That's an interesting question. I have been able to do this in Clear Linux without issues. However, you might be able to use symbolic links as a workaround.

For example, if you have a network drive at /media/ndrive, you could run in terminal: ln -s /media/ndrive/ ~/Desktop/ndrive

Then just save the files in the symlink called ndrive on your Desktop.

Yes, that's a work around available from the Ask Ubuntu forums: https://askubuntu.com/questions/764272/upload-dialogs-for-firefox-and-chrome-now-differ-ffs-doesnt-include-network-d

Rather inelegant though, don't you think?

Why won't it just list my bookmarks/shortcuts like every other application? (except Chromium)

I can also navigate to /run/user/1000/gvfs/ As long as I've accessed the network share using my file browser during that session, the link will be available. As soon as I log out or shut down the link disappears until I re-visit the shortcut using my file browser.

Two problems with that work around: 1 - I have to remember that obscure path and 2 - I have to remember to navigate to the network share in my file browser first.

Yes, the work around is inelegant.

I don't really get it. The file manager, nautilus, is also a gtk3 app, so it should share the same favorites according to that response in the forum. Also, Chrome is gtk3 for a few years now.

There are several old, open bugs about this on Ubuntu launchpad and bugzilla. Have you tried posting a new request in askubuntu? They might know a better workaround. Please let us know what they say. We might need to update one of these old bugs.

Last ditch effort: Maybe you are using a different file manager that uses gtk2? You could try launching nautilus via the terminal (the command is just nautilus). Then, you could set your favorites inside nautilus. That's probably already what you are doing though.

On my GalliumOS machine my file manager is Thunar and Nautilus doesn't seem to be installed. The terminal command does nothing. Is there some version of Nautilus embedded in Firefox?

It's the same behavior on my Ubuntu machine though. Nautilus is the file manager in Ubuntu, but I still don't get my network shortcuts when trying to save a download from Firefox.

I haven't tried my Mint machine since posting this question, but my memory is the behavior is the same.

I can post something in AskUbuntu, but it seems odd that LibreOffice and Document Viewer can both save directly to my network shares but Firefox cannot. That's why I posted here.

I totally agree. I just want to see if they have any interesting insights. It looks like the team swept the bug under the rug before because they concluded it was a Linux (specifically gtk3) limitation. If other apps are working fine, this is not the case anymore.

The workarounds from the Ubuntu people might give some insight on how to fix the problem in Firefox.

Thanks. I'll post in AskUbuntu and report back here. Hopefully a simple solution presents itself.

No response over at askubuntu after nearly a week. Maybe some shortcoming in my question/info? Should I be posting this in some Reddit? (I'm loathe to agree to their TOS)

https://askubuntu.com/questions/1208556/save-firefox-downloads-to-network-share

Any help appreciated. I don't have any clue even where to start with troubleshooting.