Firefox freezes when selecting a location if the download option is set to "Always ask me where to save files."
If I select "Save files to" all downloads are successful, but if the option is set to "Always ask me where to save files" Firefox will freeze when I try to select a location for the file or when Save is selected. I have tried the following without success: 1) Start Firefox in Safe Mode (sometimes downloads complete, sometimes it freezes) 2) Refresh Firefox (sometimes downloads complete, sometimes it freezes) 3) Create a new clean Profile (sometimes downloads complete, sometimes it freezes) 4) Turn Hardware Acceleration off (does not help) 5 Disabling Shockwave Flash doe not help. No Crash Report is generated since Firefox freezes with the message "Firefox is not responding." I do not experience this problem in Chrome. The freeze usually happens as soon as I select "Save File" but sometimes as late as when the download starts. I would appreciate any suggestions as I am out of ideas and getting very frustrated.
Krejt Përgjigjet (5)
Hi John767, I'm sorry to hear about this problem. Just a note on this part --
The freeze usually happens as soon as I select "Save File" but sometimes as late as when the download starts.
Firefox starts downloading in the background to the system TEMP folder while you are viewing the dialog's Open/Save/Cancel options. So unfortunately it's not always easy to tell where the problem is since you might complete your interactions with the Save As dialog during or after completion of the download.
Is there anything more to the pattern, such as particular file extensions having more of an issue, or particular destination folders that you told Firefox to save in?
Firefox stores the last download destination on a per-site basis, so if you sometimes save to a removable or remote location, Firefox might create a problem when telling Windows to show a file browser starting at that location.
Thanks responding jscher2000. That does help to explain why the freeze can happen anywhere in the process. Unfortunately it seems to occur with any file extension, though for experimentation I am attempting to download the Firefox installation .exe file. I was successful once downloading a .pdf file but the second attempt failed. I have 2 SSDs in my PC and I get the same result downloading to either one, though most frequently it freezes before I can designate a destination. I also got a freeze when attempting to upload a .pdf file but could upload it with Chrome.
Still haven't found a fix. Anyone?
Version 67.0.2 did not fix the problem. Help please!
The only other thing that comes to mind is removable (or disconnected) storage. Firefox tries to re-use the last download location on a site-by-site basis. If you have saved to removable or remote storage that is not currently available, there may be a long delay before Firefox gives up trying to access it, freezing the dialog during that time.