2 different reasons why you download - 2 different directories

[EddyD]

Changes to how file downloads are handled in Firefox version 98 is a breaking change. Before this, FF understood that there are 2 different reasons why a file might be downloaded:

1. Because the User explicitly wants to save a file for later reference - these files were saved to a directory chosen by the User in Settings
2. Because the System needs to save a file e.g. in order to invoke an external handler such as a PDF viewer - these files were saved to a TEMP directory, and not controlled by Settings

Now under v98 both types of files are saved to the same location - e.g. my Desktop. So my Desktop is now full of files I consider to be temporary and useless!

Please restore the old behavior of 2 different locations for the 2 different types of download.

[UliBär]

Yes, now Firefox clutters the download folder with tons of unwanted temporary stuff, which one only wanted to look at for a moment and did not want that stuff permanently placed in the download folder.

[Ekol]

It sort of does though, but in a more deficient way in my opinion. If one sets the default download folder to the temporary directory of Firefox (in Linux this is /tmp/mozilla) and then enable the "Always ask where to save files option". This re-creates this duality  of having 2 different locations for the 2 different types of download (temporary files will download to /tmp/mozilla and get deleted at the end of the session, and the actually saved files will be suggested to be saved on the last directory used).

But I'm just saying this in case you didn't know about that, because we shouldn't hack our way through undocumented features to have this. 😕

[nix]

So this is why my ~/Downloads directory is cluttered with files I don't remember downloading. Yes—please restore this behavior to the way it was before, where files I download only to open are saved in /tmp/mozilla.

[Krille]

There must be an option to put downloads only in /tmp and purge them automatically otherwise Firefox becomes unusable for me.

After all those UI mishaps this is certainly the worst "improvement" so far. Please concentrate on implementing HTML features, improving security and other relevant features and stop breaking the usefulness over and over again.

[MintMain21]

@Ekol 

I actually did not know I could do that. Thanks for bringing it to my attention.

It may not be ideal, but at least I don't have to go into about:config.

[jhalag]

I already +1'd this above, but I feel strongly enough about this I feel the need to post as well.

I've been fighting with this behavior since it crept in - I wondered what I was doing wrong. Many times I want to just OPEN a file (e.g. a dynamic PDF or spreadsheet), and probably 10% of the time I want to SAVE it.

The old prompt was elegant, to the point, and did exactly what I wanted. I'm extremely annoyed that was taken away - it's broken my day to day workflow, and the only workaround is an about:config hack that a different thread said "may go away in the future".

Please restore the old behavior.