can firefox mac read .url file?
i have .url files and it seems firefox mac could never be used to open these .url files ... i tried to set it as a default program to open .url but firefox app was never show up in the menu and it is grey out and you could not select it to be the default app to open .url... is there a way to use mac firefox to open .url file?... please advise... cheers,
Chosen solution
This is an operating system issue not a browser issue, url files are created by internet explorer which is only Windows compatible. Therefore the .url file type is not compatible with MacOS or any software created for it.
However you can extract the actual url address you require from the file:
http://www.fmtz.com/formats/url-file-format/article
hope that is helpful.
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Where did you get these files from?
IE uses such files to store internet shortcuts in its Favorites folder.
Firefox doesn't handle such files, so you would have to place the files in an IE Favorites folder and export the favorites in IE to an HTML file and import this file in Firefox.
cor-el, i got the file from internet ... why firefox like users to use ie to handle .url files ... what is reason that firefox is not willing to handle the .url files? ... so firefox does not care if you use ie or safari and never use firefox again ... if it is true, i know what to do now.... cheers,
Did you check the content of the URL file?
Can you post a link to a page where you got such a file?
it is another internet web site address... i have checked windows firefox has no problem handling .url files in windows 8.1... why windows firefox is working ok with .url files and mac firefox is NOT working with .url file?... what is the reason behind this?...
cheers,
Chosen Solution
This is an operating system issue not a browser issue, url files are created by internet explorer which is only Windows compatible. Therefore the .url file type is not compatible with MacOS or any software created for it.
However you can extract the actual url address you require from the file:
http://www.fmtz.com/formats/url-file-format/article
hope that is helpful.
Modified by Nick_Adamson
nick, i have also checked the .url files is able to be open by safari ... why safari can open and not firefox ... safari should not be able to open if it is an operating system issue not a browser issue ... if safari can open in mac and i expect firefox should be able to open ... i do not see it is an operating system issue, it is how you create browser to go around an operating issue ... safari did the job and go around the operating issue to handle the .url files ... firefox is not doing it work to work around the operating issue...
i did not try ie and chrome in mac to see if ie and chrome can also handle the .url files...
cheers,
Sorry i cant reproduce this issue myself since im using windows, i did find some older links from 2009 where this was a bug that was corrected.
It does seem that FireFox should be able to open this file-type
http://www.fileinfo.com/extension/url
As per this link suggests you should be able to create a .WEBLOC file that will perform the same function on MAC as the .url does for windows.
http://www.fileinfo.com/extension/webloc
This is also relevant for transition between .url and WEBLOC files:
http://hints.macworld.com/article.php?story=20040111200114634
nick, the provided links on web pages are talking how to create the shortcuts for the web pages in mac & windows ... it is not talking on how to open .url files using firefox browser... cheers,