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

"ABC could not be saved, because the source file could not be read" error when downloading

  • 6 ŋuɖoɖowo
  • 7 masɔmasɔ sia le wosi
  • 9 views
  • Nuɖoɖo mlɔetɔ omergrigg

more options

Almost every time I download a file, the download gets to the end and then I get this error "<filename> could not be saved, because the source file could not be read", and then the download fails.

I checked my addons and they are not the problem. This doesn't happen when I try another Firefox profile. I tried several solutions offered in "http://kb.mozillazine.org/Unable_to_save_or_download_files" but they didn't help. It's not my antivirus. I hate to start another profile because I have my current one just the way I like it.

Please help!

Almost every time I download a file, the download gets to the end and then I get this error "<filename> could not be saved, because the source file could not be read", and then the download fails. I checked my addons and they are not the problem. This doesn't happen when I try another Firefox profile. I tried several solutions offered in "http://kb.mozillazine.org/Unable_to_save_or_download_files" but they didn't help. It's not my antivirus. I hate to start another profile because I have my current one just the way I like it. Please help!

All Replies (6)

more options

More info - I think it has to do with permissions (whatever this is), because I played around with profile restore and I think the permissions are influencing this.

more options

What is the default download location?

Do you have write permissions for that folder?

Did you try another download folder?

Also make sure that Anti-virus software isn't preventing write access to the files in that folder.

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

See "Disable virus scanning in Firefox preferences - Windows"

more options

Cor-el, thanks for replying. My default locations is "downloads", and I have Windows write permissions for it, as well as the rest of my drive. I am the admin on my PC. I tried other folders. my antivirus is not the problem - I've tried disabling it and no go. When I mentioned "permissions", I did not mean Windows, but Firefox. I mentioned these because I played around with FEBE (the addon) and it seems that restoring "permissions" from my profile to the test profile I was working with "restored" the error.

more options

updated to Firefox 6 - didn't help deleted "permissions.sqlite" - didn't help

Please help

more options

You can check the file attributes of all the files in the Firefox Profile Folder to make sure that you have write permission.


Create a new profile as a test to check if your current profile is causing the problems.

See Basic Troubleshooting: Make a new profile:

If that new profile works then you can transfer some files from the old profile to that new profile (be careful not to copy corrupted files)

See:

more options

another piece of info - the problem seems to often "skip" files smaller than ~150MB.