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

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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?

meta-tags internet-explorer html javascript
18 Answers

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.)

devio_213360

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

user_270090

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...

Markus_230440

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.

user_3125860

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();
user_110949140

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.

user_61440

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>.
user_44725960 
<meta http-equiv="Refresh" content="n;url">

That's It. Easy, Right?

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

user_135355920
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