@brandwing wrote:Will you PLEEASSEE roll back this lousy update! I click on a hundred pdfs online everyday! I don't want to download them all! In fact, I don't want to download any of them! I'm a land surveyor that simply needs to read deeds, plans, zoning and planning documents, etc....I want need the option to open them in a helper app instead of downloading them!! Firefox, Please fix this!!! It's horrible!!
Firefox 98 changed from saving those files in the Windows or Linux system Temp folder -- out of sight, out of mind, and typically self-cleaning -- to instead saving them in the folder listed on the Settings page next to "Save files to." There isn't a way to pass a file to an external application without saving it somewhere, but Mozilla has definitely received a lot of feedback from people who found the old way convenient. Does it outweigh the problem that some users had with lost files when their download disappeared? I don't know; not for me to judge.
The workflow for PDFs is a little complicated:
By default, Settings > Applications has the "Open in Firefox" action for PDFs, so they open in a tab with their original URL in the address bar (the file is stored in the web content cache with pages, images, etc.). The download button in the PDF viewer used to pop up a dialog with Open/Save/Cancel choices, but now it works like a "Save Page As" button, so that is an extra step.
If you change from "Open in Firefox" to "Always Ask", then Firefox will save the file somewhere, so while it will be faster on the front end, you have a clean-up issue when Firefox or your OS doesn't remove those files automatically. Firefox 98 does have a new context menu item to remove downloaded files one by one: right-click > Delete (this is permanent and bypasses the Recycle Bin)
At some point after the deletion, the text on the list will change to indicate that the file was moved or is missing. I'm not aware of any way to do this in bulk.
One Workaround
What I'm doing for now is this pair of settings:
(1) Change the default download folder to a "temp" folder I created
(2) Set Firefox to always ask where I want to save a file so I can choose a real folder when I want to keep the file
On the Settings page, it looks like this:
At some point, I might dump the contents of my TEMP folder, but like the old system, for me it's "out of sight, out of mind."
@lunacy wrote:... A waste of time and potentially money as some ISP's charge additional fees for over limit bandwidth.
This double downloading is a WASTE of bandwidth.
While I like and have used Firefox for years I AM evaluating other browsers in case this stupidity continues.
You could try my TEMP folder workaround -- does that avoid double-saving?
@CaioFonsecaF wrote:The worst thing for me is to have all the time to go back to the page that I always need to have it open
Could you explain this problem in more detail.
@MattMatt wrote:As well as being a measure that makes using Firefox much less convenient, it also causes major security problems. Take theannoyingsite.com as an example. Amongst all the actions performed to annoy the user, it initiates the downloading of several cat pictures. Now imagine an even more malicious website downloading hundreds of files, or malicious files.
This is temporary workaround until something better comes along:
You can intercept (and cancel) downloads by setting Firefox to ask you where to save the file every time. On the Settings page:
It could infect the victim's computer without any action on their part. Or fill their hard drive. Or simply incur a huge internet bill. I didn't expose myself to this kind of risk by using Firefox, which is one of the reasons I preferred it to other browsers. If this change persists, I'll switch to Chromium, too bad for the monopoly.
I think all browsers protect against drive-by file execution, but someone should verify that. Regarding bandwidth, by the time Firefox presented the Download (Open/Save/Cancel) dialog, it was already downloading the file in the background, so showing that more often didn't save on bandwidth unless the file was so large that you were able to interrupt the download before it completed.
How does Chromium handle the unwanted cat photos situation?
@DF wrote:Your temporary workaround does not work. Even if one has the browser configured to "always ask" it saves a copy of the file in the Download folder. By the way, this completely obviates the decision to "always ask".
This temporary workaround you replied to is a basic change to make sure you can always cancel a "drive by" file download. Does that not work on yours?
If you are referring to the problem of Firefox 98-99 using the Downloads folder when you choose to "Open with [relevant application]" instead of using the system Temp folder, there is an extra step to work around the mixing of files. (This was mentioned in an earlier reply.) Firefox will use the folder that's to the right of "Save files to:" which by default is the Downloads folder. To override that, you need to change that folder to a Temp folder. Here's how I have it set on mine.
When I mentioned it earlier, you said "I should not have to adopt a workaround to fix something that previously worked fine!" I have no idea what the future holds for using the system Temp folder again, so this is offered in the spirit of "better than nothing." If you don't agree, then don't use it.
