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I have had this happen multiple times now, where I will go to a page (today it was the ah) and some random file will download. They are .htm files. Its very annoying.

This has been across two devices (both pcs), and this current incident was on firefox (idk what browser I used on my old pc). Its not a common issue but I have encountered it multiple times over the course of a few months.

what are the names of these files, exactly? do they match the title of the page you are visiting?

if so, you're using firefox's save feature. this is a completely normal feature that all web browsers have. exactly how you are accidentally triggering this feature is another matter. CNTRL+S is the default shortcut, but it's possible you're somehow accidentally clicking through the browser's menu; or that a browser extension is somehow triggering it.

it's also possible that you've encountered a bug in firefox that is causing it to save pages without user interaction. i doubt it but, it's possible. either an update (if you're not on the latest version), or a rollback (if you are) is worth a try if that's the final possibility.

if the file name does NOT match the title of the page you are visiting, you are experiencing some kind of malicious behaviour. either you have malware on your device, or a browser extension was updated to include malware (it happens from time to time), or, if you don't have a decent adblocker (i will always recommend ublock origin specifically. the "origin" is very important; plain "ublock" is malware), it's also conceivable that an advert is somehow causing this feature to fire. this shouldn't be possible, and firefox would be interested to learn if it's the case.

but, overwhelmingly, the most likely scenario is you're just accidentally hitting cntrl+S

The first time (on this device, still don't remember the old one) it was just the name of the page. The other times though it was a random string of letters. I do not have adblock currently enabled but I do have an extension I will try getting rid of. It was one I had on my other device so maybe that is the cause.
Oddly, this seems to only be happening while on flight rising.

[quote name="Realcottoncat" date="2024-01-24 05:54:40" ] The first time (on this device, still don't remember the old one) it was just the name of the page. The other times though it was a random string of letters [/quote] is there any chance at all that you're leaning on the keyboard without realising it? that said, if this is only happening on fr, that does suggest this behaviour could be caused by an ad. install [url=https://addons.mozilla.org/en-GB/firefox/addon/ublock-origin/]ublock origin[/url] and see if it happens again.

I guess it is hypothetically possible for me to have hit ctrl+s in some cases, but it didn't seem to be the case the last time as all I had done is click to the new page.
The files themselves are also 0 bytes. (Not sure on the one that was the name of the page, I deleted it awhile ago)
When I just tested ctrl+s on the same page I was on for the latest incident, it let me name the file (which would have slowed me down and not let it be seemingly randomly put on my pc) and the final file was 77.2 KB.
I now have ublock origin added, hopefully if it was an ad it won't happen again.

[quote name="Realcottoncat" date="2024-01-24 15:02:49" ] The files themselves are also 0 bytes. [/quote] huh...in doing a little research, i've discovered that this happens somewhat frequently on flight rising specifically. frequently enough that there are even reddit threads about it. based on the common factors, i [i]suspect[/i] certain adverts served by hiveworks are misconfigured to serve htm files instead of an actual webpage. in which case, ublock origin should prevent you from having to deal with it.

Just to add to this report: I am using AdBlock Plus and the downloads still happen for me.

It's a problem that I had back in 2022, then seemed to be resolved (I'm not sure if I turned on AdBlock and it was blocked, or if it was genuinely fixed). However, it has started happening again in the past several months with more and more frequency.

I have turned on a setting in Firefox that always asks me where to save files, so I can avoid actually downloading anything, but I am still getting at least one pop-up a day asking me where to save a random file. Sometimes it happens multiple times a day.

I'm not sure whether to report this to Hiveworks because 1) AdBlock is on, and 2) it is completely random and I can't pin-point to when it's going to happen to "record" the incident.

I've started getting this too and have enabled uBlock Origin on FR until this is fixed

This has also been happening to me, I've had my adblock turned off to try to support the site what little I can so I don't know if having it on would stop it or not. I've been meaning to try to catch what ads are showing when it happens in case it is the ads, but it happens so randomly that I just haven't managed to yet.
I'm going to turn on the feature for firefox to ask me where to save files so hopefully I can pay attention and try to get some info on what's causing it.

Happens to me too. Even with adblocks.
Completely random.