This site will have limited functionality while we undergo maintenance to improve your experience. If an article doesn't solve your issue and you want to ask a question, we have our support community waiting to help you at @FirefoxSupport on Twitter and/r/firefox on Reddit.

Avatar for Username

Search Support

Avoid support scams. We will never ask you to call or text a phone number or share personal information. Please report suspicious activity using the “Report Abuse” option.

Learn More

Hierdie gesprek is in die argief. Vra asseblief 'n nuwe vraag as jy hulp nodig het.

Config to automatically save pdf (or other mime types)

1998marcom
1998marcom
more options

I would like to use firefox to download several pdfs using selenium. To do so, I need to make firefox save pdfs automatically, without asking for confirmation. I duckduckgo-ed the issue (1, 2, 3, 4), but couldn't find an up-to-date working solution.

I tried to initialize a firefox profile and set the following prefs: ``` "browser.download.dir": dir, "browser.helperApps.neverAsk.saveToDisk": "application/pdf", "browser.download.manager.showWhenStarting": False, "browser.download.folderList": 2, ```

But firefox seems to ignore those and wants to display the pdf internally. If I force `"pdfjs.disabled": true`, I get again the download manager pop up. I can edit the preference in "about:preferences" to make firefox automatically download pdfs ([https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/.../change-firefox-behavior-when-open-file]), but I cannot find a way to script this.

So, which are the about:configs to make firefox automatically download pdfs?

I would like to use firefox to download several pdfs using selenium. To do so, I need to make firefox save pdfs automatically, without asking for confirmation. I duckduckgo-ed the issue ([https://yizeng.me/2014/05/23/download-pdf-files-automatically-in-firefox-using-selenium-webdriver/ 1], [https://intellipaat.com/community/12473/downloading-file-to-specified-location-with-selenium-and-python/ 2], [https://stackoverflow.com/questions/46435978/downloading-pdf-with-selenium-webdriver-for-firefox/ 3], [https://stackoverflow.com/questions/36309314/set-firefox-profile-to-download-files-automatically-using-selenium-and-java 4]), but couldn't find an up-to-date working solution. I tried to initialize a firefox profile and set the following prefs: ``` "browser.download.dir": dir, "browser.helperApps.neverAsk.saveToDisk": "application/pdf", "browser.download.manager.showWhenStarting": False, "browser.download.folderList": 2, ``` But firefox seems to ignore those and wants to display the pdf internally. If I force `"pdfjs.disabled": true`, I get again the download manager pop up. I can edit the preference in "about:preferences" to make firefox automatically download pdfs ([[https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/change-firefox-behavior-when-open-file|https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/change-firefox-behavior-when-open-file]]), but I cannot find a way to script this. So, which are the about:configs to make firefox automatically download pdfs?

All Replies (1)

jscher2000 - Support Volunteer
jscher2000 - Support Volunteer
  • Top 10 Contributor
more options

Does selenium use a predefined profile?

The setting to always save files served with the Content-Type "application/pdf" is stored in the handlers.json file. This file appears to override the legacy neverAsk preferences based on a quick glance at the source code.

Note: If you do not control the server from which you are opening PDFs, one potential problem would be if the server uses a different Content-Type. Some servers send the generic "application/octet-stream" while others may improvise. Firefox will give you the dialog for unknown binary content types.