Howto disable browser.download.manager
The new download manager is not fulfilling my expectations. The main issue is that it is no longer a popup, but a browser window, which make it annoying on a 23 inch wide screen monitor, and makes it more difficult to drag-and-drop downloaded files from the ctrl-J page to another browser window or explorer folder. Furthermore, it does not support/is not supported by the Deletebutton extension that adds a delete button to the Firefox Download Manager. Furthermore, the same annoyance is true for all other "options" from "firefox options" settings.
Solution: I feel lucky that you added a browser.download.useToolkitUI configuration property, which (when set to true) reverts to the old download manager popup. The info about this configuration property is however difficult to find.
All Replies (9)
You can view the new Download Manager in a tab by opening the about:downloads page and consider to open this page in a separate window.
This could be an option if you could configure the about:downloads page to open in a new window, whilst leaving "other" pages open in new tabs.
By the way, the browser.download.useToolkitUI does not show the downloaded files anymore in the popup window, so this is not an option to get downloaded files in a popup window ....
Anyone knows of an option to disable this new feature called download manager?
You can set the Boolean pref browser.download.useToolkitUI to true on the about:config page to restore the classic Download Manager window and make all download settings appear in "Tools > Options > General".
You can check the browser.download.manager.retention pref to see if it has the default value (2: manual) if you do not see downloads in the classic Download Manager window.
with
browser.download.useToolkitUI set to true on the about :config page
and
the browser.download.manager.retention pref on default value (2)
the classic Download Manager window remains empty; the about:downloads page (still) shows the downloads. (ctrl+J opens the classic Download Manager window)
N.B. with browser.download.useToolkitUI set to false, Ctrl+J opens the about:downloads page.
Any suggestion how to get the downloads (back) into the classic Download Manager ?
Make sure that you do not run Firefox in (permanent) Private Browsing mode.
- Tools > Options > Privacy > Firefox will: "Use custom settings for history"
- Deselect: [ ] "Always use private browsing mode"
Confirmed: Deselecting "Always use private browsing mode" makes downloads visible in both Classic Download Manager window and in the about:downloads page. I did not expect that this "Always use private browsing mode" setting influences the download manager behavior. So now I have to give up "Always use private browsing mode" in order to revert to the old downloads window? Does not feel good. (.... Doing good is part of our code ....) Mozilla is a proudly non-profit organization dedicated to keeping the power of the Web in people’s hands.....
By the way, I checked "https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/find-and-manage-downloaded-files" which states "This article describes what information is displayed, how to access your downloads, manage your files, revert to the old downloads window, and set downloading options." however there is nothing about how to "revert to the old downloads window".
workable workaround is to create a bookmark in the bookmarks toolbar that is configured to load "about:downloads" in the sidebar.
Remaining annoyance then is that an empty classic Download Manager window pops up when downloading.
Please explain what you are trying to achieve by using that "Always use private browsing mode" preference.
As you probably know, Private Browsing allows you to browse the Internet without saving any information about which sites and pages you’ve visited. Since i.m.h.o. there is no reason to save information about which sites and pages were visited, I always use private browsing.