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

How do i turn off the auto popup of the Downloads panel?

  • 3 replies
  • 2 have this problem
  • 30 views
  • Last reply by FredMcD

more options

How do i turn off the auto popup of the Downloads panel? Its very annoying to have this pop up every time i download something. Previously,before the update, the download panel does not popup when a download is complete. Please provide a solution to turn off this feature.

How do i turn off the auto popup of the Downloads panel? Its very annoying to have this pop up every time i download something. Previously,before the update, the download panel does not popup when a download is complete. Please provide a solution to turn off this feature.
Attached screenshots

Chosen solution

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.

WARNING: Changing preferences through this interface not officially supported Hidden settings edited using the about:config tool are explicitly not supported, which means that Mozilla makes no guarantees they will be supported in the future, or that Mozilla will fix them if they break. Mozilla does not test these preferences, and will not in the future. That includes security and performance testing which these preferences may affect.

[Warning added by moderator]

Read this answer in context 👍 1

All Replies (3)

more options

Chosen Solution

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.

WARNING: Changing preferences through this interface not officially supported Hidden settings edited using the about:config tool are explicitly not supported, which means that Mozilla makes no guarantees they will be supported in the future, or that Mozilla will fix them if they break. Mozilla does not test these preferences, and will not in the future. That includes security and performance testing which these preferences may affect.

[Warning added by moderator]

Modified by Chris Ilias

more options

FredMcD said

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.

It worked. Thank you so much for your help!

more options

Glad to help. Safe Surfing.