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

I used to be able to close the browser and still have the download box open and still download stuff but now I can't...what happened???!!!

  • 2 replies
  • 6 have this problem
  • 4 views
  • Last reply by lapetite66

more options

I was in the process of downloading something tonight and decided to close my browser. Unfortunately, the download window also closed and that meant my download was gone and I would have to start over again.

I went back and started the download again and the download box showed the file picked up where it left off but when I closed the browser the same thing happened again; the download box closed when I closed the browser.

The reason I close the browser is because my downloads download faster when the browser is closed and now that option is closed to me.

Is this a new feature if so I don't like it as a matter of fact I would say I'm very pissed off with this new development. Please go back to fixing it so I can close the browser and still download.

I was in the process of downloading something tonight and decided to close my browser. Unfortunately, the download window also closed and that meant my download was gone and I would have to start over again. I went back and started the download again and the download box showed the file picked up where it left off but when I closed the browser the same thing happened again; the download box closed when I closed the browser. The reason I close the browser is because my downloads download faster when the browser is closed and now that option is closed to me. Is this a new feature if so I don't like it as a matter of fact I would say I'm very pissed off with this new development. Please go back to fixing it so I can close the browser and still download.

All Replies (2)

more options

Firefox should resume the download on the next start unless you are in Private Browsing mode.


The default is to pause a download and resume the download automatically the next time.
You can set the browser.download.manager.quitBehavior pref to 2 on the about:config page.
That will make Firefox ask for confirmation if you want to cancel the download if you close Firefox.

See:

more options

Hi cor-el:

Thanks for responding to my post.

I went to about:config like you suggest and changed the the thing you said. There is no improvement. Instead of my browser and the download box closing when I click on exit button/link now a box pops up with the message "If you exit now, 1 download will be canceled. Are you sure you want to exit?

I don't need a box to warn me that if I exit that the downloads manager would close as well...I already know that and that's the problem. I want a way to stop the download manager box from closing when I exit the browser like it used to.

Thanks anyway.