Suddenly media downloads instead of buffer and stream.
All of a sudden Firefox started downloading media player files instead of simply opening a media player and allowing the files to buffer and start playing like it once did.
Used to be you could click on a video link and it would automatically open the appropriate media player and that player would take over from there, basically allowing for a few seconds of buffering and then playing/streaming the video.
One day , Firefox started only ever opening the download dialog box and only giving you those options which force you to wait for the entire video to download before it will start playing. It happened all of a sudden and I.E. will still function correctly on that same file. Click , media player opens , small beuffer and then play/stream.
How to I change it back ? What happened ?
Thanks.
All Replies (2)
Start Firefox in Safe Mode to check if one of the extensions (Firefox/Tools > Add-ons > Extensions) or if hardware acceleration is causing the problem (switch to the DEFAULT theme: Firefox/Tools > Add-ons > Appearance).
- Do NOT click the Reset button on the Safe mode start window or otherwise make changes.
- https://support.mozilla.org/kb/Safe+Mode
- https://support.mozilla.org/kb/Troubleshooting+extensions+and+themes
Try to delete the mimeTypes.rdf file in the Firefox Profile Folder to reset all file actions.
- http://kb.mozillazine.org/mimeTypes.rdf
- http://kb.mozillazine.org/File_types_and_download_actions#Resetting_download_actions
You can use this button to go to the Firefox profile folder:
- Help > Troubleshooting Information > Profile Directory: Show Folder
Well that didn't help but it did get me to find the issue so thanks at least for that.
I had been running VLC and it had a recent update that required an uninstall and reinstall. This apparently left a disconnected (for lack of a better term) plugin in Firefox. Odd thing was that I had even uninstalled and reinstalled Firefox but it still hung on to that VLC plugin. So after correcting that association, all is back to normal.
Yay Me. :)