MP4 Files Opening In Safari, Rather Than Downloading

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Level 2

289 points

MP4 Files Opening In Safari, Rather Than Downloading

When I cilck on .mp4 files in Safari now, they open up within Safari and are played by QuickTime X, within the browser.

When I used to click on .mp4 files in Safari, they would download to my Downloads folder.

How can I stop Safari from playing .mp4 files, and instead have them download like they used to?

iMac (21.5-inch, Late 2009, Week 47), 3.06GHz, 4GB RAM, Mac OS X (10.6.3), iPhone 3GS (16GB), Apple TV (160GB)

Posted on Apr 3, 2010 1:06 PM

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Answer 1

Best reply

Carolyn Samit

Level 10

165,615 points

Apr 3, 2010 1:44 PM in response to Reuben Feffer

HI,

From the Safari Menu Bar click Safari/Preferences then select the General tab.

Deselect the box where you see: Open "safe" files after downloading

Relaunch Safari.

Carolyn 🙂

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Answer 2

Reuben Feffer Author

Level 2

289 points

Apr 4, 2010 4:04 AM in response to Carolyn Samit

Thanks. I don't think that's the right answer though.

The .mp4 files are opening/playing WITHIN Safari, not in QuickTime Player 10.0. Obviously they're using a QuickTime plugin within Safari, but they're still playing within Safari.

I want .mp4 files to NOT open in Safari, and instead download to my Downloads folder like most files do.

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Answer 3

Reuben Feffer Author

Level 2

289 points

Apr 14, 2010 11:06 AM in response to Reuben Feffer

What defines what file types Safari will show in the browser, and what it will download to your Downloads folder?

I mean, if I click on a .mp3 file on a web page. Where is the setting that says Safari will play it with the QuickTime plugin in the browser, rather than download it to your Downloads folder?

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Answer 4

Sorcerio

Level 1

9 points

May 4, 2010 6:09 PM in response to Reuben Feffer

I'd like to know this as well. If I find out I will post back my findings.

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Answer 5

elastic

Level 1

33 points

Jun 26, 2010 9:29 AM in response to Sorcerio

Hi,

I am looking to do exactly the same thing, did you manage to work out how it's done?

Many thanks

Tom

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Answer 6

Jun 27, 2010 6:27 PM in response to Reuben Feffer

I'm curious, too. At the moment, clicking on a link to an MP3 file like "http://mydomain.com/mp3/file1.mp3" gives me a message like this:

Safari can’t open “ http://mydomain.com/mp3/file1.mp3” because Mac OS X doesn’t recognize Internet addresses starting with “http:”.

Safari doesn't recognize an http: address?? What' up with that?

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Answer 7

Jun 29, 2010 3:20 AM in response to Reuben Feffer

Copy the url of the mp4 file from the Activity window and paste it to your Download window. Voila!

Found here (for those who understand German): http://macfidelity.de/2009/05/05/mac-safari-video-download-trick/

Regards
Richard

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Answer 8

Jun 29, 2010 12:01 PM in response to Allen Watson1

Replying to my own post about MP3 files throwing an error message when I click a link to them: I discovered that, in Safari Preferences, Security, under Web Content, the checkbox for "Enable Plugins" was empty. I checked it, and bingo, the MP3s played, and so did the new Adobe Flash Player for video links. I think Safari 5 must have installed with the plugins disabled. I know I had them enabled previously.

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Answer 9

tmgrant7

Level 1

0 points

Aug 9, 2010 8:54 PM in response to RichardSch

You ROCK! Thanks for the workaround!

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