How to Troubleshoot Downloading Problems in Firefox

The most common download problems encountered by Mozilla Firefox involve the downloads.rdf file. You can trya hierarchy of procedures when you encounter such problems. These individual procedures eliminate one or more potential causes of the most common problems and reset Firefox to download in different ways or to a different place so Firefox can return to work as normal.

Difficulty: Moderately Easy

Instructions

Clear Download History

1. Open the Mozilla Firefox browser. Click on Tools in the options menu.

2. Select Downloads from the drop-down menu.

3. Choose the Clean Up option. This clears the downloads.rdf file, which is the file Firefox automatically downloads to.

4. Delete the downloads.rdf file manually if it is corrupt or too large.

Manually Delete Download File for Firefox 2.0 and Earlier

5. Close the Mozilla Firefox program.

6. Open your PC's control panel. Select Downloads from the drop-down menu.

7. Select the File Options folder. Click on the View tab. Enable the View Hidden Files option.

8. Open the Firefox Profile folder. In Windows 95, 98 and ME, the location path is either C:\Windows\Application Data\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles\ or
   C:\Windows\Profiles\\Application Data\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles\. In Windows XP and 2000, the path is C:\Documents and Settings\\Application Data\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles\.

9. Delete the Firefox download file downloads.rdf.

10. Designate a different download location as your default download file if you still have problems downloading in Firefox. Continuing download problems usually means the download location is inaccessible or corrupt, so your next option is to bypass it altogether.

Designate a Different Download Default Location

11. Click Tools in the Firefox options menu. Select Options from the drop-down menu.

12. Open the Main/Downloads tab if you are not in that tab already.

13. Choose Save Files To.

14. Click Browse to browse for a different destination for your Firefox downloads. Double-click on the file you want your downloads to be downloaded to from now on. Press Return to finalize your changes.

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