Search Support

Avoid support scams. We will never ask you to call or text a phone number or share personal information. Please report suspicious activity using the “Report Abuse” option.

Learn More

When firefox saves files, it picks previous folders ive saved from on specific sites. How to stop this?

  • 3 cavab
  • 1 has this problem
  • 4 views
  • Last reply by cor-el

more options

Firefox keeps remembering folders ive saved files to from specific websites and possibly for specific file extensions. Most other programs im aware of only remember the Last Folder you saved stuff to. I can see how upgrading this behavior could be helpful to keep different types of files going into places where you consistently keep downloading them to.

But... in my case I end up shooting files into bunches of different folders all over the computer, on different drives, and its Highly Annoying when I go to save files from (Google Images for example) and it keeps wanting to put them in different folders. I lose track of files this way because im expecting them to go in the Same Folder I just saved to, but Firefox just jumped the track and put it somewhere else I might've accessed like two weeks ago.

It also makes a mistake and thinks that I saved a file from some website I havent been to, as if it was a website that I have been to before (and its not going off of File Type either because I might have just saved a .jpeg too)

I mean this isnt a crippling feature but its costing me more time in saving stuff by constantly having to jump around my hard drive to get it to go where I want it to go. Whereas if I didnt have to deal with this feature I could consistently download files into the Same Folder for the subject matter that im currently dealing with (eg, Grunge Texture Images).

And like I said, most other Windows programs only remember the Last Place you saved or loaded from, and I expect the behavior of the browser to work the same way. Ive been forced to have to place shortcuts to the folders I access frequently so that way I can get there faster because Firefox wont stay in one place.

Firefox keeps remembering folders ive saved files to from specific websites and possibly for specific file extensions. Most other programs im aware of only remember the Last Folder you saved stuff to. I can see how upgrading this behavior could be helpful to keep different types of files going into places where you consistently keep downloading them to. But... in my case I end up shooting files into bunches of different folders all over the computer, on different drives, and its Highly Annoying when I go to save files from (Google Images for example) and it keeps wanting to put them in different folders. I lose track of files this way because im expecting them to go in the Same Folder I just saved to, but Firefox just jumped the track and put it somewhere else I might've accessed like two weeks ago. It also makes a mistake and thinks that I saved a file from some website I havent been to, as if it was a website that I have been to before (and its not going off of File Type either because I might have just saved a .jpeg too) I mean this isnt a crippling feature but its costing me more time in saving stuff by constantly having to jump around my hard drive to get it to go where I want it to go. Whereas if I didnt have to deal with this feature I could consistently download files into the Same Folder for the subject matter that im currently dealing with (eg, Grunge Texture Images). And like I said, most other Windows programs only remember the Last Place you saved or loaded from, and I expect the behavior of the browser to work the same way. Ive been forced to have to place shortcuts to the folders I access frequently so that way I can get there faster because Firefox wont stay in one place.

Modified by RSSwizard

All Replies (3)

more options

The short answer is "yes" you can stop Firefox from basing the folder on the site -- at least the last time I checked.

This requires something a little special, which is to create a new preference. Here's how:

(1) Select and copy the following:

browser.download.lastDir.savePerSite

(2) In a new tab, type or paste about:config in the address bar and press Enter. Click the button promising to be careful.

(3) Right-click any existing preference and choose New, then Boolean

(4) In the dialog that pops up, paste the preference name you copied in step 1 and click OK. The next dialog should have false already selected (but if not, select false) then click OK.

You're done. That should do it.

more options

This solution did not work, files were still being saved based on prior folders for those sites. It kept defaulting to "Working Folder" when I kept consistently saving it to a sub-folder... and then another place was saving it to "Brushes" when that is in an entirely different folder structure altogether.

more options

You can delete the content-prefs.sqlite file in the Profile Folder to only remove settings stored in this file. That way you keep exceptions stored in permissions.sqlite that would get lost if you clear the "Site Preferences" via Clear Recent History.

You can use this button to go to the currently used Firefox profile folder: