Google-drive – Error 404 When Printing With Google Docs

google-appsgoogle-drive

I use Google Docs (Drive) to share PDFs with my customers.

For each PDF, I've selected "prevent users from downloading" for IP reasons.

When users try to print the document they get an error 404 page. I've tried this myself on all "modern" browsers and the same occurs.

I don't get it. Google displays a printer icon plus it makes the option available in the file menu, but on all occasions printing results in an error 404 page appearing.

I've tried Google's product forums and Twitter to absolutely no avail.

Any ideas?

Best Answer

Google probably implemented it this way because it is impossible to print the document without having the browser downloading it to the user's computer first.

What I can see, though, is that there's no print icon if I've checked the "prevent users from downloading" option.

Here are two files I uploaded:

  • printable.pdf - users can download, and there is a print icon
  • unprintable.pdf - users are prevented from downloading, there's no print icon

Do you get the same results with these files? If you see the print icon on files which are blocked from downloading, it seems like a bug.

Also note that there will still be a print option in the browser's File menu. There's no way a web app can disable that.

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