Tag Archives: media.windows-media-foundation.enabled

Force Firefox to prompt to save mp3 and videos rather than play them in the browser

You might have noticed that in a lot of Firefox versions the browser starts playing .mp3, or other sound/video formats, directly in the browser rather than displaying a prompt asking if you want to save the file. Moreover, setting the format under Tools > Options > Applications to either Always ask or Save File doesn’t really change this behavior.

Firefox Application Options

Luckily there is a workaround to alter this functionality.

  1. Enter about:config in your Firefox’s address bar and press enter.
  2. Search for media.windows-media-foundation.enabled
  3. Set the value of the property to false

media.windows-media-foundation.enabled

And you are done. Now everytime you click on an .mp3 file or any other format that is supported by Windows media foundation you should get a prompt asking you if you want to save the file or if you want to open it directly.