Additional Information: I reinstalled Firefox and still have the problem. Also the version of Firefox that I'm using is 98.0.1 -- NOT what I misstated in my original posting. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Carol

Can you provide a screenshot of the error (or screenshots of the errors)? If you use Firefox to take the screenshot, see this article. https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/take-screenshots-firefox

Attached is a screenshot (PNG FORMAT) of what happens when I get an error in trying to do the download. The error can be seen in the upper right area of the screenshot.

If you have no luck diagnosing the issue using the ideas in the first article linked below, you could try the others.

https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/troubleshoot-and-diagnose-firefox-problems https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/diagnose-firefox-issues-using-troubleshoot-mode https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/troubleshoot-extensions-themes-to-fix-problems

What security software do you have?

It is possible that (anti-virus) security software is causing the problem. Try to disable security software temporarily to see if that makes a difference.

I am using Norton 360 as my security software. I tried disabling it but it didn't resolve the problem. I will look over the articles at the links provided but that will not be done until sometime on Thursday.

Just wanted to say that I've had some unexpected higher priority issues surface so I haven't been able to get to trying the suggestions given by terry21. Hope to get to looking at this over the weekend.

Carol

Hello, the Refresh Firefox feature can fix many issues by restoring Firefox to its default state while saving your essential information. Consider using it before going through a lengthy troubleshooting process.

The following article describes the steps to take if you are unable to download or save files with Firefox. What to do if you can't download or save files

Update: I'm not sure I understand things but apparently now when I go to download a file, the file gets downloaded. For a PDF file which I want to save, it's a 2-step process: first, to display the file in a separate window where I can print it, download it as a PDF file, or save it as a PDF file. PDF files are the most frequent files that I download. At least now I can continue to use the web browser that I really like: Firefox -- really didn't like using Edge or Chrome for the brief time I used both. I think I'm "spoiled" by Firefox!

I haven't restored any of my add-ins and I haven't checked to be sure all the Firefox settings are what I like. However, I'll check the downloading after making each change just to see if any change causes me to have any problems. I'll provide any updates on any problems encountered. As the saying goes, "no news is good news" -- I won't be responding as long as I don't encounter any problems.

Thanks to all who provided suggestions. I learned a lot from the suggestions even if the suggestions didn't directly lead to resolving the problem I was experiencing -- at least I don't think so!

Carol

I'm posting this again since I don't see it and I thought I did the post. Hopefully it will show up!

It didn't take long! In Settings, in the "General -> Applications" area where it asks" "Choose how Firefox handles the files you download from the web or the applications you use while browsing", when I changed the PDF Content Type from "Open in Firefox" to "Always ask" (what I had setup in Settings for a very long time), downloading PDF files failed as before. Not sure what changes, if any, might have been made to this area of Firefox but I now remember that my problems started after I had updated Firefox to the most current version 98.0.1 (64-bit).

Carol

I decided to report this to Bugzilla -- Hope I did that correctly! Will wait and see what response I get. I believe this is a bug in the current version of Firefox. At least I have found a workaround to get the PDF files downloaded so that I can save them on my computer.

Carol

Just wanted to give an update:

After reporting this to Bugzilla, I had several exchanges with them on this (Bug 1760536 ). I don't know why but the issue went away after trying various things. The ONLY thing that I can think of is that one attempt I tried was to specify a download directory -- towards the end of my many attempts. Then, when I changed the Download option to choose the "Always ask you where to save files" option and then set the Applications -> Portable Document Format (PDF) set to "Always ask", it worked! It didn't make any difference what directory was set to. Maybe by setting a field that had not been set to anything but was now set to something made sure that a parameter check didn't fail. This is just a 'guess' on my part but I did programming for a while when I was working (30+ years before retiring) and also taught a computer programming course at a local university for about 10 years -- my 'guess' is based on these many years of programming experience!

Sorry I can't provide any definitive reason for how I got the issue to work as I wanted. Hope what I said I did helps others who might run into this issue.

Carol

Thanks for letting us know that the problem (which you reported in bug 1760536) was fixed after you changed the Downloads folder setting in "Downloads -> Save files to" and then selected the "Always ask you where to save files" option.

P.S. You also said that Maybe by setting a field that had not been set to anything but was now set to something made sure that a parameter check didn't fail.. It's odd that the "Save files to" field in Firefox Settings -> Files and Applications -> Downloads was not set to anything. On my (Windows 7) system, the "Save files to:" field is set to "Downloads" by default, as shown here:

When I check the location of the "Downloads" folder by using the Browse button, it goes to this location: C:\Users\<my username>\Downloads