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stop playing mp3 in new tab

Imustbestupid
Imustbestupid
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I want to open mp3 files in my player of choice. Firefox opens a new tab and plays them instead. Did the "always ask" stuff and that doesn't work as explained in other threads. Tried changing the "media.windows" etc in the about:config to false. Did not help at all! I know I can "save as". I'd rather use firefox the way I have for the past years. A button on a website that is labelled "Download" should allow me to open the file in my player of choice. Instead it opens to a new tab and begins playing (if I wanted that I would have clicked the "play" button). Gave up hope and installed Chrome - and I have the same problem! Would rather stick with firefox if I can solve this minor problem (it IS a PITA!) Please help me!

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I want to open mp3 files in my player of choice. Firefox opens a new tab and plays them instead. Did the "always ask" stuff and that doesn't work as explained in other threads. Tried changing the "media.windows" etc in the about:config to false. Did not help at all! I know I can "save as". I'd rather use firefox the way I have for the past years. A button on a website that is labelled "Download" should allow me to open the file in my player of choice. Instead it opens to a new tab and begins playing (if I wanted that I would have clicked the "play" button). Gave up hope and installed Chrome - and I have the same problem! Would rather stick with firefox if I can solve this minor problem (it IS a PITA!) Please help me! :)

Chosen solution

Imustbestupid wrote: 

I did set 'media.windows-media-foundation.play-stand-alone' to false.

Yes, that preference doesn't work anymore.

Set media.directshow.enabled to false to disable built-in support for MP3 files. This might also affect other things, but I don't know what. Playing MP4 (H.264) files still works with this preference set to false.

Imustbestupid wrote: 

Thanks for the response.

Thank you for the links. This issue turned up before, but I was never able to find MP3 links without Content-Disposition: attachment, so I couldn't reproduce the problem.

Read this answer in context 👍 9

All Replies (5)

Gingerbread Man
Gingerbread Man
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At the moment, Firefox doesn't respect your preference for MP3 and MP4 files. This is a known issue (bug 861090).

Imustbestupid wrote: 

Tried changing the "media.windows" etc in the about:config to false. Did not help at all!

If you set media.windows-media-foundation.play-stand-alone to false in about:config, then you should get a download prompt when clicking a direct link to an MP3 file. Do you have an example of a link that still opens in Firefox?

Imustbestupid wrote: 

A button on a website that is labelled "Download" should allow me to open the file in my player of choice.

To force a download prompt, the site owner must send the Content-Disposition: attachment header. Example:

Imustbestupid
Imustbestupid Question owner
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Thanks for the response. I did set 'media.windows-media-foundation.play-stand-alone' to false. I just rechecked again today and it is still false.

Here are two sites that give an example of the problem:

http://www.thisamericanlife.org/radio-archives/episode/521/bad-baby?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+talpodcast+%28This+American+Life+Podcast%29

and

http://www.econtalk.org/

When I hit download on either it opens a tab and begins playing the file.

It started doing this recently (within the last week). Thanks again for taking the time to respond.

cor-el
cor-el
  • Moderator
  • Top 10 Contributor
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That is an mp3 file send as Content-Type: audio/mpeg

I get a download dialog if I disable the HTML5 media player and possible plugins that can play MP3 files.

Gingerbread Man
Gingerbread Man
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Chosen Solution

Imustbestupid wrote: 

I did set 'media.windows-media-foundation.play-stand-alone' to false.

Yes, that preference doesn't work anymore.

Set media.directshow.enabled to false to disable built-in support for MP3 files. This might also affect other things, but I don't know what. Playing MP4 (H.264) files still works with this preference set to false.

Imustbestupid wrote: 

Thanks for the response.

Thank you for the links. This issue turned up before, but I was never able to find MP3 links without Content-Disposition: attachment, so I couldn't reproduce the problem.

Imustbestupid
Imustbestupid Question owner
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That worked for me Gingerbread Man! Thanks!

I'll report back if there are any side effects, etc. Weee!