy workers instead. And those produced the same problem

[Snuffleupagus]

Why was this moved to a discussion? Is not not a bug?

Because so far it seems to suggest a configuration "error", rather than an actual bug.

Also I tried your recommendation and used one of the legacy workers instead. And those produced the same problem

It's not really sufficient to just change the worker-file, you need to replace all files with their legacy counterparts.

---

Please see https://github.com/mozilla/pdf.js/blob/master/.github/CONTRIBUTING.md (emphasis mine):

If you are developing a custom solution, first check the examples at https://github.com/mozilla/pdf.js#learning and search existing issues. If this does not help, please prepare a short well-documented example that demonstrates the problem and make it accessible online on your website, JS Bin, GitHub, etc. before opening a new issue or contacting us in the Matrix room -- keep in mind that just code snippets won't help us troubleshoot the problem.

[nicolo-ribaudo]

@DanielssonWilliam Can you try https://mozilla.github.io/pdf.js/web/viewer.html? It's working for me both on Chrome and Firefox for Android.

[wyaoting]

Hello friend, have you solved your problem

[DanielssonWilliam]

Hello. No unfortunately not. I just accepted that it seemed to be a legacy browser compatibility issue, as these problem does not appear when using the latest version of the OS. So I just handled the edge cases as I described in my comment

[wyaoting]

Okay, there's currently no other way

[DanielssonWilliam]

Not as far as I have found at least

[wyaoting]

Hello friend, I found that "pdfjs-dist": "^ 2.5.207" is compatible with iOS 16 version Perhaps you can give it a try