Firefox mobile - ever since new version, downloads don't function properly
Ever since the newer release of Firefox Mobile (the one that changed the interface), downloads have frankly been a miserable experience on my Galaxy S9+ on Android 10. This is Firefox 83.1.0
Images were downloading but not visible in the Gallery app (except when opening directly from Firefox), even when use external download manager was enabled. Not a huge issue, sharing got around it. Today I tried downloading a video and had some bizarre behavior. The MP4 file opened in Garmin Connect, a smart watch app which didn't know what to do with it. I figured Garmin messed something up and uninstalled temporarily. Now the Mp4 file wouldn't open at all, so I download VLC. Still won't open, even from My Files app. I tried sharing from my files to VLC - I get an error saying "content://media/external/file/11046 cannot be played." Weird - the file is just in my Downloads folder, and other videos from there play fine. I move it from downloads to my Internal storage and the video suddenly works fine.
What can I do to fix this new download functionality?
All Replies (6)
Hi
So that I can replicate the issue here, can you share a link to the video file?
For what it's worth, this strangely isn't happening on all video files but this one it does happen with every time
Yes, click "Download HD Video" here: https://redditsave.com/info?url=/r/Pikabu/comments/js5o8f/%D0%B0%D0%BF%D0%B5%D0%BB%D1%8C%D1%81%D0%B8%D0%BD%D0%BA%D0%B8/
I tried responding but my comment disappeared, sorry if this double posts
Sorry mods for so many posts to approve...
Here's a screen recording to show the odd behavior. Some video files open fine, others don't. These are both MP4 files. The file that's causing an issue on Android is a valid file, I tried it from the same link on Windows Firefox without issue.
Thank you.
The file should download to your device and once it has downloaded, you should be able to open a media app (such as VLC) to play it.
Here's screenshots also displaying the weird file system behavior. The 1 copy visible in the gallery is the one that opened properly in Firefox, the other 5 or 6 are the ones that do not open properly and cause all of the weird behavior I've described.
Normally I'd assume this is an issue with the website, but it's just an MP4 file - nothing fancy. The websites shouldn't™ be able to affect how Firefox writes the file to storage right? It's bizarre because no apps besides "My Files" can see the videos...
Modified by james528