How to set Download Directory Path in Chrome & Firefox & Edge

Abhishek Dhoundiyal
2 min readFeb 26, 2023

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DownloadDirectory

How to implement it on Selenium:

First Setting & Creating directory if not available:

String parentDirectoryPath = System.getProperty("user.dir");
String downloadFilepath = parentDirectoryPath+"/downloads/";
APP_LOGS.debug("Chrome Download path set to: "+downloadFilepath);
File downloadFolder = new File(downloadFilepath);
if (!downloadFolder.exists()){
downloadFolder.mkdir();
}

In Chrome:

We have to set the preferences of the browser and pass the download.default_directory parameter. We also need to mention the path of the download directory with the above parameter. This preference is sent to the ChromeOptions object with the add_experimental_option method (As shown below).

prefs.put("download.prompt_for_download", false);
prefs.put("download.default_directory", downloadFilepath);

Complete Code:

Map<String, Object> prefs = new HashMap<>();
prefs.put("download.default_directory", downloadFilepath);
prefs.put("download.prompt_for_download", false);
ChromeOptions options = new ChromeOptions();
options.setExperimentalOption("prefs", prefs);
WebDriver driver = new ChromeDriver(options);

In Firefox:

FirefoxProfile profile = new FirefoxProfile();
profile.setPreference("browser.download.folderList", 2)
profile.setPreference("browser.download.manager.showWhenStarting", False)
profile.setPreference("browser.download.dir", downloadFilepath)
profile.setPreference("browser.helperApps.neverAsk.saveToDisk", "application/csv, text/csv, text/plain,application/octet-stream doc xls pdf txt");
FirefoxOptions option = new FirefoxOptions();
option.setProfile(profile);
WebDriver driver = new FirefoxDriver(option);

browser.download.folderList:

profile.setPreference("browser.download.folderList", 2)
  1. 0 means to download to the desktop.
  2. 1 means to download to the default.
  3. 2 means to use the directory we have specified in browser.download.dir path.

browser.download.manager.showWhenStarting:

profile.setPreference("browser.download.manager.showWhenStarting", False)

This is to specify whether or not the Download Manager window is displayed when a file download is initiated. Setting it to “false” means that download prompt will not be shown.

browser.helperApps.neverAsk.saveToDisk:

This will not ask for the file type given. A comma-separated list of MIME types to save to disk without asking what to use to open the file. Default is an empty string.

profile.setPreference("browser.helperApps.neverAsk.saveToDisk", "application/csv, text/csv, text/plain,application/octet-stream doc xls pdf txt");

In EDGE:

String parentDirectoryPath = System.getProperty("user.dir");
String downloadFilepath = parentDirectoryPath+"/downloads/";
HashMap<String, Object> prefs = new HashMap<String, Object>();
prefs.put("download.default_directory", downloadFilepath);
EdgeOptions options = new EdgeOptions();
options.setExperimentalOption("prefs", prefs);

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