Screen shots added.

Hi John, one possible reason for this problem is if the site is sending a generic content-type header with the file. Unlike some other browsers, Firefox is a bit strict about following the content-type header instead of the file extension or file content.

If that is the problem, one workaround is an extension I wrote:

https://addons.mozilla.org/firefox/addon/content-type-fixer/

The way it works is, you associate the .whatever file extension with a particular content-type, which may be real or fictitious. When the extension is running, it changes the content-type from whatever the server sent to whatever you assigned, and then Firefox uses the action for that content-type.

Hi again,

No luck. Your addon log shows the CT is set correctly.

Where next?

Hi John, you can confirm that Firefox has an association for

application/x-bittorrent

by viewing the handlers.json file in a tab --

Open your current Firefox settings (AKA Firefox profile) folder using either

• "3-bar" menu button > "?" Help > Troubleshooting Information
• (menu bar) Help > Troubleshooting Information
• type or paste about:support in the address bar and press Enter

In the first table on the page, on the Profile Folder row, click the "Open Folder" button. This should launch a new window listing various files and folders in Windows Explorer.

Resize the window so you can see the Trobleshooting Information page behind then, the drag the handlers.json file onto the page and drop it.

After a few moments, Firefox should go from a text dump to a structured view of the data in the file. If you scroll down or use Find (Ctrl+f) to get to the torrent entry:

(A) Does the content-type in handlers.json match what the server is sending?

(B) What action does Firefox show?

The action parameter can have these values:

0 = Save to File (default) 1 = Always ask 2 = Use a specified helper app 3 = Handle internally (for example, PDF Viewer) 4 = Use system default app

If the ask parameter is set to true, that seems to override the action parameter.

If these values seem to be incorrect, try changing the setting on the Options page and then changing it back, then reload handlers.json (Ctrl+r) to see what Firefox has recorded.

Hi JS,

(A) Under "mimeTypes" the line "application/x-bittorrent" is shown. Under that is "action" with a value 2.

I played around with the Options settings, reloading the "handlers.json" page at each change and they were being set correctly.

The option is being recorded properly but not being actioned correctly! Most peculiar!

It looks like it should work. Puzzling. You could dump that handlers.json file and have Firefox create a new one to see whether that helps. Otherwise, ???

I've already tried that. I have the same issue with other CT as well. Tried running FF as admin but no change. FF does have write access to %appdata% so I'm flummoxed!

Maybe check the Network Monitor to see how the server sends the file.

• https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/Tools/Network_Monitor

The extension and content-type match and the settings in handlers.json appear to be set correctly. What appears to be happening is that if ask: is absent, it is defaulting to true, not false.

jscher2000 said

It looks like it should work. Puzzling. You could dump that handlers.json file and have Firefox create a new one to see whether that helps. Otherwise, ???

So if this was a problem you were experiencing, where would you look next? What other conditions or errors might cause FF to raise this dialog even though handlers.json seems to be set correctly. As an old systems geek, access to source code was always useful...

Here's another try did you contact the site hosts about how their hosting and enabling your torrent software to detect and follow the download?

_john_ said

So if this was a problem you were experiencing, where would you look next?

I would use my extension to create a fake content-type for .torrent files to see whether that makes any difference.