Bug: Save to new dir updates default download directory setting

[Anon]

Bug: Whenever you save to a new directory it updates the default download directory in settings.

Options > Behavior > Default download directory

To reproduce:

1. Set download processor to Companion app

2. Go to a Youtube video, click Download on VDH.

3. Choose a new download directory not previously used.

4. Click save, video is downloaded

5. Check settings. The new folder has been used for the default setting.

6. Or try to save another YT video. The new folder is used by default and the dropdown will not allow you to choose another directory.

See screenshot.

[Anon]

I just replied here but cannot see the reply.

Firefox: 96.0.3
VDH and coapp versions you are running: 7.6.0, 1.6.1 (will not update to 1.6.2 using download link provided). After coapp update problem remains.
Operating system (Windows, Mac, Linux) : Windows 10 Home
Share a link to a page containing a video you have problem with: Any Youtube video for example

[Wild Willy]

I don't encounter this issue when I download from YouTube. I'm using the latest VDH
7.6.3a1 beta (licensed) but I don't think that makes a difference. I don't think so. I
don't know it for a fact. You might consider updating to the beta as something you might
try. Also, the latest CoApp is 1.6.3. I do know for a fact that quite often Michel
updates the CoApp in response to the latest silliness that YouTube foists on the world.
You might also consider trying to update the CoApp to 1.6.3 instead of 1.6.2. You're on
the latest Firefox so why not the latest of everything else?

Something else occurs to me. Occasionally, you tell VDH to start a Download function &
instead of opening a functioning file selection dialog, it opens a non-functioning
window. You just need to dismiss it and try again. And possibly again & again & again
who knows how many times until it works. There was one user on here who said he could
never get the file selection dialog to open properly but it seems to me that was rather a
long time ago & there's probably been several updates to both the extension itself as
well as the CoApp since then. So I don't think you'll fail forever. But I have
encountered the again & again & again case within the past day. It happens. You shrug
your shoulders & you try again until it works. I have always gotten it to work
eventually but it may take 5 or 10 or maybe more tries. It's an intermittent thing &
Michel says he's never encountered the problem, so we're out here living with it because
we can't provide proper diagnostic information. Proper diagnostic information would be
some kind of debugging output log maintained by VDH during the normal course of
operation. But Michel has not chosen to implement such helpful logging so we just get
anecdotal reports of this problem without any hope of getting it diagnosed. Sad but true.

[Wild Willy]

Wait. I just read this again & interpreted it differently. Yes, VDH updates the default
directory with each download. This is by design. You download into directory x. Your
next download assumes you want to download into x again. If you don't want to use that
directory again, you're supposed to change it in the file selection dialog. If you pick
directory y, then the time after that, VDH will offer to download into y. The default
directory is not meant to be a permanent setting. It is supposed to be possible to
change it with each download, or leave it at whatever it was set at for as long as you
choose.

[Wild Willy]

I keep reading new things into this every time I turn around.  When you hover the mouse over the right end of a variant, it makes a new graphic appear.

After you do all of that, the next time you open a VDH menu, you don't need to hover the mouse over the right end.  You can just click the variant & the same action will occur.  If you click the checkbox then Download, the next time you use VDH to download something, you can just click on the entry & it will automatically do a Download again, which is supposed to launch the file selection dialog so you can choose where to download to & change the target file name if you like.

But let's suppose you check the checkbox & then do a Quick Download.  VDH will skip the file selection dialog & launch the download using whatever directory is in the default setting, as you have discovered.  This will be whatever directory had been used on your most recent previous download.  Then after this operation, for your next download, you can just click on the variant & it will do a Quick Download because you just set it as the default action.  You won't see the file selection dialog & the download will just start, going into the most recent download directory & using whatever default file name VDH has chosen.

But you're not stuck with a given default action forever.  If you don't want to use the default action, just hover the mouse over the right end again & pick a different action.  You can even make this different action your new default, same as you did for the other action earlier.

Have I hit the answer to your question yet?

[Wild Willy]

You clicked the Reply to author button. I got a private E-mail from you. You'll notice
that your comment did not appear here in the thread where it should have. To make that
happen, you have to click the Reply all button. You should almost always click the Reply
all button. Reply to author is mostly for communicating with Jérôme about things to do
with licenses. So Reply all. Remember that. Reply all. What I got had my 3 images
from my most recent post attached. I really didn't need to have those back. So remember
Reply all for future reference. Reply all.

In addition, when you do a Reply all, there's a bit of housekeeping you ought to do
before you post. I discuss the topic elsewhere. Take a look over here:

https://groups.google.com/g/video-downloadhelper-q-and-a/c/BzPLK2YyL-s

Do a string search there on the word "habit" & click through to the link you'll find
below that. It describes a practice precious few people engage in here but I wish
everybody would.

Here's what you said:

> Thanks for your investigations. Your 2nd post was what I was looking for.
> It seems strange to have a default choice which is then overridden each
> time as that defeats the point of the word "default". So hopefully this
> will be changed.

I seriously doubt it will ever be changed. This design seems quite intentional & it has
always worked this way. If you think about it, your target directory for your current
download becomes the default directory for your next download. For myself, I find that I
have a handful of directories into which I usually download things so I'm quite often
changing the target directory anyway. So you shouldn't get your hopes up that this
particular behvior will change.

[Anonymous Person]

Here's the reply to all: 

Thanks for your investigations. Your 2nd post was what I was looking for.
It seems strange to have a default choice which is then overridden each time as that defeats the point of the word "default". So hopefully this will be changed.

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