More details: Saving images SOMETIMES works properly. But if you open a picture in a new tab, then try to save that picture in the location that the previous tab had saved in, it won't work.

I'm also having this problem, or at least a problem similar. I can't figure out a pattern of when it will revert to previous directories. I just tried something to see if it would happen the same way it happens to you, but it did not. I saved an image, it wanted to save it in a previous directory that it most commonly resorts to. I restarted Firefox and it remembered the last directory used. So I opened up new tabs and saved images from inside those tabs, but it still remembered my last used directory. But the problem will definitely crop up later--it always does and I'll end up saving things in the wrong directory then having a difficult time finding things. Very annoying.

I'm currently using v8.0, but this started while using v7. I think I may have installed DownThemAll! around the time this problem occurred, but I deleted it when I installed v8. I don't know if that addon has anything to do with it, but I don't remember a setting with that old directory in it. I MAY have installed DTA while I was saving to this directory it always seems to want to revert to. DTA was bugged with v8 so I wasn't able to look through all the menus before getting rid of it.

I just went to about:config and typed in the name of the directory that it always seems to want to save to and I found a string related to DTA with that directory in it! I'm going to delete that and see what happens. I'll report back in a day or two with the results.

EDIT: Two days and Firefox has remembered my last saved directory so I'm going to assume that DTA was causing the problem. Not sure if this helps the OP.

The way I fixed my problem was by typing about:config the the URL field and then searching for whatever the directory name was. I believe the preference name was "extensions.dta.downloadwin" and the directory was its value. Double click on that row and select "reset".

EDIT: This only seemed to work for about 4 days and then it went back to sometimes using the old directory.

Exact same thing here! I'm the "15th" person who has the same problem

-> Manage file types and download actions in Firefox

• http://kb.mozillazine.org/File_types_and_download_actions

Check and tell if its working.

More info please? Exactly what should I do?

Mine started doing it immediately upon upgrading to 7 as well. I've noticed that when a purely jpg url is loaded (so that you can press ctrl-s and the save file type will come up as jpg automatically) the save folder firefox chooses can and often is different depending on if you use ctrl-s or if u right click on the image and choose "save image as". If an image with the same file name is in the download history (i'm guessing) it also seems like firefox will remember the folder the previous image was saved in and go to a folder that was used comparitively ages ago too.

I'd really like to be able to go back to the old firefox behaviour, as i'm a photographer and do a lot of saving files in specifically named and dated folders. Besides that it's just REALLY annoying ;)

Did you guyz tried Changing Download Actions or Adding Download Actions of your desired file extensions/types ??

Managing File Types

• http://kb.mozillazine.org/File_types_and_download_actions#Managing_file_types_-_Firefox_2

Check and tell if its working.

mha007, download actions and filetypes are working fine. Also, I have no add-ons that are conflicting with this either. This problem exists when add-ons are disabled.

Mozilla screwed up when they released Firefox 7 and they need to fix this immediately.

Deleting that directory out of my about:config actually didn't help. Firefox reverted back to the old directory about 4 days later. What directory it wants to save in seems random. I will be trying to save from the same domain and sometimes it will use current and sometimes old. I was just saving jpgs from imagevenue.com and half the time it wanted to use the old directory. So I then cancelled most of the saves that wanted to use the old directory. I saved all the ones that used the new directory. I saved *a few* of the old by changing directory names, but not many. When I went back to all the pictures I skipped, some of them now saved to the proper directory!

Also, I went into options/applications just to see what would happen if I changed it to always ask and it had absolutely no effect. Not even after restarting FF.

I really hope they fix this soon. There's nothing more irritating while I'm trying to get some *work* done!

I'm also having the problem. I'm on a Mac. The settings referenced by mha007 do not influence the 'save image as' right-click menu option. I never installed a plug-in of any kind to manage my downloads, so do not have 'DownloadThemAll' or any other related plug-in.

Here's a link to my post on the subject:

https://support.mozilla.com/en-US/questions/887248

Create a New Profile as a test to check if your current profile is causing the problems.

-> Basic Troubleshooting - Make a New Profile

IF that New Profile works then you can recover your Bookmarks and Passwords from the Old Profile.

-> Recovering important data from an old profile

Check and tell if its working.

I've also had this problem since upgrading to 7. I made a new profile, didn't download any add-ons, and tried saving images from various servers. Still got the problem. It also happens if you try to save an html page, so I don't think it's a "save image as" problem so much as a general "last saved/used folder" issue. Firefox is recording a different one for each server.

For the first few minutes the new profile actually seemed to have cleared the issue. But that was temporary; when you create a new profile or save from a new server, the file will initially be saved to the last chosen location like in previous versions. But as soon as you save one from there, Firefox memorizes the server and makes that its own specific save location. I'm pretty sure this isn't a bug so much as a feature gone awry where they hid the off switch from us.

For anybody who wants to experiment further, here are some worksafe pictures of pie on various servers you probably haven't saved anything from yet. Not that anybody blames you if you have. Mmm, pie. http://simplyrecipes.com/photos/perfect-pie-crust.jpg http://img4.myrecipes.com/i/recipes/ck/03142008/apple-pie-ck-222362-l.jpg http://www.realbakingwithrose.com/churrant_pie_hope-thumb.jpg http://whatscookingamerica.net/Desserts/PumpkinPie5.jpg http://pippahunnechurch.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/09/humblepie2.gif http://www.pieheaven.net/wp-content/uploads/2009/03/pi-pie.jpg

FF7.0.1, win7 pro x64

Same problem (https://support.mozilla.com/en-US/questions/887827): tried safe mode (w/o add-ons) ... nope, tried new profile ... nope.

This behaviour started with Firefox 7.0.1

Unfortunately not a reply but the beginning of an explanation. The "new" Save Location is not random at all : apparently it now depends on the web site ! If you load a web page where you previously saved an image, FF will try to save to the previous save location for this URL, and no longer, as we all got used to, to the location used by FF during the previous session. If you want to save to the same location images from various pages during one session, you will have to change the save location for **each** different URL. Which is VERY ANNOYING I agree!

This added to the relocation of Bookmark All Tabs and View Source makes me understand why more & more people are switching to Chrome.

My humble advice to developers : if you want to change users' old habits, give them a way to revert back to the way they know (see Windows XP Start menu). If the users adopt the change, they're happy and so are the developers. If the users don't adopt the change, the developers were wrong but the users are still happy !

Slight update- either there's one more hidden factor deciding which folder Firefox saves to or there are actual bugs involved. Occasionally when saving from the same page AND server, the destination folder will still spontaneously whip back to a previous one. Every so often it forgets all other locations entirely and goes back to Firefox's default Downloads folder.

I give up. Even when trying to play by Firefox's new rules it still finds ways to catch you off guard and shuffle file locations. Too often you can't notice until it's too late. There's just no point in saving anything when your browser is dead set on making sure you will never find it.

mha007, this has nothing to do with profiles, MIME types, personal settings, add-ons, etc. I've seen this topic in 3 different forum posts from many people, not to mention the many people on this thread as well. I'm convinced now that this is a basic change to the structure of Firefox in which the developers decided to change the location of images saved based on the URL that they're coming from.

This stupid "feature" needs to be fixed ASAP. It is a mistaken change to the structure of Firefox and should be removed immediately in the next upgrade. Your attempts at a solution cannot fix a basic problem in the code of Firefox. Here's my attempt at a solution: TELL THE DEVELOPERS TO FIX THIS PROBLEM.

I am not too sure exactly what problems you are all having, and have only just started to read this thread. Someone else may have a quick answer, but I do not recall a change being made in firefox that will cause this.

Whilst on this website you will see the avatars, of your own and others posts, they are small images if you right click (in Windows) you will get an option to save them. On my XP that includes the option Save Image as that opens a File Picker from the OS and allows me to browse to a location and save the target file, renaming it if required.
- does that work ok when you try it ?

As far as downloads generally, the locations for those are user settable.

• see Where to find and manage downloaded files in Firefox_downloads-window-options
  • and Startup, home page, tabs, and download settings
• for troubleshooting see What to do if you can't download or save files_reset-download-actions-for-all-file-types
  (that article is may be scrolled up and down for more information)

Downloads will go to wherever you select. As an example if you attempt to open a pdf, then firefox can not currently nativly handle those, if you have any pdf plugins disabled it will save them in the location you have already set. Use this as a test page http://plugindoc.mozdev.org/testpages/pdf.html
- does that work ok and download to your selected location ?

If you would like to try my suggestions above and explain what happens it may help me understand what the problem is that is being reported.

If someone can demonstrate there is a problem that is reproducible, I or someone else will be able to find out more info about it. If the problem is a change in firefox that is not documented a bug may be filed to try to get that investigated and maybe changed.

John99, for more details, please go read my thread on this topic. It is quite easy to reproduce.

https://support.mozilla.com/en-US/questions/887248

macahi,
I will gladly try to reproduce the problem if you think it helps.

I note cor-el commented in your thread and did not seem to notice anything unusual had been demonstrated, so I doubt I will see anything. You seem to think the problem is with Fireox 7 so if I use firefox 3.6 and firefox 7 or later I should get differing results. Cor-el mentions mime types, and the sqlite db I should be able to check that if relevant.

Post details of what should be done to demonstrate this problem.
It is probably more appropriate to post in your own existing thread. I would suggest give a couple of named sites and named files, and carefully document what you would like me to try.

e.g.

• steps -
  • set single download location for files
  • download files aname from site1 and bname from site2
  • repeat daily for 1 week
• what happens -
  • firefox 7 files download into random locations
  • firefox 3.6 files all download into previously set location
• problem -
  • firefox 3.6 behaves as expected, from any documentation found
  • firefox 7 unexpected undocumented behaviour

I will of course use firefox in safe mode and with clean profiles.

Possibly others in this thread or in your thread who see such behavior may want to also try this to see what happens.

John99 "I note cor-el commented in your thread and did not seem to notice anything unusual had been demonstrated, so I doubt I will see anything. "

Actually, he said no such thing. You know what, if you go into it assuming that you're going to fail, you will.

I laid out steps in that thread in the post that begins "More information. "

My final post in that thread also makes it fairly clear what the issue is. Also I and several other people have already commented that this behavior started with 7 or 7.0.1.

If that doesn't help, then I'm sorry, and you should probably just move on to someone else's problem.