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

What happened to the downloads window?

  • 2 replies
  • 1 has this problem
  • 8 views
  • Last reply by cor-el

more options

It used to be when I pressed Command-J (or selected Downloads from the Tools menu) a separate window would open showing the downloads history. But now it opens a new tab in the current window instead. How can I get it back to opening in its own window?

It used to be when I pressed Command-J (or selected Downloads from the Tools menu) a separate window would open showing the downloads history. But now it opens a new tab in the current window instead. How can I get it back to opening in its own window?

Chosen solution

Answering my own question here...

It turns out I had a private browsing window in front at the time. When you open the Downloads window in this situation, it does apparently open in a new tab instead of a new window. When I switched to having a regular browser window in front, then the Downloads window goes back to opening in a new window.

Read this answer in context 👍 2

All Replies (2)

more options

Chosen Solution

Answering my own question here...

It turns out I had a private browsing window in front at the time. When you open the Downloads window in this situation, it does apparently open in a new tab instead of a new window. When I switched to having a regular browser window in front, then the Downloads window goes back to opening in a new window.

more options

Yes, that is correct. When you are in Private Browsing mode then you get the about:downloads page and not the Downloads Manager (Library) window in a standalone window.