226977 - Cannot download files properly in many circumstances

Status: RESOLVED EXPIRED

(SeaMonkey :: Download & File Handling, defect)

Description

[BMI]

User-Agent:       Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; U; PPC Mac OS X Mach-O; en-US; rv:1.5) Gecko/20031007
Build Identifier: Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; U; PPC Mac OS X Mach-O; en-US; rv:1.5) Gecko/20031007

I get many errors when attempting to download files by simply clicking a link on
a site, especially when the link is to a php, asp, or javascript indirect
download link. The only way to reliably download files appears to be to find a
link that is directly to a source file, right-click the link, and "Save target
as..."

Here are examples of the failures:

Mozilla continually gives a "cannot locate file" error after many downloads that
appear to be working properly, resulting in a failed download. No temp files
appear to be left to be salvaged.

At other times, I get an immediate error with a bizzare path to, for example,
the Marcromedia flash help file directory!

Nowhere does it appear possible to specify the default download directory, which
may be related to these errors.

I'm sorry I've not got more specific information; but this has happened to me
literally hundreds of times in all versions of Mozilla.

All of these referenced links work just fine in Safari and IE - which I end up
switching to in all cases where I can't right-click to directly access a file.

Reproducible: Always

Steps to Reproduce:
1. Find a site such as versiontracker.com that uses scripts for downloading
2. Select a files from versiontracker's list and click the download button
3. On the download screen, allow versiontracker to begin its download. It will,
but when the download is complete, you should see the error.

Actual Results:  
"Cannot find file..." error

Expected Results:  
Downloaded the file; at least, left the temp file in place so that it could be
salvaged.
Better yet - download files directly to the specified directory, instead of to
elsewhere, then copying.
Also, allow direct access to specifying default download directory (or make this
setting easier to find if it's there).

Comment 1

[Stefan [:stefanh]]

Don't you specify the download directory in "System Preferences"? The
downloading problem you describe might have been resolved recently. For
instance, see bug 166369. However, I don't recognise the error message you get.

Please try a more recent build and report back with more info (like what kind of
error message you get and what version of mac os you're running).

Comment 2

[BMI]

I am on OS 10.2.8.

I have your latest public build.

The download directory is set correctly in System Preferences - however, Mozilla
still downloads the file, then says it "can't find it" and the file disappears
from the download directory.

It appears Mozilla downloads to a file, then tries to copy/extract it after the
download is complete. What's bizzarre about this is that, when the download
directory is set to desktop, you can see the file appear, then disappear after
Mozilla gives the message I noted in my previous post on this bug.

No other software on this computer exhibits this behavior. All other web
browsers that use the system settings (e.g. Safari) download correctly to the
specified directory with no errors.

Comment 3

[Dennis Bijwaard]

I have download troubles as well on ms-windows with mozilla 1.8a4 and 1.8a5.
Downloads work sometimes, but since yesterday even the Download Manager does not
come up through the menu "Tools/Download Manager". The Download Manager works
fine in 1.7.

Comment 4

[Dennis Bijwaard]

In mozillla mail (mozilla 1.8a4 or 1.8a5), I can drag&drop attachments to the
ms-windows desktop but not open them. I don't get any feedback when I try to
open the attachment in the email. Again no problems in mozilla-1.7.3

Comment 5

[Gervase Markham [:gerv]]

This is an automated message, with ID "auto-resolve01".

This bug has had no comments for a long time. Statistically, we have found that
bug reports that have not been confirmed by a second user after three months are
highly unlikely to be the source of a fix to the code.

While your input is very important to us, our resources are limited and so we
are asking for your help in focussing our efforts. If you can still reproduce
this problem in the latest version of the product (see below for how to obtain a
copy) or, for feature requests, if it's not present in the latest version and
you still believe we should implement it, please visit the URL of this bug
(given at the top of this mail) and add a comment to that effect, giving more
reproduction information if you have it.

If it is not a problem any longer, you need take no action. If this bug is not
changed in any way in the next two weeks, it will be automatically resolved.
Thank you for your help in this matter.

The latest beta releases can be obtained from:
Firefox:     http://www.mozilla.org/projects/firefox/
Thunderbird: http://www.mozilla.org/products/thunderbird/releases/1.5beta1.html
Seamonkey:   http://www.mozilla.org/projects/seamonkey/

Comment 6

[Gervase Markham [:gerv]]

This bug has been automatically resolved after a period of inactivity (see above
comment). If anyone thinks this is incorrect, they should feel free to reopen it.