File could not be found error downloading file in Internet Explorer

Question

I'm having problems when trying to use the Open option in Internet Explorer when serving an excel document from an ASP.NET web app.

Response.AddHeader("content-disposition", "attachment;filename=" + filename.Replace(",", "") + ".xls");
Response.Charset = String.Empty;
Response.ContentType = "application/vnd.xls";

using (StringWriter sw = new StringWriter())
using(HtmlTextWriter hw = new HtmlTextWriter(sw))
{
    gridView.RenderControl(hw);
    Response.Write(sw.ToString());
}

Response.End();

I didn't write the code but what I have noticed is that if the filename length is <= 177 then it works. Anything over >= 118 I receive a file could not be found error. I've checked the the 118th character is a 0 so doesn't appear to be anything to do with this.

Any ideas what might be causing this as it seems to work fine in Chrome and Firefox.

does your file name contain any spaces? I remember I had an issue like that before — Amr Elgarhy, Nov 07 '14 at 09:47
@AmrElGarhy Will do now. I'll let you know the outcome. Thanks — Tom Miller, Nov 07 '14 at 09:49
@AmrElGarhy That didn't work. The open button is completely unresponsive. When I click Save it will open the file. If I reduce the name of the file the Open button starts working. Very peculiar... — Tom Miller, Nov 07 '14 at 09:51
also make sure it has no char of these: (~, #, %, &, *, {}, \, :, <>, /, +, |, “) — Amr Elgarhy, Nov 07 '14 at 09:56

score 1 · Answer 1 · edited May 23 '17 at 12:20

1

I think here is the reason: http://support.softartisans.com/kbview_892.aspx

Although the NTFS or FAT32 file systems can support filenames up to 255 characters, it isn't possible to use a file input to upload a file with a name that long. This is due to the way that IE inserts the chosen file into the form field.
When you browse to a file and select it using the File input, IE inserts the full file path. IE also limits you to 255 characters, but counts the file path against that limit. This means that if you had a path with a length of 55 characters, the maximum length of the file name that you could choose to upload would be 200 characters.

also this may be helpful: https://stackoverflow.com/a/153400/20126

However, there is still a limitation (apparently IE-only) on the byte-length of the file name (a bug, I assume). So even if the file name is made of only single-byte characters, the beginning of the file name is truncated. The limitation is around 160 bytes.

edited May 23 '17 at 12:20

Community

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answered Nov 07 '14 at 09:57

Amr Elgarhy

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I'm not sure it's the top one as I'm not inserting the filename into a form element.. – Tom Miller Nov 07 '14 at 10:21
Also the max bytes being 160.. I seem to be able to successfully download and open a file with a filename larger than 160 bytes when calculating using string.Length * sizeof(char) – Tom Miller Nov 07 '14 at 10:26
while debugging your code, what is the filename length? – Amr Elgarhy Nov 07 '14 at 10:27
It is 178 characters. If I truncate at 117 it works. 118 it stops working. – Tom Miller Nov 07 '14 at 10:30
that's not including .xls – Tom Miller Nov 07 '14 at 10:42

File could not be found error downloading file in Internet Explorer

1 Answers1