1758609 - Firefox 98 no longer allows me to choose download filename

Status: RESOLVED INCOMPLETE

(Firefox :: Downloads Panel, defect)

Description

[Garret Wilson]

Steps to reproduce:

Firefox 98 on Windows 10 suddenly forces files to be downloaded immediately in the Download filter using some default filename. The release notes say "Instead of prompting every time, files will download automatically." This bad. This is wrong. This is contrary to my explicit settings.

This is a big problem. If Firefox persists in not following my configuration and forcing me to automatically download files without changing their filename, this will be what sends me (an adamant Firefox user) to Chrome.

I explicitly have my Firefox setting under "Downloads" set to "Always ask you where to save files".

Actual results:

With Firefox 98, Firefox does not honor "Always ask you where to save files". It does not ask me where to save file. It just saves the file in "Downloads".

Expected results:

In previous versions of Firefox, with "Always ask you where to save files" selected I would not only be able to select the download folder, but I would also be able to choose a filename.

Imagine you download a bank statement in PDF format every month. Imagine it is named something like STATEMENT0322.PDF. In previous versions of Firefox, I could select the "My Bank" folder and rename the file to bank-statement-2022-03.pdf. Now Firefox immediately dumps the file into Downloads (I don't want it there) and names it STATEMENT0322.PDF.

This is a huge problem. It is a blocker. And beyond this it is not even honoring my explicit settings that say, "Always ask you where to save files". It boggles my mind this reached users; it seems like the sort of inane screwup that Microsoft would do.

Please reverse this immediately. You will be driving even Firefox fans to Chrome.

Comment 1

[Garret Wilson]

The behavior gets stranger. I went back and tried to download the exact same PDF from the exact same site, and suddenly it displays the PDF in my browser! (I had selected to always download PDFs.) So I went into the per-application settings and changed PDF from "Open in Firefox" to "Save file". Suddenly it asks me for the download location and filename again! Crazy and confusing.

Comment 2

[Garret Wilson]

What the ...? Now everytime I do a download it drops down the download list, covering my screen! I didn't ask for this!! Please revert all this nonsense. First you take away my ability to specify the download filename. Now suddenly I get intrusive download indicator overlays. Why? Why? Why?

Comment 3

[Garret Wilson]

Please, take away the overlay! Every time I download something! It's the opposite of unobtrusive. I have to wait until it goes away before I can even hit "log out" because it covers the button!

Comment 4

[Marco Bonardo [:mak]]

These changes are due to a new flow for the downloads experience.
Please see https://docs.google.com/document/d/1H0Uw7oNgATAN1Ji_MYj7loaY_H-GUmnkNKvwraeHWgQ/edit
You can set browser.download.alwaysOpenPanel to false in about:config if you don't want the panel to open for each download.

Comment 5

[Garret Wilson]

It is good to know there is a way to turn off the new, obtrusive hovering download panel that pops up.

But Marco, you are ignoring the first part of the report, where the new Firefox ignored my existing "Always ask you where to save files". Even though I already had "Always ask you where to save files" turned on, the new Firefox was automatically downloading files to the "Downloads" directory without asking me. I had to go back and first disable "Always ask you where to save files", and then reenable it for Firefox to recognize it. (And then it initially started showing PDFs inside Firefox, which changed my previously requested behavior, which is yet a third problem.)

Comment 8

[Garret Wilson]

Marco, you marked this bug as invalid because of a comment in the body of the ticket related to a separate problem. You provided me a workaround for the separate problem, but the main issue described in this ticket is an issue you didn't address.

Now you already have two other people reporting the same thing. Please reopen this ticket and address the main issue that was reported. You closed this because of a separate complaint in the comments.

Comment 10

[Garret Wilson]

I am reopening this ticket for two reasons. First, you are ignoring the central issue described in the ticket. (It was closed because of an ancillary issue in the comments regarding the download overlay; a workaround was provided for this, but apparently the ticket assignee got confused thought that the download overlay was the main issue being reported in this ticket.) Secondly, the issue is even worse than expected, and keeps reverting the settings.

The central issue is that when you launched Firefix 98, it ignored me existing "Downloads" setting, which was set to "Always ask you where to save files." Instead, it would immediately download them to the "Downloads" folder. This is bad because of two reasons: 1) I want to choose which folder they go in, and 2) I want to rename the files before saving them.

I found that I can temporarily work around this bug by going into my Firefox settings and temporarily selecting "Save files to Downloads", and then immediately setting it back to "Always ask you where to save files." Then "Always ask you where to save files" will work as it did before. Unfortunately after several days it stops working (for example today), immediately downloading files without asking me, and I have to go back into settings and do the ritual of changing the settings and then changing it back.

Please fix this, and please read the description of this ticket; this problem has not been addressed, as you can see from the numerous duplicates already filed.

Comment 11

[Marco Bonardo [:mak]]

Gijs, do we have an existing bug about setting/unsetting the "Always ask where to save file" giving different results?

Comment 12

[:Gijs (he/him)]

Attachment: Settings example

(In reply to Garret Wilson from comment #10)

The central issue is that when you launched Firefix 98, it ignored me existing "Downloads" setting, which was set to "Always ask you where to save files." Instead, it would immediately download them to the "Downloads" folder.

We automatically save to the downloads folder any files that open automatically. This behaviour was explicitly requested by other users who have Firefox set to "always ask you where to save files" in bug 1738916.

If you want to control where such files are saved, go into the Firefox settings, search for the file type in question, select it in the list of applications, and switch it to "Save to disk" (see the screenshot attached for an example), and then open it from the downloads panel instead.

Alternatively, if this bothers you specifically wrt PDFs, you can set those to "Open in Firefox" and use the download button in the PDF.js toolbar (top right) to save them locally if you need a local copy - that will also prompt for a filename.

I found that I can temporarily work around this bug by going into my Firefox settings and temporarily selecting "Save files to Downloads", and then immediately setting it back to "Always ask you where to save files."

This shouldn't make any difference (and doesn't for me). When the behaviour is broken, what is the value of browser.download.useDownloadDir in about:config before you do this dance of selecting one option and then selecting another again? Is it any different afterwards?

Then "Always ask you where to save files" will work as it did before. Unfortunately after several days it stops working (for example today), immediately downloading files without asking me, and I have to go back into settings and do the ritual of changing the settings and then changing it back.

Again, this makes very little sense unless your Firefox settings storage is somehow corrupt or getting overwritten. As I said, we cannot reproduce the problem you're describing; the "always ask me where to save files" setting works as expected. To work out where the problem is, it would help if you could:

1. provide an example website where the issue happens, with an example filetype (e.g. are you seeing this with PDFs, or word docs, or images, or something else - and please give specific examples not just "it happens with every filetype" which doesn't help us to reproduce the issue)
2. provide a copy of handlers.json from your profile folder (you can find the profile folder by going to about:support, there's a button to open it in Windows Explorer)
3. provide the raw data from about:support (Help > More Troubleshooting Information)

Please fix this, and please read the description of this ticket; this problem has not been addressed, as you can see from the numerous duplicates already filed.

I don't think the duplicates are the same problem (or at least, they more succinctly describe the behaviour I described at the top of this comment, which at least if I take your description at face value, is different from what you're seeing - you seem to be experiencing the same setting doing different things at different points in time, which is very strange)

Comment 13

[Nikolaus Rath]

I think I have the same problem.

In the past, choosing "Open with <some application>" would result in Firefox saving the PDF file in a temporary directory (e.g. /tmp, /var/tmp) and then opening it in the selected application.

Since maybe 10 days ago, the same user action lead to Firefox saving the file in my home directory.

The new behavior seems wrong to me. If I wanted to save the file, then I would have selected "Save as" - not "Open".

Comment 14

[:Gijs (he/him)]

(In reply to Nikolaus Rath from comment #13)

I think I have the same problem.

In the past, choosing "Open with <some application>" would result in Firefox saving the PDF file in a temporary directory (e.g. /tmp, /var/tmp) and then opening it in the selected application.

Since maybe 10 days ago, the same user action lead to Firefox saving the file in my home directory.

But you would never have been able to select the filename in this case (as indicated in the summary of this bug report). The home directory might be used if your OS (sounds like you're on Linux) does not advertise a downloads directory and/or we cannot create it or aren't allowed to write to it. You can configure the directory used for this using the Firefox settings (we use the default download directory; even if you have Firefox set up to always ask you where to save files, per user requests in bug 1738916). Otherwise, I think your situation is covered by my earlier comment, and isn't necessarily directly related to this bug:

(In reply to :Gijs (he/him) from comment #12)

We automatically save to the downloads folder any files that open automatically. This behaviour was explicitly requested by other users who have Firefox set to "always ask you where to save files" in bug 1738916.

Comment 15

[Nikolaus Rath]

Apologies, I probably wasn't as clear as I should have been.

In the past, selecting "Open with" would save the file in a temporary directory (and perhaps even remove it again once the application exits, I am not sure).

Now, selecting "Open with" will save the file in my home directory and leave it there.

I do not want that. If I select "Open with", then I expect there to be no remnants of the file anywhere - just like it was before.

I am not able to configure the directory that is used for this because I have enabled "always ask you where to save files" (which greys out the selection of the download directory). But that's also not the problem, because I do not want these files to be saved anywhere.

It seems that other people have the opposite expectation and want these files to be always saved. I guess this is a valid point of view, but I do not see this point of view being any more valid than mine, so I do not understand why the current behavior was changed.

(I came here by means of bug #1758844 which I think describes exactly what I'm complaining about, but it was duplicated against this one).

Comment 16

[:Gijs (he/him)]

(In reply to Nikolaus Rath from comment #15)

I am not able to configure the directory that is used for this because I have enabled "always ask you where to save files" (which greys out the selection of the download directory).

You can change the selection away from that option, change the directory, and change the option back. Yes, we should change the UI (but not in this bug).

But that's also not the problem, because I do not want these files to be saved anywhere.

You can do this for PDFs and a handful of other file types (by opening them in Firefox) but other files will need to be somewhere on your machine in order for an application to open them...

It seems that other people have the opposite expectation and want these files to be always saved. I guess this is a valid point of view, but I do not see this point of view being any more valid than mine, so I do not understand why the current behavior was changed.

This is extensively discussed in bug 1738574.

Comment 17

[Nikolaus Rath]

(In reply to :Gijs (he/him) from comment #16)

But that's also not the problem, because I do not want these files to be saved anywhere.

files will need to be somewhere on your machine in order for an application to open them...

Just for reference, this is not true - at least under Linux. Firefox could create and open the file and immediately unlink it fromthe filesystem while keeping an open file descriptor. When forking the viewer application, the descriptor can be used by the application by opening the /proc/self/fd/[nnn] pseudo-file (which is what Firefox would pass to the application on the command line).

This might well be too Linux specific to make sense for Firefox, but I did not want to let that stand uncorrected. This is the internet, after all :-).

Comment 18

[CEP]

(In reply to :Gijs (he/him) from comment #16)

I have found a curious side issue that may (or may not) be related.

First: I do not use sync features. I would start a long Green Eggs and Ham diatribe about how I will not sync devices in a [black] box, I will not sync devices watching Fox, but (a) the book in the end succumbed to the bullying and (b) it would be rather redundant. I just won't use those features; I work in a secure environment with confidential documents and information, so no automatic ANYTHING across devices. Shortcuts, yes... but manually selected.

Second: In comment 12, :Gijs suggested checking browser.download.useDownloadDir in about:config. So I did... and it was set properly (as "false"), BUT there was also an entry for services.sync.prefs.sync.browser.download.useDownloadDir that was set as "true". I have changed that entry to "false" — even though I do NOT use sync features — because in past versions of Firefox shortly after adoption of syncing (and the ill-advised incorporation of Pocket), inconsistency between specific settings and correspondingly-named entries prepended with services.sync.prefs.sync resulted in inconsistent behavior.

I infer that something in the code is sometimes checking the base value and sometimes checking the syncing value, but I'm only inferring that based on behavior and not examining the code. (The irony that much of this particular brouhaha is resulting from an attempt to make debugging more consistent and easier seems to have escaped notice.)

Comment 19

[:Gijs (he/him)]

(In reply to CEP from comment #18)

[browser.download.useDownloadDir] was set properly (as "false"), BUT there was also an entry for services.sync.prefs.sync.browser.download.useDownloadDir that was set as "true".

That second pref only governs whether sync syncs the setting of that pref if you have an account and are signed into sync. Seeing as you aren't and don't, the pref has no effect. It's definitely unrelated to whatever you're seeing, and won't impact the value of useDownloadDir that other code reads.

As I noted in comment #12, there have been some intentional changes in this area, notably that files opened directly in external apps are downloaded to the default downloads folder even if you have the useDownloadDir pref set to false. We initially prompted users with this setting where to save "opened" files, but that annoyed them and so we changed the behaviour in response to that (bug 1738916). To safely allow automatically opening without a dataloss risk, we switched to using the default downloads directory (feedback about which is in bug 1738574, not this bug, please).

Comment 20

[Marco Bonardo [:mak]]

The original discussion in the bug ends at comment 12, that asked for additional information to better understand the issue. Since that information is still missing after 21 days the bug is unfortunately not actionable. If you can provide the requested information feel free to reopen the bug.

Comment 21

[luca.dgh]

Hi to all!
I opened a ticked 2 days ago https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1762173 , but they said that is a duplicate of this bug so I'm here.
I definitively agree with all the people that define this new "feature" as a bug, annoying, dangerous and useless bug.
I open hundreds of files from internet every day for my job, but I need to download 1% of them: why I have to fill my download folder of trash? (annoying)
Furthermore, if I open a sensible document on a computer that is not mine, that document will stay there? (dangerous)
If some people ask to a feature to automatically download, Firefox should do that a part from what was already working well. (useless)

Gijs says that the Firefox team has done that change because "People ask for it". And what about us that are writing here? We are people that DON'T ASK FOR IT, could you consider it?

Marco asks for more info: every time I open a file "view only", this is downloaded to my download folder, that behaviour is 100% wrong. If I ask for "view only" file, the file must be downloaded to the "TEMP" folder of the system (I use Linux, but I guess that Windows has a TEMP folder as well). The TEMP folder is so called because it's content is deleted automatically when the user logs out (Linux works like that, other systems I don't know).

Please restore the version 97 settings and, if really needed, enhance the download features, but do not change the "always ask" feature.

Comment 22

[Garret Wilson]

Since I was the one who opened this ticket, and it seems like several related issues are being mixed in, and I other poor people are having their tickets marked as duplicates, let me just circle back and give a summary of why I opened this ticket.

• For years I have been using Firefox with the "Downloads" setting set to "Always ask you where to save files".
• For years I have also had my PDF application support set to "Save File".

Firefox 98 changed this behavior! Even though my "Downloads" setting was still set to "Always ask you where to save files", Firefox no longer asked me where to download files; instead, it automatically downloaded PDFs to the "Downloads" folder.

I "fixed" this by going into settings and switching "Downloads" to "Save files to", and then changing it back to what it was to begin with: "Always ask you where to save files". This seemed to trigger Firefox into recognizing the setting. But then my PDF application support was suddenly no longer set to "Save File", but "Open in Firefox"! So suddenly my PDFs would open in Firefox. I went in and changed this back to "Save File" everything started working like I had it before Firefox 98 (even though my settings were then exactly the way they were before Firefox 98).

Later the auto-download behavior happened again, and again I fixed it by going and switching "Downloads" to "Save files to", and then changing it back to "Always ask you where to save files". The problem has not occurred again.

So as of today Firefox is working just like it was before Firefox 98. One of the biggest problems as far as I am concerned is that there was some sort of bug in Firefox 98 that ignored my current settings and forced this new auto-download behavior (ignoring my "Downloads" setting) and changing my PDF application behavior. I forced Firefox to recognize my existing settings as described above. As the problem is resolved and the erroneous behavior is no longer occurring, I have nothing more to report. I can understand however how confusing this upgrade bug is to users when not only is there new download behavior, but it ignores the "Download" setting the user already had. It was confusing and irritating as heck.

Comment 23

[luca.dgh]

Thank you for you explanation Garrett, but your workaround

I "fixed" this by going into settings and switching "Downloads" to "Save files to", and then changing it back to what it was to begin with: "Always ask you where to save files".
for me is not working. I hard tried to do switch the options, I close Firefox and reopen it, up I rebooted the system, but no way.

I'm definitively disappointed.

Comment 24

[:Gijs (he/him)]

(In reply to luca.dgh from comment #21)

I opened a ticked 2 days ago https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1762173 , but they said that is a duplicate of this bug so I'm here.

We said it was a duplicate of bug 1738574, which is a different issue. The steps Garret described changes how Firefox responds to PDF documents, but don't affect what folders are used, which is discussed in bug 1738574. Please do not continue to comment here.

(In reply to Garret Wilson from comment #22)

Later the auto-download behavior happened again, and again I fixed it by going and switching "Downloads" to "Save files to", and then changing it back to "Always ask you where to save files". The problem has not occurred again.

I'm glad this is now working, though it's unfortunate you've had so many issues changing these settings. We're still trying to figure out what is causing this to happen - it isn't particularly obvious, and as the problem is fixed for you now we probably can't work out why it was broken originally. :-(

So as of today Firefox is working just like it was before Firefox 98. One of the biggest problems as far as I am concerned is that there was some sort of bug in Firefox 98 that ignored my current settings and forced this new auto-download behavior (ignoring my "Downloads" setting) and changing my PDF application behavior. I forced Firefox to recognize my existing settings as described above. As the problem is resolved and the erroneous behavior is no longer occurring, I have nothing more to report. I can understand however how confusing this upgrade bug is to users when not only is there new download behavior, but it ignores the "Download" setting the user already had. It was confusing and irritating as heck.

Yep! If other folks still see issues with the downloads settings around "always ask me where to save files" or their chosen downloads folder being ignored, for now I would encourage filing a separate bug, where we can diagnose in more detail.