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.

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

PDFjs viewer does not honor "Download" setting and always saves to download folder

  • 2 cavab
  • 1 has this problem
  • 5 views
  • Last reply by Terry

more options

I have the Download setting set to "Always ask you where to save files" and PDF handling set to to "Open in Firefox" if I now click on the download button in the opened PDF it automatically saves to the Download folder without asking, which is never what I want. If I set PDF handling to always ask, and open in Firefox from the dialog and press on the save button then I get asked where to save. This seems like a bug to me, as it is very surprising behaviour. Is there some way to always open the PDF in firefox but get asked where to save the pdf when pressing the download button in the PDF viewer?

I have the Download setting set to "Always ask you where to save files" and PDF handling set to to "Open in Firefox" if I now click on the download button in the opened PDF it automatically saves to the Download folder without asking, which is never what I want. If I set PDF handling to always ask, and open in Firefox from the dialog and press on the save button then I get asked where to save. This seems like a bug to me, as it is very surprising behaviour. Is there some way to always open the PDF in firefox but get asked where to save the pdf when pressing the download button in the PDF viewer?

All Replies (2)

more options

https://www.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/98.0/releasenotes/ Firefox has a new optimized download flow . . . .

https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/manage-downloads-preferences-using-downloads-menu Changes to how file downloads are handled in Firefox version 98

  • Firefox no longer asks what to do for each file by default
  • Downloads panel automatically opens
  • Downloaded files are saved to disk
  • Set a default app to open a file type
  • "Always Open Similar Files" option from the Downloads panel
  • Frequently asked questions


You can set this pref to false on the about:config page to prevent opening the download panel on each download.

  • browser.download.alwaysOpenPanel = false

You can open the about:config page via the location/address bar. You can accept the warning and click "I accept the risk!" to continue.

more options

If you want to be able to choose the destination folder, change the following preference in about:config to false: browser.download.useDownloadDir

https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/about-config-editor-firefox