Solution To Restore the Downloads Library Window in Firefox...
For those of you who want to restore the Downloads Library window in Firefox instead of the tab, there is a rather simple solution instead of downloading add-ons or the non-working browser.download.useToolkitUI Boolean.
Instead, in about:config, add the Boolean string browser.download.manager.showWindow and set it to True. This will show the Downloads Library window instead of the tab.
I discovered this by accident the other day as mine stopped working randomly. So looking through the about:config, I saw the download.manager Boolean strings and figured why not try this, and Voila!, it worked. Hope this helps everyone else! Please pass it on!
All Replies (7)
I don't think this is a built-in feature, showing a tab or popping up a window. Normally you just get the blue arrow.
Is it possibly linked to one of your extensions?
I'm not asking a question, I'm providing a solution. I noticed many people wanted the downloads window instead of the tab. The SOLUTION to that problem is as I stated:
In about:config, add the Boolean browser.download.manager.showWindow and set to True.
This will now allow the Downloads window to show instead of the tab.
This is information that I hope others can use in the future.
Hi Drogan, here is the reason I asked about whether your configuration might be different than the default:
- I added that preference, then downloaded something, but no window showed up (I got the animated toolbar arrow as usual).
- When I search in the Firefox source code for showWindow there's nothing that would look for that preference. If Firefox is not looking for that preference, most likely an extension is looking for it.
You get the about:downloads page instead of the Library Downloads Manager window if you are in Private Browsing mode. So you might have been in PB mode if you got the about:downloads page in a tab.
Yes, I do get the blue arrow that shows when the download STARTS, but when I went to open the downloads window itself, it was a new tab. Which many of us HATE the downloads TAB and wanted a WINDOW *instead of* the TAB.
So, what I mean is: Starting with FF 26, the downloads window stopped showing when someone wanted to show their downloads (using Ctrl+J for example) and instead opened in a tab, *no matter what*. No private browsing, or anything like that. It just stopped opening in a new window, period, and instead went straight to the tab, period. It was literally disabled from FF 26+ in opening the downloads in a new window. I had gotten it to work before, but I somehow did something to cause it to stop working.
So playing around, I discovered that using the Boolean browser.download.manager.showWindow is the solution to the downloads WINDOW *instead of* the TAB.
So I posted this SOLUTION to opening the WINDOW *instead of* the TAB when wanting to show the downloads list. Simple as that.
Modified by Drogan
What extension do you have installed that adds support for the browser.download.manager.showWindow pref because that pref is not part of Firefox?
It's not an extension or plugin. You add it manually in the about:config list. Right-click > New > Boolean then enter the string and set to true. Simple as that.