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timminybo

Member

Registered: 2025-12-18

Posts: 20

[SOLVED] librewolf: cannot file > open > localfile and cannot save

Recently (maybe within the last 3 weeks), using librewolf web browser on my desktop system, I can no longer file > open > path.to.local.file,  cannot right click and save an image, or right click and save-file-as.

In all cases, the window just disappears without performing any action.

On a laptop, also running arch and librewolf, I don't have the issues.

My best guess is I uninstalled something on the desktop system that is causing the issue.

I have a workaround for the file > open > localfile. I can use a graphical file browser (pcmanfm) to navigate to the file and then I can drag it onto librewolf and it opens. And I can save files using curl from the command line. But I would like the normal behavior.

Librewolf has been updated at least once since I first noticed these issues. I don't recall changing anything within librewolf. I have reinstalled librewolf. Issues remain.

Has anyone experienced this? Any ideas on how to correct this behavior or what may be the cause?

Last edited by timminybo (2026-04-14 21:43:30)

seth

Member

From: Won't reply 2 private help req

Registered: 2012-09-03

Posts: 74,647

Re: [SOLVED] librewolf: cannot file > open > localfile and cannot save

https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?id=313029 started out similar but currently struggles with printing.
Any similarities (notably wrt xdg-desktop-portal implementations installed)
Does it affect a fresh user account?

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timminybo

Member

Registered: 2025-12-18

Posts: 20

Re: [SOLVED] librewolf: cannot file > open > localfile and cannot save

Thanks Seth for the RAPID reply. That issue does seem similar. He describes being able to navigate to his local file then the popup window disappears. I don't get that far. File > open and my popup window immediately disappears. I never get to the tree navigation (file picker).

I am running vanilla arch with i3 window manager and X11. At some point I did install Wayland/Hyperland but subsequently uninstalled it and as much of Wayland as I could without (I thought) affecting other applications based on the dependency warnings pacman gives. The librewolf I have installed is librewolf-bin from the AUR.

I tried opening librewolf from the command line but no errors show up when I file > open or right click > save as.

I now remember some sort of librewolf message from weeks ago, something.Manager not running. I thought I made a note somewhere but can't find it. I haven't seem that popup message since that time.

More recently I remember popups in librewolf asking to enable webgl. Each time I did not enable webgl. (not sure if related at all). I haven't seen one of these popups for a week or two.

I also searched librewolf about:config for file_picker and found this: widget.disable_file_pickers      which is set to False which seems correct. Changing it to True had no effect.

I'll study the post you referenced in more detail and search for some of the portals mentioned and trying installing/uninstalling them. I'm not sure if X11 uses portals but should be easy enough to try.

Last edited by timminybo (2026-04-14 21:21:41)

timminybo

Member

Registered: 2025-12-18

Posts: 20

Re: [SOLVED] librewolf: cannot file > open > localfile and cannot save

FIXED!

I uninstalled xdg-desktop-portal-gtk and xdg-desktop-portal, did a full system upgrade which upgraded some xorg-server packages, rebooted, and now librewolf opens local files and saves files normally again.

Many thanks Seth!