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

This thread was archived. Please ask a new question if you need help.

Deleting firefox deletes saved things.

  • 1 reply
  • 1 has this problem
  • 4 views
  • Last reply by TyDraniu

rexjleihy
rexjleihy
more options

I don't know if this happens with other browsers, but I updated firefox to see if the update was good and it wasn't. I deleted it and tried, and failed, to download an older version. After doing this i downloaded the duck duck go browser to try it. I was going to save a video. When i saved it i went to my download section in my gallery and all of my previous downloads using firefox were deleted. I don't think i will be able to get them back, but its worth asking. Also why would this be a thing, it doesn't happen if i delete other apps i have saved stuff from.

I don't know if this happens with other browsers, but I updated firefox to see if the update was good and it wasn't. I deleted it and tried, and failed, to download an older version. After doing this i downloaded the duck duck go browser to try it. I was going to save a video. When i saved it i went to my download section in my gallery and all of my previous downloads using firefox were deleted. I don't think i will be able to get them back, but its worth asking. Also why would this be a thing, it doesn't happen if i delete other apps i have saved stuff from.

All Replies (1)

TyDraniu
TyDraniu
  • Top 10 Contributor
more options

Strange. This issue shouldn't be happening since it was fixed in 2019.

Bug 1280184: Starting from Android M, the system download manager has started to delete downloaded files if the download is removed from the download manager again or if the downloading app is subsequently uninstalled, even if the files have been downloaded to a public folder on the shared storage.

In Android O, this was changed to only clean up files in app-private directories and leave files e.g. in the public Downloads folder alone, but that fix only applies to files actually downloaded via the download manager. Files that are registered with the download manager after having been downloaded independently, as in our case, are still deleted unconditionally when the registering app is uninstalled.

Additionally, starting from Android O Google has also started replacing the former user-facing part of the download manager, the Downloads app, with a new general file explorer-type app, whose "Downloads" view simply shows all files stored in the corresponding folder.

Since that removes the only raison d'être of the downloads integration and we also don't want to delete user's downloads just because they're uninstalling us, we disable downloads integration again on all Android versions exhibiting this behaviour.