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Cannot open or download attachments

  • 8 replies
  • 1 has this problem
  • 127 views
  • Last reply by FredMcD

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9/14/2021 All of the sudden I cannot open or download attachments. Edge works fine.. What did you change??

9/14/2021 All of the sudden I cannot open or download attachments. Edge works fine.. What did you change??

Chosen solution

Looks like this is caused by Enhanced Tracking Protection in Firefox.

Firefox shows a purple shield instead of a gray shield at the left end of the location/address bar in case Enhanced Tracking Protection is blocking content. You can click shield icon for more detail and possibly disable the protection. You can check the Web Console for related messages about blocked content.

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Is this with all websites/pages, some, a few?

Please explain the problem in detail. What happens? What is/are the exact error message(s) ?

Can you provide some links that have the problem?

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Hi. I'm using AOL mail. any time I try to open an attachment basically nothing happens. It is on at least 2 pc's. Desktop and laptop. Running latest version and maint levels of Windows 10. Neither PDF or word attachments I send myself do not open. I haven't tried more of my pc's. It worked fine last week. I believe Firefox updated between then and now. Edge works fine.

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Make sure you are not blocking content.

Diagnose Firefox issues using Troubleshoot(Safe) Mode {web link}

A small dialog should appear. Click Start In Troubleshoot(Safe) Mode (not Refresh). Is the problem still there?


https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/enhanced-tracking-protection-firefox-desktop also see https://blog.mozilla.org/security/2021/03/23/introducing-smartblock/

https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/smartblock-enhanced-tracking-protection


Many site issues can be caused by corrupt cookies or cache.

Warning ! ! This will log you out of sites you're logged in to. You may also lose any settings for that website.

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You can try to set browser.download.sanitize_non_media_extensions = false on the about:config page.

You can open the about:config page via the location/address bar. You can click the button to "Accept the Risk and Continue".

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We have recently seen several reports about downloading attachments from AOL, so this could be either a Firefox issue or AOL made changes that are causing problems with Firefox.

Are there relevant-looking messages displayed in the Web Console if you start the download ?

Somebody created a bug report.

  • 1730771 - After updating MacOS to Big Sur 11.6, cannot download any attachments from AOL mail.

Modified by cor-el

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Chosen Solution

Looks like this is caused by Enhanced Tracking Protection in Firefox.

Firefox shows a purple shield instead of a gray shield at the left end of the location/address bar in case Enhanced Tracking Protection is blocking content. You can click shield icon for more detail and possibly disable the protection. You can check the Web Console for related messages about blocked content.

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The last thing I did last night was to bring up Firefox in safe mode. When I did this I could download files OK. I went in and disabled all my extensions and brought Firefox up in regular mode again. In regular mode I still could not open or download files with all the extensions disabled. At this point I stopped and thought I would pursue further in the morning. This morning when I brought Firefox up in regular mode the open and download both worked. Checked my other PC and it worked again also.. Amazing!! fixed it's self.. Yea right.. There must have been an interface that was corrupted and that was corrected over night. Thanks for all the responses. I would never know how to bring Firefox up in safe mode.. Thank you again!!!

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That was very good work. Well Done. Please flag your last post as Solved Problem as this can help others with similar problems. Go to that post and click the 'Solved' button to its right.