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Forum Discussion
Force render issues (raw=1) and shared links won't work for hosting.
images were perfect on all browsers until yesterday afternoon - what is the fix or is this a dropbox issue?
We are rolling out a fix for issues with raw=1 and dl=1 links that started recently. Please try again and let us know if it's still not working.
Hi Jay,
Thanks for getting back to me so quickly.
So, the previous behaviour we had which uses the dl=1 approach on a URL, and what happens when you click the link to download our PDFs, is that the user clicks the download button on our site, and then the download starts. There's no navigating to a different page, no other tabs pop up, the user stays on the same page, etc.
Now, the new behaviour that occurs for links that point to our Dropbox folders (still using the dl=1 approach) is that they will click the download button, a new, blank tab opens and is switched to (which has the Dropbox URL string inside it) and then the download starts—leaving the user with an empty open tab they need to close to return to our site.
This did not used to be the behaviour, as we've had this in place for quite some time. It used to be that the Dropbox folder download links behaved in the same way as the file links when appended with 'dl=1'
I hope that helps clarify. Let me know if I can provide more clarity, i'm happy to upload a video to explain it if that helps.
Thanks for your help
Oli
Hannah
Dropbox Staff
Dropbox StaffHey sub-solar-studio, if you open the Dropbox link directly from your browser and not through your website, does it force-download the file?
Can you also take a look at the info here and let me know if it helps?
Hello, Hanna.
I have the same error. I have an anchor with this link to share https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fo/xxxx&dl=1. So when you click instead of doing a direct download it opens a new white tab and starts the download.
Whats happend? I need resolve asap!Thanks
Hey Hannah,
Thanks for getting back to me and for linking to the original documentation for this link behaviour. I did link to that same documentation in my original post, so i'm aware of it and how it works.
If I were to open the link directly in a new tab, the use case would be different. So it's less comparable.The way we're using the url's (including the dl=1 suffix query) on the site is in anchor links:
- When the URL points to a Dropbox file, the anchor links behave as if it has the HTML attribute target="_self".
- However, when the URL points to a Dropbox folder the anchor links behave as if they have the HTML attribute target="_blank" and open a new tab to then start the download.
- This is unexpected behaviour as usually the target=_self is the default for all browsers and doesn't need to be specified. It's also how Dropbox has been functioning for quite a while. So there seems to have been some change that has caused this.
I think I've managed to find a workaround by just adding the target=_self attribute to the URL manually. But this might be something that you want to look into or raise to the engineering team responsible for this area.
Thanks
Sorry, my bad. I think maybe some kind of change has been pushed on the back end, as now it seems like all the links are behaving as before, regardless of the 'target' attribute being set.
Perhaps a change was pushed from the Dropbox side?
- Hannah
Sorry, sub-solar-studio, do you mean that now your links work as usual?
- Jay
Hi terryfri3nds, does this occur when viewing the link on an incognito/private browsing window in your browser?
Hi @Jay,
Yes, it happens in all scenarios. I tried clear cache, private mode, in another browser.
Hello. I have the same problem. All links changed their behavior from one moment to the next. Look at this example: https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/su95ust5cesfgavoz8d2j/15-essmov-polt-womb-250324.zip?rlkey=mh7nwgqf2o33u27adz7vmj1bk&st=jgddg5es&dl=1 even dom dl=1 it redirects to a blank dropbox page. It downloads but redirects to a blank page. I've already tested it on several browsers, including in anonymous mode.
