416587 - Unable to delete files partially downloaded

Status: UNCONFIRMED

(Toolkit :: Downloads API, defect)

Description

[Luca Boschini]

User-Agent:       Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.0; it; rv:1.8.1.12) Gecko/20080201 Firefox/2.0.0.12
Build Identifier: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.0; it; rv:1.8.1.12) Gecko/20080201 Firefox/2.0.0.12

If you start to download a file, then pause it and exit from Firefox, the partially downloaded file can not be deleted by the OS.

Reproducible: Always

Steps to Reproduce:
1.Start downloading a file (i tried with a couple of .exe, but i guess it always works)
2.Pause the download and exit. A zero-bytes file is left in the folder where you were downloading.
3.Try to delete it: you get a message from OS saying that the file is currently in use by another program and cannot be deleted.
Actual Results:  
I could not delete the file.

Expected Results:  
Delete the file.

Restarting Firefox, logout, login as administrator, reboot won't help: you will have to resume the download, stop it and then exit, letting Firefox to delete the file for you.

There is a 2nd way the problem happened: i downloaded a file containing a virus, at the end of the download the antivirus (Avast!) detected the virus and removed the temporary file which is created by Firefox during download. The download was interrupted and not completed; i was not able to delete anymore the zero-bytes file .exe.
In this case the workaround was to download another file, give it the same name, ask to overwrite, then stop the download.

Comment 1

[[:Cww]]

I can't reproduce.  If I kill the Firefox process or close Firefox when I have a download paused, the .part file gets deleted and the partly downloaded .exe file can be deleted with ease.

Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.8.1.12) Gecko/20080201 Firefox/2.0.0.12

My guess is that your Antivirus is catching the file and quarantining it so it can't be deleted.