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FIrefox 97.0.1 will not save web pages from Washington Post newspaper

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I am working on a project that entails saving various news stories. Since your last upgrade to 97.0.1 I have no problem with all other newspapers except for Washington Post. FF will not save them, so I am forced to click on the "progress of ongoing download" down pointing arrow and click again on the circular arrow to actually save the web page. This involves a loss of time doing a task that I should not be forced to perform. See the graphic image below to see what I'm talking about. Once I click on that circular arrow the web page will be saved as it should have to begin with. Since I normally save 30 to 40 Washington Post files every day, this adds up to a useless waste of my time. I'd appreciate it if you would look into this matter and issue a correction update so I can save Washington Post web pages without all the double stroking. Thank you.

I am working on a project that entails saving various news stories. Since your last upgrade to 97.0.1 I have no problem with all other newspapers except for Washington Post. FF will not save them, so I am forced to click on the "progress of ongoing download" down pointing arrow and click again on the circular arrow to actually save the web page. This involves a loss of time doing a task that I should not be forced to perform. See the graphic image below to see what I'm talking about. Once I click on that circular arrow the web page will be saved as it should have to begin with. Since I normally save 30 to 40 Washington Post files every day, this adds up to a useless waste of my time. I'd appreciate it if you would look into this matter and issue a correction update so I can save Washington Post web pages without all the double stroking. Thank you.
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All Replies (6)

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Hi gruff, is this problem using the default format:

Save as type: Web Page, complete (*.htm, *.html)

Failure to save has been reported on this forum for a couple of years, seemingly randomly, but nearly always successful on the second try. Since this feature involves creating a companion folder and downloading various assets linked/embedded in the page, there might be an issue with one of those files; I have not seen an explanation.

In case it's useful, could you open the separate "Browser Console" (Ctrl+Shift+J) window the next time you're saving from WP and when you notice a failure, switch over to the console to see whether there appear to be any relevant error messages that could shed light on why it failed. I don't know whether there will be, but it would be helpful to get some clues, any clues.

I assume you open these saved pages from time to time to make sure they are viewable; that's important because the page may be less useful if it is incomplete.

Two alternatives to consider would be:

(A) Save to PDF -- this is a new option in the Print dialog (under Destination, change from your regular printer to Save to PDF)

(B) SingleFile -- this is an add-on that bundles all the bits and pieces into the main HTML file instead of using a folder. The file is huge, but this avoids possible difficulties in reconstructing the page from what Firefox saved. https://addons.mozilla.org/firefox/addon/single-file/

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Thanks for taking the time to help, but "single-file" doesn't work for me. It takes too much time and decides for itself where to save the file. In the meantime I just continue double saving the WP files which works. I have contacted the WP and asked them to look into why their pages do not save on the first try, but I've not heard back from them as yet.

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gruff said

Thanks for taking the time to help, but "single-file" doesn't work for me. It takes too much time and decides for itself where to save the file.

Big pages are slow to build, that seems unavoidable. But at least you can control where files are saved if you take a look at the extension's options:

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Thanks for your help, but I've found a solution to the problem. I use a different browser when I visit the newspapers that Firefox can't get right. Problem solved. Thanks again.

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You should pay attentention to the comment above. We're getting tired of having to find workarounds in order to keep Firefox as our default browsers.

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Nicholas Peters said

You should pay attentention to the comment above. We're getting tired of having to find workarounds in order to keep Firefox as our default browsers.

Hi Nicholas, the issue of having to try "Save Page As" twice is, as far as I know, not specific to WaPo and can affect various sites for reasons that aren't obvious to me.

This support forum is intended to help users resolve issues within the functionality of Firefox and available add-ons. I think we did what we could here. Next steps for you:

To alert the developers of the need to fix a broken feature, you can file a bug report here: https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/

To advocate for new features, you can submit an "Idea" on https://connect.mozilla.org/.