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Downloading of Files Doesn't Work
Introduction
WebCTs Help for: Downloading Files, German Version, French Version.
If a user is not prompted to either download or open files when trying to open a non-html document that a teacher has made available in a Vista course, the causes can be multiple. In order to devise a remedy the user needs to do some testing to exactly pin-point the cause of the trouble.
Note: In Internet Explorer 7 files that come with accented characters in their file name such as "à,ä,ü,è,ê, etc. can cause the file to not upload or to not be visible to the students. As such accents can also cause trouble for exports from Vista or into other tools it is generally recommended to only use letter characters from the ASCII characters in file names. Don't use characters such as "#,)(! 'etc. See also our Do's or don'ts HOWTOs.
Table of content
- Vista's or Your Computer's Problem?
- Browser or Operating System Problem?
- Home Network or All Networks
- Adapting the settings in your Operating System
- Adapting the settings in your Internet Explorer
- Adapting the settings in your Firefox
Vista's or Your Computer's Problem ?
- Do the Browser Check in the Login Page.
- If the browser checker indicates a missing plug-in your computer needs to be adapted. See Optimize Your Browser for Vista.
- If no problem is indicated in the browser checker, try to download test pages in the following course: File Download Check Course.
- If you can download both pages in this test course then you should inform the teacher that there is a problem in her or his course.
- If you can not download either of the two files your computer or browser needs to be adapted. You might want to adapt the settings in your Operating System.
Browser or Operating System Problem?
- Control if the download problem appear in different/all browser of the same computer? If yes, it could be a Operating System (OS) problem. Adapt the settings of the OS. See below.
- Control if you can still download files in certain other circumstances such as attachments to Forums or Assignments. If that is possible than you should try to adapt the settings of the browser. See below.
Home Network or All Networks
- Control if the problem appears only in your home network and not, when you login with your laptop in another network, for example at school? If yes, you might want to check with the provider of your home network, or you might need to adapt the settings of your home router.
Adapting the settings in your Operating System
To ensure that you are prompted to save, or open the needed program (such as Word or PDF-Reader), please try to adapt the settings of your Operating System:- Right click on the Start button at the bottom left
- Select Windows Explorer (if you don't see that link look under Programs in the Accessories)
- Select the menu Tools and than the tab Folder Options
- Click on File Types
- Find the extension corresponding to the target program. For Word you chose the extension doc
- Select it and then click on the button called 'Advanced'
- In the 'Actions' box, if you see 'Open', click on it and then on the 'Remove' button
- Still in the same window, ensure that you uncheck 'Browse in same window'
- Check 'Confirm open after download' and 'Always show extension'
Restart your computer and try again to go to that learning module to download the file. If this does not work, please try the following:
- Right click on the Start button at the bottom left
- Select Windows Explorer (if you don't see that link look under Programs in the Accessories)
- Select the menu Tools and than the tab Folder Options
- Click on File Types
- Find the extension .doc
- Click on it and then click on the button called Delete and Yes
Adapting the settings in your Internet Explorer
- Start Internet Explorer
- Select the menu Tools and the sub-menu Internet Options and there the second Tab: Security
- Make sure that the first icon of of the world: Internet is selected. Than chose Costume level
- Scroll down to: Downloads
- Make sure that 'automatic prompting for file download' is checked.
Adapting the settings in your Firefox
To ensure that you are prompted to save, or open the needed program (such as Word or PDF-Reader), please try to adapt the settings of your Operating System:
- Start Firefox
- Select the menu Tools and the sub-menu Options and there the Tab: Downloads
- In the 3rd part "Download Actions" click the button "View & Edit Actions".
- Find the extension corresponding to the target program. For Acrobat Reader you chose the extension 'pdf'.
- Select it and then click on the button called 'Change Action...'
- Make sure that the radio button is selected for "Open them with the default application:"
- Or, if that does not solve the problem, select "Open them with this application:" and than search for the desired application on your hard disk.
- Save and close.