User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; U; PPC Mac OS X Mach-O; en-US; rv:1.8a5) Gecko/20041010 Firefox/0.9.1+ Build Identifier: Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; U; PPC Mac OS X Mach-O; en-US; rv:1.8a5) Gecko/20041010 Firefox/0.9.1+ When downloading a file that opens the "You have chosen to open.." dialog, presenting the choices to Open with [popup of applications] or to Save to Disk, the temporary file with a randomly generated name is created in the System 'Downloads' folder - as specified in the Safari preference pane, defaulted (?) to the Desktop of the current user. This becomes a problem with the 'open with' choice - the temporary file is often some sort of compressed file and opens into Stuffit Expander, which promply extracts the archive onto the desktop. Workaround, set the system download folder to the place all downloaded files should go, so firefox won't put it where it shouldn't be. Fix...? Allow specifying the temporary directory in the preferences or in about:config; or, have firefox use the system download directory in its preferences as the download location instead of as a target for scratch space. Reproducible: Always Steps to Reproduce: 1. Download a file that Firefox can route to an external program - a perfect canidate is any sort of compressed archive that will 'Open with' Stuffit Expander. I spent several hours tracking down the source of this by repeatedly downloading the file found on: http://allmacintosh.xs4all.nl/preview/207005.html Actual Results: The temporary file was created in the 'Downloads' folder set within Safari, typically the desktop. Stuffit will promptly expand the archive, leaving the contents cluttering the desktop instead of neatly tucked away in Firefox's 'Downloads' location. Expected Results: The software could use the Download location for the temporary files, or it could have a separate selector for where to store the temporary files. Tested on multiple systems with Firefox 1.0PR for Mac, as well as the latest nightly trunk build.

I can confirm this in Firefox 1.0.4 on MacOS 10.4.2, although I'd slightly correct the request: when clicking on a link to a file, and choosing "Open with" in the requester window, the file should be downloaded into a temporary directory, opened, and then deleted, maybe when Firefox is closed and the whole temporary directory is erased, or maybe the directory can be periodically erased by the operating system itself. This is what happens on Windows with Firefox (and any other browser), and it is the correct behaviour IMHO. In fact, I often encounter files I just want to open, without saving them permanently, such as PDF documents, or AVI movies. So it's rather irritating having them clutter my Safari download directory, and having to spot and delete them by hand afterwards.

Confirmed with the nightly build: Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; U; PPC Mac OS X Mach-O; en-US; rv:1.9a1) Gecko/20050925 Firefox/1.6a1. Steps to reproduce (the original reporter's instructions work but this is more direct): 1. In Safari choose 'Preferences' set 'Save Downloaded files to...' and choose users home directory. 2. In firefox, open http://www.mozilla.org/foundation/trademarks/domain-name-license.pdf and choose to open in Preview. 3. check the pdf appeared in the users home directory. Repeat, using the desktop instead of the users home directory. Expected result: the pdf appears on the desktop both times (the firefox download preference) Actual result: the pdf appears in the safari download directory each time. Can't see any dupes (checked mac bugs with 'open with' in subject, 'download' in subject, etc).

Confirming this behavior on Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; U; PPC Mac OS X Mach-O; fr; rv:1.8) Gecko/20051111 Firefox/1.5 on 10.4.3. Should the issue raised by Marco ("opened" files are never deleted) be filed as a different bug, or should we keep it in this one ?

I'll echo the confirmation on OS/X.4.4 Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; U; PPC Mac OS X Mach-O; en-US; rv:1.8) Gecko/20051111 Firefox/1.5 The specific system property that is being honoured is either: "com.apple.internetconfig" = { "Version 2.5.4" = { "ic-added" = { DownloadFolder = { "ic-data" = <00000000 01220002 00010a4d 61642048 61747465 72000000 00000000 00000000 00000000 0000bf68 fb52482b 00000000 6bb10653 68617265 64000000 00000000 00000000 00000000 00000000 00000000 00000000 00000000 00000000 00000000 00000000 00000000 00000000 00000000 00000000 6bb3bf2e 8e350000 00000000 0000ffff ffff0000 09200000 00000000 00000000 00000000 00055573 65727300 00100008 0000bf69 41a20000 00110008 0000bf2e d4850000 00010004 00006bb1 00020017 4d616420 48617474 65723a55 73657273 3a536861 72656400 000e000e 00060053 00680061 00720065 0064000f 0016000a 004d0061 00640020 00480061 00740074 00650072 0012000c 55736572 732f5368 61726564 00130001 2f00ffff 0000>; }; or "com.apple.internetconfigpriv" = { DownloadFolder = <00000000 01220002 00010a4d 61642048 61747465 72000000 00000000 00000000 00000000 0000bf68 fb52482b 00000000 6bb10653 68617265 64000000 00000000 00000000 00000000 00000000 00000000 00000000 00000000 00000000 00000000 00000000 00000000 00000000 00000000 00000000 6bb3bf2e 8e350000 00000000 0000ffff ffff0000 09200000 00000000 00000000 00000000 00055573 65727300 00100008 0000bf69 41a20000 00110008 0000bf2e d4850000 00010004 00006bb1 00020017 4d616420 48617474 65723a55 73657273 3a536861 72656400 000e000e 00060053 00680061 00720065 0064000f 0016000a 004d0061 00640020 00480061 00740074 00650072 0012000c 55736572 732f5368 61726564 00130001 2f00ffff 0000>;

I agree with Marco De Vetis: Firefox should differentiate between files downloaded with "Open With" and files downloaded with "Save to Disk...". Firefox 1.5 on Linux (Fedora Core 5) does this by placing files downloaded with "Open With" in /tmp. Note, it still manages to NOT default to /tmp as the download destination when selecting "Save to Disk". This is how it should work. I support many OS X users who choose to go with Safari for this simple reason. (Specifically PDF files). Has there been any progress on this?

This is still a problem in the current Firefox 2.0 beta on OS X. At the very least, "Open With" files should be stored in the Downloads folder set in Firefox's preferences.

I can confirm that this issue still exists as of 2.0.0.2. These files should in my opinion be stored in /tmp as they are under Linux.

Are these all dupes of each other? Or perhaps related to another meta-bug? Bug 263830 – "Open With" download option uses System 'Downloads' folder as temporary directory (edit) Bug 311292 – Can't specify download location of temp files on Mac (edit) Bug 360790 – [Mac] Have some default choices for helper apps in the download manager (edit)

> Bug 263830 – "Open With" download option uses System 'Downloads' folder as > temporary directory (edit) > Bug 311292 – Can't specify download location of temp files on Mac (edit) These two are duplicates. 311292 has a better description, and has been assigned. > Bug 360790 – [Mac] Have some default choices for helper apps in the download > manager (edit) This is an unrelated feature request.

Same issue is present with FF 2.0.0.12, Mac OS 10.4.11 As others have pointed out in the bug report for a similar TB issue: If I wanted a copy of the file saved, I would have saved it. When I say "open with" an external app, I generally don't want a copy of the file. so the file should either be deleted or placed into a directory like /tmp that is cleared on a regular basis. I suspect that having to manually clear detritus left by an app will be a deal-breaker for many Mac users, and can only hinder further Firefox adoption on the platform.

Verified dup