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Firefox saves files before opening them

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I chose the option to open pdf files (for example) on Firefox. But Firefox first downloads them to my "download" directory and only than opens it with Acrobat. My "download" directory now is full with garbage files that I need to delete manually. Is there any good option how to disable this "feature"? I would prefer not to see all the garbage files at all.

I changed "browser.download.improvements_to_download_panel" to false. Doesn't work.

I chose the option to open pdf files (for example) on Firefox. But Firefox first downloads them to my "download" directory and only than opens it with Acrobat. My "download" directory now is full with garbage files that I need to delete manually. Is there any good option how to disable this "feature"? I would prefer not to see all the garbage files at all. I changed "browser.download.improvements_to_download_panel" to false. Doesn't work.

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"browser.download.improvements_to_download_panel" was a temporary preference while bugs were worked out. You can set that back to true and...

As you noticed, Firefox 98 changed from saving downloads in the Windows Temp folder for "Open with [relevant application]" or "Use [relevant application]" to saving them in your default downloads folder (the one next to "Save files to" on the Settings page). It's not possible to pass a file to an application without saving it somewhere.

Firefox 102 added a hidden setting to roll back that change. Here's how you access it:

(1) In a new tab, type or paste about:config in the address bar and press Enter/Return. Click the button accepting the risk.

More info on about:config: Configuration Editor for Firefox. The moderators would like us to remind you that changes made through this back door aren't fully supported and aren't guaranteed to continue working in the future.

(2) In the search box in the page, type or paste browser.download.start_downloads_in_tmp_dir and pause while the list is filtered

(3) Double-click the preference to switch the value from false to true

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Chosen Solution

"browser.download.improvements_to_download_panel" was a temporary preference while bugs were worked out. You can set that back to true and...

As you noticed, Firefox 98 changed from saving downloads in the Windows Temp folder for "Open with [relevant application]" or "Use [relevant application]" to saving them in your default downloads folder (the one next to "Save files to" on the Settings page). It's not possible to pass a file to an application without saving it somewhere.

Firefox 102 added a hidden setting to roll back that change. Here's how you access it:

(1) In a new tab, type or paste about:config in the address bar and press Enter/Return. Click the button accepting the risk.

More info on about:config: Configuration Editor for Firefox. The moderators would like us to remind you that changes made through this back door aren't fully supported and aren't guaranteed to continue working in the future.

(2) In the search box in the page, type or paste browser.download.start_downloads_in_tmp_dir and pause while the list is filtered

(3) Double-click the preference to switch the value from false to true