If your download don't work, this is the reason

nokiafan808

I've run into the not-able-to-download-via-http bug twice this week. Not too surprising, as one of the hobbyist sites I work with has a lot of external links to old downloads that are from the 2000-2010 era, when https was something that your bank and if you were lucky maybe your e-mail provider used, and not much else.

The first time, I couldn't figure out why Vivaldi wasn't downloading properly and figured it was a bug. Fired up Firefox, it worked, forgot about it.

This time, I wondered why Vivaldi wasn't downloading properly, and went to Help -> Check for Updates, thinking there must have been a bug in the fairly recent 5.0 release. It said I was on the latest version. So I tried the link again, but this time right clicking and choose Save Link As. It gave me the pop-up for choosing the destination this time. But when I chose it, it still didn't download; I noticed a "This file can't be downloaded securely." noticed in the Downloads pane, with Discard and Keep options. That was what caused me to search for "vivaldi allow http downloads" and find this thread.

IMO the current behavior is user-hostile, and is effectively a bug. I'm a technical user, and eventually tried right clicking, but most users would see the lack of any action when they tried to download and think the browser was broken - and might not know enough to even try an alternate browser. Even if not a direct download like it used to be, there should at least be a dialog giving the option to save when the user clicks an HTTP download link.

Vivaldi's great, but there are an increasing number of sites where I'm finding Firefox preferable, first because Firefox can block auto-playing videos, and now for HTTP downloads.

DoctorG

For me a Shift+Click on such http:// URL is the rescue.
Users have to learn this workaround for only Vivaldi.

Pathduck

@doctorg I notice something new in Snapshot and latest Stable:

Can't remember seeing this before. This happens if choosing "Save as..."

Before (in 4.3) it would give the never-ending download bug:

I use this page to test HTTP downloads:
https://www.catalog.update.microsoft.com/Search.aspx?q=KB5005565

Pesala

Test Link

Direct Download to a freeware app on my insecure website.

Note that there is still a bug with the URL in the address bar not refreshing after clicking the download link.

nokiafan808

I ran into this again today. Checking the documents needed to update a driver's license at https://bmv.ohio.gov/dl-identity-documents.aspx

The link to the PDF of acceptable documents is http://publicsafety.ohio.gov/links/bmv2430.pdf - an HTTP link.

If my mom were trying to do this, she would think the website and/or the browser was broken, and I'd receive a call, and it would probably be time to switch her default browser to Firefox. Although IIRC, her default browser already is Firefox, so I shouldn't be expecting any family IT support calls over this.

Granted, Vivaldi's target user audience is more technical than the average browser's, but that doesn't mean this workflow problem is okay.

Shift+Click does work, and is more convenient than right-click-Save-As. But neither of them is easy to discover for the average user.

rseiler

@doctorg said in If your download don't work, this is the reason:

For me a Shift+Click on such http:// URL is the rescue.
Users have to learn this workaround for only Vivaldi.

OMG, what even is Shift-Click meant to do for downloads? It works though, even on sites like dailyuploads.n e t...even without changing the site setting for Insecure Content.

I hope someone reported this whole problem, but good luck explaining it well enough so that it's not closed for "cannot reproduce."

Pathduck

@rseiler said in If your download don't work, this is the reason:

what even is Shift-Click meant to do for downloads?

It opens the download in a new tab. This way the browser just sees a new URL, it no longer cares that it is an "insecure" (unencrypted) download like it does when you click a link directly.

This fact also shows of course that this whole "security feature" is plain bogus meant only to "protect" the most clueless web users - i.e. those who do not know about shift+click.

I hope someone reported this whole problem

Of course, it's probably reported many times and the developers are fully aware of it. But this is Chromium base code doing this, and changing that takes a lot more time.

rseiler

@pathduck said in If your download don't work, this is the reason:

Of course, it's probably reported many times and the developers are fully aware of it. But this is Chromium base code doing this, and changing that takes a lot more time.

Normally in a thread this long though, someone has mentioned a VB #.

The Chromium base is certainly involved, but since Chrome doesn't have this issue, the extent of the involvement may not be relevant. It may be up to the implementer for the rest. Edge also does not have the issue.

flowetrtop

I download your app, but don't work on the laptop because won't respond?

DoctorG

@flowetrtop If you have a issue with Vivaldi browser not starting, please post at https://forum.vivaldi.net/category/2/support-troubleshooting

Nightmaresama

Idk what happened or how it happened but this looks strange.

Its like the posts of this thread were pasted on your profile.
And no extention did this.

yoda78

Any way around this besides the shift-click? I'm using PHPMyAdmin locally to pull data from a MariaDB; and when exporting the results of a query, there is no link to shift-click on: it's a button on the form that generates a file for download -- but Vivaldi refuses to download it, because it's insecure (do I really need an HTTPS connection to localhost? really?)

I have been using and loving Vivaldi for six years, but this makes it unusable for me at work. It's a critical part of my job

baranyim

I think that the solution of MS Edge is convenient:

Edge is also a Chromium derivative, so it does not seem impossible to implement something like the above in Vivaldi.

DoctorG

@yoda78 said in If your download don't work, this is the reason:

do I really need an HTTPS connection to localhost? really?

For localhost 127.0.0.1 only, you can disable the error in internal config:
Open vivaldi://flags/#allow-insecure-localhost
Set to Enabled
Restart Vivaldi

Streptococcus

@doctorg said in If your download don't work, this is the reason:

For me a Shift+Click on such http:// URL is the rescue.
Users have to learn this workaround for only Vivaldi.

That must be a Windows bug. Just clicking a download link from http is fine with the Mac version.

Pathduck

@victini Hello and Welcome to the Vivaldi Community

Yes, known bug - I reported it on 16/3:
(VB-85441) [Regression] Downloads on no.7digital.com fails in Vivaldi

Confirmation mail from dev:
Thanks for the update. We've confirmed the issue and added it to the pipeline to be fixed.
I was able to start the download by opening the download request directly via dev tools (double click or right click > open in new tab), could perhaps be used as a workaround until this gets fixed.

So there's a workaround for now. Note that you have to open Devtools (F12), network tab, then find the request starting with:
http://media.geo.7digital.com/media/user/download/release
Then right-click and open that in a new tab. It's a PITA but it's not often I download from 7Digital anyway.

Strangiato

Yesterday I noticed this bug with 6.1.3035.84 stable (64 bits) on Arch Linux.

ingoratsdorf

Sorry folks, the Vivaldi team MUST be in the position to not blindly carry over Chromium bugs (I call the "safe" download 'feature' a bug.
As people pointed out, Edge is Chromium based as well and downloads work there, so surely cannot be impossible.
I have even supposedly safe downloads from Github not being displayed, even though they are via HTTPS, just because the file type is not considered safe. It's a RBL binary firmware file, not that it matters much.
Local downloads via HTTP from localhost or my own network do not show up either, unless you click "safe as" (if you can - if there's an actual link) and then you have to find the download in your download manager and click "keep", no popup, no notification.
So right now I am back to Firefox as this whole download scenario breaks all usability. I love Vivaldi, but I simply cannot use it until sorted.

Pesala

@ingoratsdorf They can patch the Chromium code, but they must do it again with every update. They just don't have the man-power to match Microsoft.

If they fix their own code, it usually stays fixed, or is easy to fix again. That is not the case with the Chromium code, which is a moving target.

If one likes Vivaldi, one will have to use work arounds such as right-click, save link as.

Direct Download Link to some freeware on my insecure website.

PatJK

Figured out a flag that allows you to work around this with a whitelist approach:
vivaldi://flags/#unsafely-treat-insecure-origin-as-secure

Simply add the urls you want to allow http downloads on separated by a comma. Completely resolved the issue I've had on various local Stable Diffusion UIs where I'm unable to download the generated images