Why are pdf files not treated as files?
Firefox just cost me $106.
I was able to obtain a PDF file free for research purposes. I was given a 1 time link to download it and it was a PDF file, it downloaded no problem and I've been using it on and off for the past few days via the Firefox download menu.
I go to open it today, as it's still listed in my downloads menu, and it won't open. The "open folder" button for it doesn't work. The right click option allows me to remove it, copy the link, or clear the whole list but nothing else. I check my downloads folder, it's not there. I double check the downloads folder location hasn't been changed, it hasn't. I check the application settings, it's set to let my system deal with it not Firefox.
I download another file, open it's location, it's in the right spot. I download a PDF and open it.... it's in the TEMP folder!?! At what point did Firefox decide that it was going to stop treating a PDF file as a file when it's not opened in browser? I tested other file types, video/torrent/audio/etc - PDF is the only file type that does this.
Now my only way to get the file back is to purchase it for ~$106. Not something I want to do for a 32 page document.
How do I fix it so this doesn't happen again? And while I'm at it, how do I permanently disable PDF viewing in firefox (inability to search when viewing with the FF pdf viewer makes it all but useless)?
All Replies (6)
To what folder did you save this PDF file?
If you use "Save Link As" in the right-click context menu or Firefox offered to save that file as if has been send otherwise (i.e. not as application/pdf) then this should have happened. If you open a file with an external application then the file will be stored in the TEMP folder. A file that is saved elsewhere can possibly be initially stored in the TEMP folder and then moved to the final destination folder after the download has finished. If this didn't happen then your security software might have prevented this and also may have removed this file as being untrustworthy or otherwise suspect.
See also:
Open your file browser and do a search for *.PDF Wherever it is, the search program will find it unless it was deleted. Also look in the trash / recycle bin.
You say "then this should have happened", I find that rather surreal. (ps, I have no plugins/addons/etc or security software that would affect this)
There are many questions that arise from this:
1) Why would any reasonable user expect a downloaded file being sent to an external application to be deleted by Firefox? If it's within Firefox, via plugin or otherwise, it's completely reasonable that it's dealt with like any other cached file. Once its sent externally the user is specifying that Firefox should no longer be the program to deal with the file. As such it should put the file in the user specified download folder.
2) If the file is not being saved to the location specified by the user settings, why is the downloads manager being used? The window in question (ctrl+J) seems to indicate that it's a library of downloaded files on your system. If it's only in cache then it should be like any other cached file and excluded from the download manager.
3) Why, given the current state, is there no mention that some of these files will be deleted after a certain time? Or that they are in a different folder than your default? Or that these are application/* and not "downloaded files"? Or even that they have been deleted?!?
4) Similar to 2, if these are not downloads to be saved per the user's settings, why are they not given frecency values and decayed properly like any other non-"download file"? Or dealt with in a consistent manner (see below)?
5) Why is the places.sqlite file keeping data on files that have been deleted? Just doing a quick comparison I was able to find many that are in the moz_annos table but not in the location they list (temp folder)
6) Why are, identical types of files (application/pdf), only accessed once, and downloaded via Firefox being kept for 17 days (I cleared my cache 18 days ago) while ones downloaded less than 24 hours ago and accessed multiple times are deleted?
7) Why are there application/pdf files in cache that are NOT in the moz_annos table? 393 are in the table but 528 are in the temp folder (not my file of course).
None of this makes any sense from a user perspective or even a technical perspective.
Thanks Fred, I checked all that and more. I'm down to paying for the file or trying data recovery software, neither of which are particularly appealing.
Just to clarify things that have happened on your computer:
1) You set your downloads to always save to "%USER%/Downloads" under Preferences->General 2) In Preferences->Applications, for PDFs you have it set to "Save file" 3) PDFs are still saving in "%TEMP%", but all other file types set to "Save file" are saving in "%USER%/Downloads"
If that is actually happening you may want to submit a bug report to the developers. I am just confused with your last statement of your first post: "permanently disable PDF viewing in firefox" - if under Preferences->Applications, you set PDFs to "Save file", the Firefox PDF preview shouldn't be used at all.
Also, if your PDF is definitely deleted and you are using Windows, try looking for a Free Undelete program (may only work with earlier editions of Windows, have not actually tried any for Windows 7 or higher), there is a chance may be able to recover it. Just make sure you do the necessary security scans as most of those kind of applications are free/shareware.
1) Correct 2) Incorrect, I have it set to use TWINUI
"Save file" is not what I'm talking about, I'm talking about setting something external to Firefox to handle whatever mime/file type. By example, I have most of my video set to be handled via VLC plugin, FF deals with those files. However, I set a couple mime types to VLC external not the plugin because it was having issues when used in FF. Those always go to my downloads folder and opens/plays in VLC without any further action on my part. "Save file" requires additional action and is slow/undesirable for day to day use - especially since FF doesn't follow the "always do this" option for safe file (rather just does "always ask" with the "always do this" button checked)
The way it ought to work: Open in firefox -> treat as cache Open outside of firefox -> treat as proper download, not some psudo half cache half download hybrid that you can never know how long you're going to be able to access it for.