Help & troubleshooting
PDF Text Search support
Find answers to common issues below. Most problems are fixed in under a minute.
Common issues
I can't see the extension icon in my toolbar
The icon is probably hidden. In Chrome or Edge, click the puzzle-piece icon (⊞) at the right end of your toolbar, find PDF Text Search in the list, and click the pin icon. In Firefox, right-click the toolbar, choose Customize Toolbar, and drag the PDF Text Search icon into view.
Clicking "Open ↗" on a result does nothing
Go to your browser's extensions page (chrome://extensions, edge://extensions, or about:addons in Firefox), find PDF Text Search, and click the reload/refresh icon. This happens when the extension was recently updated. Then try your search again.
Search returns no results on my PDF
Your PDF may be a scanned document — a scan is an image of a page, not real text, so there's nothing to search. The extension will tell you this if it detects a scanned PDF. To search scanned documents you'd need OCR software to add a text layer first.
Can't fetch a PDF from a URL — getting an error
The PDF URL may require you to be logged in, or the server may block direct access. Try downloading the file to your computer first, then upload it using the file picker instead of the URL field.
The viewer opens but shows a blank page or error
Try reloading the extension from your browser's extensions page. If the problem continues, uninstall the extension and reinstall it from the store — this clears any corrupted state.
The extension worked before and stopped working after a browser update
Browser updates occasionally reset extension settings. Go to your extensions page, disable PDF Text Search, then re-enable it. If it still fails, reinstall from the store.
Frequently asked questions
Does the extension work on all PDFs?
It works on any PDF with a real text layer — which is most PDFs created from Word, Google Docs, or any modern tool. Scanned documents (photos of pages) do not have a text layer and cannot be searched.
Why does a URL-based PDF work in my browser but not in the extension?
Some PDFs sit behind a login or a session cookie. The extension fetches the URL in a clean context without your browser session, so it can't access files that require authentication. Download the file and upload it instead.
Is there a size limit for PDFs?
There is no hard limit, but very large PDFs (100MB+) may be slow to process depending on your device. For most documents under 50MB the search is near-instant.
Does the extension send my PDF to a server?
No. Everything runs locally in your browser using PDF.js. Your file never leaves your device.
Can I search across multiple PDFs at once?
The extension searches one PDF at a time. For searching across a whole library of documents, that's what Sparks Simple's full product is built for.
How do I uninstall the extension?
In Chrome or Edge, right-click the extension icon in your toolbar and choose "Remove from Chrome" or "Remove from Edge." In Firefox, go to about:addons, find PDF Text Search, and click the three-dot menu → Remove.
Still stuck?
If none of the above solved your issue, try reinstalling the extension first — that fixes the majority of edge cases. If the problem continues, get in touch and we'll help.
Your files stay private
PDF Text Search processes everything locally in your browser using PDF.js. No file, URL, or search term is ever sent to Sparks Simple or any third party.