Firefox 52.0.a2 can't download 7zip files

pm1315 · Post by **pm1315** » December 1st, 2016, 11:06 am

Firefox 52.0.a2 can't download 7zip (7z extension) files. The previous Aurora build had no problem.
When I click on the link to download such files, Firefox runs them like an executable file,
instead of simply downloading them.

Post by **LIMPET235** » December 1st, 2016, 11:14 am

Moving to the Builds Forum...

TheVisitor · Post by **TheVisitor** » December 1st, 2016, 2:48 pm

pm1315 wrote:Firefox 52.0.a2 can't download 7zip (7z extension) files. The previous Aurora build had no problem.
When I click on the link to download such files, Firefox runs them like an executable file,
instead of simply downloading them.

Have a link to such a file we can test with ?

streetwolf · Post by **streetwolf** » December 1st, 2016, 2:57 pm

I've been having problems downloading .7z files over here.... http://www.videohelp.com/software/MPC-BE. Pick a portable file. They download as if they were text files to the screen. I think it's a site problem as other sites with 7zip files download as they should. I don't know if it's the same problem as the OP.

TheVisitor · Post by **TheVisitor** » December 1st, 2016, 3:02 pm

streetwolf wrote:I've been having problems downloading .7z files over here.... http://www.videohelp.com/software/MPC-BE. Pick a portable file. They download as if they were text files to the screen. I think it's a site problem as other sites with 7zip files download as they should. I don't know if it's the same problem as the OP.

Yeah, right-click and 'Save link as...' shows in the Windows file chooser as 'Text document.*7z' - no wonder.

streetwolf · Post by **streetwolf** » December 1st, 2016, 3:06 pm

TheVisitor wrote:
streetwolf wrote:I've been having problems downloading .7z files over here.... http://www.videohelp.com/software/MPC-BE. Pick a portable file. They download as if they were text files to the screen. I think it's a site problem as other sites with 7zip files download as they should. I don't know if it's the same problem as the OP.

Yeah, right-click and 'Save link as...' shows in the Windows file chooser as 'Text document.*7z' - no wonder.

I don't get that when I do a Save link as. It's a straight 7z file (*.7z). Your mimetypes.rdf might have bad info in it about .7z files. Did you click on the link itself? What did you get?

patclash · Post by **patclash** » December 1st, 2016, 3:29 pm

TheVisitor wrote:
streetwolf wrote:I've been having problems downloading .7z files over here.... http://www.videohelp.com/software/MPC-BE. Pick a portable file. They download as if they were text files to the screen. I think it's a site problem as other sites with 7zip files download as they should. I don't know if it's the same problem as the OP.

Yeah, right-click and 'Save link as...' shows in the Windows file chooser as 'Text document.*7z' - no wonder.

Hi ,
do you have 7zip installed on your machine ?

If not, try to install it : http://www.7-zip.org/

makaiguy · Post by **makaiguy** » December 1st, 2016, 3:31 pm

When you click on a link, your browser sends an http request. The system at the other end evaluates the request, then sends back an http response header attached to the return file. NOTE: this is in addition to any statements included in the <head> section of an actual html document.

Browsers handle the reception of the response header transparently so the general user is not aware of it.

One of the functions of the http response header is to define what type of file is attached, via a "content-type" (often referred to as MIME type) declaration - this tells the browser how to handle the file. It is this content-type in the response header (NOT the filename extension) that a standards-compliant browser like FFox uses to determine how to handle the file. It is the responsibility of the server housing the files to send an appropriate content-type in the http response header.

Here are some common content types (there are many more):

Html should have content type of "text/html"
plain text files should have content type of "text/plain"
executable files will have content type "application/octet-stream" or one more specific to the application
7z files should have content type "application/x-7z-compressed"

.

Sometimes the server housing the file in question may not be configured correctly and delivers an http response header with an incorrect content type.

If a file is served with a content type that isn't automatically displayed or handled by FFox, it will ask you what to do with the file. MSIE, on the other hand, ignores the http standards, ignores the http header content-type, and takes its own best guess on how to handle the file - consequently many server admins aren't even aware of the problem if they are serving the files with the wrong content type.

So if your 7z file is being served with a content type like "text/html" or "text/plan" that is one FFox knows to try to display, you'll get the results you describe.

You can see what content type was received by FFox. Right-click on an empty part of the displayed page and choose "View Page Info" from the resulting menu. Under the General tab, look at the "type" line.

If you're not convinced (or don't trust what FFox tells you, or, in some cases, if the page isn't displayed by FFox so you can't view its page info), go to www.web-sniffer.net and enter the URL of your page or link. Then scroll down to the reply header that is displayed and see what is listed as "content type".

If an inappropriate content type is being sent, contact the webmaster, as this can only be fixed at the server.

TheVisitor · Post by **TheVisitor** » December 1st, 2016, 3:39 pm

streetwolf wrote:
TheVisitor wrote:
streetwolf wrote:I've been having problems downloading .7z files over here.... http://www.videohelp.com/software/MPC-BE. Pick a portable file. They download as if they were text files to the screen. I think it's a site problem as other sites with 7zip files download as they should. I don't know if it's the same problem as the OP.

Yeah, right-click and 'Save link as...' shows in the Windows file chooser as 'Text document.*7z' - no wonder.
I don't get that when I do a Save link as. It's a straight 7z file (*.7z). Your mimetypes.rdf might have bad info in it about .7z files. Did you click on the link itself? What did you get?

Nah I have never messed with Mimetypes setting in the .rdf file or through 'Options->Applications' , never felt a need to go playing in there as most everything I do 'just works' with Firefox defaults or whatever populates 'Applications' settings.

@patclash
I don't have 7zip installed on the system. Hardly ever used it on Win7 and when I had to build up Win10 from a failed upgrade I never bothered to re-install it.

pm1315 · Post by **pm1315** » December 1st, 2016, 9:18 pm

Out of curiosity, I used Google Chrome to download the two 7zip files, and they were downloaded with no problem.
The two files for those interested, were the latest 64bit portable versions of mkvtoolnix and mediainfo. As I said
previously, I was able to download 7zip files with previous Firefox Aurora build 51.0.a2.

Post by **James** » December 1st, 2016, 9:42 pm

pm1315 wrote: As I said previously, I was able to download 7zip files with previous Firefox Aurora build 51.0.a2.

Aurora and Nightly development channels gets checkins almost everyday so they get a update each of those days with the odd respin sometimes. This can sometimes mean issues until finished, fixed, or reverted. The last build of 51.0a2 was back on Nov 14.

therube · Post by **therube** » December 1st, 2016, 10:41 pm

As mentioned it is a website issue.

mkvtoolnix and mediainfo have the correct content-type, so react as expected when you click their download links.
You happened upon a particular link, MPC-BE, where that particular page is incorrect, so you get an incorrect reaction.

Notify them.
(Done.)
I'm sure they'll say, oh yeah, thanks.

squall_leonhart · Post by **squall_leonhart** » December 2nd, 2016, 12:21 am

streetwolf wrote:I've been having problems downloading .7z files over here.... http://www.videohelp.com/software/MPC-BE. Pick a portable file. They download as if they were text files to the screen. I think it's a site problem as other sites with 7zip files download as they should. I don't know if it's the same problem as the OP.

it is a site issue, it isn't providing the correct mime type and encoding for 7z files to the browser and defaulting to .txt

therube · Post by **therube** » December 5th, 2016, 5:29 pm

MPC-BE has updated to v1.50.
videohelp.com has updated their website to account for that.
And has also fixed they way they are serving the download, so it will now work as expected with a left-click.

http://www.videohelp.com/software/MPC-BE

TheVisitor · Post by **TheVisitor** » December 5th, 2016, 6:00 pm

therube wrote:MPC-BE has updated to v1.50.
videohelp.com has updated their website to account for that.
And has also fixed they way they are serving the download, so it will now work as expected with a left-click.

http://www.videohelp.com/software/MPC-BE

Still trying to download into a tab - still broken in latest Nightly build.

Firefox 52.0.a2 can't download 7zip files

Firefox 52.0.a2 can't download 7zip files

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