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HELP PLEASE: Downloaded Firefox But Can't Find It Now To Install

M

magentawave

macrumors regular
Original poster
Jun 8, 2009
235
14
Hi,

I am a new Mac user (well, came back after an 8 year absence) and am trying to install Firefox but I can't find the download anywhere so I can actually install it!

This is what I did...

1) I clicked the download Firefox for Mac button at the Mozilla website.
2) I saw the little grey box at the top of my Safari browser telling me that the download was complete, but now I can't find what I downloaded from Firefox anywhere!
3) Of course I checked the Download folder, the Desktop, Applications, and did a search in the Finder for it and it seems to have disappeared. And of course I have tried downloading it several times.
4) Last night when I first attempted to download Firefox, there was a little window somewhere with what appeared to be the download, but it said something about it not being there because I moved it. Well, I didn't move anything anywhere.

Can someone please help me?

Thank you very much.

Steve
 
Silly question, but it's not on your desktop is it? All my downloads show up there and depending on my background picture they can sometimes be hard to spot.
 
Thank you for your fast replies. To answer your questions...

- No. The Firefox exe is not on my Desktop and it doesn't exist when doing a Finder or a Spotlight search.

- A search in Finder and Spotlight for Firefox or Firefox 3 does NOT bring up a disk image of Firefox in Devices. Its not in Applications or Downloads either and I searched through every other folder (I think) and its not there either.

The ONLY evidence I have of anything Firefox are the Mozilla pages I visited using Safari.

Does Safari have some built-in thing where it won't let me download a different browser? I just got this computer last night and have not yet tried to download anything else besides Firefox.

If it matters, I'm using a Macbook Pro, Intel Core Duo 2.4 ghz, 4 GB ram.

Got any other idea's?

Thanks again.
Steve
 
I actually had this happen to me with a guest account. The file probably didn't actually download. Try clicking on the link that says something to the effect "if your file didn't start click here". Failing that, here's a direct link: here (I apologize if it's against forum rules to provide links to dmgs).

You'll download a DMG, which is a disk image to whichever is you default download folder. When you click on it, it "mounts" onto to desktop. Double-click to open the mounted image and drag the firefox icon to your applications folder or wherever you want to put it. Then unmount the mounted image (right-click --> eject) and drag the original dmg to the trash (you don't need it anymore).
 
Weird.

Open the Safari Download window and double click it from there.

You should also look to see where Safari is set to place your downloads. It's in preferences.
 
I fixed the problem of Safari not letting me download anything!

Thank you ALL for your suggestions! I really appreciate it.

I fixed the problem of Safari not letting me download Firefox and for the sake of others who might have this issue in the future, here is what I did...

I had already done a Google search for 'Mac won't let me download anything' but the problem was that Safari wouldn't let me download anything. It turned out to be a Safari plugin called Speed Download or maybe it was Speed Downloader. Anyway, I found that plugin had been installed on this computer by the previous owner. So I deleted it, cleared my history and cache, closed the browser, restarted the computer, and then I could successfully download and install Firefox!

Thanks again.
Steve
 
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