Cognos Tech Tip: Case of the Corrupted PDF File

Case of the corrupted pdf file in Cognos

Recently one of our clients experienced an issue with a Cognos report that was not correctly saving as a PDF. When they tried to reopen the report from their computer it kept giving them the error “the PDF file is corrupted”.  We spring into action helping our client anyway possible, tirelessly testing Cognos prompts, running multiple reports with different prompt scenarios, clearing browser cache, restarting services. Though our brains smoking and diagnostic rivers are slowing like molasses, WE FIND THE SOLUTION.

As wonderful as Chrome is, I’m sure most of this audience would agree, there’s something not quite right with the default PDF viewer ”AKA Chrome PDF Viewer” that Google has integrated. Sure, it’s nice to have the capability to view PDF’s within your browser right out of the gate, but it leaves us feeling like our systems, that we spend hours working on and in, have flaws.

So you may be asking, Mike, how do we fix this flaw? Is it difficult? Do I need to call IT to help me reprogram my computer? Well maybe, but this task can actually be tackled by doing these 5 simple steps:

  • 1.  Make sure you install the latest version of Adobe Reader (as of this article it’s Version 11)
  • 2.  Go to plugins for chrome by browsing here
      • chrome://plugin
  • 3. Disable all PDF viewers
      • Chrome PDF Viewer = Disabled
      • Nitro PDF Plugin for Chrome and Firefox = Disabled
  • 4. Enable Adobe Reader
  • 5. Retry the export with PDF