How to start automatic download of a file in Internet Explorer?

How do I initialize an automatic download of a file in Internet Explorer?

For example, in the download page, I want the download link to appear and a message: "If you download doesn't start automatically .... etc". The download should begin shortly after the page loads.

In Firefox this is easy, you just need to include a meta tag in the header, <meta http-equiv="Refresh" content="n;url"> where n is the number of seconds and url is the download URL. This does not work in Internet Explorer. How do I make this work in Internet Explorer browsers?

SourceForge uses an <iframe> element with the src="" attribute pointing to the file to download.

<iframe width="1" height="1" frameborder="0" src="[File location]"></iframe>

(Side effect: no redirect, no JavaScript, original URL remains unchanged.)

I hate when sites complicate download so much and use hacks instead of a good old link.

###Dead simple version:

<a href="file.zip">Start automatic download!</a>

It works! In every browser!

---

If you want to download a file that is usually displayed inline (such as an image) then HTML5 has a download attribute that forces download of the file. It also allows you to override filename (although there is a better way to do it):

<a href="report-generator.php" download="result.xls">Download</a>

###Version with a "thanks" page:

If you want to display "thanks" after download, then use:

<a href="file.zip" 
   onclick="if (event.button==0) 
     setTimeout(function(){document.body.innerHTML='thanks!'},500)">
 Start automatic download!
</a>

Function in that setTimeout might be more advanced and e.g. download full page via AJAX (but don't navigate away from the page — don't touch window.location or activate other links).

The point is that link to download is real, can be copied, dragged, intercepted by download accelerators, gets :visited color, doesn't re-download if page is left open after browser restart, etc.

That's what I use for ImageOptim

I recently solved it by placing the following script on the page.

setTimeout(function () { window.location = 'my download url'; }, 5000)

I agree that a meta-refresh would be nicer but if it doesn't work what do you do...

I had a similar issue and none of the above solutions worked for me. Here's my try (requires jquery):

$(function() {
  $('a[data-auto-download]').each(function(){
    var $this = $(this);
    setTimeout(function() {
      window.location = $this.attr('href');
    }, 2000);
  });
});

Usage: Just add an attribute called data-auto-download to the link pointing to the download in question:

<p>The download should start shortly. If it doesn't, click
<a data-auto-download href="/your/file/url">here</a>.</p>

It should work in all cases.

A simple bit of jQuery solved this problem for me.

$(function() {
   $(window).bind('load', function() {
      $("div.downloadProject").delay(1500).append('<iframe width="0" height="0" frameborder="0" src="[YOUR FILE SRC]"></iframe>'); 
   });
});

In my HTML, I simply have

<div class="downloadProject"></div>

All this does is wait a second and a half, then append the div with the iframe referring to the file that you want to download. When the iframe is updated onto the page, your browser downloads the file. Simple as that. :D

I used this, seems working and is just simple JS, no framework:

Your file should start downloading in a few seconds. 
If downloading doesn't start automatically
<a id="downloadLink" href="[link to your file]">click here to get your file</a>.

<script> 
    var downloadTimeout = setTimeout(function () {
        window.location = document.getElementById('downloadLink').href;
    }, 2000);
</script>

NOTE: this starts the timeout in the moment the page is loaded.

Works on Chrome, firefox and IE8 and above:

var link = document.createElement('a');
document.body.appendChild(link);
link.href = url;
link.click();

This is what I'm using in some sites (requires jQuery).:

$(document).ready(function() {
	var downloadUrl = "your_file_url";
	setTimeout("window.location.assign('" + downloadUrl + "');", 1000);
});

The file is downloaded automatically after 1 second.

I checked and found, it will work on button click via writing onclick event to Anchor tag or Input button

onclick='javascript:setTimeout(window.location=[File location], 1000);'

Back to the roots, i use this:

<meta http-equiv="refresh" content="0; url=YOURFILEURL"/>

Maybe not WC3 conform but works perfect on all browsers, no HTML5/JQUERY/Javascript.

Greetings Tom :)

I hope this will works all the browsers. You can also set the auto download timing.

<html>
<head>
<title>Start Auto Download file</title>
<script src="http://code.jquery.com/jquery-3.2.1.min.js"></script>
<script>
$(function() {
$('a[data-auto-download]').each(function(){
var $this = $(this);
setTimeout(function() {
window.location = $this.attr('href');
}, 2000);
});
});
</script>
</head>
<body>
<div class="wrapper">
<p>The download should start shortly. If it doesn't, click
<a data-auto-download href="auto-download.zip">here</a>.</p>
</div>
</body>
</html>

One more :

var a = document.createElement('a');
a.setAttribute('href', dataUri);
a.setAttribute('download', filename);

var aj = $(a);
aj.appendTo('body');
aj[0].click();
aj.remove();

Be sure to serve up the file without a no-cache header! IE has issues with this, if user tries to "open" the download without saving first.

This seemed to work for me - across all browsers.

 <script type="text/javascript">
    window.onload = function(){
     document.location = 'somefile.zip';
    }
    </script>

I think this will work for you. But visitors are easy if they got something in seconds without spending more time and hence they will also again visit your site. <a href="file.zip" onclick="if (event.button==0) setTimeout(function(){document.body.innerHTML='thanks!'},500)"> Start automatic download! </a>

For those trying to trigger the download using a dynamic link it's tricky to get it working consistently across browsers.

I had trouble in IE10+ downloading a PDF and used @dandavis' download function (https://github.com/rndme/download).

IE10+ needs msSaveBlob.

Nice jquery solution:

jQuery('a.auto-start').get(0).click();

You can even set different file name for download inside <a> tag:

Your download should start shortly. If not - you can use
<a href="/attachments-31-3d4c8970.zip" download="attachments-31.zip" class="download auto-start">direct link</a>.

<meta http-equiv="Refresh" content="n;url">

That's It. Easy, Right?

<meta http-equiv="Refresh" content="n;url">