Applications and download actions list is empty

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Revision as of 20:56, 7 February 2007 by Alice Wyman (talk | contribs) (added forum reference for mimeTypes.rdf deletion and caution about deleting the rigth file)
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The Firefox Download Actions list will be empty if you haven't set any download actions and if there are no plugins installed that are associated with file extensions. You can set a download action by clicking the box "Do this automatically for files like this from now on" when you first encounter a download for a particular MIME type. Test pages that include direct links to media files are given here.

The Download Actions list should not be empty if plugins are set to handle certain file types; for example, if the Flash plugin is installed, there should be an entry in the Download Actions window for .SWF files and, if the Adobe Reader plugin is installed, there should be an entry for .PDF files.

One possible cause of a blank Firefox Download Actions listing is the presence of the npbittorrent.dll file in the Firefox plugins folder [1] [2]. You can type about:plugins in the address bar to view the installed plugins. If you find the BitTorrent plugin listed, exit Firefox, then open the Firefox installation directory\plugins folder (C:\Program Files\Mozilla Firefox\plugins in a typical Windows install) and either remove the file "npbittorrent.dll" or rename it Xnpbittorrent.dll.

If you do not find a BitTorrent plugin, another possible solution is to exit Firefox and delete or rename the mimeTypes.rdf file located in the Firefox profile folder [3]. This will restore the default download actions and Firefox will prompt you for an action when no plugin is available to handle a specific MIME type. Caution: There is also a mimeTypes.rdf file in the Firefox program folder but this is only a template. Make sure to delete the file in the profile folder (read this for help finding it).