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USPS Print Shipping Labels no longer works

:: Thursday, June 9th, 2005 @ 1:00:55 pm

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Recently, the USPS changed something in their online Print Shipping Labels area — and now, it’s broken. I’ve tried two different computers using both FireFox and Internet Explorer, and neither of them have successfully been able to print. The new version requires Adobe Acrobat Reader — which I have, but I still can’t get it to work. I’m reminded of the time they rolled out their fancy new “Point of Sale” systems, which had in large lettering on the front, “P.O.S.”. It is indeed a P.O.S.

I suspect that it might be a problem with using Acrobat Speedup, which has the wonderful advantage of making Acrobat load instantaneously instead of in 6-10 seconds.* I’ll have to do some testing to see if this is the case.

UPDATE Nope — it doesn’t work even when Acrobat 6.01 is installed in its default configuration.

ANNOYING. Please get it working, USPS! It was working fine before with the Java stuff.

UPDATE I found the fix! The following makes everything work:

Acrobat 5.x

1. From the Edit menu, select “Preferences…”
2. Click the “Options” section on the left, then Uncheck “Display PDF in
browser”

Acrobat 6.x / 7.x

1. From the Edit menu, select “Preferences…”
2. Click the “Internet” section on the left, then Uncheck “Display PDF in
browser”

…

*As some of you have discovered, Adobe Acrobat’s browser integration — especially with FireFox — can take down your Windows system. It’s appalling, really.

UPDATE In order to get USPS shipping labels to work properly in Internet Explorer, I had to add https://sss-web.usps.com as a trusted site in Tools->Internet Options->Security->Trusted Sites.

| Oakland, CA | link | trackback | Jun 9, 2005 13:00:55
  • Chester

    Acrobat is truly, truly, truly a pain in the ass. I don’t understand how it became so ungainly to deal with ineditable files.

  • http://kentbackman.com Kent

    Eric –

    I use Firefox with Acrobat Pro and have the solution. Remove all of the Acrobat plugins you do not need.

    Go to C:\Program Files\Adobe\Acrobat #.\Acrobat. Rename plug_ins to plug_ins_disabled. Make new plug_ins directory. Copy the ImageConversion folder and three files: EWH32.api, printme.api, and Search.api to your new plug_ins directory. Problem solved!

  • echeng

    Kent – thanks! I have both of those plugins in there, but I don’t see printme.api anywhere — and it’s not on my machine. I’ll re-install Acrobat and see if they show up.

  • echeng

    Kent – on a fresh install of Adobe Acrobat Reader 7, there is no printme.api nor ImageConversion folder in the plug_ins folder.

  • echeng

    found a fix. see above.

  • Curtis

    Since you installed CS2, it comes with acrobat 7. I had to uninstall 5.x and reinstall acrobat7 from the CS2 cds. How do you like CS2 so far?

  • echeng

    The problem with the USPS thingy is that by default, Acrobat installs with “Display PDF in browser” checked. And nowhere obvious on the USPS site does it say to uncheck it. They should fire the person who designed the new USPS label print feature.

    CS2 seems fine. I’m not really using any of its new features (yet).

  • guest-barbara

    your are brilliant, this has been a problem for weeks for me, came across this find in google, thanks again, where are you located.

  • Mystery

    I would like to mention my experience with Acrobat Reader v6.0.1. I needed the following files in the Reader plugin directory in order to print the USPS labels from Firefox. EScript.api EWH32.api, printme.api, Search.api, and the ImageViewer directory. I also needed the Preferences> Internet > Display PDF in Browser option in Reader unchecked.

  • richard

    Thanks for the advice — it saved me, as trying to deal with USPS is useless. Even with the “fix,” there are still problems printing large batch orders. I sincerely hope USPS makes no more “improvements”.

  • LC

    It worked! You are invincible! How you ever figure out stuff like this is a wonder to me. Thanks very much for taking the time to try to help!

  • MAE

    Eric, although your informative post is dated over four (4) years ago, it was an excellent find for me! I kept thinking the USPS Website was down and that’s why I was having problems. Finally I decided to do a “Google Search” regarding problems with printing USPS labels online and I found you! Thanks for sharing your smarts with others who are not so computer savvy! All I had to do to fix the problem was to add https://sss-web.usps.com as a “Trusted Site,” but I wouldn’t have known to do that or how to do that, if not for you! THANKS SO MUCH FOR YOUR HELP! THANKS FOR BEING SO KIND IN SHARING YOUR COMPUTER KNOWLEDGE! You know what they say, “What goes around, comes around!” So the goodness you have spread around, will come back to you again! I hope the goodness comes back to you in triple!!

  • james brown

    please kindly help me out i can not print usps shipping label the error is too much what a stupid website is that.I try many times to print but the error is the problem,i need a solution please.I try printing international labels many times error that is expess ,ail international.

  • Jay

    i just did this fix as posted at the top

    open adobe acrobat reader. go to “edit” then to “Preferences” when that window opens go to “Internet” and uncheck the box that says “display PDF in browser” close Adobe reader and procede to use the usps as normal.

  • http://www.cheap-laserlabels.co.uk nick

    Thanks for letting us know. It might come in handy for somebody else sometime.

    I was also having this problem and found the USPS site with Opera is throwing JS warning on every page that “You are using opera and should use netscape or ie”. To end this warning go to the USPS site and do the following: 1. Ctrl+click on the page. 2. Edit Site Preferences 3. Click on the “Network” tab. 4. Change the bottom to “Mask as Firefox”.

    Then the USPS site thinks you’re in Firefox and doesn’t kick you out the warning.

  • chalse
  • Chamfo

    please i can not print USPS express mail international all ways error what a hell is this website.please can any you help me to solve this problem please.

  • Guest

    It’s not often that a post that’s 6 years old helps me, but the fix listed above for Acrobat 6.x/7.x also works for Acrobat Reader X!! Eric, you rock! Now my little niece will get her birthday presents on time!

    Gnome09 Seattle

  • wgar

     I also thank you – genius – how on earth do you figure these things out!  Still working for version acrobat 9 Pro, after 6 years, the problem persists, and your fix still applies. 

  • Johnny

    Thanks!  Your solution (uncheck “display PDF in browser”)  worked!! Thank you so much!  I was just about to throw the whole computer out the window. 

  • Frustrated

    I can’t uncheck “Display PDF in browser”.  It’s colored light grey & won’t let you check or uncheck anything.
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