2023-08-19


When firefox opens a pdf in a pdf viewer, it recently (past year) changed to also saving it in the homedir or ~/Documents or whatever. 
This is not desired by me, nor - it seems - by some others. 

The fix doesn't seem to help in my case ('ESR' 102.x), but I'll test on other newer computers too. 
For now I've specified 'Downloads' as being ~/tmp/tmp (in its own place, within a different filesystem, where it won't bother me). 



Suggested fix (thanks to the below):  
	about:config
	browser.download.start_downloads_in_tmp_dir = True 
	browser.download.open_pdf_attachments_inline = True

https://connect.mozilla.org/t5/discussions/stop-saving-pdfs-to-downloads-when-viewing-in-firefox/td-p/10225
	
    @jscher2000 wrote:

	Would it be okay if Firefox were to use the Temp folder for all the files you open using either --
		On the Settings page, Applications list, "Use [relevant application]"
		In the download dialog, "Open with [relevant application]"
	-- like Firefox 97 and earlier? Because in that case, Firefox 102 has the update you're looking for. Here's how to get to that setting (this for Windows and Linux users; not for Mac):

	(A) In a new tab, type or paste about:config in the address bar and press Enter/Return. Click the button accepting the risk.
	More info on about:config: Configuration Editor for Firefox. Please keep in mind that changes made through this back door aren't fully supported and aren't guaranteed to continue working in the future. That said, I use this personally.

	(B) In the search box in the page, type or paste browser.download.start_downloads_in_tmp_dir and pause while the list is filtered

	(C) Double-click the preference to switch the value from false to true



And a later comment by the same author modified just step B for those who don't even want a special tmp used:

	There are two intertwined issues here for users who specify "Open in Firefox" for PDFs:

	Before Firefox 98, if a site specified Content-Disposition: attachment for the PDF (forced downloading), Firefox displayed a 3-choice download dialog with Open in Firefox, Open with [choose application], and Save file. For both of the Open choices, Firefox saved the file in the Windows Temp or Linux /tmp folder.

	In Firefox 98+, if a site specifies Content-Disposition: attachment for the PDF, Firefox auto-saves the PDF file to the "Save files to" folder on the Settings page and then opens the file in a tab. This saves the step of having to interact with the dialog, but many users preferred the Temp folder. Earlier in this discussion you can find the setting to choose the Temp folder.

	But!! Why should Firefox save to a disk folder at all just because websites specify Content-Disposition: attachment for the PDF? Why not just save the PDF into the web content cache like sites that do not try to force downloading? So now there is an option for that too:

	Here's how you can check on that:

	(A) In a new tab, type or paste about:config in the address bar and press Enter/Return. Click the button accepting the risk.
	More info on about:config: Configuration Editor for Firefox. Please keep in mind that changes made through this back door aren't fully supported and aren't guaranteed to continue working in the future. That said, I use this personally.

	(B) In the search box in the page, type or paste browser.download.open_pdf_attachments_inline and pause while the list is filtered

	(C) Double-click the preference to switch the value from false to true

	Hopefully with some combination of these tweaks you can get Firefox working the way you want. What do you think?