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Trouble downloading in safari

T

trev

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Nov 11, 2006
398
0
St. John's, NL
Hey all,

When I click on a link that is linked to a video, dmg file, what have you, the downloads pane does not open and the file does not download. I have to click and hit "download linked file". I don't mind doing this, however, if a website such as download.com doesn't have a specific link for the file, then I have trouble downloading it/can download it. I tried firefox and I have the same problem. Any ideas?

- Trevor
 
Not having write permission for your download folder (which defaults to the Desktop in both browsers) is a possible cause of this issue. Check the permissions on whatever folder you have set for downloads - you can do this by opening Get Info for the folder in question and checking where it says Ownership and Permissions. If it says "You can read and write", you're good - that's the way it should be.

If that turns out not to be the cause, another thing to try is resetting the browser. This can be done in Safari by choosing Reset Safari from the menu, and in Firefox by choosing the Clear Private Data option from the menu.
 
Another vague thought is that this could be a corrupt plist (preference) file for some basic system utility, if you're having trouble in both Firefox and Safari at the same time.

If you're confused about the permissions part, then also try just changing the save location to the desktop and see if it automatically works then. If it does, we can walk you through fixing folder permissions in more detail.
 
The folder in question is the desktop... and it's permissions are set to read & write. I rest safari and it still does not work. In firefox, if I click a .dmg file it goes to a blank page with the address of the .dmg file in the addy bar and the status indicator keeps twriling around with no progress after about a half hour.
 
trev said:
The folder in question is the desktop... and it's permissions are set to read & write. I rest safari and it still does not work. In firefox, if I click a .dmg file it goes to a blank page with the address of the .dmg file in the addy bar and the status indicator keeps twriling around with no progress after about a half hour.
Click to expand...
Try repairing permissions in Disk Utility, which is in your utilities folder. The cause might be some goofy permission error with one of the various UNIX subsystem folders, which the repair permissions utility can fix for you.
 
So basically, if it's not a direct link where I can right click and hit "download linked file" then I can't download it. HELP!
 
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