Join the AMA (Ask Me Anything) with the Firefox leadership team to celebrate Firefox 20th anniversary and discuss Firefox’s future on Mozilla Connect. Mark your calendar on Thursday, November 14, 18:00 - 20:00 UTC!

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.

Learn More

Cannot save videos as MP4 format; Firefox changed - saves as Firefox HTML document (unreadable)

  • 5 replies
  • 1 has this problem
  • 1 view
  • Last reply by Nancy Whee

more options

I previously saved videos in MP4 format. Recent Firefox update screwed that up - now only saves as Firefox HTML document format, whatever that is. File errors. Cannot save videos. I did a system restore to before the last update, but it's still screwed up.

HOW CAN I SAVE VIDEOS (from Facebook for example) in MP4 format?? PLEASE HELP.

Thank you.

I previously saved videos in MP4 format. Recent Firefox update screwed that up - now only saves as Firefox HTML document format, whatever that is. File errors. Cannot save videos. I did a system restore to before the last update, but it's still screwed up. HOW CAN I SAVE VIDEOS (from Facebook for example) in MP4 format?? PLEASE HELP. Thank you.

All Replies (5)

more options

Can you download the video via the right-click context menu or are you using an extension ?

Did you check the content of this HTML document in a text editor or file viewing utility to see if it possibly contains an error page ?

Can you post a link to a publicly accessible page (i.e. no authentication or signing on required)?

more options

Thank you for your quick response. **I am asking this for a friend and am getting all details from him. We greatly appreciate your assistance.

He has downloaded videos on Facebook in the past by copying the video's Facebook URL to a new Firefox window, changing 'www' to 'mbasic'. From there, play the video, right-click on the video, select 'Save video' from the drop down menu. (The videos are public, not someone's private page.) This has always worked until recently. When he goes to the folder where the video was saved, there is a file with format 'Firefox HTML document' and a filename of cryptic letters only. The file size is 4kb. He has tried this with several videos, but keeps getting the error. Clicking on the file to open it gives an error that it cannot find an application to view it.

more options

It is likely that this is no longer supported by Facebook and possibly needs to be updated.

Did he inspect the file in a text editor for a possible error message ?

more options

The feature is still supported by Facebook. I tried it on Microsoft Edge and Chrome - entered the Facebook address while replace the "www" with "mbasic" and it works. I can download the file as a mp4 video. In fact the update is so screwed up that even my bookmark menu is all messed up. The earlier versions of Mozilla actually works better than the current one. Is there a way I can go back to the earlier versions - until Mozilla fixes this? If not, I will have to switch to Microsoft Edge or Chrome!

more options

TO cor-el - He opened the file in Notepad and it was XML code. Thank you.

TO rwlh2100 - Thank you for trying this yourself. Edge and Chrome are not options. I wonder if he can uninstall Firefox, and then download and install an older version that was working fine. Companies usually only allow downloading the current version, not n-1 versions. Suggestions? Thank you.


Also, I wish Firefox didn't acknowledge new members by sending email containing their location and IP address on an unencrypted network. Boo! Hiss!