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download goes to wrong location

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In Options, I have C:\Downloads⁩ as the location that my internet files are downloaded. Instead, they go to a different location, specifically: C:/Users/**/AppData/Local/Temp.

How do I make Firefox download my files to the correct location?

Thanks.

In Options, I have C:\Downloads⁩ as the location that my internet files are downloaded. Instead, they go to a different location, specifically: C:/Users/**/AppData/Local/Temp. How do I make Firefox download my files to the correct location? Thanks.

All Replies (20)

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?? Not sure why I would call.

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Please ignore this spam.

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Could I get an answer here, please?

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Hello???????????

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Hi Lokimeister, When you click on a file in Firefox, you might see a prompt asking you whether you want to open the file or save it.

The TEMP folder is where Windows will store files that you have chosen to open, instead of save.

Are files getting saved there when you choose "Save"? If so, we'll need some more info about your Firefox setup. Could you please follow the instructions in the following video to provide your troubleshooting information: https://youtu.be/8wKSowxEcbw

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Enter about:config in the URL bar and set browser.download.folderList = 1.

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That did not work. Same issue.

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Firefox immediately starts downloading the file in the background and saves the .part file to the OS TEMP folder and doesn't wait until you specify the name and the location (destination folder). If you cancel the download then the .part file is removed. If the file stays in the temp folder then it is possible that your security software is blocking the file and prevents Firefox from moving the file to the specified destination folder and rename the file to the correct file extension.

It is possible that (anti-virus) security software is causing the problem. Try to disable security software temporarily to see if that makes a difference.

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Hi Lokimeister, if you try to save a page (Ctrl+s) or image (right-click > Save Image As) to C:\Downloads, does it work? Just want to confirm that Firefox has permission to write to that location.

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Yes. C:\Downloads is the file that is pulled up when I do that.

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cor-el said

Firefox immediately starts downloading the file in the background and saves the .part file to the OS TEMP folder and doesn't wait until you specify the name and the location (destination folder). If you cancel the download then the .part file is removed. If the file stays in the temp folder then it is possible that your security software is blocking the file and prevents Firefox from moving the file to the specified destination folder and rename the file to the correct file extension. It is possible that (anti-virus) security software is causing the problem. Try to disable security software temporarily to see if that makes a difference.

Don't have anti-virus. Just Windows Defender and MalwareBytes.

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Could I get this taken care of please?

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Does this problem only occur when you use

C:\Downloads

and not when you use the Downloads folder in your Windows user profile

C:\Users\username\Downloads

In that case, I would still suspect a permissions/privileges problem.

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When Firefox moves the file to the final download location then Firefox would try to give the file the same owner and read/write permissions as it has in the temp folder. This can fail if the folder isn't in the users account and this might only work if you would run Firefox as administrator (this is not recommended for security reasons).

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Please note that this worked in the past.

I have changed the C:\Downloads folder to have the same permissions as the temp folder. No change, still saves to the temp folder.

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Lol....

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Would like a solution please.

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Hi Lokimeister, Would you mind sending us a video of what you're seeing? For instructions, visit the following:


Upload the video to a cloud service, like YouTube, OneDrive, Google Drive, or Dropbox, and paste a link to the video in this forum thread.
NOTE: This forum is public!

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Are you using the 'ask me' setting to make Firefox ask for the name and the location or do you specify a download location and let Firefox automatically save the download ?

Like I wrote above, C:\Downloads might not be a location that Windows allows to write to, so make sure that owner and permissions are the same as for the temp folder.

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