Firefox downloads PDF file when I click "Open with Firefox"
Hi,
In the parameters, I chose to let Firefox ask me every time what to do with PDF files. But, when the window pop up and I click "Open with ... Firefox", the browser download and open with Firefox the PDF instead of only showing it in Firefox. When I set the "Open with firefox" by default in the parameters, Firefox will this time directly open the PDF in the browser instead of downloading it.
Are you aware of this bug ? Is there a solution ?
Thank you very much !
Chosen solution
Firefox was always saving the file, but before Firefox 98 it saved those "Open with [relevant application]" in the Windows Temp folder instead of your default downloads folder. (It's not possible to pass a file to an application without saving it somewhere.)
This change addressed problems with data loss for users who could not re-download files they forgot to save after they were removed from the Temp folder. However, now users who preferred those files to be "out of sight, out of mind" are faced with the task of cleaning them up manually.
Cleaning Up. Rather than read through the Downloads folder, it may be faster to use the "Delete" item on the right-click context menu for items on the Downloads list. That deletes the file from disk and leaves a notation on the history that the file is missing/removed. You can use that to remove files you do not want to keep. But yes, it's an extra step.
Future Updates Uncertain. Many users have expressed the view that they preferred Firefox using the Temp folder for "Open with [relevant application]". I don't know whether a new option will be added for that in a later version.
Workaround? What I'm doing for now is this set of settings:
(1) Change the default download folder to a "temp" folder I created (2) Set Firefox to always ask where I want to save a file so I can choose a real folder when I want to keep the file
On the Settings page, it looks like this:
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Evidently that is now standard behaviour. It was one of the changes in version 98.
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Firefox was always saving the file, but before Firefox 98 it saved those "Open with [relevant application]" in the Windows Temp folder instead of your default downloads folder. (It's not possible to pass a file to an application without saving it somewhere.)
This change addressed problems with data loss for users who could not re-download files they forgot to save after they were removed from the Temp folder. However, now users who preferred those files to be "out of sight, out of mind" are faced with the task of cleaning them up manually.
Cleaning Up. Rather than read through the Downloads folder, it may be faster to use the "Delete" item on the right-click context menu for items on the Downloads list. That deletes the file from disk and leaves a notation on the history that the file is missing/removed. You can use that to remove files you do not want to keep. But yes, it's an extra step.
Future Updates Uncertain. Many users have expressed the view that they preferred Firefox using the Temp folder for "Open with [relevant application]". I don't know whether a new option will be added for that in a later version.
Workaround? What I'm doing for now is this set of settings:
(1) Change the default download folder to a "temp" folder I created (2) Set Firefox to always ask where I want to save a file so I can choose a real folder when I want to keep the file
On the Settings page, it looks like this:
jscher2000 - Support Volunteer a écrit
Firefox was always saving the file, but before Firefox 98 it saved those "Open with [relevant application]" in the Windows Temp folder instead of your default downloads folder. (It's not possible to pass a file to an application without saving it somewhere.) This change addressed problems with data loss for users who could not re-download files they forgot to save after they were removed from the Temp folder. However, now users who preferred those files to be "out of sight, out of mind" are faced with the task of cleaning them up manually. Cleaning Up. Rather than read through the Downloads folder, it may be faster to use the "Delete" item on the right-click context menu for items on the Downloads list. That deletes the file from disk and leaves a notation on the history that the file is missing/removed. You can use that to remove files you do not want to keep. But yes, it's an extra step. Future Updates Uncertain. Many users have expressed the view that they preferred Firefox using the Temp folder for "Open with [relevant application]". I don't know whether a new option will be added for that in a later version. Workaround? What I'm doing for now is this set of settings: (1) Change the default download folder to a "temp" folder I created (2) Set Firefox to always ask where I want to save a file so I can choose a real folder when I want to keep the file On the Settings page, it looks like this:
Hi,
Thank you very much for your answer, I did your workaround and it works very well.
One thing I still don't understand is : when the option "Open in Firefox" is enabled for PDF files, why does the files are directly opened and not shown as downloaded ? While if I enable "Always ask", it will download and then open it in Firefox if I choose to "Open with ... firefox" ? I don't understand why the behaviour is different for the same situation. I don't know if I made myself clear ahah.
Thank you again :)
My understanding is that by the time the Download dialog is shown, Firefox has already committed to downloading the file -- in fact, it is downloading it in the background. So there isn't any obvious way to have an option there to instead open the file as web content instead.