After I have migrated a 'master' profile into another, the browse button (for a download location) in Options, General doesn't work anymore. How can I fix this?
Hi Supporters, I've been struggling with this some time (downloading / saving problems) and tried all kinds of variations. But I'll keep it simple for now.
As a test .. I've just created a fresh firefox profile. Checked out if could change the download location, through the Browse button, and indeed that worked. I got an explorer dialog to choose a folder. Normally I would do the options, manage the search engines, do some layout stuff etc etc in order to get some 'baseline / master' profile I can evolve further into other more extended profiles. So you see this master profile will get copied into another one.
But, having copied that fresh profile (having done nothing yet) into another seems to disable choosing another download folder. The Browse button in Options > General does not work anymore. There's more. If I browse to, say, C:\ as default download location but then enable 'ask me where to save ..' in the fresh profile and then copy this profile to another one .. if I then want to change the download location (which shows C:) it jumps to Desktop and again the Browse button won't work.
This is driving me mad. Any ideas? Sorry for the long story, hope it helps.
Chosen solution
Hi Guys, just a quick update to my problem .. Okay, I can't solve the select-download-location-bug but I did find a -let's say- good combination of browser.download prefs that still allows me to save website snapshots (mozilla archive format). I hope it helps other users with the same problems.
I'll only mention the user set prefs:
user_pref("browser.download.dir", "C:"); user_pref("browser.download.folderList", 2); user_pref("browser.download.lastDir", "C:"); user_pref("browser.download.manager.closeWhenDone", true); user_pref("browser.download.manager.showWhenStarting", false); user_pref("browser.download.useDownloadDir", false);
After much experimentation and careful building of my master profile, the key turned out to be inserting the 'browser.download.lastDir' pref into my clean / never been online / never has saved / profile.
I guess this solves my problem. Yess ! Case closed (well, I hope a developer will look into the download issue :)
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Can you replicate this problem by copying just the prefs.js file from your custom profile to a vanilla profile?
In the profile that will not let you change that setting, can you change any other customized settings, or are all the customizations behaving as though they are locked? (Ignore toolbar customizations and the application part of the options for the moment; those are stored in different files.)
Thanks for the reply! The results:
1. copying the master prefs.js (from a clean virtual machine) to a fresh created profile (directly) on my computer .. still no reaction from the Browse button. 2. copying a prefs.js, from a new profile made on my computer, to the recieving profile .. still no reaction. 3. copying a prefs.js from my laptop's profile to my computer, still no reaction.
I did notice something, or better: I made a connection / think I saw the light !
A new profile on my computer doesn't allow the Browse button anyways. I know why that is. A new profile uses 'Downloads' as a default location. But I don't have such a folder nor can it be created (I keep a neat folder structure in My Documents through permissions). Desktop should be accessible but that's cluttered and that seems to be a reason for Firefox to not react ..
However, my master profile specifies C: as the default downloads location. I guess it still checks either Downloads (which doesn't exist) and / or Desktop (which it can't handle) and thus Firefox does nothing when clicking Browse. I guess that's a bug, isn't it? On my laptop the Browse button actually works .. There too C: is specified as the downloads location. But when I switch over to it, it starts browsing at C: (as expected), no mentioning of Desktop first (and hanging) (like on my computer).
Is there a workaround for this checking-for-folders-that-are-inaccessible-and-doing-nothing ?
It is usually not advised to copy a full profile folder, best is to be cautious and only copy what you really need and avoid copying files that have file paths to local files and folders.
You may also have to delete the content-prefs.sqlite file in the Profile Folder as it sores site specific download folders (browser.download.lastDir.savePerSite).
You deleted the Downloads folder? Perhaps a registry setting or environment variable is still pointing to that folder and Firefox is relying too heavily on that information.
Hi guys,
@cor-el: getting rid of not needed parts is what I always do. Besides prefs and localstore, only the search-metadata and permissions / signons are passed along. Oh, forgot to mention the mimetypes.
No, my point is why is FF looking for those folders when there's no mentioning of these to be found in my options? Not even in de about:config ... When I state C:\ as my downloads location it's absurd to check any other folder first, which FF seems to do before giving me an explorer window showing .. C:\ as a starting point. Like my unrestricted laptop does. @jscher2000: Even if there are pointers to those default folders, FF should not be checking those. When I state C: I mean C: (see my answer above). No, I'm convinced this is a bug unless someone knows a way to stop that folder checking. And to be honest, the not working Browse button is the least of my problems (I use: ask everytime where). No it's the saving that is the problem. But I guess the underlying problem is the same. Saving / downloading, what's in a name ..
Guys, thanks for your help ! I can't fix a bug so I'm going to let it be. I'll rebuild my master and will keep checking of saving a website becomes a problem somewhere. Mind you, the solutions offered in kb.mozillazine.org/Unable_to_save_or_download_files didn't work.
Oh well, I'll keep my fingers crossed :)
Chosen Solution
Hi Guys, just a quick update to my problem .. Okay, I can't solve the select-download-location-bug but I did find a -let's say- good combination of browser.download prefs that still allows me to save website snapshots (mozilla archive format). I hope it helps other users with the same problems.
I'll only mention the user set prefs:
user_pref("browser.download.dir", "C:"); user_pref("browser.download.folderList", 2); user_pref("browser.download.lastDir", "C:"); user_pref("browser.download.manager.closeWhenDone", true); user_pref("browser.download.manager.showWhenStarting", false); user_pref("browser.download.useDownloadDir", false);
After much experimentation and careful building of my master profile, the key turned out to be inserting the 'browser.download.lastDir' pref into my clean / never been online / never has saved / profile.
I guess this solves my problem. Yess ! Case closed (well, I hope a developer will look into the download issue :)