Join the AMA (Ask Me Anything) with the Firefox leadership team to celebrate Firefox 20th anniversary and discuss Firefox’s future on Mozilla Connect. Mark your calendar on Thursday, November 14, 18:00 - 20:00 UTC!

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.

Avatar for Username

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

This thread was archived. Please ask a new question if you need help.

Why does Firefox save files randomly in one of 7 locations?

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

RGHunt
RGHunt
more options

When I save a file through Firefox, I get the usual "choose where download this file" message. However, regardless of where I choose to download the file, it is actually downloaded to one of 7 different folders on my computer. Firefox appears to send it to one of these folders randomly; I can only find each downloaded picture or whatever by going to each of the folders and seeing where it showed up.

How can I fix this? Thanks!

When I save a file through Firefox, I get the usual "choose where download this file" message. However, regardless of where I choose to download the file, it is actually downloaded to one of 7 different folders on my computer. Firefox appears to send it to one of these folders randomly; I can only find each downloaded picture or whatever by going to each of the folders and seeing where it showed up. How can I fix this? Thanks!

All Replies (2)

guigs
guigs
more options

Two troubleshooting steps you can try:

  1. Update to version 28.

then

  1. In the Location bar, type about:config and press Enter. The about:config "This might void your warranty!" warning page may appear.
  2. Click I'll be careful, I promise!, to continue to the about:config page.
  3. look for browser.download.folderList and see what it is set to.

When set to 0, Firefox will save all files downloaded via the browser on the user's desktop. When set to 1, these downloads are stored in the Downloads folder. When set to 2, the location specified for the most recent download is utilized again.

It sounds like it is behaving like the settings for 2. Reset Firefox preferences to troubleshoot and fix problems if all else fails.

cor-el
cor-el
  • Moderator
  • Top 10 Contributor
more options

In current Firefox releases the last used directory for the website (host) serving the file for download will be preselected in the file picker.

If no download directory for the current website (host) has been stored, browser.download.lastDir will be used.

You can disable this feature to remember a host based download directory by creating a new Boolean pref on the about:config page with the name browser.download.lastDir.savePerSite pref and set its value to false.