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My downloads won't save, always "file not found." Doesn't seem to be profile or plugin problem

  • 1 cavab
  • 9 have this problem
  • 4 views
  • Last reply by cor-el

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One day out of the blue, I started noticing that my usual downloads won't save to my designated folders, images, pdfs, and etc. Sure, the progress bar will indicate that it is being downloaded, but once it finishes it just disappears like it never existed. If I hover over the thing, it just shows "file not found." I can even see the file disappear right from the folder it was being downloaded to. I thought it was just a temporary bug since using plugin download manager like FlashGet works fine. Then I noticed even simple image with right click Save As to designated folder won't save as well. I tried looking for solutions: deleting download.rdf (not found); resetting download settings under about:config ( browser.download.dir and browser.download.downloadDir not even found); clearing download history; delete downloads.sqlite and mimeTypes.rdf; and even running in safe mode. Nothing helped. I'm about at my wits end. I haven't changed my internet or security settings at all recently.

One day out of the blue, I started noticing that my usual downloads won't save to my designated folders, images, pdfs, and etc. Sure, the progress bar will indicate that it is being downloaded, but once it finishes it just disappears like it never existed. If I hover over the thing, it just shows "file not found." I can even see the file disappear right from the folder it was being downloaded to. I thought it was just a temporary bug since using plugin download manager like FlashGet works fine. Then I noticed even simple image with right click Save As to designated folder won't save as well. I tried looking for solutions: deleting download.rdf (not found); resetting download settings under about:config ( browser.download.dir and browser.download.downloadDir not even found); clearing download history; delete downloads.sqlite and mimeTypes.rdf; and even running in safe mode. Nothing helped. I'm about at my wits end. I haven't changed my internet or security settings at all recently.

Modified by Skuttle

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It is possible that your anti-virus software is corrupting the downloaded files or otherwise interfering with downloading files by Firefox.

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

See http://kb.mozillazine.org/Unable_to_save_or_download_files (Disable virus scanning in Firefox preferences - Windows)