### Author:  [@juraj.masiar](https://discourse.mozilla.org/u/juraj.masiar)
#### Post date: [June 16, 2017, 11:13am UTC](https://discourse.mozilla.org/t/opening-links-to-local-files-file/16449/1 "2017-06-16T11:13:59Z")
Hello,
I’m developing [Group Speed Dial](https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/groupspeeddial/) using web-extension API and I’m getting feature requests to support file:// protocol.
Some people want to access their locally stored .html pages from speed-dial addon.
However there is some security restriction that prevents opening any link pointing to “file:///”.
**Is there a way to get over this restriction? Now or in the future - by requesting maybe a new security API for web-extension?** If there is no solution yet, can somebody tell me what would be the best way to request this kind of feature?
In Chrome local files just works.
---
### Author:  [@NilkasG](https://discourse.mozilla.org/u/NilkasG)
#### Post date: [June 16, 2017, 12:16pm UTC](https://discourse.mozilla.org/t/opening-links-to-local-files-file/16449/2 "2017-06-16T12:16:41Z")
> [@juraj.masiar](#):
>
> In Chrome local files just works.
AFAIK in Chrome, the user has to set an extra checkbox in the add-on manager, which will only appear if the extension has set host permissions including `` or `file://`…
There is a function in the `.extension` or `.runtime` namespace that should tell you whether you have file system access or not. If that returns `false` in Firefox, I guess that is your answer, at least for now.
---
### Author:  [@juraj.masiar](https://discourse.mozilla.org/u/juraj.masiar)
#### Post date: [June 16, 2017, 12:25pm UTC](https://discourse.mozilla.org/t/opening-links-to-local-files-file/16449/3 "2017-06-16T12:25:34Z")
Sorry I was not aware of that, seems like locally loaded addons (during development) has this checkbox automatically checked.
---
### Author:  [@ericjung1](https://discourse.mozilla.org/u/ericjung1)
#### Post date: [June 19, 2017, 7:41am UTC](https://discourse.mozilla.org/t/opening-links-to-local-files-file/16449/4 "2017-06-19T07:41:40Z")
Juraj Masiar, can you please post a sample of the code that fails for you?
---
### Author:  [@juraj.masiar](https://discourse.mozilla.org/u/juraj.masiar)
#### Post date: [June 19, 2017, 5:49pm UTC](https://discourse.mozilla.org/t/opening-links-to-local-files-file/16449/5 "2017-06-19T17:49:45Z")
There are no errors, Firefox just won’t react on clicking on elements pointing to local files.
For example:
```
Click me
```
will not open file “simple.html” from my desktop (if I copy the ‘href’ value into addressbar I can view the html file).
I understand the security issue here but I believe the add-ons deserves this functionality.
There is also some article here about accessing files [https://wiki.mozilla.org/WebExtensions/Filesystem](https://wiki.mozilla.org/WebExtensions/Filesystem)
---
### Author:  [@ericjung1](https://discourse.mozilla.org/u/ericjung1)
#### Post date: [June 23, 2017, 1:40am UTC](https://discourse.mozilla.org/t/opening-links-to-local-files-file/16449/6 "2017-06-23T01:40:28Z")
Unfortunately, it’s not planned for Firefox 57, but may be available later. Even the article you linked to at [https://wiki.mozilla.org/WebExtensions/Filesystem](https://wiki.mozilla.org/WebExtensions/Filesystem) mentions at the very bottom “Firefox 57 / Not Planned / Access to file:// URLs or reading files without any explicit user input”
---
### Author:  [@MJG](https://discourse.mozilla.org/u/MJG)
#### Post date: [October 24, 2017, 7:57am UTC](https://discourse.mozilla.org/t/opening-links-to-local-files-file/16449/7 "2017-10-24T07:57:08Z")
Hi there,
it’s unfortunate that this isn’t even possible on explicit user input or by requesting permissions.
I’m the author of the [LocalLink addon](https://addons.mozilla.org/de/firefox/addon/locallink/) which adds a context submenu to the page context menu so that users can open `file://` links contained in web pages. (Some bad content systems do this so that users rely on it.) Note that this requries explicit interactions, I’m not circumventing same-origin policy for “ordinary link clicks”.
In the XUL version of my addon, I use `window.loadURI(uri, null, null)`, `openNewTabWith(uri, null, null, event)` and `openNewWindowWith(uri, null, null)` to open those uris irrespective of `checkloaduri`.
I ported the context menu and such to webextensions now, but `browser.tabs.update()` and `window.open()` called from a background script are subject to the same-origin restrictions, no loading of `file://` uris
requesting `"file://*/"` permissions in `manifest.json` does not help either. MDN docu suggests `"content_security_policy": "script-src 'self'; object-src 'self'; navigation-to 'filesystem:'"` but my Firefox 56 does not know `navigation-to`, and I don’t think Firefox 57 does.
Entering `file://` uris in the address bar directly works, of course. Is there any way to (request a permission to be able to) to do this from a webextension? I.e., based upon user input, update a tab or create a new one that navigates to a given `file://` uri?
Michael
---
### Author:  [@itsame](https://discourse.mozilla.org/u/itsame)
#### Post date: [August 2, 2021, 3:06pm UTC](https://discourse.mozilla.org/t/opening-links-to-local-files-file/16449/8 "2021-08-02T15:06:01Z")
Has this been fixed?
---
### Author:  [@juraj.masiar](https://discourse.mozilla.org/u/juraj.masiar)
#### Post date: [August 2, 2021, 3:11pm UTC](https://discourse.mozilla.org/t/opening-links-to-local-files-file/16449/9 "2021-08-02T15:11:37Z")
Actually there is a workaround I didn’t know about back then that fixes this for a specific addon. See this comment for specific instructions:
>
>
> \*\*Describe the bug\*\*
> I have HTML documentation on my local machine that I want …to open with a dial. I can paste the URL into the browser and it opens file, but if I create a dial and click on it nothing happens, it is as if the dials is non-clickable. If I right click on the dial and copy the URL and paste it manually into the browser, it opens.
>
> \*\*Steps To Reproduce\*\*
> 1. Create or copy an HTML file to your local filesystem. Verify you can open it in a browser.
> 2. Create a dial with a link to the HTML file. (URL will be "file:///path/to/file.html")
> 3. See that the dial is non-responsive and doesn't open the page.
>
> \*\*Expected behavior\*\*
> Dial should open the link.
>
> \*\*Device info:\*\*
> - operating system: Linux (Manjaro, up to date)
> - Browser and version: Firefox 86.0
> - GroupSpeedDial version: 15.5
>
>
> \*\*Additional info\*\*
> Nothing else.
---
### Author:  [@Kate11223144](https://discourse.mozilla.org/u/Kate11223144)
#### Post date: [August 2, 2021, 11:07pm UTC](https://discourse.mozilla.org/t/opening-links-to-local-files-file/16449/10 "2021-08-02T23:07:07Z")
I have been trying to load a PDF with the documentation provided , the pdf loads up fine but some of the layers they dont load up properly . I’ve tried templates from a few websites . e.g [teardrop flags](https://www.vividads.com.au/collections/best-seller/products/teardrop-banners-flags) these are showing errors .
any tips ?