Bypass Forced Download
Remove "Content-Disposition: attachment"
What is Bypass Forced Download?
Stats
Chrome-Stats Rank
Other platforms
Summary
Some websites force users to download/save certain files, even if Firefox knows how to handle them (e.g. by displaying them directly (HTML, PDF, ...) or by opening them in another program). This add-on completely disables this functionality; i.e. if Firefox knows what to do with a file, it will do it, and all download requests are ignored. (You can still explicitly save files by right-clicking on a link and choosing "Save Link As..." or by using "Save Page" in the Firefox menu.)
Technical details:
A website can force a download by setting the Content-Disposition: attachment
header. This add-on intercepts such headers and rewrites them to Content-Disposition: inline
, restoring the default behavior.
It is possible to selectively disable this add-on on some sites by editing the add-on settings in the add-on manager (about:addons
). The values should be a list of space separated host names (*
, **
, and ?
are supported as wildcards). The patterns are matched against the host a download is coming from. This add-on doesn't tamper with downloads if the host name doesn't match a whitelist pattern ("hosts to run on") or if the host name matches a blacklist pattern ("except for").
?
matches a single non-dot (.
) character. matches 0 or more non-dot characters.
**
matches 0 or more characters (including dots). For example, the pattern .example.com
matches foo.example.com
but does not match foo.bar.example.com
, whereas **.example.com
matches both.
The default whitelist is **
(bypass forced downloads everywhere). (The default blacklist is subject to change but currently includes some soundcloud and mediafire hosts because you probably do want to start a download if you click on a "download" button on those sites.)
User reviews
User reviews summary
Pros
- Works great for some users.
- Allows immediate sending of files to applications like media players.
- Eliminates repetitive confirmation prompts for the same type of file downloads.
- Works with newer versions of Firefox including FF57.
Cons
- Does not work at all for some users.
- Does not work on certain sites like NY times and Google Drive.
- Could create security vulnerabilities by disabling forced download for user-uploaded content.
Most mentioned
- Issues with blacklisting certain websites or configuring the add-on for specific sites.
- Concerns about security risks when using the extension.
- Functionality with specific file types like .torrent and pdf files.
Recent reviews
Safety
Risk impact
Bypass Forced Download is risky to use as it requires a number of sensitive permissions that can potentially harm your browser and steal your data. Exercise caution when installing this add-on. Review carefully before installing. We recommend that you only install Bypass Forced Download if you trust the publisher.
Risk likelihood
Bypass Forced Download is probably trust-worthy. Prefer other publishers if available. Exercise caution when installing this add-on.