Firefox Support Forum

So I have my Download button visible all the time.

Yesterday, this suddenly started to happen.

When I download something, the list of Ongoing Downloads stayed open. It never did that before.

Any idea why and how to fix it?

Windows 10, Firefox 98.0 (64-bit)

I know firefox version 98.0 changed how downloads work, but I have my settings for downloads set to "Always ask you where to save files" and specifically for PDF files, I have the action set to "Always ask". However, when I click download on a PDF file and then select "open with firefox" as the action option, the file not only opens in the browser, but also gets downloaded automatically without even allowing me to select where. Is this intended behavior? There are lots of times I just want to view a file and not actually download it, and this is quite annoying.

Before the new update whenever I downloaded a file it would ask where to save the file to every time, now it just asks once then automatically saves any new files I download to the same folder as the previous ones, forcing me to then go to that folder and manually move it to the correct folders. Is there any way to change it back to the right way it was done before they decided to remove our choice? My setting is set to "Always ask you where to save files", with the emphasis on "Always".

Updating to version 98.0 onwards Firefox has started saving a copy of every pdf file I view (open) in my downloads folder.

My settings have not changed:

Tools->Settings->General->Applications: - pdf (application/download): Always ask - pdf (application/force-download): Always ask - pdf (application/pdf): Use Adobe Acrobat DC - pdf (application/x-download): Always ask

And when the "ask" dialog pops up, I choose "open".

I have tried all standard methods/troubleshooting, including resetting the handlers.json file.

The only way to avoid getting a copy in the downloads folder is if I choose "Open in Firefox" (application/pdf) instead of "Use Adobe Acrobat DC".

Any solution to this?

Thanks Michael

The behavior of FireFox saving PDF files has changed. I am using WIN10, FireFox 98.0.1 and have it setup to use windows default application and always ask where to save for PDFs.

BEFORE the problem: The PDF opens in Acrobat Pro IX. After clicking save I would be asked, where to save. I select the location to save the PDF. Then after this, subsequent PDFs downloaded would be saved to the last saved location. This process would repeat for a new website PDF load and save. This is the behavior I want now.

NOW with the problem: The PDF opens in Acrobat Pro IX. 1. Immediately, after a reboot, the save icon on Adobe is grayed out. I select save as and point to the desired directory. 2. For any subsequent PDF opened, the Adobe save icon is available. Files are saved to the desktop.

Please note I believe I once did get a popup asking where to save and I know I selected desktop.  Since that selection I am no longer asked where to save.

Please note I have looked and tried some of the suggestions at: https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/cant-download-or-save-files#w_choose-a-different-download-folder

but some of this advice needs to be updated for the new FireFox version--ex no JSON file is found at the file location covered in the advice.

I believe this issue started after the last FireFox update. Please help me restore behavior listed above under “BEFORE the problem”. Thanks.

Hello Community.

I've selected an option to open PDF's in Firefox for preview. And if I wanted to download the PDF after preview, I simply clicked the downloab button from the preview app/tab. The files were downloaded with default filename and to the downloads folder without prompts. But since a while ago the dialog where the save location must be selected and filename given for the file opens up after the click of the download button.

How can I change it back to the previous behaviour without having to input filename and select the file download directory?

Maybe this is a bug report?

Adobe Digital Editions software is used by Archive.org, Open Library, Kobo store, and many other entities to deliver DRM-ed material in the form of .ascm files all named the same "URLLink.acsm" In the past, the download dialog box asked if you wanted to open the file in Adobe Digital Editions or save it to a location.

After the latest update today March 11, Firefox does not allow you to open the files in Digital Editions. It goes directly to "Save to" download location. This is not how the .acsm files are supposed to be handles. They all have the same name and are supposed to be opened into Adobe Digital Editions directly.

In Firefox Settings there is a box for - "Applications

Choose how Firefox handles the files you download from the web or the applications you use while browsing."

However, .acsm files do not appear and typing ".acsm" or the filetype name "Adobe Content Server Message" yields nothing inside this box so I cannot get Firefox to open these files with Adobe Digital Editions.

This is beyond annoying. These files are meant to be opened straight by Adobe Digital Editions. I tested it on Chrome and Chrome lets you open them fine.

Either the "Applications Choose how Firefox handles the files you download from the web or the applications you use while browsing." box functionality needs to be fixed to recognize .acsm filetypes or the previous default functionality of allowing me to choose "Open with Adobe Digital Editions" or "Save to" for this filetype needs to be restored.

If there is some other way to get this functionality back in the most current Firefox version, please advise.

Thanks!

I want to open online PDFs in Acrobat. I've modified the setting is in Firefox to "Always ask," yet when I click on a PDF it opens as it should AND Firefox automatically downloads the file to the Downloads folder even though that destination is greyed out in settings and the radial button for "Always Ask" is selected. How can I block this activity in either Firefox or in the registry.

NOTE: ALL OF THE SETTINGS IN FIREFOX SAY "ALWAYS ASK." This a software bug in Firefox, not a user switch setting. This activity began today (March 11, 2022) after months of normal, expected activity. I've reset Firefox and I've done a complete uninstall and clean install and this still happens.

I see the thread was closed without a solutuion. The CIRCUMVENTION being 'fiddling' about with 'config'. Just to re-state.... Since Firefox 98, PDF files that are OPENED within Firefox are also automatically (and INCORRECTLY) downloaded. If the PDF file is subsequently requested to be downloaded (using the 'button' within the PDF display/window), Firefox will either: Prompt stating that the file already exists; or (if the user picks his/her own filename) a 2nd copy of the file will be downloaded. Sorry to be direct but THIS IS A BUG THAT NEEDS FIXING.

Recently, I purchased some software to scrub my hard drive due to my Dell Desktop running slow. That is when the way I normally access emailed attached files changed. Normally, if I receive a WORD or EXCEL (MS file) in email, I can open the email and access the attachment without having to download and save to my desktop or hard drive. I have changed all settings in the Privacy Area / Trust Area of MS but this did not change anything. MS Representatives stated I would need to use Outlook to make this work, but I know it will work without using Outlook. I think the Scrubbing / Cleaning software I purchased changed a setting with my email for safety purposes since there is risk in opening a file directly from email. Any suggestions on how to change back to how this worked previously - without having to download and save the file? Thanks for your help.

I have to curate and compile sheets of announcements for a local humanitarian service provider forum. I do this by sifting through my Office 365 emails, and double clicking those that contain announcements so they open a window, then sorting the windows on a second screen, then read them, summarize them, file the pertinent information with links for my summaries, and when I get a page of them, send them out. I usually start with about 15 announcements on my other screen, and it takes me some time to get them all sorted and cascaded in order for the curation.

Some of them link to PDFs which Office 365 doesn't always preview and I click download, and this used to open them in the main browser window in a new tab, where I could read them and then save them. Recently, this behavior changed and they now open right in the window the email is in, with no bars of any kind or tabs to get out of them again. I hit the stack of pancakes button, and it had a tab marked Exit, so I thought that would exit me from the view.

Instead, counterintuitively, it exited me completely from FireFox, closing all of my carefully cascaded windows of announcements, and my main browser window with Office 365 in it and everything else.

Thanks a bunch. 1) What was so wrong with the previous setup that you needed to change it? 2) How for the love of whatever the author of this new "feature" was smoking, do I get it to revert to the email or is opening these attachments by "download" no longer possible without punting the whole thing to exit? 3) Does this mean I need to permanently disallow Firefox as the browser for all my PDFs or is there some way of doing something non-fatal to my work on a per-boot basis?

I download some documents and save them on my hard drive. When I open them, it opens Firefox instead of opening Acrobat reader. I need to be able to work offline with them in Adobe - I do not want the HTML version. This has only started happening recently. If this can't be solved I will have to try another browser. I am a reasonably savvy user but I am not a technical expert. Thanks for any help going - I am desperate. They all seem to have saved themselves as HTML documents. Any ideas?

When downloading financial data to Moneydance software, the download correctly opens Moneydance and update data file correctly, but after v98 Firefox update a second identical .qfx file is downloaded to my desktop which I then have to securely delete as a redundant file on my PC.... This is new behavior, has always worked perfectly previously. Firefox settings under Files and Application header are as follows: Downloads: Save files to Desktop Applications: Actions are set to use Moneydance.exe for all OFX and QFX financial data

The extra file showing up on my desktop is new and unwanted. It seems to be unneeded as it can be deleted without any obvious effect and no loss of data in Moneydance

When I download files, a list of the files appears, and does not go away unless I click somewhere off the list. The list hides a good portion of the screen. How do I turn this feature off. This did not happen until the latest Firefox update.

I imagine this belongs in the customize controls area as it's part of settings that we are supposed to have control over and after messing around and changing everything to ask first I am still unhappy. At least I found the reason for my displeasure after reading about the new release of FF98.

Why did you change the protocol for saving files? Not having that dialog box pop up is very inconvenient. I haven't tried to play any files since FF 98 downloaded to my pc but I bet it's equally as annoying. Please go back to the old way in your next release. Some of us are in the camp of Who Moved My Cheese and we don't like this new change. It's bad enough that I have to deal with black background on menus etc due to the background I chose but this is nuts. Thank you.

I like the button that shows the status of anything I elect to download (e.g. an image to put in an error report).

However about a week ago I started getting a pulldown style display in addition to the little status icon. Is there any way to shut that off? It's annoying.

Before the most recent update (version 98.0), my default setting for pdf files is to open in Firefox and a pdf website I use prompted a download window when I clicked 'Download'. It has 'popupDownload=true' in the link which I believe did the trick.

After this update, clicking the same button just opens the pdf file instead of showing the download window, ignoring the command in the link.

Can anyone help me out? Thanks in advance.

Hello,

Starting Firefox 97, opening a file involves downloading it the same way as if I choose to save it. It results in both Download folder and downloads list in the browser being polluted with a million of files I only wanted to open once with a specific app (pdfs, xls, m3u etc.).

Previously Firefox was using a hidden internal folder for saving such files and deleting them later, so Open In App really meant "open, do not save locally". Now any option just means "Save the file to the Download folder and let it be there forever".

How can I fix this unsuccessful UX decision apart from downgrading to an older version?

Thank you.

P.S. "If you dislike new features in the latest version of Firefox, your first reaction might be to go back to the previous version. Rather than downgrading, try getting used to the new features..." is probably the worst suggestion you can possibly give to someone with their workflow broken by a sudden update they can't decline with a feature they never asked for.