234483 - firefox won't save preferencies in download section and general web browsing

Status: RESOLVED INCOMPLETE

(Firefox :: Settings UI, defect)

Description

[uri]

User-Agent:       
Build Identifier: Mozilla/5.0 (X11; U; Linux i686; en-US; rv:1.6) Gecko/20040207 Firefox/0.8

firefox will return to the default "save all files into this folder : desktop"
everytime is being run (or closed), i choose to "ask me where to save every
file" option but every time i run the browser from 0 the broswe will do whatever
it likes.
in which file are these options saved? can i change it manually for good there?
the second is that really annoying "show me this message again" that pops
whenever a "non encrypted web page" is being loaded, how can i get rid of it????
it doesn't matter what i do, it always comes back.
my system is a redhat 9, running kernel 2.4.20-9 using gnome 2.2


Reproducible: Always
Steps to Reproduce:
1.load the browser
2.save new preferencies
3.unload the browser

Actual Results:  
none of the changes are saved

Expected Results:  
save changes

the same thing can be seen under windows 2000 also with firefox,
in BOTH system i am ROOT or ADMINISTRATOR so there is NO problem with disk access

Comment 1

[Boris Zbarsky [:bzbarsky]]

Wrong product... Please read the product descriptions.

Comment 2

[uri]

what do you mean "wrong product"? and what product description are you talking
about?

thanks

Comment 3

[PikeUK]

The file that stores both these settings is called prefs.js in your profile
directory (http://texturizer.net/firefox/edit.html#profile), are you certain
this file is not read-only or something?

p.s. You originally filed this bug under the Browser product which is for
Mozilla suite bugs, it should have been filed under Firefox, the descriptions
are supposed to appear when you enter a new bug:
http://bugzilla.mozilla.org/enter_bug.cgi

Comment 4

[Mike Connor [:mconnor]]

*** Bug 234606 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***

Comment 5

[Mike Connor [:mconnor]]

Works for me using Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.7a)
Gecko/20040216 Firefox/0.8.0+

Please try installing into a new directory and creating a new profile, using the
firefox -p switch, and report your results here

Comment 6

[uri]

ok, tried erasing the profile, uninstalling firefox in both linux and windows.
reinstalled and the same happened again. it changed the option to save to desktop

Comment 7

[uri]

by the way, why is it that firefox for linux has the saving dialog buttons in a
different order from firebird, firefox for win or mozilla?
it's really confusing and more than once me (and other people here as well)
thought that they saved a file only to find that they just clicked on "cancel"
intead of "save"

just a comment

thanks

Comment 8

[Neil Paris]

Mozilla/5.0 (X11; U; Linux x86_64; rv:1.7.3) Gecko/20040926 Firefox/0.10

I can almost confirm this (marking NEW, but I don't see the *exact* behavior
described here). If I change the default download directory to /home/neil (from
Desktop), closing and restarting the browser will have the default set to
Desktop again. If I change it to anything else, it seems to stick. I don't know
if it is a permissions problem or something else, but that is what happens.

This also seems to be a common problem (though I can't find a particular bug to
dupe this to)

Comment 9

[thejynxed]

I've also been able to replicate this bug, with additional caveats:

Some files for whatever reason, randomly save to:
C:\Documents and Settings\<User Name>\Local Settings\Temp

Under Win2k/WinXP versions of Firefox (including Bon Echo betas). Doesn't matter what the mime/filetype is or what your preferences in Firefox are set to. Sometimes a file of the same type will save to where it is designated in Preferences, sometimes to the above mentioned directory.

Also, this may tie into this:

Under the download box after clicking on a file to download, you get the standard Open with, Save to Disk, etc. Firefox ignores or doesn't store the preference: Do this automatically for files like this from now on. This has happened in every version of Firefox I have used, no matter what OS platform.

For instance: In download preferences, you have selected Save All Files to Desktop. You click to download for instance a .torrent file. If you select (associated or not with an outside application) Open With, Save to Disk, whatever option, and mark the Do this automatically for files like this from now on., Firefox does not save or ignores this preference, and always asks over and over and over again every time you download a file of the same type. Not only that, it does not always save the file to where you have specified that the file be saved to in Preferences, but sometimes saves the file to the Temp directory, sometimes to where you specified, sometimes to the Application folder (if you choose Open With as the option, it will for some reason save the file to the folder of the application).

Comment 10

[Sarah Brodwall]

Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.8.1) Gecko/20061010 Firefox/2.0

Still not working in version 2.  I notice this bug most when downloading .torrent files and even went so far as to check out the .torrent settings in the mimetypes.rdf file.  Everything there looked fine (alwaysAsk set to false), but it's still always asking what to do with the downloaded file.

Comment 11

[Marco Bonardo [:mak]]

This is WFM, there are various support issues that may cause this, though this bug, as is, is not going anywhere until support can confirm there's an actual bug.