Thursday, October 16, 2008

Firefox download issue

For the past few months, both Firefox and Mozilla have refused to download anything. I get this message.
I can't get them to save anywhere else, and it does not help to change permissions for the desktop.
Any ideas?


Damien wrote:
From various internet boards, I gathered this much :

• When starting a download, Firefox first creates a temporary file in a default internet download location, then moves it to the user-specified download folder.

• Apparently, that "default download location" is some obscure system-wide setting which, in your case, still points to the desktop of your deleted account.

• This setting may reportedly be changed by editing some .plist files, or... through the old Internet Explorer's preferences panel.

That did it! Incredible! There was actually this system wide default d/l location, and it is no longer accessible, since there's no longer an "internet" control panel. But the ancient IE has direct access to it...
And it works now!
What a story.

15 comments:

Unknown said...

I pasted the error message into google and it gave me this: http://kb.mozillazine.org/Unable_to_save_or_download_files#Delete_corrupt_plist_file_-_Mac

Hope this helps!

Ray said...

Lately, both Firefox and Thunderbird are using their own versions of automatic updates. These work by saving their core programming and only updating some parts.

I'm wondering if you have tried going into your "add/remove prgrams" and uninstalling the whole program first, to get rid of those 'saved' parts along with everything else, and then go onto their download site and download a complete fresh version. It's worth a try. There may be some "left-over" blocking your updates.

Eolake Stobblehouse said...

Damien, thanks.

That should work, only it doesn't. Not even after I've deleted the preferences.

I've found out something though: it's is trying to save to the desktop of an earlier user profile I was forced to abandone when I upgraded to Leopard. But why, and how to change it if it's not in the preferences?

Eolake Stobblehouse said...

... OK, now I have deleted everything on my disk with "Firefox" in the file name. And downloaded and reinstalled...
And it's still doing it!!
WTF?

Eolake Stobblehouse said...

To be precise: if you look at the screenshot, it says "eolake". It should say "stob", which is the user I am using now.

Unknown said...

Maybe you could try creating a new firefow profile, or editing the preference file com.apple.internetconfig.plist
as described in http://forums.mozillazine.org/viewtopic.php?p=3310558
Weird problem !

Anonymous said...

Sorry if this is obvious or specific to the Linux version but Edit -> Preferences -> Main -> Downloads gives options for where to save files and also the choice between Save files to... and Always ask me where to save files.

Are these present on your version and do they have any effect?

Alex said...

EO

I don't like the word "deleted" in one of your replies.

Deleting is where you whack the file of your HDD's normal folder into the trash folder.

Uninstalling is where the installer runs backwards through its install log, removing init (or whatever Mac call them now) registry (as per Windows) and after unhooking from your shortcuts, start menu, finder et all, then excises the files.

Deleting is no substitute for uninstalling.

I trust it was just a poor choice of word, not a bad uninstall practice...

Eolake Stobblehouse said...

Hangar, yes the options are there, but oddly they have no effect.

Alex, I tried to find an Uninstall option, but didn't find it.
(Fortunately in Mac OSX, installers don't normally spray files all over the place.)

Anonymous said...

Why are you saving to your desktop. That's weird. Was it the default?

Eolake Stobblehouse said...

I've no idea, it's just what it does. And it does not react to settings.

Unknown said...

From various internet boards, I gathered this much :

• When starting a download, Firefox first creates a temporary file in a default internet download location, then moves it to the user-specified download folder.

• Apparently, that "default download location" is some obscure system-wide setting which, in your case, still points to the desktop of your deleted account.

• This setting may reportedly be changed by editing some .plist files, or... through the old Internet Explorer's preferences panel.

• Resetting the download location in Safari might help, too.

Unknown said...

PS. A "dirty" solution to your problem would be just to create dummy folders for eolake and eolake/Desktop in Users.

Eolake Stobblehouse said...

No, the thing is that user still exists (it's near impossible to delete a user in X), but this user does not have writing rights for it. I could log in and change that, but this would still have Firefox downloading to that oddball location.

Eolake Stobblehouse said...

Thanks, Damien, it works now. See update to the post itself.