Mozilla VPN is currently experiencing an outage. Our team is actively working to resolve the issue. Please check the status page for real-time updates. Thank you for your patience.

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 downloads

  • 2 replies
  • 1 has this problem
  • 1 view
  • Last reply by Terry

more options

Recently pdf files I download are getting saved in my Downloads folder automatically. They are also opened in Adobe Reader as specified in settings. I don't know what version this started with but it didn't always happen. I don't want these files filling up my Downloads folder so how can I prevent this?

Recently pdf files I download are getting saved in my Downloads folder automatically. They are also opened in Adobe Reader as specified in settings. I don't know what version this started with but it didn't always happen. I don't want these files filling up my Downloads folder so how can I prevent this?
Attached screenshots

Chosen solution

The preference to reverse the changes will only work temporarily.

https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/questions/1370494

To change the destination folder or enable you to pick a folder, see the answer linked below.

https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/questions/1374319#answer-1501074

Read this answer in context 👍 0

All Replies (2)

more options

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.

more options

Chosen Solution

The preference to reverse the changes will only work temporarily.

https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/questions/1370494

To change the destination folder or enable you to pick a folder, see the answer linked below.

https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/questions/1374319#answer-1501074