Downloads not visible in Download Manager

From MozillaZine Knowledge Base

1 Downloads window is empty
2 Downloads window does not open or stay open
3 See also
4 External links

Downloads window is empty

If downloads currently in progress do not appear in the Downloads window:

Firefox 2: Exit Firefox completely, open your profile folder and delete the downloads.rdf file (read this if you have trouble finding it).

Note: Firefox 3 stores download information in the downloads.sqlite file instead or downloads.rdf. Because of Firefox 3 Download Manager improvements [1] there should be little need to delete downloads.sqlite, except in cases of file corruption. [2] If you do delete the downloads.sqlite file, make sure to also delete downloads.rdf, if it exists.

If completed downloads do not appear in the Downloads window, check your Privacy settings to make sure you haven't disabled the download history. [3] (Firefox 2 and above) Click "Tools -> Options -> Privacy" to open the Privacy panel.

In Firefox 3.0 and below: In Privacy / History, "Remember what I've downloaded" should be checked.
In Firefox 3.5 and above: Set "Firefox will:" to "Use custom settings for history". "Remember download history" should be checked.

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Downloads window does not open or stay open

If the Downloads window does not automatically open when you start downloading a file, make sure Firefox is set to show the downloads window. In Firefox 2 and above:

Click "Tools -> Options -> Main / Downloads" ("General / Downloads" starting in Firefox 3.6)
Make sure that "Show the Downloads window when downloading a file" is checked.

The Downloads window will close immediately when the download completes (starting in Firefox 4?), or not at all if the download is very fast. Use "Ctrl+J" to display downloads window at any time. To restore old behavior: