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androidbrowserdownloadcontent-typecontent-disposition

Avoiding content type issues when downloading a file via browser on Android

If I have a file made available to a browser through my webapp, I normally just set the URL to something like http://website.com/webapp/download/89347/image.jpg. I then set the HTTP headers Content-Type: application/octet-stream; filename=image.jpg and Content-Disposition: Attachment.

However, on the Android. It seems the only way I can get the file to download is to set Content-Type: image/jpg. Otherwise the file name says <Unknown> and an error comes

Download unsuccessful
Cannot download. The content is not supported on this phone

Is there any way I can get Android to download and open the file through the browser without keeping a list of mime types?

Solution

  • To make any downloads work on all (and especially older) Android versions as expected, you need to...

    1. set the ContentType to application/octet-stream
    2. put the Content-Disposition filename value in double quotes
    3. write the Content-Disposition filename extension in UPPERCASE

    Read my blog post for more details:
    http://digiblog.de/2011/04/19/android-and-the-download-file-headers/