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How can I force Firefox to always use SaveAs instead of Save

Erik van der Poll
Erik van der Poll
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There used to be a setting which forced Firefox to always display a file save as dialog when saving a file. I had this setting, but did not write down how it was done. After some of the recent updates this setting was changed, and now I cannot find it again.

Whenever I want to save a file where there is no explicit save as in the menu (for instance when the save button is a HTML link, not a file link), the file will now automatically be written to the Downloads directory, or sometimes a random directory where I last used save as. I cannot define the location or the name of the file, which means I have to search for it rather blindly. OK, I can check for the latest file downloaded and ask to open the associated directory but still it's a nuisance because I then have to move the file to where I want it, and often rename it. And sometimes there are multiple files I want to save, and they all are saved under the same name, which is when I definitely would want SaveAs.

Firefox also used to keep a record of the latest directory where I saved a file from a certain website, so I could have different download folders depending on the URL. This setting also seems to have been changed or lost.

I searched in about:config and about:preferences but could find no setting for either of these lost settings.

There used to be a setting which forced Firefox to always display a file save as dialog when saving a file. I had this setting, but did not write down how it was done. After some of the recent updates this setting was changed, and now I cannot find it again. Whenever I want to save a file where there is no explicit save as in the menu (for instance when the save button is a HTML link, not a file link), the file will now automatically be written to the Downloads directory, or sometimes a random directory where I last used save as. I cannot define the location or the name of the file, which means I have to search for it rather blindly. OK, I can check for the latest file downloaded and ask to open the associated directory but still it's a nuisance because I then have to move the file to where I want it, and often rename it. And sometimes there are multiple files I want to save, and they all are saved under the same name, which is when I definitely would want SaveAs. Firefox also used to keep a record of the latest directory where I saved a file from a certain website, so I could have different download folders depending on the URL. This setting also seems to have been changed or lost. I searched in about:config and about:preferences but could find no setting for either of these lost settings.

All Replies (3)

the-edmeister
the-edmeister
  • Moderator
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This is what I use, to allow me to select where I want files saved and it allows me to edit the file name.

(Tools) > Options -> General Downloads > Always ask me where to save files

cor-el
cor-el
  • Moderator
  • Top 10 Contributor
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Se also:

Erik van der Poll
Erik van der Poll Question owner
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@edmeister: Yes, I must have overlooked this, but this was the setting I had previously selected. It is quite obvious. I don't know why this setting changed, but I put it back to Always ask and that solves that part of the problem. Thx.

@cor-el: The link you give describes that the behaviour I want is the default behaviour. It also says that this setting is by default not present (and I do not see it in about:config). Should I find that Firefox will not "save per site", can I explicitly add this parameter somehow?

For now I will check if with the "always ask" on it will show this "save per site" behaviour. I know that for some sites (for instance http://www.radio4.nl/zondagochtendconcert/) it never did work as expected, possibly because of the way the files to be downloaded had been stored.