How to disable 'This type of file can harm your computer' pop up

Question

I'm using selenium chromedriver for automating web application. In my application, I need to download xml files. But when I download xml file, I get 'This type of file can harm your computer' pop up. I want to disable this pop up using selenium chromedriver and I want these type of files to be downloaded always. How can this be done?

Selenium version : 2.47.1
Chromedriver version : 2.19

UPDATE it's long standing Chrome bug from 2012.

you should not disable it but you can use `alert.accept()` to handle that popup. It will click on keep and continue your script. — Helping Hands, Dec 07 '15 at 10:07
That pop up is not application pop up. That is chrome default pop up. Attached screenshot in question. — Mosam Mehta, Dec 07 '15 at 10:11
Ok , You can not turnoff it. Set in your chrome that ask to save file when download and then try with `alert.accept()` — Helping Hands, Dec 07 '15 at 10:16
honestly you shouldn't use selenium to download these files, as you have little control. you should [calculate / fetch the href of the file](http://ardesco.lazerycode.com/index.php/2012/07/how-to-download-files-with-selenium-and-why-you-shouldnt/) and just download it using the language you are using. — ddavison, Dec 07 '15 at 18:37

fing · Accepted Answer · 2017-04-13T12:39:57.383

The problem with XML files started to happen to me as of Chrome 47.0.2526.80 m. After spending maybe 6 hours trying to turn off every possible security option I tried a different approach.

Ironically, it seems that turning on the Chrome option "Protect you and your device from dangerous sites" removes the message "This type of file can harm your computer. Do you want to keep file.xml anyway?"

I am using 'Ruby' with 'Watir-Webdriver' where the code looks like this:

prefs = {
    'safebrowsing' => {
        'enabled' => true,
    }
}

b = Watir::Browser.new :chrome, :prefs => prefs

Starting the browser like this, with safebrowsing option enabled, downloads the xml files without the message warning. The principle should be the same for Selenium with any programming language.

##### Edited: 13-04-2017

In latest version of Google Chrome the above solution is not enough. Additionally, it is necessary to start the browser with the following switch:

--safebrowsing-disable-download-protection

Now, the code for starting the browser would look something like this:

b = Watir::Browser.new :chrome, :prefs => prefs, :switches => %w[--safebrowsing-disable-download-protection]))

According to [chromedriver/capabilities](https://sites.google.com/a/chromium.org/chromedriver/capabilities) examples it should be something like this: `ChromeOptions options = new ChromeOptions(); Map prefs = new HashMap(); prefs.put("safebrowsing.enabled", "true"); options.setExperimentalOption("prefs", prefs); ChromeDriver chromeDriver = new ChromeDriver(options);` — fing, Dec 09 '15 at 21:46
Worked in python: `opts = webdriver.ChromeOptions(); opts.add_experimental_option('prefs', {'safebrowsing.enabled': True}); opts.add_argument('--safebrowsing-disable-download-protection'); driver = webdriver.Chrome(chrome_options=opts)` — Ross Smith II, Apr 25 '17 at 06:28

score 6 · Answer 2 · answered Sep 05 '16 at 08:11

6

Following Python code works for me

chromeOptions = webdriver.ChromeOptions()
prefs = {'safebrowsing.enabled': 'false'}
chromeOptions.add_experimental_option("prefs", prefs)
driver = webdriver.Chrome(chrome_options=chromeOptions)

answered Sep 05 '16 at 08:11

Dmitry

61
1
1

score 5 · Answer 3 · edited Feb 05 '16 at 05:32

I am posting below the complete code that got file download working for me: Hope it helps :-) I am using Java-Selenium

System.setProperty("webdriver.chrome.driver", "C:/chromedriver/chromedriver.exe");
        String downloadFilepath = "D:/MyDeskDownload";
        HashMap<String, Object> chromePrefs = new HashMap<String, Object>();
        chromePrefs.put("profile.default_content_settings.popups", 0);
        chromePrefs.put("download.default_directory", downloadFilepath);
        chromePrefs.put("safebrowsing.enabled", "true"); 
        ChromeOptions options = new ChromeOptions();
        options.setExperimentalOption("prefs", chromePrefs);
        DesiredCapabilities cap = DesiredCapabilities.chrome();
        cap.setCapability(CapabilityType.ACCEPT_SSL_CERTS, true);
        cap.setCapability(ChromeOptions.CAPABILITY, options);
        WebDriver driver = new ChromeDriver(cap);

score 3 · Answer 4 · edited May 23 '17 at 12:34

The accepted answer stopped working after a recent update of Chrome. Now you need to use the --safebrowsing-disable-extension-blacklist and --safebrowsing-disable-download-protection command-line switches. This is the WebdriverIO config that works for me:

var driver = require('webdriverio');
var client = driver.remote({
    desiredCapabilities: {
        browserName: 'chrome',
        chromeOptions: {
            args: [
                'disable-extensions',
                'safebrowsing-disable-extension-blacklist',
                'safebrowsing-disable-download-protection'
            ],
            prefs: {
                'safebrowsing.enabled': true
            }
        }
    }
});

Note that I am also disabling extensions, because they generally interfere with automated testing, but this is not strictly needed to fix the problem with downloading XML and JavaScript files.

I found these switches by reading through this list. You can also see them in the Chromium source.

score 2 · Answer 5 · answered Feb 23 '21 at 20:54

I came across this recently, using Katalon Studio, Chrome version 88. Thankfully just the enabling safebrowsing did the trick. You access the settings via "Project Settings" and you navigate to "Desired Capabilities" -> "Web UI" -> "Chrome". If you don't have a "prefs" setting add it and set the type to Dictionary. Then in the Value add a boolean named "safebrowsing.enabled" and set the value to "true". Result might look like: (And you can the default directory setting has nothing to do with this example).

score 0 · Answer 6 · answered Oct 03 '19 at 09:08

I used all of suggested chrome options in C# and only when my internet connected worked for me but when internet disconnected none of them work for me. (I'm not sure.may be chrome safebrowsing need to internet connection)

By using older version of chrome(version71) and chromedriver(version 2.46) and after downloading,i saw downloaded XML file name constains 'Unconfirmed' with 'crdownload' extension and parsing XML file wouldn't work properly. Finally, creating wait with Thread.Sleep(1000) solved my problem.

            IWebDriver Driver;

            //chromedriver.exe version2.46 path
            string path = @"C:\cd71";
            ChromeDriverService driverService = ChromeDriverService.CreateDefaultService(path, "chromedriver.exe");
            ChromeOptions options = new ChromeOptions();
            // options.AddArgument("headless");
            options.AddArgument("--window-position=-32000,-32000");
            options.AddUserProfilePreference("download.default_directory", @"c:\xmlFiles");
            options.AddUserProfilePreference("download.prompt_for_download", false);
            options.AddUserProfilePreference("disable-popup-blocking", "true");
            options.AddUserProfilePreference("safebrowsing.enabled", "true");
            Driver = new ChromeDriver(driverService, options);

            try
            {
                 Driver.Navigate().GoToUrl(url);
                 Thread.Sleep(1000);
                 //other works like: XML parse
            }
            catch
            {

            }

score 0 · Answer 7 · answered Jun 12 '20 at 16:00

For context, I had a .csv with a list of .swf flash documents and their respective urls. Since the files could only be accessed after a valid login, I couldn't use a simple requests based solution.

Just like .xml, downloading a .swf triggers a similar prompt.

None of the answers worked for me.

So I stripped away all the extra arguments and settings the above answers proposed and just made the chrome instance headless.

options.add_argument("--headless")

prefs = {
    "download.default_directory": "C:\LOL\Flash",
    "download.prompt_for_download": False,
    "download.directory_upgrade": True,
}
options.add_experimental_option("prefs",prefs)

score -1 · Answer 8 · answered Jun 25 '19 at 17:46

The only workaround that works for me:

Use argument with path to chrome profile

chromeOptions.add_argument(chrome_profile_path)

Search for file download_file_types.pb in chrome profile folder. In my case ..chromedriver\my_profile\FileTypePolicies\36\download_file_types.pb

Backup this file and then open with any hexeditor (you can use oline).

Search for the filetype you want to download, i.e. xml and change it to anything i.e. xxx

score -1 · Answer 9 · answered May 10 '20 at 11:22

Im using Google Version 80.0.3987.122 (Official Build) (32-bit) and ChromeDriver 80.0.3987.106. Getting the same error even after adding the below while downloading a .xml file.

$ChromeOptions = New-Object OpenQA.Selenium.Chrome.ChromeOptions
$ChromeOptions.AddArguments(@(
    "--disable-extensions",
    "--ignore-certificate-errors"))

$download = "C:\temp\download"
$ChromeOptions.AddUserProfilePreference("safebrowsing.enabled", "true");
$ChromeOptions.AddUserProfilePreference("download.default_directory", $download);
$ChromeOptions.AddUserProfilePreference("download.prompt_for_download", "false");
$ChromeOptions.AddUserProfilePreference("download.directory_upgrade", "true");

$ChromeDriver = New-Object OpenQA.Selenium.Chrome.ChromeDriver($chromeOptions)

How to disable 'This type of file can harm your computer' pop up

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