Force render issues (raw=1) and shared links won't work for hosting.

Hi,

I have a client who hosts a large number of files on dropbox for users to download through our Webflow site.

Currently, we're using the approach of adding dl=1 to force a download upon a user clicking a button, as documented here.

However, recently the behaviour has changed for Dropbox folders. When our users click the button a new tab opens which directs to Dropbox and then the download starts. For our downloads which are a single PDF, the behaviour is still working as it did previously (the user taps download, the download starts automatically with no new tab)

Is there a reason for this new behaviour with Dropbox folders? Can it be subverted? Is there a workaround or is this something the Dropbox team can revert to the previous behaviour?

Thanks for your help!

Hi sub-solar-studio, thanks for messaging the Community!

Could you clarify exactly what you mean by a new tab directing you to Dropbox?

Do you get this behavior when viewing the link in an incognito window on it's own, and not via your site?

This will help me to assist further!

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

Hey 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?

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?

Sorry, sub-solar-studio, do you mean that now your links work as usual?

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

Hi terryfri3nds, does this occur when viewing the link on an incognito/private browsing window in your browser?

All my photo links on the geocaching.com site have stopped working when using the /scl/ link.
the old /s/ links still work.
Tried dl=1 and raw=1
Tried on Chrome & Firefox.