Add a configuration setting to allow the user to choose a backup directory.

[julie777]

Is your feature request related to a problem? Please describe. Backup folders fill up the downloads folder. The downloads folder is not a good location for backups.

Describe the solution you'd like Add a configuration setting to allow the user to choose a backup directory.

Describe alternatives you've considered A clear and concise description of any alternative solutions or features you've considered.

Additional context Add any other context or screenshots about the feature request here.

[philg-dev]

There's already an option to choose the name for the backup folder.

The webextensions download API doesn't allow anything to be automatically downloaded by an add-on into directories outside of the default download directory. This is most certainly for security reasons.

For details take a look at the documentation, specifically the filename option of the call: https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Mozilla/Add-ons/WebExtensions/API/downloads/download#filename

[achernyakevich-sc]

@julie777 I can confirm that @philg-dev has written in the previous comment.

I can just add that STG provide possibility to configure it in the Settings -> Backup your Simple Tab Groups tab -> Backup your Simple Tab Groups section -> Folder name field.

If you would like to keep your backups in other location then you could use the following approach:

• create folder where you would like to keep backups (e.g. C:\Users\user\backup\Firefox\STG or /home/user/backup/Firefox/STG).
• open console and navigate to your default download directory.
• create a symlink that will point to the backup folder:
  • Windows - mklink /D STG-Backup "C:\Users\user\backup\Firefox\STG"
  • Linux/macOS - ln -s /home/user/backup/Firefox/STG STG-Backup
• Configure STG backup (see above how to do it) to point to STG-Backup in your default download directory.

If it helps then could you close this issue to show other users that issue is resolved and solution is available in comments. :)

[indigoHatter]

Really, it'd be nice if we could change the versioning/filenaming/subdirectory properties altogether.

Currently:

Option: Name of backup folder "STG-backups-FF-142.0.1" <<< this will change when Firefox updates, which results in folders like the following:

...\Downloads\STG-backups-FF-142.0.1\
...\Downloads\STG-backups-FF-142.0.2\
...\Downloads\STG-backups-FF-142.0.4\
...\Downloads\STG-backups-FF-143.0.1\
...\Downloads\STG-backups-FF-144.0\
...\Downloads\STG-backups-FF-145.0.1\
...\Downloads\STG-backups-FF-145.0.3\
       (and each subdirectory contains files like...)
...\Downloads\STG-backups-FF-145.0.3\[email protected]
...\Downloads\STG-backups-FF-145.0.3\[email protected]
...\Downloads\STG-backups-FF-145.0.3\[email protected]

We'd prefer a single parent folder. I don't mind these being in my Downloads folder, and I don't mind them being split up by FF version, etc... but I do mind that it makes a new subfolder in my Downloads folder every time Firefox updates.

Proposal:

...\Downloads\STG-backups\
...\Downloads\STG-backups\STG-FF-142.0.1\
...\Downloads\STG-backups\STG-FF-142.0.1\STG-auto-backup-2025-12-09-100621.json
...\Downloads\STG-backups\STG-FF-142.0.1\STG-auto-backup-2025-12-10-210932.json
...\Downloads\STG-backups\STG-FF-143.0.2\
...\Downloads\STG-backups\STG-FF-143.0.2\STG-auto-backup-2025-12-12-090922.json

Please note that while it would still operate similarly to the current behavior, it uses a single parent folder to catch all subfolders.

Or, an alternate proposal:

...\Downloads\STG-backups\
...\Downloads\STG-backups\FF-142.0.1-STG-auto-backup-2025-12-09-100621.json
...\Downloads\STG-backups\FF-142.0.1-STG-auto-backup-2025-12-10-210932.json

In this proposal, it still uses a single parent folder, but the FF# is compacted into the .json filename. This means even longer filenames, but still allows files to be sorted in a logical format.

---

To articulate these proposals... the suggestion is as follows:

1. Create one folder for STG-backups (which can be renamed as desired) that does NOT contain the FF version #. This way, it does not change every time FF updates.
2. If desired, the FF version # can still be in the subfolder name... but it should not be the parent folder's name. (Alternately, it can just be part of the filename, as shown in the alternate proposal).
3. Then, make the filenames more concise, more verbose, and use ISO format for date. This way, they sort more cleanly.

So:

1. ...\ Downloads location \ STG-backups location \ STG-FF-version \ STG-auto-backup-YYYY-MM-DD-HHMMSS.json
2. ...\ Downloads location \ STG-backups location \ FF-version-STG-auto-backup-YYYY-MM-DD-HHMMSS.json

[achernyakevich-sc]

@indigoHatter You already can get all backups in one folder trough STG configuration the same as I have:

Just configure STG as it proposed in my previous comment. :)