Firefox Temp File Location
I'm trying to find youtube video (just watched) in Firefox cache folder, but I cant find the folder.
win xp sp3
Firefox 16.1
I tried
Firefox Portable is configured to use RAM cache while running only. If you enable cache in options (not recommended for flash drives) it will store it in your FirefoxPortable Data profile directory. Sometimes, the impossible can become possible, if you're awesome!
Also
In this folder I found the png thumbnail of visited youtube page
But, there is no video file.
I also searched all files and folders arround (Default user, All users...etc).
There is only one win user.
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9 Answers
The video will be there in the cache only as long as you are seeing it in the browser, after which it is deleted automatically.I would recommend using plugins provided by modern browsers if you want to download the video.
ShurmajeeShurmajeeYou can check the cache file easily by going to the following:
about:cache
Firefox Temp Internet File Location
Enter the above into your URL or location bar.
random♦THIS ANSWER IS ONLY FOR FINDING FLASH VIDEOS.
Tested version
Firefox 38.0.5

Shockwave Flash 17.0 r0
Latest Firefox with latest Flash player on Windows will save the Flash videos in
The file will be something like fla****.tmp
. You have to change the .tmp
extension to .flv
extension to make it playable (Most modern players will accept a drag and drop of the file even without changing its extension).
**** If you have trouble in finding the folder Hit Windows+R and in the popup Run Dialog copy and paste this
and hit Enter.
Regarding viewing the cache contents, there's a nice Firefox extension named CacheViewer Continued - like the name suggests, it's a fork of the CacheViewer.
Regarding the question about YouTube video being in cache, I've answered a related question yesterday. Basically, most of the videos you watch on YouTube won't be cached -- if they exceed certain size (you don't want to purge your whole cache after watching several videos).
If you want to download videos, you can use one of the addons from addons.mozilla.org or userscripts. By the way, you can also view URLs of all the resources loaded on the page (including audio and video files) by opening AdBlock Plus' 'Open blockable items' menu.
Use Firebug!
The OP has already said he's using Firefox, so he might as well take advantage of that fact.
Install the 'Firebug' add-on, then follow these fantastic instructions:
It gives 'videos from Youtube' as an example, but the same applies to any other content you might find in a webpage.
Austin 'Danger' PowersAustin 'Danger' PowersI am having the same problem as the OP for a long time. At least since 2011 youtube changed the way its videos are cached and since then its hard to find them.The old way it used to be stored on the regular Windows Temp folder on the Windows use folder. Sometimes, I don't know when, you can indeed find it there, for that I usually use this really lightweight freeware called VideoCacheView because it searches all IE and windows related folders really quick and can copy those nasty 'locked', in use files with just a right click instead of me having to use the command line with hobocopy tool.I tried to search the Firefox cache and it was no good.My guess is youtube is using some nonstandard Flash cache method, probably on the Flash cache folder itself but I only found that folder once or twice, shouldnt be hard though.
One of the easiest ways to download streaming videos from any site containing it, is passing the url to jdownloader. There are some addons like Flash Video Downloader too.I've maid a simple script (I'm a learner) for linux to cache pictures and videos (but doesn't work with firefox unless I start a download with Flash Video Downloader first):
if you are using win XP I think it should be found in the temp folder,just write %temp% in the address bar then there should be a file which its name contains 'fla' and had a reasonable size (depends on the opened video).the problem is that you can not copy the file because you will get an error stats the file is being used... and soon after you close Firefox the file will be disappeared. So what to do?to solve this problem you should switch your user and log off the user from another user using task manger. then com back and copy the file and change the extension from .tmp to .flv then open the file. I know that km player can read the file.
It copies the file despite the process being in use:
kenorb