php file force download

Question

When I use this code to download this image (only used for testing purposes), I open the downloaded image, and all it gives me is an error. i tried it in chrome. opening it with windows photo viewer, it says that it can't display the picture because it is empty??? here is the code:

<?PHP
 // Define the path to file
 $file = 'http://www.media.lonelyplanet.com/lpi/12553/12553-11/469x264.jpg';

 if(!file)
 {
     // File doesn't exist, output error
     die('file not found');
 }
 else
 {
     header('Content-Description: File Transfer');
        header('Content-Type: application/octet-stream');
        header('Content-Disposition: attachment; filename='.basename($file));
        header('Content-Transfer-Encoding: binary');
        header('Expires: 0');
        header('Cache-Control: must-revalidate, post-check=0, pre-check=0');
        header('Pragma: public');
        header('Content-Length: ' . filesize($file));
        ob_clean();
        flush();
        readfile($file);
        exit;
 }
 ?>

when i try downloading an image from my site, i get the same error. and let me try removing the header. — droidus
– droidus, Commented Mar 30, 2012 at 18:11
so i removed the headers, and got a lot of random ascii characters — droidus
– droidus, Commented Mar 30, 2012 at 18:13
just notice that the above script has another obvious problem: if(!file) does not check whether the file exists or not, but checking the string exists instead. — Raptor
– Raptor, Commented Nov 9, 2016 at 3:25

Umbrella · Accepted Answer · 2012-03-31 04:30:38Z

4

I've had a chance to work it out. Your problem is two-fold.

First, remove the www. from the url.

Second, remove the call to filesize($file) which is throwing an error because PHP doesn't know the size of the file before it downloads the file. (really, just remove the whole line)

Removing these two things, I was successful.

answered Mar 31, 2012 at 4:30

Umbrella

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1 Comment

Manu Manjunath Over a year ago

Yes, filesize should be used only when providing download option of local files (files at server).

Umbrella · Accepted Answer · 2012-03-30 18:11:13Z

2

Replace ob_clean() with ob_end_clean()

You're still buffering, so none of the image contents get to the browser.

answered Mar 30, 2012 at 18:11

Umbrella

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2 Comments

Umbrella Over a year ago

wait, I don't see you starting a buffer... Why is that ob_clean there anyway?

Umbrella Over a year ago

have you tried setting the mimetype correctly to image/jpeg?

Gokul N K · Accepted Answer · 2013-08-20 08:18:52Z

1

If your intention is just the download the file from a third party on click of a link, you could use the new property download in the anchor tag.

The code will look something like

<a download href="path/to/the/download/file"> Clicking on this link will force download the file</a>

It works on firefox and chrome latest version. Should I mention that I didn't check it in IE? :P

answered Aug 20, 2013 at 8:18

Gokul N K

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Comments

Anoop Naik · Accepted Answer · 2021-05-20 17:48:33Z

1

Replace:

ob_clean();
flush();
readfile($file);

With:

echo file_get_contents($file);

edited May 20, 2021 at 17:48

Anoop Naik

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answered Mar 30, 2012 at 18:14

iambriansreed

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8 Comments

iambriansreed Over a year ago

The url media.lonelyplanet.com/lpi/12553/12553-11/469x264.jpg doesn't seem valid to me.

droidus Over a year ago

it was valid when i was using it. image: media.lonelyplanet.com/lpi/12553/12553-11/469x264.jpg

droidus Over a year ago

still didn't work, by the way, using header('Content-Type: image/jpeg');

iambriansreed Over a year ago

Ha. Get rid of the www. in your url string

droidus Over a year ago

so it should be like: media.lonelyplanet.com/lpi/12553/12553-11/469x264.jpg? still doesn't work :p

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