Firefox Community Forum

This setting, "Always ask you where to save files," is definitely broken.

In a related article, they provided this solution: https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/que.../1534384 https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/questions/1534384]

Proposed solution: "I believe you also need to go into Tools -> Settings -> General and set the Action for the types of downloads (Applications) to Always Ask for those types you want it to."

But this workaround should not be needed. "Always ask" means always ask. As in always. No other additional steps should be needed.

Can you folks please open a bug to get this fixed? This used to work just fine in (much) older versions of Firefox and Netscape. "Always ask" is supposed to mean always ask. Like, always.

Hello,

As you can see always ask where to save is selected but whenever I download a PDF file it doesn't ask me and it just saves to downloads. How can I fix that?

i am on Firefox 148.0. settings requires a directory in which to save downloads although i marked to always ask. i see there was a similar problem 3-4 years ago. i want firefox to always ask where to place a file but it doesn't ask at all. i want it to never automatically save a file.

How can I prevent Firefox from automatically opening tabs and switching to the tab every time I download a file?

The obvious thing would be to uncheck the box that says "When you open a link, image or media in a new tab, switch to it immediately"

Nice try, but U N F O R T U N A T E L Y, that method does NOT work! With the box unchecked, I still get a new tab that gets switched to.

I'm trying to download 10 years of bank statements. I do not want 120 tabs popping up!

Mint 147.0.4 64 bit I click on a pdf, it opens in qpdfview. It also saves in wherever my default save folder is. I later have to go remove all these junk PDFs from Downloads or wherever because I either didn't want them or saved them elsewhere.

Please stop "helping me". I do not want to be "helped". How can I stop this auto-save """feature"""?

I think this started back in 98.

from Mint: [code] System:

 Kernel: 6.17.0-14-generic arch: x86_64 bits: 64 compiler: gcc v: 13.3.0 clocksource: tsc
 Desktop: Cinnamon v: 6.6.7 tk: GTK v: 3.24.41 wm: Muffin v: 6.6.3 vt: 7 dm: LightDM v: 1.30.0
   Distro: Linux Mint 22.3 Zena base: Ubuntu 24.04 noble

Machine:

 Type: Desktop System: ASUS product: N/A v: N/A serial: <superuser required>
 Mobo: ASUSTeK model: ROG STRIX Z790-E GAMING WIFI v: Rev 1.xx serial: <superuser required>
   part-nu: SKU uuid: <superuser required> UEFI: American Megatrends v: 3107 date: 11/28/2025

CPU:

 Info: 24-core (8-mt/16-st) model: 13th Gen Intel Core i9-13900K bits: 64 type: MST AMCP
   smt: enabled arch: Raptor Lake rev: 1 cache: L1: 2.1 MiB L2: 32 MiB L3: 36 MiB
 Speed (MHz): avg: 1439 high: 5500 min/max: 800/5500:5800:4300 cores: 1: 4602 2: 800 3: 800
   4: 800 5: 5500 6: 800 7: 5500 8: 4920 9: 2666 10: 800 11: 800 12: 800 13: 800 14: 800 15: 800
   16: 800 17: 2088 18: 800 19: 800 20: 799 21: 802 22: 798 23: 800 24: 800 25: 800 26: 800
   27: 798 28: 800 29: 800 30: 800 31: 800 32: 799 bogomips: 191692
 Flags: avx avx2 ht lm nx pae sse sse2 sse3 sse4_1 sse4_2 ssse3 vmx

Graphics:

 Device-1: NVIDIA GA104 [GeForce RTX 3060 Ti Lite Hash Rate] vendor: Gigabyte driver: nvidia
   v: 580.126.09 arch: Ampere pcie: speed: 16 GT/s lanes: 16 ports: active: none off: DP-1
   empty: DP-2,HDMI-A-1,HDMI-A-2 bus-ID: 01:00.0 chip-ID: 10de:2489 class-ID: 0300
 Device-2: Logitech Brio 100 driver: snd-usb-audio,uvcvideo type: USB rev: 2.0 speed: 480 Mb/s
   lanes: 1 bus-ID: 1-5.1:11 chip-ID: 046d:094c class-ID: 0102 serial: <filter>
 Display: x11 server: X.Org v: 21.1.11 with: Xwayland v: 23.2.6 driver: X: loaded: nvidia
   unloaded: fbdev,modesetting,nouveau,vesa gpu: nv_platform,nvidia,nvidia-nvswitch display-ID: :0
   screens: 1
 Screen-1: 0 s-res: 1920x1080 s-dpi: 96 s-size: 508x286mm (20.00x11.26") s-diag: 583mm (22.95")
 Monitor-1: DP-1 mapped: DP-0 note: disabled model: Dell S3221QS serial: <filter> res: 1920x1080
   hz: 60 dpi: 70 size: 697x392mm (27.44x15.43") diag: 806mm (31.7") modes: max: 3840x2160
   min: 640x480
 API: EGL v: 1.5 hw: drv: nvidia platforms: device: 0 drv: nvidia device: 2 drv: swrast gbm:
   drv: nvidia surfaceless: drv: nvidia x11: drv: nvidia inactive: wayland,device-1
 API: OpenGL v: 4.6.0 compat-v: 4.5 vendor: nvidia mesa v: 580.126.09 glx-v: 1.4
   direct-render: yes renderer: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 Ti/PCIe/SSE2
 API: Vulkan v: 1.3.275 layers: 9 surfaces: xcb,xlib device: 0 type: discrete-gpu driver: N/A
   device-ID: 10de:2489 device: 1 type: cpu driver: N/A device-ID: 10005:0000

Audio:

 Device-1: Intel Raptor Lake High Definition Audio vendor: ASUSTeK driver: snd_hda_intel v: kernel
   bus-ID: 00:1f.3 chip-ID: 8086:7a50 class-ID: 0403
 Device-2: NVIDIA GA104 High Definition Audio vendor: Gigabyte driver: snd_hda_intel v: kernel
   pcie: speed: 16 GT/s lanes: 16 bus-ID: 01:00.1 chip-ID: 10de:228b class-ID: 0403
 Device-3: ASUSTek USB Audio driver: hid-generic,snd-usb-audio,usbhid type: USB rev: 2.0
   speed: 480 Mb/s lanes: 1 bus-ID: 1-4:5 chip-ID: 0b05:1a52 class-ID: 0300
 Device-4: Logitech Brio 100 driver: snd-usb-audio,uvcvideo type: USB rev: 2.0 speed: 480 Mb/s
   lanes: 1 bus-ID: 1-5.1:11 chip-ID: 046d:094c class-ID: 0102 serial: <filter>
 Device-5: Arturia KeyLab Essential 61 driver: snd-usb-audio type: USB rev: 2.0 speed: 12 Mb/s
   lanes: 1 bus-ID: 1-8:10 chip-ID: 1c75:028a class-ID: 0103 serial: <filter>
 API: ALSA v: k6.17.0-14-generic status: kernel-api
 Server-1: PipeWire v: 1.0.5 status: active with: 1: pipewire-pulse status: active
   2: wireplumber status: active 3: pipewire-alsa type: plugin

Network:

 Device-1: Intel Wi-Fi 6E AX210/AX1675 2x2 [Typhoon Peak] driver: iwlwifi v: kernel pcie:
   speed: 5 GT/s lanes: 1 bus-ID: 06:00.0 chip-ID: 8086:2725 class-ID: 0280
 IF: wlo1 state: down mac: <filter>
 Device-2: Intel Ethernet I226-V vendor: ASUSTeK driver: igc v: kernel pcie: speed: 5 GT/s
   lanes: 1 port: N/A bus-ID: 07:00.0 chip-ID: 8086:125c class-ID: 0200
 IF: eno2 state: up speed: 1000 Mbps duplex: full mac: <filter>

Bluetooth:

 Device-1: Intel AX210 Bluetooth driver: btusb v: 0.8 type: USB rev: 2.0 speed: 12 Mb/s lanes: 1
   bus-ID: 1-14:16 chip-ID: 8087:0032 class-ID: e001
 Report: hciconfig ID: hci0 rfk-id: 0 state: down bt-service: enabled,running rfk-block:
   hardware: no software: yes address: <filter>

RAID:

 Hardware-1: Intel Volume Management Device NVMe RAID Controller Intel driver: vmd v: 0.6
   port: N/A bus-ID: 00:0e.0 chip-ID: 8086:a77f rev: class-ID: 0104

Drives:

 Local Storage: total: 2.73 TiB used: 576.74 GiB (20.6%)
 ID-1: /dev/nvme0n1 vendor: Samsung model: SSD 980 PRO 1TB size: 931.51 GiB speed: 63.2 Gb/s
   lanes: 4 tech: SSD serial: <filter> fw-rev: 5B2QGXA7 temp: 34.9 C scheme: GPT
 ID-2: /dev/nvme1n1 vendor: Samsung model: SSD 990 PRO 1TB size: 931.51 GiB speed: 63.2 Gb/s
   lanes: 4 tech: SSD serial: <filter> fw-rev: 4B2QJXD7 temp: 32.9 C scheme: GPT
 ID-3: /dev/nvme2n1 vendor: Western Digital model: WD Blue SN570 1TB size: 931.51 GiB
   speed: 31.6 Gb/s lanes: 4 tech: SSD serial: <filter> fw-rev: 234110WD temp: 30.9 C scheme: GPT

Partition:

 ID-1: / size: 96.36 GiB used: 35.1 GiB (36.4%) fs: ext4 dev: /dev/nvme0n1p6
 ID-2: /boot/efi size: 96 MiB used: 37 MiB (38.5%) fs: vfat dev: /dev/nvme0n1p1

Swap:

 ID-1: swap-1 type: file size: 2 GiB used: 0 KiB (0.0%) priority: -2 file: /swapfile

USB:

 Hub-1: 1-0:1 info: hi-speed hub with single TT ports: 16 rev: 2.0 speed: 480 Mb/s lanes: 1
   chip-ID: 1d6b:0002 class-ID: 0900
 Hub-2: 1-1:2 info: ASMedia ASM1074 High-Speed hub ports: 4 rev: 2.1 speed: 480 Mb/s lanes: 1
   power: 100mA chip-ID: 174c:2074 class-ID: 0900
 Device-1: 1-1.2:4 info: Trust 2.4G Speed Mouse type: keyboard,mouse driver: hid-generic,usbhid
   interfaces: 2 rev: 1.1 speed: 12 Mb/s lanes: 1 power: 100mA chip-ID: 145f:01c1 class-ID: 0301
 Hub-3: 1-2:3 info: Realtek 4-Port USB 2.0 Hub ports: 4 rev: 2.1 speed: 480 Mb/s lanes: 1
   chip-ID: 0bda:5420 class-ID: 0900
 Device-1: 1-2.1:6 info: Cyber Power System CP1500 AVR UPS type: HID driver: hid-generic,usbhid
   interfaces: 1 rev: 1.1 speed: 1.5 Mb/s lanes: 1 power: 50mA chip-ID: 0764:0501 class-ID: 0300
 Device-2: 1-2.3:7 info: HP HP LaserJet Pro 4001 type: printer driver: usbfs interfaces: 4
   rev: 2.0 speed: 480 Mb/s lanes: 1 power: 2mA chip-ID: 03f0:0274 class-ID: 0701 serial: <filter>
 Device-3: 1-2.4:8 info: HP HP ColorLaserJet M253-M254 type: printer driver: usbfs interfaces: 5
   rev: 2.0 speed: 480 Mb/s lanes: 1 power: 2mA chip-ID: 03f0:ac2a class-ID: 0701 serial: <filter>
 Device-4: 1-4:5 info: ASUSTek USB Audio type: audio,HID
   driver: hid-generic,snd-usb-audio,usbhid interfaces: 8 rev: 2.0 speed: 480 Mb/s lanes: 1
   power: 100mA chip-ID: 0b05:1a52 class-ID: 0300
 Hub-4: 1-5:9 info: ASMedia ASM1074 High-Speed hub ports: 4 rev: 2.1 speed: 480 Mb/s lanes: 1
   power: 100mA chip-ID: 174c:2074 class-ID: 0900
 Device-1: 1-5.1:11 info: Logitech Brio 100 type: video,audio driver: snd-usb-audio,uvcvideo
   interfaces: 4 rev: 2.0 speed: 480 Mb/s lanes: 1 power: 500mA chip-ID: 046d:094c class-ID: 0102
   serial: <filter>
 Device-2: 1-5.2:13 info: Corsair K70 CORE RGB Mechanical Gaming Keyboard
   type: keyboard,HID,mouse driver: hid-generic,usbhid interfaces: 4 rev: 2.0 speed: 12 Mb/s
   lanes: 1 power: 500mA chip-ID: 1b1c:1bff class-ID: 0301 serial: <filter>
 Hub-5: 1-5.3:15 info: VIA Labs USB2.0 Hub ports: 4 rev: 2.1 speed: 480 Mb/s lanes: 1
   chip-ID: 2109:2817 class-ID: 0900
 Device-1: 1-8:10 info: Arturia KeyLab Essential 61 type: audio driver: snd-usb-audio
   interfaces: 2 rev: 2.0 speed: 12 Mb/s lanes: 1 power: 100mA chip-ID: 1c75:028a class-ID: 0103
   serial: <filter>
 Hub-6: 1-10:12 info: Genesys Logic Hub ports: 2 rev: 2.0 speed: 480 Mb/s lanes: 1 power: 100mA
   chip-ID: 05e3:0608 class-ID: 0900
 Device-1: 1-13:14 info: ASUSTek AURA LED Controller type: HID driver: hid-generic,usbhid
   interfaces: 2 rev: 2.0 speed: 12 Mb/s lanes: 1 power: 16mA chip-ID: 0b05:19af class-ID: 0300
   serial: <filter>
 Device-2: 1-14:16 info: Intel AX210 Bluetooth type: bluetooth driver: btusb interfaces: 2
   rev: 2.0 speed: 12 Mb/s lanes: 1 power: 100mA chip-ID: 8087:0032 class-ID: e001
 Hub-7: 2-0:1 info: super-speed hub ports: 8 rev: 3.1 speed: 20 Gb/s lanes: 2 chip-ID: 1d6b:0003
   class-ID: 0900
 Hub-8: 2-1:2 info: ASMedia ASM1074 SuperSpeed hub ports: 4 rev: 3.0 speed: 5 Gb/s lanes: 1
   power: 8mA chip-ID: 174c:3074 class-ID: 0900
 Hub-9: 2-2:3 info: Realtek 4-Port USB 3.0 Hub ports: 4 rev: 3.2 speed: 10 Gb/s lanes: 1
   chip-ID: 0bda:0420 class-ID: 0900
 Hub-10: 2-4:4 info: ASMedia ASM1074 SuperSpeed hub ports: 4 rev: 3.0 speed: 5 Gb/s lanes: 1
   power: 8mA chip-ID: 174c:3074 class-ID: 0900
 Hub-11: 2-4.3:5 info: VIA Labs USB3.0 Hub ports: 4 rev: 3.2 speed: 5 Gb/s lanes: 1
   chip-ID: 2109:0817 class-ID: 0900

Sensors:

 System Temperatures: cpu: 37.0 C mobo: N/A gpu: nvidia temp: 35 C
 Fan Speeds (rpm): N/A gpu: nvidia fan: 0%

Repos:

 Packages: pm: dpkg pkgs: 2491
 No active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list
 Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/official-package-repositories.list
   1: deb http: //packages.linuxmint.com zena main upstream import backport
   2: deb http: //archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu noble main restricted universe multiverse
   3: deb http: //archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu noble-updates main restricted universe multiverse
   4: deb http: //archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu noble-backports main restricted universe multiverse
   5: deb http: //security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ noble-security main restricted universe multiverse

Info:

 Memory: total: 32 GiB note: est. available: 31.03 GiB used: 4.52 GiB (14.6%)
 Processes: 534 Power: uptime: 1h 14m states: freeze,mem,disk suspend: deep wakeups: 0
   hibernate: platform Init: systemd v: 255 target: graphical (5) default: graphical
 Compilers: gcc: 13.3.0 Client: Unknown python3.12 client inxi: 3.3.34

/code

Using Firevox 142.0.1 on a MacBook Air. I always have "Always ask you where to save files" checked in Preferences, but lately it sometimes fails to ask me. For example, if I try to download a file from Google Drive. Is anyone else having this problem? Is there something I can do about it?

Environment - OS: Omarchy - File manager: Nautilus (running as --gapplication-service) - Desktop portals: xdg-desktop-portal + xdg-desktop-portal-hyprland (+ gtk fallback) Firefox: latest stable from Arch repositories

Observations Only one Firefox process is running (pgrep -a firefox). Only one Nautilus process is running, but it receives two open requests, resulting in two windows. The issue does not occur in Chromium/Chrome, which opens only one window. Running xdg-open <file> manually opens one Nautilus window.

Portal logs show GTK being chosen as last-resort fallback, but system-wide XDG configuration appears correct.

Question

Is this a known Wayland/portal bug in Firefox? Are there recommended debugging flags or patches to trace the duplicate launch request?

I teach an online Adobe Illustrator Course. Students upload (.ai) Adobe Illustrator files. Not .svg or .pdf. But Firefox changes the (.ai) extension to (.pdf) upon downloading. This is HIGHLY irritating. Firefox, in prior versions, did not do this. In Firefox settings for Applications, there isn't a choice for .ai (Adobe Illustrator) files. I 'assume' that when AI (artificial intelligence) became available is when Firefox began automatically changing (.ai) files to (.pdf). PLEASE SOLVE this as I have to manually change the (.pdf) extension BACK to (.ai) HUNDREDS of times a day.

Professor Brian Sauriol

How can I get Firefox to stop automatically downloading links? I've selected the "ask me" option in settings and that doesn't stop it. In the past it worked fine but for the last several months I've tried everything and it won't ask me what file to put it in. Now, every PDF gets automatically sent to my Adobe cloud (which I definitely don't want as I'm planning to ditch Adobe at the end of my current subscription) and I have to go through a convoluted work around to even be able to get it downloaded into the file where I need it to be. Can you please help? Thank you! ~ JTucker

I would like to be able set a keyboard shortcut to automatically toggle the option "always ask you where to save files" on and off. At times, I am downloading a lot of pdf files from the Internet and these can all go into the downloads folder. However, I also need to frequently download pdf files and customize them before the download.

Hi, I've recently discovered that Firefox replaces the % with underscore while downloading file.

I've read that question: https://support.mozilla.org/fr/questions/1439267 but there is no answer.

Is there a way to prevent that? I use a online tool I've made myself and the % is used as a separator.