Safari 5.1 Downloads Popover Not Respecting Settings

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Level 1

15 points

Safari 5.1 Downloads Popover Not Respecting Settings

I have my downloads list set to clear manually--and always have, but after two days w/ Lion, Safari is no longer respecting that preference. Anything new I download now replaces whatever was previously at the top of the list. However, everything I downloaded in my first two days running Lion remains on the list.

Imagine I have a list of five items, with 1 being the most recent, and 5 being the oldest:

1. File.doc

2. File.mov

3. File.html

4. File.avi

5. File.flv

What's happening is that the first slot (File.doc) is being replaced. So if I download, say, two more files (let's call them File.app and File.ppt, and let's pretend I downloaded them in that order, ie. File.app first), the list would look like this when the downloads were finished:

1. File.ppt

2. File.mov

3. File.html

4. File.avi

5. File.flv

I had a script running to restore keyboard shortcuts for displayiing the popover, and I thought that might be the culprit, but uninstalling it did nothing. Neither did resetting my preferences, closing and relaunching Safari, restarting my iMac, etc. All the files I've downloaded are still *there*, they just won't stay in the list.

Safari 5.1-OTHER, Mac OS X (10.7)

Posted on Jul 24, 2011 5:04 PM

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Answer 1

Sep 12, 2011 6:14 AM in response to acbourre

I have the same problem on all of my Macs! If I download 2 items, the first item disappears from the pop-up list, while very old items remain in the list.

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Answer 2

cnet128

Level 1

0 points

Oct 9, 2011 1:38 PM in response to Andy Abernathy

I have had this same problem ever since installing Lion, and it's a continual minor annoyance. Does nobody know the cause or how to fix it?

Interestingly(?), the problem only occurs if I start a new download when there is a completed download at the top of the list. If I start a download while the top entry in the list is still downloading, all the existing entries move down to make room for it as expected, so the file that was already downloading is now the second entry, and thus safe from being overwritten in the list by future downloads.

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Answer 3

Dec 12, 2011 12:26 PM in response to cnet128

In my machine, the problem shows up when the download list reaches 20 items. From that point on, every new download replaces the topmost (most recent) in the list. I tried clearing the list, and sure enough it starts adding back to it and when it reaches 20 downloads the 21st will overwrite the 20th and so on.

I have submitted this as a bug from within Safari (Safari->Report Bugs to Apple...)

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Answer 4

cnet128

Level 1

0 points

Dec 12, 2011 1:52 PM in response to Luis Sequeira1

Yes, I can confirm that my issue works the same way. My download popover is limiting itself to exactly 20 downloads, by overwriting the most recent.

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Answer 5

Apr 26, 2012 10:00 AM in response to acbourre

I have this problem as well. Just made a new thread before seeing this one (unfortunately without answers)

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/3905480

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