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I can't open anything in my Downloads list

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I can't open anything in my Downloads list. I've tried resetting firefox and I've also tried everything in your article "What to do if you can't download or save files" but nothing helps. I tried to upgrade to the latest firefox to see if this helps but once I've hit the Download button, 1 minute later it appears in my downloads list and... same issue... I can't open it to run it! It's like it's crashed, because no amount of clicking on a download will activate anything. It seems like the Downloads list is dead! Also, (and I think this is linked), I cannot save web pages. I go though the motions and it looks like it's doing the right thing but the pages don't save - they just disappear into the ether! I'm on Windows Vista and have been downloading things happily for years, but suddenly this problem has occured and I've run out of ideas now... Please help!

I can't open anything in my Downloads list. I've tried resetting firefox and I've also tried everything in your article "What to do if you can't download or save files" but nothing helps. I tried to upgrade to the latest firefox to see if this helps but once I've hit the Download button, 1 minute later it appears in my downloads list and... same issue... I can't open it to run it! It's like it's crashed, because no amount of clicking on a download will activate anything. It seems like the Downloads list is dead! Also, (and I think this is linked), I cannot save web pages. I go though the motions and it looks like it's doing the right thing but the pages don't save - they just disappear into the ether! I'm on Windows Vista and have been downloading things happily for years, but suddenly this problem has occured and I've run out of ideas now... Please help!

Chosen solution

Did you try to set the browser.download.manager.scanWhenDone pref to false on the about:config page?

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All Replies (6)

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It is possible that anti-virus software is corrupting downloaded files or is otherwise interfering with downloading files.

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

See:

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I have this problem; however I dont have any antivirus on my laptop

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Hi there, I've tried what Cor-el suggested but it does not work. I disabled AVG protection temporarily but still the downloads list just appears to be dead. Any more suggestions? As it looks like the antivirus is not the problem... Thank you in advance...!

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Chosen Solution

Did you try to set the browser.download.manager.scanWhenDone pref to false on the about:config page?

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Wow! Thanks Cor-el. That has worked. Brilliant! Thank you very much. xx

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Awesome, thank you very much.