Earlier this month, Mozilla rolled out an update to Firefox that did two things that pissed me off, both related to downloading files:
1. It removed the confirmation dialog that asked whether you wanted to save the file or open it, meaning that clicking any download link (including links to many file types that could easily be viewed/played in-browser) would automatically start a file download, which is often not what I want;
2. It caused a giant fucking dropdown display to show automatically after each file finished downloading. This can be infuriating if I happen to be downloading several files at once, especially while trying to do something else in the browser.

Luckily, after some searching, I was able to quickly find the option in about:config that reverted change #2. #1 was annoying, but I figured I could put up with it. But today I finally decided to look for the option to revert that, too. My problem: the option that everyone on the Internet says will bring back the download confirmation prompts...doesn't. Not for me. It doesn't seem to do anything. The preference name in about:config is browser.download.improvements_to_download_panel (I love the sheer presumption in that name). It defaults to "true"; changing it to "false" doesn't bring back download confirmation prompts, nor seem to do anything else. I've tried some casual Googling about the fix not working, but while I've seen a couple other people mention it not working for them, I haven't seen anything yet as to why, or any other workaround that doesn't involve setting a preference that applies only on a per-file-type basis.

Any ideas?

EDIT: Using latest release-channel Firefox version (98.0.2, currently), on Windows 8 (I know, right?)

For those wondering, you type about:config into the address bar, then paste browser.download.alwaysOpenPanel into the search box that appears. Afterwards, double-click that preference name to toggle its status to false. Preferences related to feature implementation only exist during the testing phase and are removed afterwards. Any clueless websites that post them as tips are doing users a disservice.

Yes, you have to go into the Settings - about:preferences in the address bar - and in the Applications section, set each file type you want to Always Ask.
This would be an annoyance on a fresh install, since file types only get added when you try to download one for the first time.

If you haven't already done so, post a thread on the Firefox Support site though I expect there's no alternative to what I said above.

I personally check the "Always ask you where to save files" for security reason, so event after their update, i didn't download the files automatically.

You can also use a download manager to download multiple files at the same time.

They can be removed, but how long "afterwards" seems to vary pretty widely. I know there's no guarantee for their support going forward, but the fact of the matter is, those preferences are still present as of right now. What's more, they seem to work for a good-sized majority of users that tried changing them. That's what I'm trying to get to the bottom of here: why does this setting not work for just some of us?

I also seem to have been partly wrong when I said browser.download.improvements_to_download_panel doesn't do anything. I found that other preference that I had changed a while back (it's called browser.download.alwaysOpenPanel) and set it back to its default (true), on the unlikely chance that that was conflicting somehow with the other one. It seems improvements_to_download_panel also contains the change governed by alwaysOpenPanel, since I had to set both prefs back to their defaults in order to see the new (annoying) intended behavior reassert itself. It's only the aspect dealing with download prompts that's not working, and apparently I'm in the minority on that.

You didn't say which version you are using, but Mozilla releases multiple versions (I think they used to call them "release channels" but haven't checked lately). The "Firefox ESR" version, their so-called Enterprise or "Extended Support" version, introduce such "improvements" less frequently. It may also have less cutting-edge "features" than the others, but it's a more stable experience. :-) At the other end of the spectrum, they also release nightly / beta builds, in case you feel your browser isn't "improving" quickly enough.

Interesting. I had also noticed this “improvement” recently and was wondering about the automatic downloads as well. This seems to be a big security risk, I mean if you open a webpage thinking it is simply a webpage and it automatically downloads files without your approval then you could end up with anything sitting around on your machine. I recently had it, and this why I treat opera as malware, that Firefox would be opened automatically on startup and sent to opera homepage (nothing dodgy on my machine, could be nvidia or something set it up), and it’s not the first time opera pop ups and silent installs have happened, found an opera folder in my user area at one point even though I never use it.
I will have to try out the options mentioned and see if they do anything.

They made a lot of bad decisions in the past years but it still the best for privacy if tweaked ( i know TOR is better but it slow down all the internet so not the best choice for regular use) and i don't want to use the google bloated Chromium based browser, they all have google even Brave with no option to completely remove them.

They should at least give an option to revert back for peoples who don't like the changes like removing compact mode, i don't understand their point (you can enable it in about:config but why remove it from the menu) and automatically download a file is dangerous you can click something you don't want to download let's just hope they won't remove the prompt to choose where to download files in the future.

if cant be configured just ditch firefox it is an activist infested project anyway
the only people using it are linux users , are you a linux user?

I poked around and noticed the changes occurred from 98.0 onwards.

So just tried this, even setting all options to always ask did not change anything, just background downloaded things. I ended up changing the option under Files and Applications from Save Files to Downloads, to Always ask where to save files. In this way the box asking for location always pops up and can be cancelled before downloading if need be. Its a compromise, but better than having things auto downloading immediately, can't imagine who thought that was a good idea (and whoever it is should be removed from computer use for their own security!!).

why? it is just data saved to a file , it wont run on itself

Sadly a lot of bad steps taken by Mozilla in Firefox during the last year. I wonder if they are trying to destroy the web browser themselves on purpose. Having to spend over an hour to fix ( + time to tweak to own preferences) the browser before it is usable is getting annoying. Who knows when they will start implementing things like cryptomining like a certain big software house (NortonLifeLock Inc.).

Successfully complete the plan of the character Christopher Walken plays in a View to a Kill.




13:42

My bad, I thought it would be understood that, since I didn't mention a specific release, I was talking about the "mainstream"/stable release. I probably should've mentioned it anyway. Version 98 is the one that introduced these changes (though of course nightly users got them first). I'm currently on 98.0.2.

I don't get the point of using an ESR build for general use -- it would just be delaying the inevitable time when I'd have to either update to a much newer version (meaning I'd have to get used to a whole bunch of "new to me" changes all at once that I otherwise could've eased into gradually) or switch to a different browser (which, even if it had most of the features I missed from bygone versions of my current browser, would probably be almost as big a change as being forced to update to a much newer active branch from ESR).
I'm also not a hardcore "Newer is better! Wave of the future!" type, so being an unpaid beta tester (i.e., a Nightly user) doesn't appeal to me (same as with playing games that are still in heavy development, "released" or not).

I can think of half a dozen ways to get it to run when it’s on your machine. Calling it part of an update for some other software. Auto process load targeted at specific software. Even simple phish t is essentially trying to get people to open or save something. Unfortunately nowadays you have very little control over what your machine is doing, so best not to open other routes of attack.