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Application action settings resets to 'download' after an update
After doing an update to Firefox (currently on 102.0.1), the settings for what happens when I click on a PDF file always seems to reset to 'save file', when what I want (and what I have to keep changing back to) is 'Always ask'.
Is this a known issue or is it something about my environment that causes this?
My system is running Windows 11 on an HP laptop with an AMD 7-5800U CPU and 8Gb of memory. [I'm posting this on my desktop machine which doesn't seem to exhibit the same behaviour - Windows 10 on an Intel 8500 CPU and 16Gb of memory]
thanks for any advice.
Alan
All Replies (11)
Update - I just updated to 102.0.1 on my desktop and it did the same. Everything is reset to 'Save file'.
Alan
Those download action are stored in handlers.json in the Firefox profile folder, so if you do not keep them then it looks that handlers.json gets reset.
What security software do you have in case your security software is causing those issues ?
I only use Windows defender on both my systems. Everything is set to default as far as I know.
The only mod I've done to Firefox is the fix so I get the compressed bookmark menu back with userchrome.css in its own folder. I can't remember what the actual fix was, but I am sure someone will enlighten me.
Alan
Oh - just looked at the profile folder. There's a handlers.json file there. But there's also 3 versions of handlers.json-x.corrupt (where x goes from 1 to 3).
The correct one says: {"defaultHandlersVersion":{},"mimeTypes":{"application/pdf":{"action":4,"ask":true,"extensions":["pdf"]}},"schemes":{},"isDownloadsImprovementsAlreadyMigrated":true,"isSVGXMLAlreadyMigrated":true}
One of the corrupted ones says:
{"defaultHandlersVersion":{},"mimeTypes":{"application/pdf":{"action":3,"extensions":["pdf"]},"image/webp":{"action":3,"extensions":["webp"]},"image/avif":{"action":3,"extensions":["avif"]}},"schemes":{"mailto":{"stubEntry":true,"handlers":[null,{"name":"Gmail","uriTemplate":"https://mail.google.com/mail/?extsrc=mailto\u0026url=%s"}]},"ms-phone":{"action":4,"ask":true},"hpwebproductsdetection3":{"action":4},"hpwebproductsdetection2":{"action":4},"hpdia":{"action":4},"hpdia2":{"action":4},"hpdevicecheck":{"action":4}},"isDownloadsImprovementsAlreadyMigrated":true,"isSVGXMLAlreadyMigrated":true}
Is this any clue?
Alan
Modified
Before the upgrade, I set everything to 'always ask'.
Just upgraded to 103.0.1 and the issue did not re-occur. However, there were a whole load of new defaults - all relating to HP software (checked just before the update and they were not there).
Alan
There are download actions related to HP software?
The meaning of the action key value:
saveToDisk = 0; alwaysAsk = 1; useHelperApp = 2; handleInternally = 3; useSystemDefault = 4;
This is what I see now.
alan.sharkey said
This is what I see now.![]()
Oh, those are protocols, indicating what should happen if Firefox is asked to open a link similar to:
hpdia:some-stuff-here
Possibly those were added by an add-on??
If you do not want links like that to automatically run software on your system, change all of those to "Always ask" so you can cancel them if they come up.
@cor-el - thank you.
Alan
@jsecher - thanks. I have no idea what added them, but they weren't there before I did the latest update. I did check.