When you clear downloads in the Downloads Manager (Library) then this won't effect files stored on the hard drive in the location where they were saved.

thanks!

While I understand this is true in theory---but it does not help me.

I still have never been able to locate a FF download---for months--when i had the downloads intact. -I always defaulted to the browser to find any download that originated from FF

I was glad they were contained in the browser. I could browse through for what I needed, I would like to restore those downloads! I went as far as find the profile-I think? I downloaded the add-on sqte manager---these were suggestions I read from other answers ---

that is as far as I have gotten.....

It is possible that your anti-virus software has removed the files if you never have been able to save files.

Does this happen with all files that you try to save like image or only files that you download directly?

You can try to disable the real-time (live) scanning of files in your anti-virus software temporarily to see if that makes downloading work.

See:

• http://kb.mozillazine.org/Unable_to_save_or_download_files

You can try to set the browser.download.manager.scanWhenDone to false on the about:config page.

• http://kb.mozillazine.org/about:config

Thanks--but whether the downloading works --is not my question. It does work--I referenced my files for years--from FF

Right now --my number one priority is to see if the cleared downloads can be retrieved. I appreciate your efforts---but that's the question. Later, once I have my downloads back, I can look at other ways of saving them. I am hoping someone can provide a guideline--please

Downloads are treated as history items in the Library (they show in the Downloads history folder) and if you clear history items then they are lost and can't be recovered because Firefox doesn't keep a backup of the like like there is for the bookmarks via rotating JSON backups in the bookmarkbackups folder.

I did not clear the history

If you clear the downloads then the corresponding history items are removed as well and vice verse if you remove download items then the history items are removed as well.

It's fine---and feedback from you won't be necessary anymore---but thank you very much for trying. I would like to ask others who have successfully restored their downloads as opposed to getting answers in the negative---

Clearing the Downloads Library window cache doesn't delete the actual downloaded files, only the "listing" of those downloaded file is deleted. Downloaded files are not saved in Firefox, but rather in your My Documents\user\Downloads folder, by default. If you changed that preference from the default you should be able to see that location in Options > General -> Save files to

On OSX, I opened Time Machine, and restored the latest "places.sql" file, then restarted Firefox... this restored _most_ of my downloads and bookmarks, up to the time of the Time Machine backup, but lost the few things I had visited, in the meantime...

I used a hex editor on the places.sql, and it appears that the download info is still in the places.sql file, but has been "marked" as deleted...

It would be pretty nice to have an "UNDO" option for this particular function, or, at least, a confirmation question??