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This is an issue with android file handling, not jerboa. You linked something that has a pdf uri, but isn't actually a pdf.
Nope, it's not even that. My browser (Fennec) is configured to ask every time what app to use, but Jerboa triggering my default browser apparently bypasses that altogether and I never get any option as to which app to load the link/document with.
Other apps don't do this, other apps give me the option of which app to open stuff with. Jerboa however just blindly goes forward, assuming it sees a PDF, it must be a PDF...
I'm not the only one, links from justice.gov aren't working as expected via Jerboa...
Go to android settings > default apps > opening links > and unclick wps office or whatever it's opening in
No defaults even set, it's Jerboa forcing that.
What about in Fennec. Does it have the "open links in apps" setting?
Oh wait wait, you mean Fennec settings specifically..
Well shit, that setting does actually exist. My phone is set to Ask Each Time, pretty sure my tablet should be set the same, but I'll have to check later when I get back home.
Thanks yet again for being helpful ๐
Were you able to confirm your tablet's settings for Fennec?
Yes, Fennec on my tablet is configured the same way, to ask every time.
I dunno what's up, but there's apparently a borkup between the link handoff from Jerboa to Fennec.. ๐คท
Jerboa link taps never ask...
What about other PDF links? Where does this appear to open in for example? Within Jerboa? Fennec? Some other pdf viewer interface?
Another approach, have you tried any other Lemmy apps? Voyager has a progressive web app if you don't want to install something. Open that in Fennec. Does the original age verification link work there? What about my wonderland one above?
Try opening the links through voyager in your stock browser on both devices
This might seem trivial or a lot of work and that's fine. But it you still wanna figure this out it will help me, and I don't think anyone else is trying to figure this out right now.
Edit: I see you have already done some further digging that I missed. I am still curious what is going on with your device however. I didn't mean to discredit your work @Binette@lemmy.ml
Oh, the Voyager link you provided works fine through Jerboa. Awesome ๐
The real answer is why do some links posted within Jerboa not actually work within Jerboa?
Some tell me to switch to another Lemmy app, which indeed is an option. But I wanna see Jerboa development improve as well..
If it it is indeed a Jerboa bug it would be a very niche case one. Possibly. Exclusive to older versions of Android.
Define older? I didn't realize Android 11 was considered that old..
Historically, 3+ years, and even today 5+ Is pushing it.
Your first link works properly in Jerboa ๐
But it's not jacking the system with an HTML to ask if you're 18 or older either. That's where things seem to mess up.
It works but what does it open in?
If you're reading along with Alice's adventures then go to your apps switcher, what app is showing as displaying wonderland?
Apps Switcher? What the fuck is that, and if it exists, where do I find it?
Edit: Back to the Play Store login prompt...
Recent apps? Idk, you may have a button or more likely a gesture, idk what you call it. One is home button, one is recent apps, and one is back button. Order may vary.
No gestures on my devices at all.
Yes, I do have Back, Home, and Recent App buttons on my tablet (and phone even), in that order no less.
None of those help with this situation though. Like, when I tap the link from justice.gov, I'm never presented with any option as to what app to open it with.. โน๏ธ
Fuck I dunno, and I don't really expect you to pull a magic answer out of your ass either. But I really do thank you kindly for being helpful ๐
Right, but after you click, something opens, after that when you hit the recent apps button what app icon is shown?
That's the entire point, it doesn't present any menu of apps at all.
It just force feeds it through the last registered PDF app, no menu of optional apps at all.
No. But I'm currently on my Android phone right now, a literal piece of shit compared to my tablet at home right now, so settings may differ. I'll check the tablet later.
All I get in settings on my POS phone is 'Browser App: Yes' and 'Install Unknown Apps: Allowed', of course to sideload APKs...
Oh that's fun, Android 11 doesn't even have a Default Apps menu..
It might be a little different. Try Settings-> Apps & Notifications -> Advanced -> Default apps
On my Android 11 devices, I don't have any overall Default Apps menu, I get 'Open By Default' in the individual app settings on a per-app basis. So yeah that makes configuring apps extra fun ya know.. /s
Either way, Fennec is configured as my default browser, and WPS Office isn't configured for default anything. Hell, I don't even use WPS Office, the app is just there as it came with my tablet.
Ok. When I copy and paste the link outside of Jerboa, it works just fine and exactly as expected.
But to tap the link here in Jerboa, it finds their HTML redirect shit to ask if I'm 18 or over, but since it's not actually a PDF document, it errors out and says Invalid Format.
This is NOT an Android issue, this is indeed a Jerboa issue, as I can simply copy/paste the link into a web browser and it just works, as expected.
But tapping the link within Jerboa tries to force-feed an HTML age verification page through a PDF link, which apparently messes up the whole show..
Are you sure this is an actual issue with Jerboa?
Cause clicking a link in the app opens your default app for this type of link. An HTTP(S) link is typically handled by your default browser. Which browser have you selected in your phone's Settings > Apps > Default Apps > Browser?
Edit: Almost forgot: I can't reproduce the error. Clicking the link in the app opens my browser correctly.
My default web browser app indeed is already set to Fennec. But that's not what Jerboa tries to open for web links ending in .PDF
Jerboa is apparently using WPS Office to try to open it, which isn't even set as a default app for anything in the first place ๐คท
Well, this certainly sounds like an issue with how your phone handles links to PDFs and not Jerboa itself.
In the Default Apps settings is a sub menu called Opening Links which lists apps which are able and/or allowed to open specific types of links. See if there is an entry for WPS Office and check for something like *.pdf. Next check if there is a setting in Fennec for how to handle PDFs.
Been there, tried that. No dice, WPS Office isn't set to default open anything.
Jerboa is apparently forcing that itself.
I'm not sure I understand your issue. You've linked a PDF. Why wouldn't Jerboa open a PDF as... you know.... a PDF?
This link drove me nuts last night
[They were not exaggerating] (https://lemmyverse.link/lemmy.world/comment/21901413)
OMG LMFAO! That link doesn't work on Jerboa either, all I get is a 500 error.
That link, minus the lemmyverse.link part should work, I think.. https://lemmy.world/comment/21901413
Edit: Confirmed, Jerboa doesn't like the lemmyverse.link form links either.
That is fascinating and if I was more paranoid I would say it's also suspicious lol. I'm joking. I'm sure numatic and dessalines are overall more happy that so many tools have popped up over the past few years.
Edit: also, this totally reaffirms my decision to go through the effort to make it an instance agnostic link.
Yeah, I'm long past any Google paranoid suspicions, it's gotta be within Jerboa and not necessarily recognizing the true document type before proceeding.. ๐คท
At least I figured out loosely what's up and a workaround for now. Others suggest I just jump ship and start using a different Lemmy app, but I actually appreciate trying to help spot and report errors and glitches so other devs can improve their own projects, including Jerboa.
An unreported issue is an issue that might likely never get discovered or fixed...
It doesn't start off as a PDF, it first links to an HTML page to ask if the reader is 18 or older. Only after that does it load the PDF.
Go ahead, download the file in the link above and try to open it. It's not at first a PDF, it's at first an HTML, but with PDF 'extension'
The page has to be loaded via a web browser, not a PDF reader. But Jerboa is blindly loading the page as a PDF. When loaded via a PDF reader, all I get is 'Invalid Format'
I just tried in Jerboa and it opened the page in an in app Firefox window.
I'm making an educated guess that your setup must be already logged in and taking your data cookie to confirm you're 18+..
I don't really fully know though ๐คท
This would be wrong. When I clicked the link I got an in-app firefox window asking for age verification.
Okay. Well please explain why Jerboa is trying to force the link into WPS Office, when it's not the default app for anything to begin with?
WPS isn't my default app for anything, Fennec is my default browser. But it appears to me that Jerboa just blindly sees PDF in the URL and automatically jumps to the last registered PDF specific app, without even asking the user what app to open the link with.
Have you checked WPS Office settings? Maybe there's something there.
I'm starting to better narrow down the source of the issue, and it really does somehow seem to be on the Jerboa side.
My default browser, Fennec, is configured to ask every time what app to load random links in, but when a PDF link is passed onto Fennec from Jerboa, it's totally skipping that prompt to ask what app to even use.
Yeah I get that's not an exact answer or solution, that's just my current findings. Fennec is set to ask which app every time, but when Jerboa tries to load a tapped link, apparently it's ignoring the ask which app setting..
Yes I did, and WPS Office isn't configured as default app for anything.
Note that today I'm gonna be on my phone for much of the day, my initial post was from my tablet, so my results and findings could possibly be different here, but I'll duly note anything here and double check both on my phone and tablet once I get back home.
Also this...
I'm not the only one, links from justice.gov aren't working as expected via Jerboa...
Jerboa seems to be so many kinds of broken and hasn't released an update in months. It's not looking good.
Jerboa doesn't handle PDF URIs directly. It only handles links related to Lemmy. It offloads that responsibility to your browser. It could have something to do with your android settings.
For more context, here is the file that has the functions that handles link opening in the github source code: https://github.com/LemmyNet/jerboa/blob/main/app/src/main/java/com/jerboa/Utils.kt
The functions of interest are openLink and openLinkRaw.
Nope, it's not even that. My browser (Fennec) is configured to ask every time what app to use, but Jerboa triggering my default browser apparently bypasses that altogether and I never get any option as to which app to load the link/document with.
Other apps don't do this, other apps give me the option of which app to open stuff with. Jerboa however just blindly goes forward, assuming it sees a PDF, it must be a PDF...
Sorry for the empty comment,
I don't want to pry too much, but in jerboa, do you use private navigation by default?
Also, by other apps do you mean other lemmy frontends? Or just other apps on your phone? Maybe an example, especially if it's open source, would help a lot.
Lastly, do you maybe have a step by step recreation of what happened? Screenshots and videos might give more context. You also mentioned the lemmy redirect service not working and giving you a 500 internal server error. Maybe more details could help out.
But then again, with this much information needed, i think a github issue should be opened. It doesn't seem as obvious of an issue, even when looking in the code, so get ready to have to document this issue thouroughly. It would help a bunch.
Oh, your comment is definitely not an empty comment.
At first I tested tapping the link within Jerboa, no dice. I just got the Invalid Format error.
So, I decided to download the 'document' to my tablet, to investigate it. Turned out, it downloaded an HTML file with PDF extension.
In hindsight, it doesn't inherently seem like a problem with Jerboa, more like a problem with the bait and switch link from justice.gov, swapping a PDF link with an HTML document. The HTML is a script to simply ask if you're 18 years of age or older.
But the script doesn't work when force-fed into a PDF reader, which my tablet isn't even configured for, but Jerboa seems to be forcing it to open a PDF reader, without even giving me the option to open with another app.
Still, especially in the current times, I'm pretty sure that people would like access to these documents, without the file format mistranslation when tapping a link on the screen..
this post was submitted on 02 Feb 2026
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Jerboa is a native-android client for Lemmy, built using the native android framework, Jetpack Compose.
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