Internet Explorer Cannot Download https://something
Earlier today, I was asked to troubleshoot a secure site where file downloads were always failing. Having seen this problem many times often over the years, I immediately suspected that the web developer wasn’t aware that
if a user tries to download * a file over a HTTPS connection, any response headers that prevent caching will cause the file download process to fail.
* Note that this applies to “downloaded” files that open in programs other than IE. It does not apply to resources that render inside IE’s HTML rendering engine, like images/script/css/etc.
When Internet Explorer encounters a HTTPS download that will not be cached, the download is aborted with the following dialog box:
The Fiddler web debugger allows you to easily check to see whether a download contains headers that prevent caching.
Cache-preventing headers include:
- A Cache-Control header with the tokens no-cache, no-store
- A Vary header that specifies almost anything
- A Pragma header that specifies exactly no-cache
Without changing the site’s code, you can easily confirm that the problem is caused by cache-prevention headers using Fiddler’s Filters tab:
Fiddler allowed me to determine that today’s instance was caused by cache-preventing headers. After the web developer updates these headers to allow local caching (e.g. Cache-Control: private, max-age=15) the file download process will work correctly.
-Eric
PS: In the unlikely event that the user has checked the Do not save encrypted pages to disk option inside Tools / Internet Options > Advanced, this error dialog may be shown for any file downloads from secure sites, regardless of caching headers. I recommend that folks avoid enabling this option, and use the Delete Browser History on Exit feature instead.
Update Oct. 2010: I've conducted some further investigation of this issue, and found that (surprisingly) you CAN specify Cache-Control: no-store, no-cache and the download will work, but if you specify these directives in the opposite order, it will fail. Additionally, if you include a Pragma: no-cache header, the secure response will not be cached regardless of other headers. As a comment notes below, the behavior is slightly different for direct navigation (e.g. URL in the address bar) vs. a hyperlink navigation (e.g. user clicks on a link).
Update Feb. 2011: I've modified the file download logic for IE9. IE9 should be able to successfully download a file regardless of HTTPS or Cache-Control headers unless you have the "Do not save encrypted pages to disk" option set.