Force file download with php using header()

Question

I want the user to be able to download some files I have on my server, but when I try to use any of the many examples of this around the internet nothing seems to work for me. I've tried code like this:

<?php

$size = filesize("Image.png");

header('Content-Description: File Transfer');
header('Content-Type: image/png');
header('Content-Disposition: attachment; filename="Image.png"');
header('Content-Transfer-Encoding: binary');
header('Expires: 0');
header('Cache-Control: must-revalidate, post-check=0, pre-check=0');
header('Pragma: public');
header('Content-Length: ' . $size);
readfile("Image.png");

I've even tried to use the most basic example I could find, like this:

<?php
header('Content-type: image/png');
header('Content-Disposition: attachment; filename="Image.png"');
readfile('Image.png');

When I've tested this I have removed all the other code I have and used an empty file with just this code to remove any faults created by external sources.

When I look in the console the file gets sent with the right headers i.e

'Content-Disposition: attachment; filename="Image.png"'

But the save dialog isn't displayed.

I've also tried with inline instead of attachment in the content disposition header but that didn't make a difference either, I've tested this in Firefox 8.0.1 Chrome 15.0.874.121 and Safari 5.1.1.

score 120 · Answer 1 · edited Dec 25 '14 at 13:45

120

I’m pretty sure you don’t add the mime type as a JPEG on file downloads:

header('Content-Type: image/png');

These headers have never failed me:

$quoted = sprintf('"%s"', addcslashes(basename($file), '"\\'));
$size   = filesize($file);

header('Content-Description: File Transfer');
header('Content-Type: application/octet-stream');
header('Content-Disposition: attachment; filename=' . $quoted); 
header('Content-Transfer-Encoding: binary');
header('Connection: Keep-Alive');
header('Expires: 0');
header('Cache-Control: must-revalidate, post-check=0, pre-check=0');
header('Pragma: public');
header('Content-Length: ' . $size);

edited Dec 25 '14 at 13:45

hakre

193,403
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answered Dec 13 '11 at 07:59

Lawrence Cherone

46,049
7
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106

When I try your headers I get the same results as before, however I noticed something when looking in the firebug console, the trailing " isn't there for some reason, I don't know if that's a problem but I tried removing both of them and it didn't help either. I have no spaces in the filename i use for testing so I don't know if it's even needed? – Kerp Dec 13 '11 at 09:34

score 19 · Answer 2 · answered Sep 05 '17 at 07:35

This worked for me like a charm for downloading PNG and PDF.

header('Content-Description: File Transfer');
header('Content-Type: application/octet-stream');
header('Content-Disposition: attachment; filename="'.$file_name.'"');
header('Content-Transfer-Encoding: binary');
header('Expires: 0');
header('Cache-Control: must-revalidate, post-check=0, pre-check=0');
header('Pragma: public');
header('Content-Length: ' . filesize($file_url)); //Absolute URL
ob_clean();
flush();
readfile($file_url); //Absolute URL
exit();

Robin van den Hurk · Answer 3 · 2019-09-13T20:15:54.933

7

Based on Farhan Sahibole's answer:

        header('Content-Disposition: attachment; filename=Image.png');
        header('Content-Type: application/octet-stream'); // Downloading on Android might fail without this
        ob_clean();

        readfile($file);

This is all I needed for this to work. I stripped off anything that isn't required for this to work.

Key is to use ob_clean();

edited Sep 13 '19 at 20:15

answered Jul 09 '19 at 13:13

Robin van den Hurk

137
2
10

score 4 · Accepted Answer · edited May 23 '17 at 12:34

4

The problem was that I used ajax to post the message to the server, when I used a direct link to download the file everything worked fine.

I used this other Stackoverflow Q&A material instead, it worked great for me:

Ajax File Download using Jquery, PHP

edited May 23 '17 at 12:34

Community

1
1

answered Dec 14 '11 at 08:24

Kerp

869
1
6
13

1

So, what you are saying is that you actually didn't remove all other code, as stated in your question. – Toastgeraet Jun 07 '16 at 21:42

score 1 · Answer 5 · answered Jun 12 '16 at 08:19

its work for me

$attachment_location = "filePath";
if (file_exists($attachment_location)) {

    header($_SERVER["SERVER_PROTOCOL"] . " 200 OK");
    header("Cache-Control: public"); // needed for internet explorer
    header("Content-Type: application/zip");
    header("Content-Transfer-Encoding: Binary");
    header("Content-Length:".filesize($attachment_location));
    header("Content-Disposition: attachment; filename=filePath");
    readfile($attachment_location);
    die();
} else {
    die("Error: File not found.");
}

score 1 · Answer 6 · answered Feb 03 '21 at 11:58

1

the htaccess solution

<filesmatch "\.(?i:doc|odf|pdf|cer|txt)$">
  Header set Content-Disposition attachment
</FilesMatch>

you can read this page: https://www.techmesto.com/force-files-to-download-using-htaccess/

answered Feb 03 '21 at 11:58

Ali Emadzadeh

21
4

score 0 · Answer 7 · answered Nov 20 '20 at 08:21

Here is a snippet from me in testing... obviously passing via get to the script may not be the best... should post or just send an id and grab guid from db... anyhow.. this worked. I take the URL and convert it to a path.

// Initialize a file URL to the variable
$file = $_GET['url'];
$file = str_replace(Polepluginforrvms_Plugin::$install_url, $DOC_ROOT.'/pole-permitter/', $file );

$quoted = sprintf('"%s"', addcslashes(basename($file), '"\\'));
$size   = filesize($file);

header( "Content-type: application/octet-stream" );
header( "Content-Disposition: attachment; filename={$quoted}" );
header( "Content-length: " . $size );
header( "Pragma: no-cache" );
header( "Expires: 0" );
readfile( "{$file}" );

Force file download with php using header()

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