Safari 5.1 will not download .flv files

Dennis,

I have the same problem and I haven't even upgraded to Lion, I'm still using Snow Leopard. Must be a Safar 5.1 issue. I used to navigate to the Windows-Activity menu and double click the link of the yoiutube video. This would normally open a new webpage, and then automatically download the video (an option I used a great deal in Safari).

Now when I do this, it opens the video in a new page, and does not download the file.

I think it's a Safari 5.1 issue not necessarily a Lion issue.

Unless of course it's Adobe punishing Apple for not supporting flash on it's devices!!

Yes, definitely a Safari 5 issue as I am running Snow Leopard 10.6.8 and used to be able to Option/Command+A and simply download the video in the earlier version of Safari, but now I've upgraded Safari, the feature has gone!

You must now hold down Option, then double-click the file after opening the Activity window. It will download the file to your predesignated location but will not open the Downloads window.

It works fine. Just different

It took a few tries, but it works as shown. Wait for the file to completely download.

I still cant get it to work.... :-(

Jo

You can still download files the old way. Find the file you want to download in the activity window and CMD+C to copy the URL. Then open the downloads window (if you don't have it on your toolbar you can add it) then while it is open press CMD+V and your file will start downloading. This works in Lion.

Thanks Matt, but with the latest update with Lion safari the download window is no longer there to observe, at all. I know the window but now it is not part of the process I try to download the video. However I have found an open source fix. jDownloader.

Jo

Jo, the downloader window does not show unless you open it. You can add a button to the toolbar in Safari that will show the download "bubble" as it is not a true window that you can drag around. With this bubble opened you can paste a URL and it will start downloading.

Hi Matt,

The button is no longer avaliable as a toolbar option with the new safari update. see photo

However, a download button magically appears out of nowhere when a download IS happening. It has a progress bar. Only then is a download bubble window avaliable if I click on the button or 'window' on the menu bar .

Because I cant initiate a download of the video file I cant open a download window to cut and paste to. I suppose I could download a useless file to access the bubble window and see if that works. Seems a bit too hard....

Interesting. I have the latest Safari and my download button still appears -- actually I tried to get rid of it but can't remove it from the toolbar. It's showing up in the default set only. I wonder why my Safari on Lion is different than yours. I have the 1Password extension but I don't think that would affect this. Here's my settings:

I would like to point out that this method you described works well for me. 🙂

Yep. My version is the same as yours. I have a tendency to own possessed machines. I'm scratching my head!

JO