What should I do if clicking the Save as PDF button does nothing?

Use this FAQ when the Save as PDF button is visible, but clicking it does not start a download, open a file, show an email prompt, show a loading indicator, or display an error.

If the button is not visible

First check the Show Button on option in the plugin settings. It controls where the plugin adds the button automatically.

If you placed the button manually, make sure the shortcode is processed as a shortcode, not shown as plain text.

For manual placement and duplicate buttons, use: How do I add the Save as PDF button manually without showing it twice?.

If the button should appear only in certain situations, use: How can I show the Save as PDF button only in certain situations?.

Check whether the shortcode was processed

If the page shows [save_as_pdf_pdfcrowd] as plain text instead of a button, the page builder, widget, or AJAX-loaded area is not processing WordPress shortcodes there. Use a normal Shortcode block, a page-builder shortcode widget, or a template-level PHP helper.

Check the browser console

Open the browser developer console and click the button again. If you are not comfortable checking the console yourself, send the console errors to your developer or to support.

If the console shows that window.SaveAsPDFPdfcrowd is missing, the plugin JavaScript did not load correctly or another script stopped the page before the plugin script could run.

Common causes are JavaScript optimization, script deferring, minification, caching plugins, page-builder AJAX loading, or another plugin/theme JavaScript error on the page.

Temporarily test with optimization/minification disabled, clear the site cache, and test in a private browser window. If the button works then, re-enable the other optimization settings one at a time and exclude the Save as PDF plugin scripts from the setting that breaks the button.

If the button was inserted after the page loaded

The plugin can work with a button that is rendered in the page and later shown, for example inside a hidden accordion or form confirmation section.

If another plugin inserts the button HTML after the page has already loaded, make sure that WordPress processed the shortcode and that the Save as PDF plugin scripts are present on that page.

For conditional placement, use: How can I show the Save as PDF button only in certain situations?.

If the click starts but the file is not created

If the button shows a loading indicator, opens an error page, returns a status code, or times out, the button itself is working and the problem is the conversion. Use the conversion-errors FAQ: How do I fix Save as PDF plugin conversion errors or timeouts?.

If the file is created but downloads, opens, emails, or names the file incorrectly, use: How do I change what happens after clicking the Save as PDF button?.