Join the AMA (Ask Me Anything) with the Firefox leadership team to celebrate Firefox 20th anniversary and discuss Firefox’s future on Mozilla Connect. Mark your calendar on Thursday, November 14, 18:00 - 20:00 UTC!

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

File I downloaded then saved is now gone.

more options

I downloaded a word document yesterday. When I was prompted to save it or open it, I chose to just open it. I then made some changes to the word document, and clicked "save". Today I was looking for the word document, but couldn't find it. When I open Firefox's download menu, the option to open it or open its containing folder is grayed out.

What I'm very confused by is the fact that when I clicked "save" in MS Word yesterday when I finished editing the document, MS Word saved the file. Normally, when I "open" a word document directly from Firefox (as opposed to saving it to a specified location), if I edit the document and then click "save", MS Word will direct me to the "Save As" menu where I choose a folder to save the document in. This time, MS Word saved the file as if it were a file I had downloaded. So I had no idea that the file was not in a secure location (probably was in a temporary download folder).

The changes I made to the document were extremely important and I'm very very disappointed that I've lost the file. Is there anywhere it could be? How can I prevent this from happening in the future (other than saving the file directly from Firefox)?

Thanks

I downloaded a word document yesterday. When I was prompted to save it or open it, I chose to just open it. I then made some changes to the word document, and clicked "save". Today I was looking for the word document, but couldn't find it. When I open Firefox's download menu, the option to open it or open its containing folder is grayed out. What I'm very confused by is the fact that when I clicked "save" in MS Word yesterday when I finished editing the document, MS Word saved the file. Normally, when I "open" a word document directly from Firefox (as opposed to saving it to a specified location), if I edit the document and then click "save", MS Word will direct me to the "Save As" menu where I choose a folder to save the document in. This time, MS Word saved the file as if it were a file I had downloaded. So I had no idea that the file was not in a secure location (probably was in a temporary download folder). The changes I made to the document were extremely important and I'm very very disappointed that I've lost the file. Is there anywhere it could be? How can I prevent this from happening in the future (other than saving the file directly from Firefox)? Thanks

Chosen solution

When you choose "Open" in a download prompt window, the file ends up in the temp folder. Once Firefox is closed, the file is deleted. The "Open Containing Folder" option is grayed out because the file no longer exists. You can verify that it's gone by trying to open it from Word's list of recently opened files.

You can try an undelete utility to recover the file.

In the future, if you want to keep a file, either choose to save it when prompted by Firefox, or choose either Save As or Save Copy As after you've opened it in the associated application.

Read this answer in context 👍 0

All Replies (1)

more options

Seçilmiş Həll

When you choose "Open" in a download prompt window, the file ends up in the temp folder. Once Firefox is closed, the file is deleted. The "Open Containing Folder" option is grayed out because the file no longer exists. You can verify that it's gone by trying to open it from Word's list of recently opened files.

You can try an undelete utility to recover the file.

In the future, if you want to keep a file, either choose to save it when prompted by Firefox, or choose either Save As or Save Copy As after you've opened it in the associated application.