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Firefox now saves files that I only wanted to open
Hi, For decades it was not a problem to simply open a file instead of saving it, but now it doesn't matter if you wanna save or only open a files, it will save it anyway and pollute your download folder and download list.
And the fake explanation they give about "but its hard to find file in temp folder..."... SERIOUSLY!? that's your excuses!? If i want to simply open a file its not to save it so there is no need to find it otherwise i choose the "save to" option not the "open" one... What the point of having to choose between two option if they both do the exact same thing (no sorry one open the file AFTER saving it without our consent and in an unwanted place while the other simply save it where we want as expected...)
Update after update firefox is becoming a real pain to use... everything that used to work perfectly with easy setting to understand now either don't work anymore either has getting extremly difficult to set with random unrelevant setting that do not at all what they say they do... i think that last one will kill firefox... seriously who got such a terrible idea "hey let's fucked up open setting so it work the same way as save setting without telling anyshit to anyone so our company can die"
Svi odgovori (3)
Hi!
Please mind your tone next time, this support forum is run by volunteers, who would like to help you.
This behaviour has changed in Firefox 98, see the related article: How file downloads are handled in Firefox version 98 and above. Basically in the past "opened files" were downloaded into the hardcoded temp directory (e.g. %LOCALAPPDATA%\Temp on Windows, /tmp on Linux), while "downloaded files" into the Downloads folder. Currently, by default, all files are downloaded into the Downloads folder.
But, your use case really matches mine, so I can suggest a solution. You can set your downloads folder to %LOCALAPPDATA%\Temp (a.k.a. C:\Users\<your-user>\AppData\Local\Temp), so all your downloads will go there, and you can still use Save as for those files, which you actually want to keep.
Regards, Balázs
You can now use a preference in about:config to save files to your temp folder. It was added to deal with the numerous complaints about the changes in version 98. browser.download.start_downloads_in_tmp_dir
https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1738574#c133 https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/about-config-editor-firefox
I've done a good answer but broken support give me a 502 error... so here a summary of it
Balázs Meskó, your solution imply to have to browse for a folder each time you want to save something when before you could simply save it to default folder, your download list will still be full of opened files and if you forgot to save to a specific place outside of temp folder you will lost your download pretty fast, or you could make your own temp folder that don't get auto clean but then all your opened file will fill your hard drive in a flash...
Terry, not only this kind of workaround are discourage by mozilla themself as it not guaranteed it last (like the media.autoplay.enabled that was working perfectly and doing exactly what it said and no more but they choose to delete it and replace it by 4 other option that didn't do what they said and didn't worked at all...) but its also the exact same solution as Balázs Meskó
Thank you both for your answer but would be a lot simpler for every one if Mozilla team could just admit they made a terrible mistake here and just come back to the old perfectly working way that had no issue for decade.