where is firefox's cache folder, the one with the images ?

[vhelp]

i looked but can't find it. i went to the about:cache and it is full of empty folders and the first files i do see all say

_cache_001
_cache_002
_cache_003
_cache_map_

and are not readable. i just want to snip whatever images that my webpages display, if i can identify them as images first.

thank you.

[Ai Haibara]

If you want to grab specific images while you're viewing a page, you can always use Page Info (Ctrl+I - the actual menu option may be under the Tools menu, but I'm on a Linux system at the moment, so I can't check to see where it is on the Windows version. I always just use Ctrl+I, anyway.), then click on the Media tab, find the image you want to save in the list (it'll show a preview of the item you highlight) and click the Save As button.

There are extensions like CacheViewer Continued (or the original CacheViewer) to browse the cache (I know, I know, you said you wanted to browse the cache folders manually - but what you mentioned ARE part of the cache folders, as far as I recall. Is your FF set to delete history/caches on exit, and you're viewing them when FF isn't active?).
Also, there's Save Images, if you want to save all the images on a page (or tabs) at once.

[jagabo]

You can right click on any Image and select Save Image As...

If you still need to know where the cache is:
https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/questions/768867

[vhelp]

i have the cache viewer applet but for some reason is not showing any image or anything. only if i double-click does it show but it opens in a new tab, which is not what i want. and, the save-as, when you right-click is not effective when you have a lot of images on the page and/or just want to download all the images and separate later.

i had code two do something similar but lost it, and now re-researching again. however, my new searching around found some code that seems to work, gives me all the links (gif/jpeg/png/etc) in a memo field. next is to download. i am still testing that code snip and also still searching around.

i will report back if successfull either way. thanks for the suggestions.

[Ai Haibara]

You can right click on any Image and select Save Image As...

Sometimes, it's not possible or easy, since page creators might use tricks/scripts to make it difficult, including setting images as background images, hiding them behind transparent images, disabling right-clicks, etc. I'll admit I don't know if the Page Info trick always works, though.

[jagabo]

wget

[DarrellS]

Well, if we still used that browser that nobody talks about anymore, we could use Irfanview Thumbnail viewer to view temporary internet files. I thought Firefox used to use the temporary internet files folder when it first came out since it's a system folder.

Make sure the "clear history when Firefox closes" is unticked under Privacy or it will not store anything in the offline cache folder. Not sure if this will help since I have mine ticked.

They make addons to bypass the right click denial also.


After some googling, it looks like Firefox and Opera (I assume Google also) don't save video and graphics to your PC like IE does. I guess Firefox saves one file that tells it all the information it needs to find all the files on a page before it loads ir. Opera saves five files in each folder to tell it what it needs to know. I guess that's why it takes so long in Opera to reload a picture that you were just looking at.

Too bad that IE went to crap because there were a lot of things that I really liked a 5.5 and 6. I try to make all my browsers look like IE6, I liked it so much. I'm almost tempted to start using it again for browsing with scripting and cookies turned off and just use Firefox for my trusted sites where I have to use scripting and cookies.

[Ai Haibara]

They make addons to bypass the right click denial also.

And userscripts, too.

I'm not sure I'd be able to tell, since I've had measures against it installed for some time, but are right-click prevention scripts still being used all that much, anymore?

After some googling, it looks like Firefox and Opera (I assume Google also) don't save video and graphics to your PC like IE does. I guess Firefox saves one file that tells it all the information it needs to find all the files on a page before it loads ir. Opera saves five files in each folder to tell it what it needs to know. I guess that's why it takes so long in Opera to reload a picture that you were just looking at.

I wouldn't be surprised if the browser makers have had to put in measures to allow media/content providers to tell the browsers exactly what to cache - down to even images. I used to be able to find almost everything in my Firefox cache. Nowadays, not so much. :/

[jagabo]

I wouldn't be surprised if the browser makers have had to put in measures to allow media/content providers to tell the browsers exactly what to cache - down to even images. I used to be able to find almost everything in my Firefox cache. Nowadays, not so much. :/

When the browser displays an image the Browser opens that image, caches it, and puts it on the screen. When the browser plays a video the browser loads the player application and the player application fetches the audio and video streams. The browser has no control over what the player caches or doesn't. And probably has no idea what the player is doing.

[hello_hello]

Too bad that IE went to crap because there were a lot of things that I really liked a 5.5 and 6. I try to make all my browsers look like IE6, I liked it so much. I'm almost tempted to start using it again for browsing with scripting and cookies turned off and just use Firefox for my trusted sites where I have to use scripting and cookies.

There was nothing to like which I recall. Even back then, before Chrome and Firefox were around, I was using a replacement IE shell due the way IE5 and IE6 managed to suck and blow at the same time. At least if nothing else I could then disable/enable one of Microsoft's greatest horrors, ActiveX. I think the shell may have begun life as MyIE, which then became MyIE2, but fortunately Firefox was well established by the time it morphed into Maxthon, because aside from the terrible name, it was really buggy.

Reminiscing over IE5 or IE6 fondly would strongly suggest you use current browsers the same way.... without tabs.... and probably without add-ons, otherwise the thought of returning to a tabless, add-on free state would be just too horrifying to contemplate. Well I couldn't..... I'm horrified at the idea of even considering the possibility of contemplating it.

[Ai Haibara]

When the browser displays an image the Browser opens that image, caches it, and puts it on the screen. When the browser plays a video the browser loads the player application and the player application fetches the audio and video streams. The browser has no control over what the player caches or doesn't. And probably has no idea what the player is doing.

It's mostly reports, as I don't really know what measures may or may not have been planned or taken to prevent caching, but supposedly, they're working on it (mostly at the request of media providers). That said, however, there are some basic measures in place to prevent caching. You can tell a browser not to cache material using commands in the HTML page header or meta tags, for example, though I'll admit I don't know if they prevent everything on that page from being cached.

[DarrellS]

When the browser displays an image the Browser opens that image, caches it, and puts it on the screen. When the browser plays a video the browser loads the player application and the player application fetches the audio and video streams. The browser has no control over what the player caches or doesn't. And probably has no idea what the player is doing.

It's mostly reports, as I don't really know what measures may or may not have been planned or taken to prevent caching, but supposedly, they're working on it (mostly at the request of media providers). That said, however, there are some basic measures in place to prevent caching. You can tell a browser not to cache material using commands in the HTML page header or meta tags, for example, though I'll admit I don't know if they prevent everything on that page from being cached.

Yeah, they couldn't very well have you arrested for having their content illegally when they put it on your computer in the first place. The main reason I started using Irfanview was so I could zoom along on the internet with my new high speed internet and then go back and save all the stuff I forgot to download to my folders. Parents didn't realize that Irfanview was the easiest way to see where their kids had been going online

[DarrellS]

Too bad that IE went to crap because there were a lot of things that I really liked a 5.5 and 6. I try to make all my browsers look like IE6, I liked it so much. I'm almost tempted to start using it again for browsing with scripting and cookies turned off and just use Firefox for my trusted sites where I have to use scripting and cookies.

There was nothing to like which I recall. Even back then, before Chrome and Firefox were around, I was using a replacement IE shell due the way IE5 and IE6 managed to suck and blow at the same time. At least if nothing else I could then disable/enable one of Microsoft's greatest horrors, ActiveX. I think the shell may have begun life as MyIE, which then became MyIE2, but fortunately Firefox was well established by the time it morphed into Maxthon, because aside from the terrible name, it was really buggy.

Reminiscing over IE5 or IE6 fondly would strongly suggest you use current browsers the same way.... without tabs.... and probably without add-ons, otherwise the thought of returning to a tabless, add-on free state would be just too horrifying to contemplate. Well I couldn't..... I'm horrified at the idea of even considering the possibility of contemplating it.

Yeah, I can't stand tabbed browsing. Some people like the big tabs and the huge tool bars but I like all the screen real estate I can get. I'd much rather have a bunch of little icons on the windows task bar (the skinny Classic one, not the huge XP one). I do have a few addons and use Greasmonkey and Stylish though.

IE6 was very easy to set up to surf the internet safely but most people didn't want to be bothered with such a tedious task as making their browser safe. I could have 30 or 40 pages open at one time and it never bogged my computer down and that was running 98SE on a Celeron CPU with 192MB of memory. Now if I don't have Firemin running to plug the memory leaks, Firefox will crash my PC with just a few windows open, it's such a memory hog. Especially if I have a graphics program open.

[hello_hello]

Each to their own, but how anyone can use a browser without tabs is completely beyond my understanding. And the concept of a bunch of little icons or a bunch of buttons on the taskbar..... not to mention taskbar grouping...... it's frightening. Even the original IE shell I used (MyIE) had tabs.
Oh the horror of it all.... now some of the repressed memories are returning.... right clicking on a link and having to select "open in new window" to open a link without closing the current page, then having it open in your way and waste 100% of the the screen realestate until it finished loading or you you minimized it..... I think about 15 minutes of browsing that way would be my limit before I'd either need to walk away or punch the monitor. It's not uncommon for me to scroll down a page while middle clicking on links in order to load each into a background tab as I go. I'm not sure about your Firefox memory issues but it's a lot better these days, and while I think it decides on how much memory to use based on how much you have, you can also set it's memory usage manually. That's not something I've thought about for long time though as it behaves quite well for me and doesn't seem to get bogged down like it used to. It wouldn't be uncommon for me to have over twenty tabs open. The recommended minimum RAM is 512MB though.... probably more than other browsers. Currently Task Manager says it's using 300MB, but I've got 4GB installed and Firefox has been running without a restart for several days.

[DarrellS]

Yeah, I've got everything set that way because that's the way I like it. Right click > open in a new window. I've even got a Links folder on my toolbar with my very favorite links in it for easy access. I can't stand the grouping thing though. My brother likes to use the forward and back arrows but that drives me crazy. The main thing that I like about Firefox is that it is customizable to your own personal tastes. It wasn't so much in it's earlier days and the reason I don't use IE7 or IE8. I have no idea what IE9 is like since they dropped support for XP. Do they have an IE10 now?

Try that Firemin program that I mentioned and Firefox will drop from 300MB to 300KB. I've got four pages open now and Firefox is only using 6,500KB of memory. If I turn Firemen off, it jumps to 65,000KB and slowly rises. It's already risen to 86,000 oh crap it jumped to 125,000KB and still climbing. Better turn Firemen on or it will be up to 1GB before I know it. Great, back down to 6,500KB.

http://download.cnet.com/Firemin/3000-18512_4-75454011.html

[hello_hello]

Yeah, I've got everything set that way because that's the way I like it. Right click > open in a new window.

For me that's kind of like the concept of living forever, or the size of the universe. I understand them but at the same time they're almost impossible to comprehend.

Do they have an IE10 now?

I don't know. I upgraded IE6 to IE7 in case I have to use it and haven't really paid any attention to IE since.

Try that Firemin program that I mentioned and Firefox will drop from 300MB to 300KB. I've got four pages open now and Firefox is only using 6,500KB of memory. If I turn Firemen off, it jumps to 65,000KB and slowly rises. It's already risen to 86,000 oh crap it jumped to 125,000KB and still climbing. Better turn Firemen on or it will be up to 1GB before I know it. Great, back down to 6,500KB.

http://download.cnet.com/Firemin/3000-18512_4-75454011.html

I probably won't with this PC as RAM isn't an issue, but I've got Firefox installed on an old Pentium PC which others in the house use for browsing semi-regulary. Next time I use it myself I might give it a shot as it's not got a lot of RAM. To be honest though I've always been fairly sceptical when it comes to programs which free up RAM, based on the principle if you're not using as much as possible then you're effectively wasting it.

[DarrellS]

From what I hear, Firefox has always had issues with memory leaks and they keep trying to fix them (I think) but every new release seems to have it's own leaks. I use Photoshop a lot when I'm on line and if I don't use Firemen, I'll use up 3+GB before I know it. I use a lot of layers and in my older browsers, I could create around 100 layers before Photoshop started dropping old layers to add new layers or just refusing to add anymore layers. Nowadays, I'm lucky if I can get 50 or 60 layers before it lets me know I'm running out of memory.

I used to keep Irfanview, Photoshop and my browser open at the same time but since the new browsers don't store pictures or movies in the temporary folder, it does no good to have Irfanview open anymore.

[vhelp]

i loaded up opera v12.10 and that version still saves in those strange folder names in the main cache folder:

\Documents and Settings\thiscomputer\Local Settings\Application Data\Opera\Opera\cache

i used one of my delphi projects i was working on for opera--to read the images. i can still view the jpeg images in that utility i was building, just checked it out now and works ok. but i don't want to use opera at this time. but at least i know its still an available option. plus, i since upgraded that project to download images from most webpages that i am currently viewing, if i like what i see and want, i copy/paste the url link into the utility and it extracts all the links for download, but its not perfect since many sites use that nasty referal location or deflect/transpose the url somehow trick. i'm still trying to work that out when time allows me. i like how i can download the images with just one past/click action.

[vhelp]

ok, i finally got the utility working w/out problems, i think. and i might be able to use at work without blocked filters, maybe.

so that i can test it out on *any* website, does anyone have any websites they normally view or download from ?
no exclusions since i'm working the utility to flowless mode..thanks.

[DarrellS]

i loaded up opera v12.10 and that version still saves in those strange folder names in the main cache folder:

\Documents and Settings\thiscomputer\Local Settings\Application Data\Opera\Opera\cache

i used one of my delphi projects i was working on for opera--to read the images. i can still view the jpeg images in that utility i was building, just checked it out now and works ok. but i don't want to use opera at this time. but at least i know its still an available option. plus, i since upgraded that project to download images from most webpages that i am currently viewing, if i like what i see and want, i copy/paste the url link into the utility and it extracts all the links for download, but its not perfect since many sites use that nasty referal location or deflect/transpose the url somehow trick. i'm still trying to work that out when time allows me. i like how i can download the images with just one past/click action.

I have over 390 folders in that directory but there is nothing in them. Opera says to look in the vps folder which is in the same directory. I have eleven folders with five files each. adoc.bx, md.dat, url.axx, w.axx and wb.vx. None of the dat and vx files are over 2MB. What program would you use to view these files?

EDIT: I just found this page where it allows you to change the cache settings in Opera. On mine, none of the boxes were checked and there were no minimum and maximum settings. I'll set all mine and see what happens. Not sure why everything was blank since I have use application cache set to yes in preferences.

Seems Opera ignores these settings. The maximum cache size in Opera is only 400MB. Pretty useless for storing video and images.

I found this page which has downloads for cache viewers. Do the Firefox download one. The browser one doesn't work (for me at least).

http://jaxov.com/2009/09/cache-location-for-google-chrome-mozilla-firefox-opera-and-in...rnet-explorer/

[vhelp]

what version opera ?
i tested with 12.10 and 12.11 and both fill the main cache folder with sub-folders, all have .tmp files. i use (or used) an app i wrote to read the first few bytes of those files inside a listbox control, once i identified what were jpeg, png, gif, swf, etc, i filtered to show only those, and mapped them to an image control to view while you scroll up/down. it was good for that purpose at the time. however, i progressed further since. but also moved on to firefox. i like both, but i prefer opera. but still use firefox because it displays certain website content that opera will not or will not display cleanly and to allow me to screen capture from it. firefox sometimes incorporates a youtube or vimeo or other video windows its own HWND handle. because of this, i can lock on to the x,y coordinates perfectly and don't have to manually adjust the w/h/t/b coordinates. thats why i've been stick w/ firefox most of the time. as i was saying.. so i upgraded my needs and developed a website "scrapper" to suck images off of them. yea yea, but everybody does it, with different tools. i developed my own, though still working on it. i just updated it to now show the image as you scroll up/down. tough i'm making improvements as i learn or discover new ideas.

What program would you use to view these files?

the tool i mentioned above is what i've used to view them

if you can't get your setup working, then perhaps you can try mine, when i clean it later today. i usually us delphi 6 in all my development tools but this time, i had to write it in delphi 7 for the indy/internet controls it has since i could not get one control working in d6, the TIDHTTP or TIHTTP unit would not compile properly. oh well. anyway. i tested the app on this nebook and it works fine. next, i will test on my work pc, it has no delphi compiler, a perfect test machine, if nothing pops up as "missing, xyz" then i will know it is ok to give to others.

[vhelp]

hmm, just playing around w/ the imagedownload tool, i found a website that does not display any images.

http://www.greecetaxi.gr/Index/greek_life.html

all the links show like these few examples but not sure why:

about:../Bground/shadow-photo.png
about:../Bground/TopShadowLong.png
about:../SlideShow1/NAFPLIA.jpg
about:../Bground/shadow-photo.png
about:../Bground/TopShadowLong.png
about:../Greek%20Life/DSC_0093.jpg
about:../Bground/PictureShadow.png
about:../GREEK%20LIFE/LIFE23.jpg
about:../Bground/PictureShadow.png
about:../GREEK%20LIFE/LIFE24.jpg

also, while the images show in chrome on my work pc, an i3, you cannot copy them.
but, on my netbook, opera 12.10 you cannot see the webpage, it is blocked completely.
the tool results (above) is for both computers.

[jagabo]

Turn off javascript. You can download them easily. Javascript is used to disable mouse events there.

In Firefox or IE you can also use the Save Page As function in "complete" mode and you'll get all the images in a folder.

wget with the following command line downloaded them all too:

wget -r -l 1 http://www.greecetaxi.gr/Index/greek_life.html

(Some of the images were in other folders.)

[vhelp]

jagabo, great find. i was assuming one of the many dos console apps but *wget* not found on any of my computers.

edit: found the link, www.gnu.org/software/wget/

[jagabo]

edit: found the link, www.gnu.org/software/wget/

I think there are even GUI based versions around.

[Ai Haibara]

I remember seeing some in the distant past. :/ Heck, I think there's even Firefox extensions that use it. Wouldn't be surprised if there was something for Opera, too.

[vhelp]

i like the alternate method of using wget, but there doesn't seem to be a workable method for windows xp, all the details seem to convoluted to get it together, and i don't have the time to get into it now, plus, it requires more installation type files and i'm pretty strapped, now at 90mb left on c:drive. anyway, maybe something to look at for my other computers, at a later date. but i think i can work out most of the problems in my main app, below, to do what i need.

so i tried the url in post # 22 in my image download app again, this time at home, and the results were the same in post # 22. i thought it might be due to the filter blocks at work, but i was wrong this time.

but in another project i did similar work in, for same reason but using a different routine to extract image urls, it pulled them correctly. so i just have to figure out the difference in the two, and then possibly include the two as options.

http://www.greecetaxi.gr/MANI/MANI3.jpg : 225 x 335 Pixels; -1 Bytes; 
http://www.greecetaxi.gr/MANI/MANI5.jpg : 225 x 335 Pixels; -1 Bytes; 
http://www.greecetaxi.gr/MANI/MANI19.jpg : 225 x 335 Pixels; -1 Bytes; 
http://www.greecetaxi.gr/NAFPLION/PALAMIDICASTLE30.jpg : 225 x 335 Pixels; -1 Bytes; 
http://www.greecetaxi.gr/Meteora/IMG_2796.jpg : 300 x 200 Pixels; -1 Bytes; 
http://www.greecetaxi.gr/METEORA/Meteora63.jpg : 300 x 200 Pixels; -1 Bytes; 
http://www.greecetaxi.gr/Meteora/IMG_2797.jpg : 300 x 200 Pixels; -1 Bytes; 
http://www.greecetaxi.gr/LEVADIA/LIVADIA12.jpg : 225 x 335 Pixels; -1 Bytes; 
http://www.greecetaxi.gr/CORINTH/ACROCORINTH7.jpg : 225 x 335 Pixels; -1 Bytes; 
http://www.greecetaxi.gr/LEVADIA/LIVADIA14.jpg : 225 x 335 Pixels; -1 Bytes;

[jagabo]

i like the alternate method of using wget, but there doesn't seem to be a workable method for windows xp

wget should work fine with XP. I used to use it with XP. Maybe you just need a different build. The version I have was built in 2002. It doesn't require anything other than a Windows computer with function internet access.

[DarrellS]

I thought I was going to have to dump Firefox after their update tonight. Seems they got rid of the option to turn off tabbed browsing completely. All the options are still there under tabbed browsing but they do not work anymore. I was shocked after restarting Firefox and an update happening and the tab bar opened with a tab and when I tried to close it and open it again, the stupid start page with the huge icons of sites you'd visited lately filled the screen. It had taken me forever to get rid of that stupid page before. Luckily, the first google post had to link for an add on to get rid of the tab bar.

https://addons.mozilla.org/firefox/addon/hide-tab-bar-with-one-tab/

Not sure why software developers decide it'd better to take all your options away but thank God there are better developers smart enough to know how to defeat the options that they try to force down our throats. I guess they turned on scripting with no way to turn it off also unless you go into about:config and turn it off or use a couple of different add-ons. I use scripting in Firefox so I guess it's not a problem.

[mike20021969]

I thought I was going to have to dump Firefox after their update tonight. Seems they got rid of the option to turn off tabbed browsing completely. All the options are still there under tabbed browsing but they do not work anymore.

Yep, this definitely answers Ai Haibaras query