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Allegedly failed downloads

  • 2 replies
  • 44 have this problem
  • 3 views
  • Last reply by cor-el

T.BugReporter
T.BugReporter
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For the past month or so, I've noticed that frequently (not all the time, but often enough to notice) when I try to download a file, Firefox will go thru the motions, create a .part file in the download folder, fill it, and then, after the file is downloaded, CLAIM that it was unable to download the file, and be unable to fathom why not. In most of these cases, the only thing that it failed to do was to rename the foo.bar.part file to foo.bar - the entire file is in fact present and intact; I can rename the file myself and run a checksum on it to prove that it is intact. Why is this happening, and what can I do to fix it?

For the past month or so, I've noticed that frequently (not all the time, but often enough to notice) when I try to download a file, Firefox will go thru the motions, create a .part file in the download folder, fill it, and then, after the file is downloaded, CLAIM that it was unable to download the file, and be unable to fathom why not. In most of these cases, the only thing that it failed to do was to rename the foo.bar.part file to foo.bar - the entire file is in fact present and intact; I can rename the file myself and run a checksum on it to prove that it is intact. Why is this happening, and what can I do to fix it?

All Replies (2)

Wesley Branton
Wesley Branton
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Try Firefox Safe Mode to see if the problem goes away. Safe Mode is a troubleshooting mode, which disables most add-ons.

(If you're not using it, switch to the Default theme.)

  • On Windows you can open Firefox 4.0+ in Safe Mode by holding the Shift key when you open the Firefox desktop or Start menu shortcut.
  • On Mac you can open Firefox 4.0+ in Safe Mode by holding the option key while starting Firefox.
  • On Linux you can open Firefox 4.0+ in Safe Mode by quitting Firefox and then going to your Terminal and running: firefox -safe-mode (you may need to specify the Firefox installation path e.g. /usr/lib/firefox)
  • Or open the Help menu and click on the Restart with Add-ons Disabled... menu item while Firefox is running.

FirefoxSafeMode

Once you get the pop-up, just select "'Start in Safe Mode" Safe Mode Fx 15 - Win

If the issue is not present in Firefox Safe Mode, your problem is probably caused by an extension, and you need to figure out which one. Please follow the Troubleshoot extensions, themes and hardware acceleration issues to solve common Firefox problems article for that.

To exit the Firefox Safe Mode, just close Firefox and wait a few seconds before opening Firefox for normal use again.

Please report back soon.

cor-el
cor-el
  • Moderator
  • Top 10 Contributor
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It is possible that anti-virus software is corrupting downloaded files or is interfering otherwise.

Try to disable the real-time (live) scanning of files in your anti-virus software temporarily to see if that makes downloading work.

See:

You can also try to set the browser.download.manager.scanWhenDone to false on the about:config page.