Why do PDFs that I attach to transactions in my checking register no longer display in a new browser tab when I click the link, as they always have done before?

Same thing with vendors. Old attachments open in a new tab for viewing. Anything I upload now gives me the Save dialog when I click the file's link.

Good evening, @Roland12. 

I appreciate you coming here with your question about attachments in QuickBooks Online. 

To clarify, have you reviewed all the supported details of how the attachments should be entered/what should be? Here's a guide if not: 

Add or delete attachments

If so and none of these explanations cause the problem you're having, then I recommend clearing your browser's history. This should eliminate any errors or glitches that could be happening in your account. 

Come back if your issue persists. It's my priority that you're able to bring the attachment up into a new tab rather than downloading it. I'll be waiting for your response! 

Thank you, Candice. I had already cleared my browsing history but I did it again (All Time), and there is no change. I don't know how this can be a browser problem since it malfunctions on both Chrome and Safari, and on both my iMac and a Windows laptop. When I click a file in the attachments list (from Settings), the same thing happens: older files display, but the newer ones give me a Save dialog.

I didn't mention that I have been routinely attaching invoice PDFs to checking transactions for three years without ever having this problem. Something changed last Tuesday, and it does not appear to be a function of the browser or operating system.

I appreciate you giving out the details of your concern, @Roland12,

I wish you didn't have to go through some issues while using the program. To make sure that your concern will be addressed with utmost priority, I suggest contacting our QuickBooks Online Support Experts. 

Here's how: 

1. Select Help (?).
2. Click the Search tab to get started:
3. Select Contact Us.
4. Enter the topic of your concern.
5. Select Continue.
6. Choose either Chat, Appointment, or Callback.

You can contact us from Mondays to Fridays, 6 AM to 6 PM PT, and Saturdays 6 AM to 3 PM PT.

Feel free to reply to this thread if you need further assistance with your QuickBooks account. Keep safe. 

Thank you. I tried QBO support last week. We did a Glance screen-share session. The rep said she was sending my issue to a higher "tier" and that I would get an email from them, but I have not heard anything since then. She had me sign in to a QBO demo company and try attaching a PDF in the register there, and the same thing happened: instead of displaying the PDF in a new browser tab, a dialog opened to save the file. So:

• The problem does not appear to be a corruption of my company file, since it did the same thing with the demo company file.
• The problem does not appear to be in the browser, since it does the same thing with Chrome and Safari.
• The problem does not appear to be with the operating system or my computer, since it does the same thing on two different machines, one a Mac and the other running Windows 11.
• The problem is not confined to the checking register. New attachments to vendor profiles do the same thing, as do recent files in the attachment list, accessed through Settings.
• It's not just PDFs. I tried a PNG and it did the same thing, so it does not appear to be related to my system's default handling of PDFs. Are there any settings in QBO that govern how attachments are handled? I have not changed anything.

I have a case number. Should I request another call-back and give them that?

Meanwhile, the PDFs that I need to attach so that our records are complete keep piling up...

Hi there, @Roland12.

I do appreciate your time and effort in performing the troubleshooting steps provided by my colleague in this thread. I wish you didn't have to go through all these hurdles when opening a pdf. 

I can see that you've been promised a callback and escalation. Please know that there’s an ongoing investigation about previewing pdf document. 

I checked our resources and see that our team is actively working on your case. Since this is also a reported issue, I recommend contacting our Support Team again. This way, you’ll be added to the list of affected users so you’ll get notified of the progress. 

Here’s how:

1. Go to the Help icon.
2. Select the Search tab and click Contact Us.
3. Enter a brief description of your concern.
4. Hit Continue.

Here’s an article you can read adding attachments to customer and vendor profiles, as well as their transactions: Add or delete attachments in QuickBooks Online.

If you need help with navigating your QBO company, you can visit our website for tips and other resources for reference: QuickBooks Help articles. This will help you in managing your income, expenses, banking, inventory, and running reports.

Shoot me a reply if have any other pdf concerns or you need any other QuickBooks help. We're just around to assist you.

I've reported this issue twice, last week and yesterday.  Something happened on 11/8 as previous pdfs open for viewing.  This is happening in all 6 of our companies.  They escalated to the "back team" yesterday. 

Thank you, NHRiverGal! So I'm not losing my mind after all. 😖

I just ran into this issue today as well. After reading this thread I opened a chat with QB Support. First they tried to tell me that feature (to open attachments in a new browser window) was only available in the US. (I'm in Canada.) When I informed them that feature HAD been available to me until Nov. 8, they did some more checking and came back to say the backend team had changed that in the latest update. Here's hoping if enough of us complain about it, they'll change it back.

Thank you, Ashley. If what they told you is true, that is absurd. Now, to make sure I have the correct PDF attached to a transaction, I'll have to download the file that I just uploaded in order to view it? Crazy.

This might hasten my retirement from this volunteer bookkeeping position. And I'm sure my successor will not want to use QuickBooks Online.

That is an absurd answer Ashley!  The back team changed it last week, but didn't know notify the front line customer service reps and didn't give them an immediate answer when users started calling?   I've about had enough of QBO after using it for almost 2 years.  I was a dedicated QB Desktop user for over 20 years and can't believe how unfriendly QBO is to do actual bookkeeping and how they disable your ability to view your financial information in a useful way.  Whenever I get on the chat feature, I usually end up knowing more than the customer reps which is really discouraging.  The attachment feature has been rendered useless at this point so why even leave it on transactions?  I haven't received an email about the resolution for this issue at this point. 

I couldn't agree more, NH.

Back in the 1990s, I was using Quicken for my business. When we hired our first employee I got the payroll module to add on. Then one day I got a postcard (remember those?) from Intuit saying they had this great new product called QuickBooks, made just for business. I bought version 1.0. The '99 version was the best ever.

I also do the bookkeeping for our small church, so being retired now, that's all I need QB for. I switched to QBO when it came out. The support in the beginning was fabulous. I could get right through by calling the 800 number, and they always fixed the problem immediately, or at least told me why they couldn't.

Now the quality of support is just like other large companies. I have trouble understanding what the reps are saying, and they don't seem to know anything anyway. They are always very nice, and I try to keep my frustration under control. But as can be seen in this thread, they keep telling me to do the same useless things over and over, and seem to be completely in the dark about whether my issue has been reported by other users or might be related to a change in the program.

If somebody tells me one more time to clear my freaking browser cache...

Hello there, NHRiverGal, and Roland12. 

I can see that the change in how you view PDF attachments has cost you time and prevented you from seeing them easily. You can let our developers know that restoring the previous method of seeing or displaying attached files is beneficial to your business and other users. This will help them identify the feature our customers need the most and consider it in future updates.

To send feedback:

1. Head to the Gear icon in the upper right and choose Feedback under Profile.
2. This will open a window where you can enter your thoughts and ideas about the product.
3. Make sure to key in your product suggestions in the field box.
4. Click Next to submit it.

To learn more about the supported characters for your lists, as well as instructions on how to edit the company name, check out this article: Acceptable characters in QuickBooks Online.

You can also look through the Community guide for answers to help you complete your tasks quickly. There, you'll find resources for managing taxes, payroll, cash flow, and other accounting-related tasks.

Don't hesitate to leave a comment below if you have other QuickBooks concerns or additional questions about attaching transactions. I'd be delighted to assist further. Have a good one.

Done, thank you. Should I receive an answer soon?

I've been on with QBO chat line for the last 3 hours running through the same scenario over & over again.  Changing Google Chrome privacy settings, trying different browsers, attaching new pdfs and opening them with the same results and word just came from the higher tier that it's not a Quickbooks issue.  So, hey just keep paying your monthly fees, because we honestly don't make any programming mistakes here at Quickbooks.  Seriously want to spend my money with any other bookkeeping software company at this point.

Is there any way to see which release of QBO I am using? I found some instructions online, but they do not work. It seems that they do updates around the 6th of the month, so it makes sense that my problems began on 11/8. I think the last time I attached a file and had it display correctly was on 11/6.

My daughter's company just switched to QBO, and I asked her to try attaching a PDF this week. She said when she clicked the link, the PDF opened with Adobe Reader (not in a new browser tab as mine used to) and the dialog to save it also popped up. She said that aside from her test, they have not attached any files yet.

Thanks for reaching back to the Community, @Roland12. 

Allow me to give you the help you need. You'll know which version of QuickBooks Online (QBO) you're using in the Account and Settings window. 

I'll show you how to do it:

1. Login to your account.

2. Go to the Gear icon. Then, choose Account and settings.

3. Select the Billing & Subscription tab. From there, you can see the version of QuickBooks you're using.



Moreover, let me help you fix your concern about previewing PDF documents. To view the PDF attachment on a new browser, you'll need to enable it in the settings. 

In the Chrome browser, select the three vertical dots in the upper-right corner. Choose Settings, then click on Privacy and Security. Select Site Settings, then PDF documents. Change the settings to Open PDFs in chrome instead of downloading it. See the screenshot below.



Once done, try clicking the file's link again in your QBO account. This should now let you view the file in a new browser. 

You can also read about QuickBooks Online attachments to learn more about the feature.

Come back if your issue persists or if you have any other questions about QuickBooks attachments. I'm always willing to assist you with your concern. Keep safe and have a nice day!

It should be obvious from my question that I am not talking about the "version" as you describe it (QuickBooks Plus or whatever). I know how to find that and it is irrelevant to this discussion. I'm talking about the "changes and improvements" that Intuit rolls out (monthly, as nearly as I can tell). I read somewhere that the most recent one was on November 6. My problem with not being able to view newly-uploaded PDFs in a Chrome tab began exactly on the first day that I used the program after November 6.

I checked the Chrome setting for PDF-handling a long time ago. It was and is set as you have advised, so that can't be the problem. Besides, if this is the cause, then why do files attached before 11/8 still display properly in Chrome? You are not reading what I have already written, and you are not thinking about this logically. As I have mentioned about a million times, it does the same thing on Chrome and Safari, Windows and Mac, on my company file, and on a demo company file that one QBO support rep had me try.

Everything points to a problem with the QBO program itself. Can't anybody there get to the bottom of this? Why doesn't the same member of the "QuickBooks Team" stay on this, instead of new ones popping into this thread and telling me to try the same things I already tried a week ago?

Our small church is paying a lot of money for this program. I work for free. I am losing my patience. Notice that I have stopped saying "Thank you" (the "team" member I reply to never comes back here anyway).

I (UK user) have been having the same issue when clicking on attachments that used to open in a new tab in the browser. Now they just download so you have to open them manually. Doesn't seem much of an issue when written down but in practice slows down entering expenses and bills by a lot and makes QBO frustrating to use. Like yourself I have gone through using multiply platforms and browsers to find that it QBO that is the problem. 

QuickBooks Support on the issue would be laughable if it wasn't so condescending as just in this topic there has been multiple people complaining of the same issue only for support to tell us how to set up the browser or clear it's cache and history which has no affect on QBO problem. I use other online software that continues to perform the simple task of clicking on an attachment and opening it in a new browser tab again ruling out browser or platform issue. 

I hope they acknowledge the problem and fix whatever they had broken until then I will not be placing anymore clients on their platform.

I couldn't agree more, about it being a much bigger slowdown in real life than it sounds written down. Just curious what software you would recommend to clients if QBO is no longer a good option? We do bookkeeping for multiple clients, and a few of them have also been unhappy with QBO's system.

Xero performs better but more expensive. Sage, Free Agent and Kashflow are on par but all have their own negatives too. Quickbooks just needs to maintain the standards, which recently it has failed to do.

I'm starting to wonder whether the QuickBooks "team members" who post are literally robots with randomly generated names. All of their posts follow the same formula:

1. Apologize.
2. Make a suggestion that shows they don't understand the problem.
3. Close with "Reply if you need more help."

I changed the PDF-handling setting in Chrome from "Open PDFs in Chrome" (the setting that I've had all along) to "Download PDFs." With that setting, all attached PDFs in my checking register transactions give me the Save dialog, regardless of when they were attached. When I change it back to"Open PDFs in Chrome," it will open only attachments that were uploaded on 11/6 or before. Newer ones give me the Save dialog.

So it appears that the QBO program is ignoring my Chrome PDF-handling preference for any files attached after 11/6. But... as I think I've mentioned before, it exhibits exactly the same behavior with PNG files.