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timrobinson33's avatar
timrobinson33
Helpful | Level 6
3 years ago
Solved

file downloads have wrong content-type header

Hello,   I'm testing out dropbox v2 files api. when I call "POST https://content.dropboxapi.com/2/files/download" API, the downloaded file seems to be always returned with the content-type header...
API
  • Greg-DB's avatar
    Greg-DB
    3 years ago

    Receiving a 'Content-Type: application/octet-stream' response header on a successful /2/files/download call is the expected behavior.

     

    The Dropbox API doesn't return specific mime types for files, but you can get the file extension from the file name and keep your own file extension to mime type mapping as desired.

Greg-DB's avatar
Greg-DB
Icon for Dropbox Community Moderator rankDropbox Community Moderator
3 years ago

Receiving a 'Content-Type: application/octet-stream' response header on a successful /2/files/download call is the expected behavior.

 

The Dropbox API doesn't return specific mime types for files, but you can get the file extension from the file name and keep your own file extension to mime type mapping as desired.

  • timrobinson33's avatar
    timrobinson33
    Helpful | Level 6
    3 years ago

    Thanks - it seems a bit strange that a web-based file transfer API doesn't support content types but that's their decision I guess.

     

    For unrelated reasons I ended up using "files/get_temporary_link" instead of "files/download" and strangely enough when you download the file from the temporary link, the content-type appears correctly. I guess this might be another workaround for someone who doesn't want to map the mime types manually

     

    • rdutton's avatar
      rdutton
      New member | Level 1
      2 years ago

      Thanks for this actual solution.  Using "files/get_temporary_link" required an additional API call to deliver the file, but is preferrable IMO to guessing with the file extension.

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