Start Firefox in Safe Mode {web Link} by holding down the <Shift>
(Mac=Options) key, and then starting Firefox. A small dialog should appear. Click Start In Safe Mode (not Refresh).

Is the problem still there?

While still in Safe Mode,

Open the Download Manager <Control> J and cancel, delete, remove those entries.

Previously, and prior to your reply, the download would be attempted 3 times. However I recall attempting multiple times. I right clicked one of the latest attempts and requested "cancel" (as you would prescribe.)

Today, to test your suggestion, I restarted the browser in the normal way. Only two new attempts appeared (versus all or nothing.) So that confirmed my suspicion of multiple independent attempts to the same URL.

To finish testing your suggestion I restarted the browser in safe mode. Again two download attempts were made.

FredMcD, thanks for your answer, it solves the issue but not the behavior. The behavior is what I want to change.

I do not like my browser doing something like downloading automatically. The software Firefox is attempting to download is something I decided months ago is a potential risk and was relieved downloading it failed. I was surprised, a little dismayed and somewhat irritated when I discovered the subsequent automated attempts.

If you want to have a go at addressing the root of the problem I will cooperate. I am still going to try to find it myself. As a result, I will still continue to automatically attempt to download the file (twice) with every startup. I think the software is almost no risk on my PC since it was a Kindle hardware environment and frankly I doubt it will suddenly be available. If anything I think the URL will disappear and as a result a true error will result and then perhaps the behavior will appear to change, KWIM.

BTW, thanks for the <ctrl>+J, I've been using about:downloads.

Also, at this point I have fully explained the issue and my motivation. I know this answer is long; but I hope it is easy to read. You can expect future updates to be brief, even terse, but complete.

TIA again.

All of us here are volunteers. Many have reported download issues. The causes are many, bad connection, protection programs, malware . . . . .

Go to the Mozilla Add-ons Web Page {web link} (There’s a lot of good stuff here) and search for a download manager. There have been few issues with them.

Thank you for your volunteer work, I'm betting in your professional work you are well compensated and that heightens the value and sacrifice of your volunteer work. I hope the end user community understands how valuable (literally) the contributors' time is, as support, managers, programmers and any other function. Mozilla rocks, Mozilla philosophy rocks.

The problem is not the download not completing. If anything that is a blessing because I am no longer interested in it.

Once again, the "right click > cancel" works, but I want to stop the behavior.

The problem is automated retries and how to stop them, i.e. whether there is a flag I can set to halt them rather than checking in ctrl-j at every startup.

If I find something I'll post it. If you come across something I'd appreciate it being posted too. I'll look into Download Managers too, and report if applicable.

I've called for more help.