508124 - Cannot Download. Browser appears to download files, but they are all saved as empty (0 bytes) files.

Status: RESOLVED WORKSFORME

(Toolkit :: Downloads API, defect)

Description

[Rich]

User-Agent:       Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 6.1; en-US; rv:1.9.1.1) Gecko/20090715 Firefox/3.5.1
Build Identifier: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 6.1; en-US; rv:1.9.1.1) Gecko/20090715 Firefox/3.5.1

Downloaded and installed Firefox/3.5.1 on fresh installation of Windows 7 (64-bit).
Anytime I try to download a file or image (either by clicking a link OR right-click Save Link/Image As OR Save Page As), Download manager will show the file or web page as being downloaded. Download manager displays accurate number of bytes.
After download is completed, the normal options are all available (option to open, open containing folder etc, are ALL enabled).
The files are created in the correct download folder, but the downloaded file has 0 bytes.

I have taken all of the steps below, and none of them has solved the problem:

1) Followed instructions on this page:
http://support.mozilla.com/en-US/kb/Unable+to+download+or+save+files
(e.g. cleared download history, reset download location, reset internet explorer security settings)

2) Disabled all plugins
3) created and used NEW profile
4) uninstalled/reinstalled firefox
5) Run firefox as administrator
6) Disable user account control
7) Disable antivirus

Again, this is for a fresh install of firefox on a fresh install of Windows 7. It applies to ALL downloads (including images, links, web pages).


May be similar (but not identical) to the following Bugs:
https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=477395
https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=433141

Thanks!!

Reproducible: Always

Steps to Reproduce:
1. Attempt to download a file.
2. Open containing folder
3. 
Actual Results:  
The file is present, but 0 bytes.

Expected Results:  
The file should be present with reported number of bytes.

Comment 1

[Rich]

Firefox download does still work on Virtual Machine running windows XP on the same PC.

Comment 2

[Rich]

If I right-click an image, then choose "View Image", and then Drag-n-Drop the image onto my desktop, the download DOES work. But if I right-click an image and choose "Save Image As" and choose the desktop, the download fails as described above.

Also, for larger files, I am able to see the *.part file that is saved while the download is in progress. The *.part file is being filled correctly (i.e. it does NOT have 0 bytes). However, when the download completes, the part file is removed, and the 0-byte download file is all that remains.

Comment 3

[Rich]

I have traced the events with SysInternals "ProcessMonitor" application.
It appears that firefox correctly downloads the *.part file, then correctly renames it to the destination file location, and then DELETES the destination file, and then re-creates an empty destination file.

The process event log is added as an attachment to this post (events.txt)
In summary, firefox created a  temp "part" file in AppData\Local\Temp and began to save the file data there until the user was prompted to save the file. Once the user clicked save, firefox renamed the temp "part" file to the download folder location. Finally, when the download completed, firefox deletes the existing 0-byte destination file, then renames the part file to the destination name, and then DELETES the new file. Finally, firefox creates a new file and writes 0 bytes to it.

Comment 4

[Rich]

Attachment: a log of firefox.exe file process events during file download

Comment 5

[Rich]

Comment on attachment 393520 [details]
a log of firefox.exe file process events during file download

Important lines contain one of the following operation keywords:

SetDispositionInformationFile, SetRenameInformationFile, or WriteFile

Comment 6

[Rich]

Note: This behavior is the same for Firefox/3.5.2 as well 

Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 6.1; en-US; rv:1.9.1.2) Gecko/20090729 Firefox/3.5.2

Comment 7

[Rich]

This behavior is still continuing as of 2009-08-20, and is dramatically hindering my use of the firefox browser. I am forced to use another browser any time I need to download a file. 
Doesn't anyone else observe this behavior?

Comment 8

[Rich]

Note: I am running the 32-bit version of Firefox.

Comment 9

[Smoke3723]

Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 6.0; en-GB; rv:1.9.1.2) Gecko/20090729 Firefox/3.5.2 (.NET CLR 3.5.30729)

I can confirm this problem is happening on Firefox 3.5.2 under Windows Vista 32.  For some reason I was able to download a zipped PDF

There have been some instances under Firefox 2 and pre-3.5 where I had a file download to zero.  Normally, if I just tried the download again and clobbered the bad file I'd get what I wanted.  But now, all of a sudden, I cannot download AT ALL.

Comment 10

[J. Paul Reed [:preed]]

I was having this problem with Firefox 3.5.3 (Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.2; en-US; rv:1.9.1.3) Gecko/20090824 Firefox/3.5.3) running under Win2k3; I did the following, and it seems to have fixed the problem:

1. Open Control Panel->Internet Options
2. Go to the security tab
3. Click Custom Level
4. Scroll down in the list to "Downloads"
5. Make sure all the sub-items in that list are set to either "enable" or "prompt"
6. Scroll down in the list to the "Miscellaneous" item
7. Set "Installation of Desktop Items" and "Launching Applications and unsafe files" to "Prompt."

File downloading now works.

It seems odd that this would affect Firefox, but I think what's going on here is the concept of "zones" at the file system level, so it doesn't actually matter whether or not the browser is Firefox or IE, it will truncate the file when Fx tries to save it?

That's a guess; I changed just these settings, restarted Firefox, and it seemed to work; would be nice to see if anyone else can try this and see if it fixes it.

Comment 11

[Ivan Kot]

(In reply to comment #10)
> I was having this problem with Firefox 3.5.3 (Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows
> NT 5.2; en-US; rv:1.9.1.3) Gecko/20090824 Firefox/3.5.3) running under Win2k3;
> I did the following, and it seems to have fixed the problem:
> 
> 1. Open Control Panel->Internet Options
> 2. Go to the security tab
> 3. Click Custom Level
> 4. Scroll down in the list to "Downloads"
> 5. Make sure all the sub-items in that list are set to either "enable" or
> "prompt"
> 6. Scroll down in the list to the "Miscellaneous" item
> 7. Set "Installation of Desktop Items" and "Launching Applications and unsafe
> files" to "Prompt."
> 
> File downloading now works.
> 
> It seems odd that this would affect Firefox, but I think what's going on here
> is the concept of "zones" at the file system level, so it doesn't actually
> matter whether or not the browser is Firefox or IE, it will truncate the file
> when Fx tries to save it?
> 
> That's a guess; I changed just these settings, restarted Firefox, and it seemed
> to work; would be nice to see if anyone else can try this and see if it fixes
> it.

Tried that, didn't work. I'm using:
Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 6.0; en-US; rv:1.9.1.5) Gecko/20091102 Firefox/3.5.5 (.NET CLR 3.5.30729), running on Windows Vista 32bit.

Comment 12

[jay]

I'm seeing the same problem on Windows XP SP3 with Firefox 3.5.5.  Was wondering if the virus scanner has anything to do with it?  The problem seemed to start at approximately the same time as when we upgraded to AVG Free 8.5; we are now on AVG Free 9.0 and the problem is still happening.  To the other people who are experiencing this problem, could you please include as a comment which virus protection you are using?

Comment 13

[Ivan Kot]

I don't think that this is because of the AV software you are using as I am not using anything right now, but the problem is still present

Comment 14

[Ivan Kot]

I have found the solution for this problem. Looks like it corrupts files when tries to 'Scan for viruses' and it does it either you have an AV or not, so solution is to turn it off. This can be done like that:

1. open about:config
2. click the "I'll be careful, I promise" button
3. find browser.download.manager.scanWhenDone
4. set it to FALSE

that's all, now you should be able to download files once again

Comment 15

[Tyler Downer [He/Him]]

Reporter, are you still seeing this issue with Firefox 3.6 or later in safe mode? If not, please close. These links can help you in your testing.
http://support.mozilla.com/kb/Safe+Mode
http://support.mozilla.com/kb/Managing+profiles

Comment 16

[Bill Gianopoulos [:WG9s]]

Since no response to above question, I am closing this bug.  Feel free to re-open it if you encounter it again. and can provide reliable steps to reproduce it.

Comment 17

[Sandeep Murthy]

I seem to having the problem originally reported by Rich, but only it seems for certain types of file.  My setup is: OS X 10.9.4, Firefox 32.0.1.

For example, I tried to download the latest version of Chrome from Google UK by pointing to the target file (googlechrome.dmg) and using the Save Link As option, but what happens is that in the Downloads folder an empty googlechrome.dmg file appears and a part file with the same name appears but with size 62.2 MB, which seems to the correct file size.  Why does it create this empty copy and a part file in this way?

I did find a kind of solution: after deleting the empty file and renaming the part file to googlechrome.dmg I was able to install the application.

I don't know whether this would work with other types of files, for example, with zip or mp3/4 files.