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Can't download .ai (adobe illustrator) files. They converts to PDF

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Hello,

I have a platform where architects can download digital content in the file formats of dwg (autocad) and ai (adobe illustrator). The site is old and has been working for many years.

Today I received an email from a user that had issues downloading the ai files. I went on to the site an investigated. I am also unable to download the ai files. The dwgs are working as expected.

The ai files are converted to pdf and open in the browser in some web preview. If I then download the file from there it is still, when downloaded to my machine, a pdf. This is not the behavior from before. This is a change in Firefox.

How, when, and why is this change implemented? It seems like a pretty radical change, to coerce one file format to another without any option to get the source file for the user.

Any help is appreciated.

Hello, I have a platform where architects can download digital content in the file formats of dwg (autocad) and ai (adobe illustrator). The site is old and has been working for many years. Today I received an email from a user that had issues downloading the ai files. I went on to the site an investigated. I am also unable to download the ai files. The dwgs are working as expected. The ai files are converted to pdf and open in the browser in some web preview. If I then download the file from there it is still, when downloaded to my machine, a pdf. This is not the behavior from before. This is a change in Firefox. How, when, and why is this change implemented? It seems like a pretty radical change, to coerce one file format to another without any option to get the source file for the user. Any help is appreciated.

All Replies (9)

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Did you try to rename the file and change the file extension to .ai to check if it still works that way ?

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When I download the file it gets downloaded as pdf-format. I can then open that file in Adobe Illustrator either straight as a pdf or rename it to .ai, it works in both cases. The problem is that for my audience it is better for it to be .ai, which it is on the server. I can't fathom why Firefox changes it?

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Can we walk through the steps?

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Sure,

I have files that is of type .ai (Adobe Illustrator) on my server. My users can download them from my site. When one download them with chrome everything works fine; you get the downloaded file as .ai on your local machine. When you download through Firefox they get saved as .pdf instead.

You can try it at pimpmydrawing.com

Modified by Olof Jondelius

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Sure,

I have files that is of type .ai (Adobe Illustrator) on my server. My users can download them from my site. When one download them with chrome everything works fine; you get the downloaded file as .ai on your local machine. When you download through Firefox they get saved as .pdf instead.

You can try it at pimpmydrawing.com

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I do see the issue. see screenshots

Modified by jonzn4SUSE

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The response header is telling Firefox to treat it as a PDF:

content-type: application/pdf


The filename may be corrected since three years ago (Bug 1667787).

If we've got a suggested filename, and a primary extension for the mimetype, and the extension on the file is not one of the known extensions for the mimetype, replace it with the primary extension.
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@zeroknight Thank you, this must be it. But since .ai is not one of the known extensions I don't understand what I should send as content-type?

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... I set it to `application/postscript` and now it worked! Thank all for your help.

Best regards! Olof