Firefox File Download Settings - Broken?

ZeeOSix

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I have set Firefox to ask me what I want to do when I click on a PDF link - I have it set to "Always Ask". When I click on a link to a PDF file, the pop up window does show up with the 3 options. If I chose "Open in Firefox" is does open it in Firefox, BUT is also downloads the file to my computer to my "Downloads" folder, which is the folder I have downloads set to go to.

Seems like this is a glitch in Firefox. I mean it should do what I tell it to do, and if I chose "Open in Firefox" (or "Open with Adobe" - the second option) then it should NOT ALSO automatically download the file. If I wanted the file downloaded, I would tell it so.

Are there any other settings to look at? Only way I've found to get around this is to set it to "Open in Firefox" in the General Settings inseaad of "Always Ask" I think Firefox's "Awlays Ask" function is broken. Lots of chatter on the 'net about it ... Firefox, if you see this fix your "Always Ask" fuctionality ... it doesn't seem to work, lol.

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Yes, I have the latest Firefox running.

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it may need to download it to open it?
does it save it there if you have it default to opening in another program?

let me do some testing.
Like I mentioned, if I set PDFs to "Open in Firefox" instead of "Always Ask", then it only opens in Firefox like set, and does not download it too. That functionality seems to work properly.

But when it's set to "Always Ask", and the window pops up and you chose "Open if Firefox", it does open in Firefox, but ALSO automatically downloads it to the "Downloads" folder on my computer. Seems like choosing "Open in Firefox" in the pop-up should only open in Firefox and not also do any downloading. If I want it to download, I would chose "Save File" in that pop-up window.
 
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Like I mentioned, if I set PDFs to "Open if Firefox" instead of "Always Ask", then it only opens in Firefox like set. That functionality seems to work properly.

But when it's set to "Always Ask", and the window pops up and you chose "Open if Firefox", it does open in Firefox, but ALSO automatically downloads it to the "Downloads" folder on my computer. Seems like choosing "Open in Firefox" in the pop-up should only open in Firefox and not also do any downloading. If I want it to download, I would chose "Save File" in that pop-up window.
ok i missed that small detail let me check what mine does so i can see if its just you or not.

Ok so its a firefox thing. if you have it on open in firefox it just opens
if its on always ask
downloads it then opens it.. seems odd. not just you.
 
ok i missed that small detail let me check what mine does so i can see if its just you or not.

Ok so its a firefox thing. if you have it on open in firefox it just opens
if its on always ask
downloads it then opens it.. seems odd. not just you.
Thanks for checking. Yeah, I don't recall it automatically downloading when set to "Always Ask" and choosing "Open in Firefox" in the pop-up window that appears when you click the link to the PDF file. That's what the "Save File" option in the pop-up should be for.

Like mentioned, only way I see to get around this is to set PDF files to "Open in Firefox" in the General Settings in Firefox (shown below). Seems that is what choosing the "Open in Firefox" in the pop-up window should be doing too.

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I suspect that while are correct that this is some kind of logical bug to some extent, that you do not realize it is downloading the file either way and if not saving it in your documents folder, then it is just putting it in the Firefox cache folder. If you have firefox set to automatically clear your cache, this would save you the bother of manually deleting it, but unless running out of storage space you can just bulk delete them all every now and then. Otherwise I don't see how it matters much.

My older version of Firefox, I have set to always ask, defaulting to Foxit PDF Reader, and it puts the download in my windows/temp folder. Other programs leave behind a lot of garbage in that temp folder too, so I have a batch file I just click and it deletes them. I named it _delete.bat so it's at the top of the alphabetized file list in the temp folder.

attrib -h -r -s *.tmp
attrib -h -r -s *.mtx
attrib -h -r -s *.log
attrib -h -r -s *.0001
attrib -h -r -s *.mst
attrib -h -r -s *.xml
attrib -h -r -s *.dat
attrib -h -r -s *.part
attrib -h -r -s *.wmf
attrib -h -r -s *.icm
attrib -h -r -s *.part
attrib -h -r -s *.tmf
attrib -h -r -s *.sqm
attrib -h -r -s *.log
attrib -h -r -s *.jar
attrib -h -r -s *.dll
attrib -h -r -s *.pdf

del *.tmp
del *.mtx
del *.log
del *.0001
del *.mst
del *.xml
del *.dat
del *.part
del *.wmf
del *.icm
del *.part
del clipboardcach*
del *.bmp
del *.bin
del *.part
del *.tmf
del *.sqm
del *.log
del *.jar
del *.dll
del *.pdf

pause

exit
 
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