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I have PDF file for download by users on my website.

Is there a way to instruct Chrome not to view the PDF in the users browser when the user clicks the link to the PDF, but instead download the PDF to the users download folder instead? Or at least instruct Chrome to ask the user whether he wants to view the PDF in the browser or download it (rather than just viewing in browser automatically) ?

Thanks :)

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  • Thanks :) Tried the top rated answer here, but it doesn't work :( wordpress.stackexchange.com/questions/5419/…
    – rassom
    Jan 24, 2015 at 8:34
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    I think that will not work for chrome because chrome detect document as pdf before your htaccess load and interact with browser. so chrome will load it as PDF and do not access it as download action.
    – Helping Hands
    Jan 24, 2015 at 8:38
  • Maybe some javascript that finds the link through a specific CSS ID could be added and then adds a download attribute to it ref w3schools.com/TAgs/att_a_download.asp. If someone here knows enough javascript to do it, help would be appreciated,
    – rassom
    Jan 24, 2015 at 8:52
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    @rassom, which web sever are you using? The Content-Disposition header mentioned in the link in the first comment is the right way to do this.
    – heavyd
    Jan 24, 2015 at 9:54
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    The Content-Disposition in .htaccess doesn't work, tried it already.
    – rassom
    Jan 24, 2015 at 11:54

3 Answers 3

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You could use the download property in your link (anchor) like so:

<a href="some/path/somefile.pdf" download target="_blank">download PDF file</a>

This would force download in the browsers, which support it (Chrome, Firefox and Opera). However, it is not currently supported in IE or Safari as per this link

Source: https://stackoverflow.com/questions/3802510/force-to-open-save-as-popup-open-at-text-link-click-for-pdf-in-html

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    Documentation for the attribute because it has some cool features. It's too bad IE is stubborn. w3schools.com/tags/att_a_download.asp
    – user412086
    Jan 25, 2015 at 7:18
  • It is also so bad Chrome limits the attribute for same domain and same port :-( however they let you download the file via "Save as"
    – user1156544
    Aug 13, 2018 at 17:08
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I am not sure whether it is possible through custom code in website. As far as I know it is totally depends on user setting in their chrome browser.

Basically when you type : chrome://plugins/ , It will list you chrome plugins and If user disable plugin called : Chrome PDF Viewer , then only chrome will ask to download PDF otherwise PDF will open there automatically.

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  • Thanks but doesn't answer the question about how I, as a webmaster, can make sure that is the behaviour for users who haven't set this Chrome preferences setting. But nice of you to answer :-)
    – rassom
    Jan 24, 2015 at 21:05
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It can be done simply by instead of clicking on the PDF file, right-click on it and select "save link as" and then chrome will start downloading the PDF file and make sure to check the file-format before saving the link address, generally it would be .pdf but if not then manually write .pdf after it.

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  • Thanks but doesn't answer the question about how I, as a webmaster, can make sure that is the behaviour for users who haven't set this Chrome preferences setting. But nice of you to answer :-)
    – rassom
    Jan 24, 2015 at 21:05

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