Retrieve Flash Video From Firefox Cache Folder
When I just started to use Firefox 2.x, I’m frustrated of finding way to retrieve or save a copy of flash video from Youtube on my hard disk! It’s pretty easier in Internet Explorer. Maybe, I just too used with it :-)!
Anyway, I managed to find the Firefox tips and tricks of retrieving flash video (and others) from its cache folders. Indeed, It’s not that difficult as compare to IE7 too, but just a matter of how used to it!
Hence, I am writing this Firefox tricks to complete the guides on how to download Raiden-X flash game with IE7 from Rapidshare.com and how to download Youtube Video for offline playback with Vista IE7!
How to download Youtube Video for offline playback with Firefox 2.x ?
How to retrieve Raiden-X flash game from Firefox cache folder after complete downloading from Rapidshare.com?
- Unlike IE7, Firefox display the file downloading message in its status bar (picture below) and render the ongoing download percentage of Raiden-X flash game (pic above).
- Once the Raiden-X download is completed, press CTRL + T keyboard shortcut to open a new tab in Firefox web browser.
- Press ALT + D, type
about:cachein the Firefox address bar and press ENTER to open Firefox 2.x cache file management interface.
Firefox 2.x maintain temporarily Internet cache files in both hard disk and memory. The memory cache device is generally smaller size than disk cache device. A huge temporarily Internet file, such as Youtube video or Raiden-X flash game, will not likely store in memory cache device.
- Click the “List Cache Entries” link of disk cache device section
- Press CTRL + F keyboard shortcut to bring up the search function. Type
.swf(file extension of the interactive shockwave-flash) orraiden(the Raiden-X flash game) orflv(Youtube flash video), etc.
In IE7, Youtube flash video is renamed toget_videoby default. But, Firefox cache file management interface will show Youtube flash video with its real name and FLV file extension in “Key” value. The “File On Disk:”, however, is standardized to alpha-numeric file-name and without file extension!
- Once you’ve found the target file, right-click the hyper-link and select either “Open Link in New Window” or “Open Link in New Tab” option
- Go to the new window or new tab and locate “File On Disk:” – this is the path of the temporarily Internet file that cached to local hard disk. In this case, it’s the Raiden-X flash game downloaded from Rapidshare.com.
Now, browse to the path shown by “File On Disk:” with Windows Explorer, copy the cached file to else-where and rename it with meaningful file-name with file extension – Raiden-X.swf (for shockwave-flash game) or Youtube-Video.flv (flash video file extension end with flv)!
So, I guess you should know how to retrieve picture, MIDI, mp3, wma, etc, from Firefox cache folder too!
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Great article.. Helped me figure out some cool things not mentioned specifically in this article. ;)
awesone!!!!!
thanx man! you saved my ass – i owe you one!! come out to russia and beer is on me!!
Cheers.
Dude, this post helped me so much! You could show up a little higher in google for this issue, so here’s my two cents: firefox cache folder retrieve temporary internet file type .swf, .jpg, .mov, .gif, .png, .doc
Amazing tutorial :-) !! Thank you for sharing this knowledge. I’ve use various tools/apps over the years to download vids and music but I’ve always wanted to learn how to do this for those difficult to snag sites. I just gave this a shot with a You Tube video, and following a slight learning curve (make sure to increase your cache limit if necessary, or empty prior to watching video) this lesson worked perfectly. Again, thank you!!
Exept that some streamed videos you CAN’T find in the Firefox cache. :\
So not that easy.
Awesome!! You can even retrieve swf content from the memory cache!
Just follow the steps above until step 6, then do:
- File > Save As…
That’s it.
Thanks a bunch, pal. You’re a lifesaver.
Thanks for informatin but I have a question. Is there a way to save longer videos such as 20mins video in firefox cache?
1 Q … the file can b retrived only after it is downloaded rite ? i meaN WAT ABT haf downloaded videos ?
you may try to look for fla* files in the %temp% directory or use videocacheview.exe to locate them if possible.
Hi, a very helpful post indeed. But I am in need of a little. When looking for “file on disk:none”, its always none. Does this imply that the files are being stored somewhere else since I am able to view them perfectly well in the offline mode?
There is another way that will work if you can’t find the files in your browser cache. This might need to be changed slightly to work with firefox as I use Opera.
lsof | grep flash
Find the flash process (named operaplug in my case). In the second column from the left you’ll find the PID which was 14516 in my case.
ls -l /proc/14516/fd (replace 14516 with the PID you found before).
You should see symlinks pointing to files named like this /tmp/FlashXXseL1uv (deleted)
These are the missing flash files, which you can copy anywhere you like with the “cp” command, just like a normal file.
You should note that the above will only work on Linux (I didn’t realise where I was, haha) There is probably a windows tool that can do this as well.