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Drop a tab, and any download from that page is stopped. Why?

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  • Last reply by Scribe

Roger Franz
Roger Franz
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This is a problem I first noticed on Google Chrome, and since FF uses the same engine, I'm not surprised it's present in Firefox as well.

Say I browse to a page. I start downloading a large file -- say, Windows10.iso, at nearly 6 GB. I navigate to a new page in a new tab, and eventually, I think I don't need that other tab open, so I click on the in-tab "x" and close it. Immediately when I do that, the download if Windows10.iso STOPS. The Download list shows that it was cancelled. But it wasn't, you see. Why does Firefox do that? It's a very annoying "feature/BUG". Is there any way to stop this behavior?

Chrome and Edge do the same thing. Chrome was the first one I noticed this in.

This is a problem I first noticed on Google Chrome, and since FF uses the same engine, I'm not surprised it's present in Firefox as well. Say I browse to a page. I start downloading a large file -- say, Windows10.iso, at nearly 6 GB. I navigate to a new page in a new tab, and eventually, I think I don't need that other tab open, so I click on the in-tab "x" and close it. Immediately when I do that, the download if Windows10.iso STOPS. The Download list shows that it was cancelled. But it wasn't, you see. Why does Firefox do that? It's a very annoying "feature/BUG". Is there any way to stop this behavior? Chrome and Edge do the same thing. Chrome was the first one I noticed this in.

All Replies (1)

Scribe
Scribe
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Hi, Google Chrome uses the Chromium engine and Firefox uses Gecko, but that is irrelevant.

The open tab is the site you are downloading from, so if you close it, you are closing the site that the download is taking place from, which is why it stops, therefore you have in effect, cancelled it. You need to keep the tab open until the download is complete.

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