324155 - File Types list in Options/Preferences -> Downloads window is empty

Status: RESOLVED INCOMPLETE

(Firefox :: File Handling, defect)

Description

[Wolfgang Haberl]

User-Agent:       Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; de; rv:1.8) Gecko/20051111 Firefox/1.5
Build Identifier: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; de; rv:1.8) Gecko/20051111 Firefox/1.5

You should be able to set the handling of different file types in the options window. To do this, there ist a list which shows all registered file types. My Firefox suddenly showed up an empty list, after I had set a default application for an unknown type.
I reinstalled Firefox because I didn't manage to get it corrected. But again it the list just showed up, until I set a new handling rule.
So I checked the file mimetypes.rdf in the profiles directory and (because of long, bad experiences with other products ;) ) found the problem:
The rule I entered pointed to an application (Acrobat Reader) which had a blank in it's installation path. Such as:
<RDF:Description RDF:about="urn:mimetype:externalApplication:application/pdf"
                   NC:path="C:\Programme\Adobe\Acrobat 7.0\Reader\AcroRd32.exe" />
Obviously Firefox is unable to parse the path including the blank. After changing the blank to an underscore (and doing so with the installation path of the reader as well) everything worked fine again.

Reproducible: Always

Steps to Reproduce:
1. Install Firefox
2. Open unknown file type from a link
3. Tell Firefox to always use a application which ist installed in a path that includes a blank

Actual Results:  
List of associated file types in Firefox is empty.

Expected Results:  
List should be filled with programm extensions

Comment 1

[Ria Klaassen (not reading all bugmail)]

*** This bug has been marked as a duplicate of 308204 ***

Comment 2

[Phil Ringnalda (:philor)]

Reopening: I can't reproduce any problem with spaces in paths (and since Windows in English defaults to C:\Program Files\, neither can tens of millions of other Firefox users), but this isn't the bug 308204 problem of having a null description in the version info.

Comment 3

[Sebastian]

I am experiencing this problem too (empty download actions list), reason unknown, in Firefox version 1.5.0.4. Deleting the mimetypes.rdf file, or replacing it with an earlier version, does not resolve this problem. Furthermore, PDF files are not opened or saved anymore, unless I manually select "save as...".

I wish there was a simple way to reset the download actions to their defaults.

Comment 4

[Tom Donovan]

Observed this behavior with FireFox 2.0 on Windows 2000 sp4.
Deleting mimetypes.rdf, or copying a new one from defaults\profile does not resolve the problem. 

Comment 5

[Roland Steber]

(In reply to comment #4)
> Observed this behavior with FireFox 2.0 on Windows 2000 sp4.
> Deleting mimetypes.rdf, or copying a new one from defaults\profile does not
> resolve the problem. 
 
I can confirm this on FireFox 2.0 and Windows XP Prof. SP2.

Comment 6

[MickK]

I can confirm this is a problem with FireFox 2.0 and XP Pro SP2 as well.  Even reinstalling FF 2.0 or deleting all the mimetypes.rdf from every profile doesn't fix the issue.  I temporarily installed 3.0 to see if it had the same problem but the list was populated fine.

Comment 7

[bayswater]

I have the same problem running 2.0 and win XP

Comment 8

[Phil Ringnalda (:philor)]

jshin, any ideas? It would be something in http://lxr.mozilla.org/seamonkey/source/browser/components/preferences/downloadactions.js failing for at least one person with German Windows on a filename including spaces, while being quite happy with filenames with spaces for several million people with en-US Windows.

Comment 9

[Ron Helzer]

I also have this problem with FF 2.0.0.1 on Win XP Pro SP2.  I've tried renaming mimetypes.rdf with no success.

Comment 10

[Tyler Downer [He/Him]]

This bug was reported using Firefox 3.0 or older, which is no longer supported. The bug has also not been changed in over 500 days and is still in UNCO.
Reporter, please retest this bug in Firefox 3.6.10 or later using a fresh profile, http://support.mozilla.com/en-US/kb/managing+profiles. If you still see this problem, please update the bug. If you no longer see the bug, please set the resolution to RESOLVED, WORKSFORME.

This is a mass search of unconfirmed bugs that have no activity on them, so if you feel a bug was marked in error, just remove the CLOSEME comment in the whiteboard within the next month.

Comment 11

[Tyler Downer [He/Him]]

No reply, INCOMPLETE. Please retest with Firefox 3.6.12 or later and a new profile (http://support.mozilla.com/kb/Managing+profiles). If you continue to see this issue with the newest firefox and a new profile, then please comment on this bug.