Right click Save Link As from dropbox saves file with incorrect extension
Using right click Save Link As on a Dropbox file "name.mp3" saves the file with extension mp3 when it actually contains HTML code and should be saved as "name.html". The Save dialog window declares the file type as "Firefox HTML Document (.mp3)", and saves it with the mp3 extension. This is Firefox browser 72.0.1 running on Windows 10 Home 1809, This does not occur using Chrome browser 79.0.3945.88 on the same file, which saves the file as "name.html".
All Replies (6)
If the file has a .html file extension then this usually means that the link should open a web page with a possible download button.
Did you try to left-click this link instead?
Did you check the file you downloaded in Google Chrome to see what file you get as this may not be a MP3 file ?
The file in Dropbox is an mp3 file with the correct .mp3 extension. Left click sets it up to play the audio on the system, but does not provide any means for download. The problem is that right click Save Link As on the file causes Dropbox to generate an HTML file for download, but Firefox does not recognize this, and keeps the original .mp3 extension for download. For both Firefox and Chrome, the downloaded file contains the same HTML code. Chrome labels the file with the correct extension .html. Firefox retains the original .mp3 extension, which is incorrect.
If you get an HTML file with Google Chrome then you won't get a playable MP3 file, but likely a web page that plays the file from internet. Maybe you can use the Network Monitor to get the link for the MP3 file.
I certainly do get an HTML file as download. The problem is that Firefox uses ".mp3" as the file extension, which is incorrect. Chrome does it correctly, renaming it as ".html". If I tell my users they can do" right click Save Link As" to download, they will be confused when the "mp3" file fails to play audio.
I can work around this - that is not the point. Firefox's handling of this related to Dropbox is incorrect. I just though that it should be fixed at some point.
An HTML file can only show a web page. To play a mp3 file properly offline you need a local copy of this file. If this HTML file plays a mp3 file then this file must be download although in some cases it might be part of the extra files saved with the HTML file.
Can you post a link to a publicly accessible page (i.e. no authentication or signing on required) ?
OK here is an example. This link points to a public Dropbox folder that contains one ".rtf" file.
https://www.dropbox.com/sh/0mmeo0d897hoskn/AAD1B1HykV4CYG3iJ9_o6wNJa?dl=0
If you left click on it, it shows you the RTF file contents.
If you right click and Save Link As, Firefox will download the HTML page generated by Dropbox that you can run to display the RTF file, but it mistakenly retains the ".rtf" extension. If you double click on the downloaded file, the system will launch an app to read it as an RTF file, it doesn't work right, for obvious reasons. If you change the extension of the file to "html", double clicking the file shows the RTF contents in the browser correctly.
If you do the same in Chrome, the browser will download the HTML page generated by Dropbox as an HTML file with extension ".html", which is correct. So Chrome somehow recognizes that Save Link As is handing it an HTML page and gives it the correct file extension. If you double click on that file, the browser shows you the contents of the RTF file correctly.
So the only thing that Firefox gets wrong is assignment of the extension. Could that be fixed?