What causes "Failed to load PDF for native print (${response.status})" in Stirling-Tools/Stirling-PDF?

Pass the File/Blob directly to printPdfNatively instead of a URL when the bytes are already in memory (avoids the fetch entirely).

Stirling-Tools/Stirling-PDF · error · Error

Failed to load PDF for native print (${response.status})

Error message

Failed to load PDF for native print (${response.status})

What it means

Thrown by resolvePdfSource() (used by printPdfNatively) when fetching the provided url returns response.ok === false, with the status code interpolated. The PDF bytes could not be retrieved for printing. This only triggers when no File/Blob was passed and a url was used instead.

Source

Thrown at frontend/editor/src/desktop/services/nativePrintService.ts:23

  const cleaned = fileName.replace(/[^A-Za-z0-9._-]+/g, "_");
  if (!cleaned.toLowerCase().endsWith(".pdf")) {
    return `${cleaned || "document"}.pdf`;
  }
  return cleaned || "document.pdf";
}

async function resolvePdfSource(file?: File | Blob, url?: string | null) {
  if (file) {
    return file;
  }

  if (!url) {
    return null;
  }

  const response = await fetch(url);
  if (!response.ok) {
    throw new Error(`Failed to load PDF for native print (${response.status})`);
  }

  return response.blob();
}

export async function printPdfNatively(
  file?: File | Blob,
  url?: string | null,
  fileName = "document.pdf",
) {
  const source = await resolvePdfSource(file, url);
  if (!source) {
    throw new Error("No PDF source available for native print");
  }

  const { tempDir, join } = await import("@tauri-apps/api/path");
  const { remove, writeFile } = await import("@tauri-apps/plugin-fs");

View on GitHub (pinned to 9ef20dcab8)

Solutions

Pass the File/Blob directly to printPdfNatively instead of a URL when the bytes are already in memory (avoids the fetch entirely).
For backend URLs, ensure the request includes the auth token and that the resource still exists.
Re-generate the document/tool output before printing if the URL expired.
Handle the status (parse from message) to distinguish auth (401) from not-found (404).

Example fix

// before
await printPdfNatively(undefined, maybeExpiredUrl);

// after: prefer the in-memory blob
await printPdfNatively(pdfBlob, null, fileName);

Defensive patterns

Strategy: validation

Validate before calling

// prefer the in-memory blob; only fetch when you must
if (file) { await printPdfNatively(file, null, fileName); return; }
if (!url) { notify('No document to print.'); return; }

Type guard

function isPrintLoadError(e: unknown): e is Error {
  return e instanceof Error && /^Failed to load PDF for native print \(\d+\)$/.test(e.message);
}

Try / catch

try { await printPdfNatively(file, url, fileName); }
catch (e) {
  if (isPrintLoadError(e)) { show('Could not load the document for printing.'); return; }
  throw e;
}

Prevention

Pass the File/Blob directly when available to skip the fetch.
Ensure the URL is still valid (not a revoked blob URL) before printing.
Include auth on protected PDF URLs.

When it happens

Trigger: printPdfNatively(undefined, url) where the url returns 4xx/5xx: an expired blob/object URL, a backend PDF endpoint returning an error, or a URL that needs auth the fetch didn't include.

Common situations: Printing from a tool-result URL whose blob URL was already revoked; backend returned an error page (HTML) instead of the PDF; the document was deleted server-side before printing.

Related errors

AI-assisted analysis of Stirling-Tools/Stirling-PDF@9ef20dcab8 (2026-08-13). Data as JSON: /api/errors/471fe948b062bde3. Report an issue: GitHub.