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files downloaded in firefox not visible

  • 10 replies
  • 26 have this problem
  • 1 view
  • Last reply by FredMcD

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Any file i download gets automatically converted to "Binary file" type . Also files which i download will be shown in the "show all downloaded files page" but cannot be opened directly. And the files downloaded in the specified path will not be visible

Any file i download gets automatically converted to "Binary file" type . Also files which i download will be shown in the "show all downloaded files page" but cannot be opened directly. And the files downloaded in the specified path will not be visible

All Replies (10)

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Is this a problem with one site or several sites? How do you save the files? What type of files? Where are you trying to save the files to? Are you using an ad-on that sorts downloaded files to different directories? For more information on your downloaded files from Firefox, press <Alt> J. This should include info like file name, size, save to. . . . Go to Firefox options > General. Check the save files to option. You can also, for a time, select to have FF ask you where to put the downloads.

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Thanks Fredmcd for the reply This problem is for any file i download from any website eg... like pdf,torrent etc I tried saving the files in d drive after adding a new folder here, specifying the path in options/General as you had mentioned. No i am not using any add-ons I am still not able to find the reason.. would it be because of any virus ?? if it is then which antivirus wud b d best one to solve .. Please let me know..

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Hello dhanish, try to Resetting download actions, and check it again.

thank you

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Thanks Ideato.. I tried resetting the download options by deleting "mimeTypes" and restarting firefox browser, but still the problem exists... i tried downloading google chrome.. snapshot attached here for your reference... the file would be in "binary" type... not able to know what's the reason... the same problem exits with any other downloadable files, and best part after download the file disappears :) the problem is not with the procedure of downloading but the file getting converted to binary type.. please let me your suggestions on this... Thanks everyone

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Hello in your system details it seems that you have in your profile a User.js file. The user.js file does not exist by default. If you create the file, forget it, if you have not created then try to delete the User.js file, to see if the problem goes away (some programs create the file also).


if the above does not work, try a clean re-install

This means you remove Firefox program files and then reinstall Firefox. Please follow these steps:

Note: You might want to print these steps or view them in another browser.

  1. Download the latest Desktop version of Firefox from http://www.mozilla.org and save the setup file to your computer.
  2. After the download finishes, close all Firefox windows (click Exit from the Firefox or File menu).
  3. Delete the Firefox installation folder, which is located in one of these locations, by default:
    • Windows:
      • C:\Program Files\Mozilla Firefox
      • C:\Program Files (x86)\Mozilla Firefox
    • Mac: Delete Firefox from the Applications folder.
    • Linux: If you installed Firefox with the distro-based package manager, you should use the same way to uninstall it - see Install Firefox on Linux. If you downloaded and installed the binary package from the Firefox download page, simply remove the folder firefox in your home directory.
  4. Now, go ahead and reinstall Firefox:
    1. Double-click the downloaded installation file and go through the steps of the installation wizard.
    2. Once the wizard is finished, choose to directly open Firefox after clicking the Finish button.

Please report back to see if this helped you!

thanks again

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Executable .exe files are always shown as binary files and can only be saved to disk.
If such files do not show on your hard drive then check your security (anti-virus) software.

See:

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One thing to try is; Open the folder that the download is going to. Watch the folder when you start the download. Soon after the download starts a file should appear. Watch the file. If you don't see the file or don't know where it is going, press <Alt> J, right click on that file and select Open Containing Folder. Watch the file during the download. When the download stops, is the file still there? Did it disappear? Was the download interrupted? Sometimes if a download is bad, the file is erased. Does your system set to scan downloads? Did a message show up about the download?

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Thanks Fredmcd after i set for download the file appears and i am able to see the progress of that file. After download of any file, The problem what i face is if i click on the option "open containing folder", the file does not open and wen i check the path where it has got downloaded the .exe file does not exit there.

My doubt is could it be because of any virus or should i need to try re-installing Mozilla firefox ?

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Oh is it Cor-el.. Thanks i didnt have the knowledge about that :)

also i am not using any antivirus now

Modified by dhanish

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Hmmmm When you select Open Containing Windows Explorer should open the folder where the download was placed. Normally it would already point to the file. If you say the file (exe or otherwise) is not there, I doubt it would be in the recycle/trash bin. Try this; open Windows Explorer and go to C:\. in the search box type the name of the downloaded file. The search will take a while depending on the size of your hard drive. If it shows up right click and select open file location. Let us know what happens.