This site will have limited functionality while we undergo maintenance to improve your experience. If an article doesn't solve your issue and you want to ask a question, we have our support community waiting to help you at @FirefoxSupport on Twitter and/r/firefox on Reddit.

Avatar for Username

Search Support

Avoid support scams. We will never ask you to call or text a phone number or share personal information. Please report suspicious activity using the “Report Abuse” option.

Learn More

This thread was archived. Please ask a new question if you need help.

Downloading a file, mime type application/octet-stream, I always get the dialog "would you like to save to save this file? Cancel or Save".

  • 2 replies
  • 48 have this problem
  • 676 views
  • Last reply by blooders135

blooders135
blooders135
more options

A number of us are using a private site where we run an application offline. The application offers a download button so that we can take a snapshot of our offline progress, a sort of backup. When we go back on-line we can either upload the the information from the application or we can upload the backup files.

The problem is that whenever we hit the download button we always get the extra dialog asking if we want to save or cancel the file download. This might sound a little ridiculous, but we really do not want to have to move the mouse to the new dialog and have to click the Save button.

The file mime type is application/octet-stream, there is no file extension.

Is there a way to change the Firefox configuration so that this dialog does not appear?

Thank you.

Apologies, but I have deleted all of the system information gathered automatically because I am not able to submit this request from the machines where the problem occurs.

Those system are: Ubuntu 14:04.3 LTS Firefox 40.0.3

A number of us are using a private site where we run an application offline. The application offers a download button so that we can take a snapshot of our offline progress, a sort of backup. When we go back on-line we can either upload the the information from the application or we can upload the backup files. The problem is that whenever we hit the download button we always get the extra dialog asking if we want to save or cancel the file download. This might sound a little ridiculous, but we really do not want to have to move the mouse to the new dialog and have to click the Save button. The file mime type is application/octet-stream, there is no file extension. Is there a way to change the Firefox configuration so that this dialog does not appear? Thank you. Apologies, but I have deleted all of the system information gathered automatically because I am not able to submit this request from the machines where the problem occurs. Those system are: Ubuntu 14:04.3 LTS Firefox 40.0.3

Chosen solution

Content type "application/octet-stream" will always cause Firefox to show the "open with" download dialog. To avoid this download you would have to configure the server to send another content type and possibly change the file extension of the file.

Read this answer in context 👍 10

All Replies (2)

cor-el
cor-el
  • Moderator
  • Top 10 Contributor
more options

Chosen Solution

Content type "application/octet-stream" will always cause Firefox to show the "open with" download dialog. To avoid this download you would have to configure the server to send another content type and possibly change the file extension of the file.

blooders135
blooders135 Question owner
more options

@Cor-el, yes, that was spot on. I have mocked up your suggestion using a mime type of "application/json" and a file extension of ".json" and we get the correct behaviour. Thank you.