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Unable to show File Picker

  • 8 odgovori
  • 1 ima ovaj problem
  • 1 view
  • Posljednji odgovor poslao Kiki

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This was going to be a question about Firefox being unable to display the file picker dialog, but I managed to find a solution that worked for me along the way. Since it was nowhere near the top of Google's results, I thought I'll share my solution in the hopes that this would help someone facing this same issue.

The hardware:

  • Asus UM425IA Zenbook (AMD Ryzen 7 4700U CPU)

Worked in:

  • Ubuntu 20.04 LTS
  • Firefox provided by APT repository
  • Xorg display server

Not working in:

  • Ubuntu 22.04 LTS
  • Firefox 99.0.1 provided by snap
  • Wayland display server
  • File picker worked briefly on fresh install, but something (not sure what) quickly breaks file picker functionality

The symptoms:

  • Firefox stopped being able to open file picker dialogs
  • Right clicking an image and selecting "Save Image As..." does nothing
  • With forms that accept file upload (such as on this post question page "Add images (optional):"), clicking "Browse" does nothing
  • File downloads work correctly when set to "Save files to ..." under Settings, but nothing happens when set to "Always ask you where to save files"
  • No response to "Ctrl + O" open file shortcut

Similar questions and solutions:

Things I tried that did not work:

  • Disabling hardware acceleration
  • Starting with add-ons disabled
  • Troubleshoot mode
  • Clearing startup cache
  • Clearing cookies and site data
  • Clearing history
  • Refreshing Firefox
  • Creating and using a new profile
  • Deleting the `xulstore.json` file from the profile directory
  • Toggling all permissions under Ubuntu Settings > Applications > Firefox to off and then back to on
  • chmod 777 ~/Downloads
  • Disabling native file picker "ui.allow_platform_file_picker = false"

And finally, what fixed it for me was to go into "about:config" and change "widget.use-xdg-desktop-portal.file-picker" from "2" to "0". Credit to this post that clued me in.

I really hope this saves someone else 2 days of hair pulling and I would appreciate advice from someone more knowledgeable than me on:

  • Why this fixed the problem
  • Whether I should be opening a bug report either against Firefox, or Ubuntu
  • Whether I should also be changing "widget.use-xdg-desktop-portal.mime-handler" and "widget.use-xdg-desktop-portal.settings", both are currently set to "2"
This was going to be a question about Firefox being unable to display the file picker dialog, but I managed to find a solution that worked for me along the way. Since it was nowhere near the top of Google's results, I thought I'll share my solution in the hopes that this would help someone facing this same issue. The hardware: * Asus UM425IA Zenbook (AMD Ryzen 7 4700U CPU) Worked in: * Ubuntu 20.04 LTS * Firefox provided by APT repository * Xorg display server Not working in: * Ubuntu 22.04 LTS * Firefox 99.0.1 provided by snap * Wayland display server * File picker worked briefly on fresh install, but something (not sure what) quickly breaks file picker functionality The symptoms: * Firefox stopped being able to open file picker dialogs * Right clicking an image and selecting "Save Image As..." does nothing * With forms that accept file upload (such as on this post question page "Add images (optional):"), clicking "Browse" does nothing * File downloads work correctly when set to "Save files to ..." under Settings, but nothing happens when set to "Always ask you where to save files" * No response to "Ctrl + O" open file shortcut Similar questions and solutions: * [https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/questions/1301319 Fixed by reinstalling Firefox] * [https://support.mozilla.org/bm/questions/1039987 Fixed by resetting Firefox] * [https://support.mozilla.org/gl/questions/1288559 Fixed with a restart on a Mac] * [https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/questions/1350420 Fixed by downgrading to Ubuntu 16.04] Things I tried that did not work: * Disabling hardware acceleration * Starting with add-ons disabled * Troubleshoot mode * Clearing startup cache * Clearing cookies and site data * Clearing history * Refreshing Firefox * Creating and using a new profile * Deleting the `xulstore.json` file from the profile directory * Toggling all permissions under Ubuntu Settings > Applications > Firefox to off and then back to on * chmod 777 ~/Downloads * Disabling native file picker "ui.allow_platform_file_picker = false" And finally, what fixed it for me was to go into "about:config" and '''change "widget.use-xdg-desktop-portal.file-picker" from "2" to "0"'''. Credit to [https://old.reddit.com/r/kde/comments/sd1v2a/tip_set_widgetusexdgdesktopportal_to_true_in/ this post] that clued me in. I really hope this saves someone else 2 days of hair pulling and I would appreciate advice from someone more knowledgeable than me on: * Why this fixed the problem * Whether I should be opening a bug report either against Firefox, or Ubuntu * Whether I should also be changing "widget.use-xdg-desktop-portal.mime-handler" and "widget.use-xdg-desktop-portal.settings", both are currently set to "2"

Izabrano rješenje

Hi James,

Our team indicate that there might be a bug in the Snap or the XDG portal implementation. The value 2 means "use it if it's running under snap or flatpak".

Would you be able to file a bug report (see File a bug report or feature request for Mozilla products) and include what the journal says when you run the following command?

journalctl -f

Thanks!

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All Replies (8)

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Good info. You should've compared the snap version of Firefox to the version from Mozilla.

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+1 - fixed it for me on Fedora 36 I'm converting over to wayland+sway from X11+i3wm and everything worked fine under i3 but I noticed no upload dialog when trying to add an attachment to an email in gmail.

thank you!

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We noticed that a few folks have been experiencing similar issue as well. Thanks for sharing this, James! I wish I can vote your reply as the solution.

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I'll try to forward your questions to our team.

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Odabrano rješenje

Hi James,

Our team indicate that there might be a bug in the Snap or the XDG portal implementation. The value 2 means "use it if it's running under snap or flatpak".

Would you be able to file a bug report (see File a bug report or feature request for Mozilla products) and include what the journal says when you run the following command?

journalctl -f

Thanks!

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Kiki said

Hi James, Our team indicate that there might be a bug in the Snap or the XDG portal implementation. The value 2 means "use it if it's running under snap or flatpak". Would you be able to file a bug report (see File a bug report or feature request for Mozilla products) and include what the journal says when you run the following command?
journalctl -f

Thanks!

I've filed a bug report (https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1780526) and included the journalctl log as requested.

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James Fu said

I've filed a bug report (https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1780526) and included the journalctl log as requested.

Thank you!