[Tip] Force Firefox to Start Downloads in Temp Folder Again
If you want to force Mozilla Firefox browser to always use TEMP folder to store downloaded files until you decide to save them on your hard disk, this article will help you in restoring this classic behavior in Firefox.
Since the release of Firefox 98.0 version, Mozilla team changed the download manager behavior. Now the built-in download manager immediately puts the downloaded files in the default or user configured “Downloads” folder instead of storing it in a temporary directory.
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In older versions of Firefox, the browser used to keep the downloaded files in system’s TEMP folder until the user decided to save the file on hard disk. If the user didn’t want to save the file, it was automatically deleted from the TEMP folder.
Now newer versions of Firefox (98 and later) do not use TEMP folder to store the downloaded files. They start the downloads in default Download folder as mentioned in the official changelog:
Any files you download will be immediately saved on your disk. Depending on the current configuration, they’ll be saved in your preferred download folder, or you’ll be asked to select a location for each download. Windows and Linux users will find their downloaded files in the destination folder. They’ll no longer be put in the Temp folder.
Many Firefox users didn’t like this change and asked Firefox to bring back the classic behavior of download manager.
Fortunately, Mozilla team has added a hidden secret preference/flag in newer versions of Firefox (version 102 and later) which can be modified to force Firefox to always use TEMP folder again like previous versions. The information about this secret preference was present on Firefox 102 Beta and Nightly changelog pages but for some unknown reason, Mozilla team removed the information from the changelog page of Firefox 102 Stable version but the preference exists and works fine in the 102 stable version.
There is now an enterprise policy (StartDownloadsInTempDirectory) and an about:config pref (browser.download.start_downloads_in_tmp_dir) that will once again cause Firefox to initially put downloads in (a subfolder of) the OS temp folder, instead of the download folder configured in Firefox. Files opened from the “what should Firefox do with this file” dialog, or set to open in helper applications automatically, will stay in this folder. Files saved (not opened as previously mentioned) will still end up in the Firefox download folder.
If you are also using Firefox 102 or later version, you can use following steps to restore TEMP folder support again in Firefox browser:
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1. Open Firefox and type about:config in the addressbar and press Enter. It’ll show you a warning message, click on “Accept the Risk and Continue” button. It’ll open Firefox’s hidden secret advanced configuration page i.e. about:config page.
2. Now type tmp in Search filter box and look for following preference in the window:
browser.download.start_downloads_in_tmp_dir
The preference value is set to false by default, which means Firefox is set to put files in default Downloads folder by default.
3. To disable the new behavior and force Firefox to always use TEMP folder to keep downloaded files temporarily, double-click on browser.download.start_downloads_in_tmp_dir preference and set it to true. Alternatively, you can click on the Toggle icon given next to the preference name.
That’s it. Now Firefox will start using TEMP folder again to keep downloaded files temporarily like previous versions.
PS: In future, if you decide to restore default behavior in Firefox, set the above mentioned preference to false again.
Also Check:
[Tip] Restore Classic Download Confirmation Prompt in Mozilla Firefox
[Tip] Enable Fully Automatic and Silent Download Feature in Firefox
[Fix] File Not Downloaded: Potential Security Risk Error Message in Firefox
browser.downloads.start_downloads_in_tmp_dir will once again cause Firefox to initially put downloads in (a subfolder of) the OS temp folder, instead of the download folder configured in Firefox. Files opened from the “what should Firefox do with this file” dialog, or set to open in helper applications automatically, will stay in this folder. Files saved (not opened as previously mentioned) will still end up in the Firefox download folder.
from Bug 1738574
This automatic download of Firefox has been driving me nuts for weeks now!
Thanks for the tip: about:config -> browser.download.start_downloads_in_tmp_dir to TRUE
It works
Thank you so much for this, both to you for writing this article exposing the setting, and to Mozilla for finally doing the right thing on this. Absolutely hated the new download behavior of just dumping everything in your main folder, and am very pleased to stumble across this news about the option to re-enable the old method.
It’s so annoying to have every random pdf or whatever that you click on just sitting in your Downloads folder, even multiple copies if you happened to access it from the website multiple times. Turned the folder into a useless garbage heap, with things you actually wanted to keep just buried in things you happened to view once and have no need for. Using an out-of-sight temp folder is way better for all the random stuff, and the Downloads folder can now once again be a useful place for the files I’ve intentionally downloaded.
I even get their reasoning behind the new behavior, even though I don’t prefer it personally. Don’t get me wrong, I have no problem with Mozilla making a change like this to appeal to new and non-technical users, if they have good reason to think this will accomplish that.
What’s frequently frustrating is that the presumed preferences of hypothetical future are prioritized over their current user’s actual preferences. It’s to the point where, as their existing user who’s preferred methods have often changed without easy ways to switch back, I increasingly feel shut out, and have become cynical about receiving updates that feel like they take more than they give.
All anybody ever wants, when it comes to changes like this, is to just give people the option to use either way they want. Ideally they’d just put it in the Settings; I guarantee the non-technical users they’re trying to appeal to are not even aware that Settings exists, so one more setting won’t confuse them. An about:config setting is sufficient though. It’s baffling and aggravating that they often don’t leave even that.
it doesn’t just dump thing in your main download folder though
lets say you open a pdf from a website it dumps it into documents even though my downloads directory is set as d:\ and doesn’t even delete it when its finished with.
I have zero use for the documents folder hence me dumping all downloads to D:\ so i can move anything i download to where it goes depending on what it is
a pdf i open should never be dumped in a random folder that i haven’t chosen and then just left there
my Downloads dir is D:\ not the documents folder
where are mozilla getting these people from making these decisions
The new behaviour had been annoying the bejeezus out of me. I felt like I had a new puppy that was making messes that I had to clean up. Thank you, AskVG, for showing me how to potty train it.
By the way, I get that I’m in the minority. Most people have cluttered Downloads directories and only ever look at the most recent files. But, for me, there’s an important difference between junk files I had simply clicked on to open in another app and the files I actively chose to save.
now we need a Business Solution for this , whats the registry key behind this ?
A GPO is not available now
Use the autoconfig file, I’m doing a similar task at the moment, after updating from 91 ESR, I encountered many problems among users, since the GPO tools do not support these settings, I made an autoconfig file that exposes these settings
Example:
// Mozilla set checkbox ask to open or download unknown files
defaultPref(“browser.download.always_ask_before_handling_new_types”, true);
pref(“browser.download.improvements_to_download_panel”, false);
// False download panel and set Temp directory for download/opened files
pref(“browser.download.alwaysOpenPanel”, false);
pref(“browser.download.start_downloads_in_tmp_dir”, true);