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.

Rohkem teavet

download goes to wrong location

  • 33 vastust
  • 3 on selline probleem
  • 32 views
  • Viimati vastas zach7

more options

In Options, I have C:\Downloads⁩ as the location that my internet files are downloaded. Instead, they go to a different location, specifically: C:/Users/**/AppData/Local/Temp.

How do I make Firefox download my files to the correct location?

Thanks.

In Options, I have C:\Downloads⁩ as the location that my internet files are downloaded. Instead, they go to a different location, specifically: C:/Users/**/AppData/Local/Temp. How do I make Firefox download my files to the correct location? Thanks.

All Replies (20)

more options

?? Not sure why I would call.

more options

Please ignore this spam.

more options

Could I get an answer here, please?

more options

Hello???????????

more options

Hi Lokimeister, When you click on a file in Firefox, you might see a prompt asking you whether you want to open the file or save it.

The TEMP folder is where Windows will store files that you have chosen to open, instead of save.

Are files getting saved there when you choose "Save"? If so, we'll need some more info about your Firefox setup. Could you please follow the instructions in the following video to provide your troubleshooting information: https://youtu.be/8wKSowxEcbw

more options
more options

Enter about:config in the URL bar and set browser.download.folderList = 1.

more options

That did not work. Same issue.

more options

Firefox immediately starts downloading the file in the background and saves the .part file to the OS TEMP folder and doesn't wait until you specify the name and the location (destination folder). If you cancel the download then the .part file is removed. If the file stays in the temp folder then it is possible that your security software is blocking the file and prevents Firefox from moving the file to the specified destination folder and rename the file to the correct file extension.

It is possible that (anti-virus) security software is causing the problem. Try to disable security software temporarily to see if that makes a difference.

more options

Hi Lokimeister, if you try to save a page (Ctrl+s) or image (right-click > Save Image As) to C:\Downloads, does it work? Just want to confirm that Firefox has permission to write to that location.

more options

Yes. C:\Downloads is the file that is pulled up when I do that.

more options

cor-el said

Firefox immediately starts downloading the file in the background and saves the .part file to the OS TEMP folder and doesn't wait until you specify the name and the location (destination folder). If you cancel the download then the .part file is removed. If the file stays in the temp folder then it is possible that your security software is blocking the file and prevents Firefox from moving the file to the specified destination folder and rename the file to the correct file extension. It is possible that (anti-virus) security software is causing the problem. Try to disable security software temporarily to see if that makes a difference.

Don't have anti-virus. Just Windows Defender and MalwareBytes.

more options

Could I get this taken care of please?

more options

Does this problem only occur when you use

C:\Downloads

and not when you use the Downloads folder in your Windows user profile

C:\Users\username\Downloads

In that case, I would still suspect a permissions/privileges problem.

more options

When Firefox moves the file to the final download location then Firefox would try to give the file the same owner and read/write permissions as it has in the temp folder. This can fail if the folder isn't in the users account and this might only work if you would run Firefox as administrator (this is not recommended for security reasons).

more options

Please note that this worked in the past.

I have changed the C:\Downloads folder to have the same permissions as the temp folder. No change, still saves to the temp folder.

more options

Lol....

more options

Would like a solution please.

more options

Hi Lokimeister, Would you mind sending us a video of what you're seeing? For instructions, visit the following:


Upload the video to a cloud service, like YouTube, OneDrive, Google Drive, or Dropbox, and paste a link to the video in this forum thread.
NOTE: This forum is public!

more options

Are you using the 'ask me' setting to make Firefox ask for the name and the location or do you specify a download location and let Firefox automatically save the download ?

Like I wrote above, C:\Downloads might not be a location that Windows allows to write to, so make sure that owner and permissions are the same as for the temp folder.

  1. 1
  2. 2