Homepage Displaying in PDF Embedder Viewer

Is the PDF viewer displaying your site’s homepage instead of the embedded PDF? There are two different causes for this, and the fix depends on which one applies to your setup.

This guide covers both the caching-related cause and the WordPress homepage setting cause.

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Caching or Minification Conflict

A caching or minification plugin interfering with PDF Embedder’s scripts can cause the viewer to load incorrectly, sometimes rendering the homepage in place of the PDF.

Before you get started, if you are using any caching tools on the site, ensure you exclude the PDF Embedder plugins from those tools.

After excluding and flushing the cache, reload the page containing the PDF and check whether the issue is resolved.

WordPress Homepage Setting

If the caching fix does not help, or if you are not using a caching plugin, the problem may be in how WordPress is configured to serve your homepage.

Head to WordPress Dashboard > Settings > Reading and check the Your homepage display setting.

If the homepage is set directly to a custom theme layout (rather than a WordPress page), some themes bypass the standard WordPress page architecture. This can cause the PDF viewer to incorrectly resolve URLs back to the homepage.

To confirm this is the cause:

1. Create a new blank page (Pages > Add New) and publish it.
2. Go to Settings > Reading, set Your homepage displays to A static page, and select your new page as the Homepage.
3. Reload the page containing the PDF and check whether it now displays correctly.

If the PDF loads correctly after this change, the custom theme layout was the cause.

Using Your Custom Layout

If you want to keep your custom layout, we recommend that you apply it as a page template rather than setting it directly in the reading settings:

1. Create a WordPress page and assign your custom layout to it as a page template. This option is usually in the page editor’s right-hand sidebar under Page Attributes or Template.
2. Go to Settings > Reading and select that page as the homepage.

This preserves your visual layout while giving WordPress the standard page structure the PDF viewer needs.