Avoiding temporary files on desktop on OS X
While working with OS X I found it immensly annoying that Firefox saves every single PDF/PPT/DOC file I ever looked at on my desktop. I am a messy person to begin with (and so is me desktop), so I don’t want any application to place random files there on top of that 
What I did first was to change Preferences>Main>Save Downloaded files To and it did change the __location of downloaded files__, but, surprise, surprise, not the __automatically downloaded ones__. Having looked for help on the web I found the solution:
1. Change the actual location of the temporary files __in Safari__, which in turn changes where Firefox stores its temporary files! Surprisingly the option in Safari called “Save downloaded files to” affects both the downloads and the temporary files, and the one in Firefox, called “Save files to”, affects only the files explicitly downloaded.
2. Make Firefox delete downloaded files on exit. To do this you need to go to `about:config` and create a new variable called
`app.helperApps.deleteTempFileOnExit` and set it to `true`. I think it only works in FF2.0
I used both solutions: (1) (don’t want to have temp files on my desktop in any case) and (2) (if I want to keep a PDF I probably save it somewhere else). It works great now!
March 8th, 2007 at 12:47 am
Thanks for the tip! I always found that very messy too but did not go out to find the solution!
It works like a charm now! – Axel
October 26th, 2007 at 1:15 pm
Unfortunately this isn’t working on Leopard with Safari 3.
November 8th, 2007 at 4:45 pm
“Unfortunately this isn’t working on Leopard with Safari 3.”
I experienced the same thing. Most disappointing.
December 12th, 2007 at 2:22 am
Very true- this worked perfectly for me before upgrading to Leopard- now the crap is starting to pile up again! We need a new fix.
January 29th, 2008 at 10:56 pm
Yes, this does not work. A terrible disappointment. One of the most irritating features of firefox.
February 29th, 2008 at 11:33 pm
Quit Safari and Firefox first. Then try killing the com.apple.internetconfig.plist file (there may be another one, too, called something close, like com.apple.internetconfigpriv.plist – may as well kill that, too). Re-specify download location in Safari, then open Firefox and give it a go. Worked for me, and I am using Safari 3.
July 28th, 2008 at 5:56 pm
I tried the last suggestion – it kinda worked but not 100%.
First, I started with Leopard in the initial instructions. and like you found it did not work.
I followed LuckyLou’ s instructions… I had already modified Safari to use a different directory (not download, but a subfolder below it) I blew away the 2 config files.
When I restarted Safari – it was still showing the subfolder I had specified… It did not go back to it’s default of download or desktop.
Then brought up Firefox. It did not make the temp file on desktop, nor in the folder I specified, but rather in the download directory for the user.
Not exactly what I wanted, but better than what I had.
gg
August 28th, 2008 at 7:40 pm
safari 3 does not read or write the com.apple.internetconfigpriv.plist, which is where the location is specified. so luckylou’s comment is wrong. the solution for leopard (working on 10.5.4) is to download a copy of safari 2 from here: http://michelf.com/projects/multi-safari/safari-2.0.4.tbz – and use it to specify the download location for firefox’s temporary files.
personally, i use ~/Library/Caches/TemporaryItems – the contents of this folder is automatically moved to the trash every time you restart.
the fact that safari 3 doesn’t use the internetconfigpriv plist anymore is actually a blessing. previously, i’d have to go looking in the temporary items folder i’d set, if i ever used safari 2 to download something.