To what location do you download the files? Did you try another location?

It is possible that cleanup or anti-virus software is removing the files, so check that as well.

My downloads go into My Documents usually and I've tried downloading them straight to my desktop. I've also checked my anti-virus software to see if it was removing files, but it isn't. Like I said earlier, it works fine using IE.

You can try to move the files to a different location before closing Firefox.

You can use Process Monitor to see which program removes the file. http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/bb896645.aspx

The downloads will not disappear if I move them after I downloaded them and then close Firefox. Looking at the Process Monitor all I could find was explorer.exe that has anything to do with the file i downloaded, but I'm not sure what I'm looking at is right.

See also https://developer.mozilla.org/en/Download_Manager_preferences

You can check: browser.helperApps.deleteTempFileOnExit

Any computer windows 7 firefox 3.6.6 It will do it too very frustrated

Yeah, I've tried everything cor-el suggested and it still does it. Thank you for your help, but I think I'm going to give up for now and just use IE to download or just move the file to a different location before closing the Firefox browser.

Do the files disappear immediately after closing Firefox or only at a later time?

The files disappear 1 or 2 seconds after closing Firefox if I have them in my download path.

I did discover that when the file finishes downloading in Firefox ... it takes forever to finish the scanning for viruses process compared to all my other computers. They all have the exact same anti-virus software and Firefox version 3.6.6.

Hello,

I have an update ... I went into about:config and switched the browser.download.manager.scanwhendone to false. This did the trick and the files will not disappear when I close the browser now. My question now is why? Thanks!

Reset Internet Explorer. Reinstalled Firefox. Modified add-ons. Reinstalled Norton Internet Security. Modified gateway. Modified Windows DFS Replication Service.

Still have this problem.

Anything to do with Windows Update?

Vincent,

I think the problem is Norton. I have Norton Security Suite and I discovered that if you have a setting called "Microsoft Office Automatic Scan" turned on, anything I download using the Firefox browser will disappear.

I don't know if this is the same problem as you, but this can be a test to see if it is Norton:

Go into about:config and set

browser.download.manager.scanwhenDone to false.

This will disable the virus scan after the download is complete. I noticed that my virus scanning took a ridiculous amount of time to do after each download. If it is this, it is a setting in Norton that is causing it. Be sure to set it to true again after the test.

Hi Kai,

You are right. When Microsoft Office Automatic Scan is on, downloads disappear when Firefox is closed.

Download Insight Notifications of Norton Internet Security normally provide reputation information of exe file downloads. No notifications appear after downloads (IE & Firefox). Downloaded files can be manually verified.

http://community.norton.com/t5/Norton-Internet-Security-Norton/Really-slow-scans-and-no-Insight-popups-in-FF3-6-6/m-p/247599

Software update required.

Update the drivers for network adapters. Then, you can turn on "Microsoft Office Automatic Scan".

Download Insight Notifications by Norton Internet Security don't seem to work properly yet.

Sorry, updating drivers for network adapters don't seem to be the solution. File downloads can be successful without turning off "Microsoft Office Automatic Scan" under rare conditions only. Most of the time downloads will disappear after Firefox is closed.

Turning off "Microsoft Office Automatic Scan" is still the best solution.

I am using Windows Vista.

Vincent & Kai, thanks for your research. I have Win7 64bit and have had the same exact problems with downloaded files disappearing after closing FF. I had just recently purchased and installed Norton IS 17.7.0.12 which is when this problem started. I turned off the MS Office Auto Scan and now my files remain after closing FF. Thanks again for your help. I will update my NIC drivers and see if I can use that option again.

Same problem!

I also have this problem. It started this morning after enabling MS Office Auto Scan, and fortunately I found this post.

I didn't see anything about it on the Norton Community forums, so I reported it there.

I have this same problem. So I moved the file out of the downloads folder (or whatever folder your downloads are located) to a different location. Then I changed the name of the file. Just to be safe I also made a copy of the file. When I closed firefox neither file disappeared.