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Why does Safari not download files after Sequoia update?

After updating to Sequoia my file downloading process in safari is broken.


it will initiate the process but it will not download any further. When you click on open finder message will say cannot move file


i tried to clear safari cache. Same problem.


when I use Microsoft edge it works fine.


so what setting changed in Safari to cause this


any insight?



[Re-Titled by Moderator]

MacBook Pro (M2 Max, 2023)

Posted on Sep 17, 2024 2:05 AM

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Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Posted on Oct 7, 2024 2:36 PM

To clarify further...


I'm running Ventura and everything was working fine with Safari downloading anywhere... until the latest Safari Version 18.0 (18619.1.26.111.10, 18619)


After that, download starts; file.download is created on my NAS drive; and then when all done, Safari says it couldn't move the file.


This is new and is happening to everyone I'd guess who happens to always or sometimes (as do I) choose a download location on a NAS -- I haven't tried just an external drive.


AND YES, I did set that the new Safari should have access to FULL DISK ACCESS in settings.


This is clearly a bug in the new Safari.

28 replies
Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Oct 7, 2024 2:36 PM in response to nerd2know

To clarify further...


I'm running Ventura and everything was working fine with Safari downloading anywhere... until the latest Safari Version 18.0 (18619.1.26.111.10, 18619)


After that, download starts; file.download is created on my NAS drive; and then when all done, Safari says it couldn't move the file.


This is new and is happening to everyone I'd guess who happens to always or sometimes (as do I) choose a download location on a NAS -- I haven't tried just an external drive.


AND YES, I did set that the new Safari should have access to FULL DISK ACCESS in settings.


This is clearly a bug in the new Safari.

Sep 18, 2024 9:39 AM in response to Tsinoy Newbie

I'm having the same problem in Safari 18.0 running on Sonoma 14.7. I have no extensions installed in Safari.


When downloading a video file to an SMB share, Safari creates a <file name>.download package. At the end of the download, in the downloads panel of Safari, there's an error "cannot move file".


I can open the SMB share in Finder, then minor click on the <file name>.download package, and then select "Show Package Contents". My video file is in the package. I can drag the video file from the package to the target directory on the SMB share, so it's not a permissions issue on the SMB server.


Same download works fine in Chrome, no problems.

Sep 20, 2024 5:33 AM in response to etresoft

> So if you are using a network volume, don't do that.


Thank you. In our setup no files are saved to local disk; all files are saved to NAS. I do not know any reason why this function should be removed in Sequoia, especially since Ask for each download remains a choice in the settings.


I believe this is a bug in Sequoia Safari, not a problem of user practice.


> There are only a handful of people reporting this problem


Sequoia is quite new, and probably most users are defaulting to the Downloads folder.

Sep 20, 2024 5:54 PM in response to nerd2know

I can confirm that downloads don't work properly when the download folder is on an SMB share.


Personally, I think this is actually great news. Maybe this will inspire Apple to actually improve their networking.


The behaviour that I'm seeing is identical to what I experienced around 2013 when building a bad idea of an app. I abandoned the app when I realized that Apple's networking stack just wasn't reliable. So, I went back to work and circa 2017 wound up at a place with an unlimited budget, great IT staff, and an unbelievably fast network. Still had Mac networking problems. I had to copy a file locally, make my changes, then copy the file back to the network. No way could I open a file directly on the network. I had to be careful with QuickLook too. That would lock up the system. I didn't start to see this problem in Sequoia. I saw it in Mavericks.


Clearly, this hasn't been a priority for Apple. But maybe if people start experiencing networking problems with Safari, the Apple Safari engineers will pressure the Apple networking engineers to fix their code.


Until then, don't try downloading to a network volume. It won't work.

Oct 10, 2024 10:51 AM in response to Tsinoy Newbie

Apple has no idea about how to manage this. Days ago I used AppleCare to try solve this and they began with not useful tests as reboot, reboot secure mode... So I left the support.


Safari can't save downloads to network share folders, does not matter if destination is a Mac or a SAMBA Linux share, always happens what this issue describes.


If you print to PDF from Safari, no problem it's saved in network share.


Other browsers (ie Firefox) or copying from Finder to share --> no problem.


They even told me to upgrade to Sequoia "to test".


Do anyone has a solution for this or knows an open Apple case about this?


I use Little Snitch and not going to remove it, as only Safari is having issues.


Thanks


Edit: This is happening me both in Ventura 13.7 and Sonoma 14.7, so not only a Sequoia thing.

Why does Safari not download files after Sequoia update?

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