Files downloaded from Facebook are saved as "downloadfile-x.bin" on my Xiaomi Redmi Note 8T?

Question

For example I'm trying to download xyz.pptx from a Facebook group.

• Everything works when I do it on my PC,
• but on my Xiaomi Redmi Note 8T, in the Downloads it's shown as xyz.pptx, but its file type isn't recognised (Question mark icon), and can't be opened with any app.

Files downloaded via Chrome or even from Facebook Messenger are saved correctly.

I copied the download link on my phone, and opened it on my PC and it correctly downloads it as xyz.pptx.

It seems like it doesn't finish (though I receive that notification the it has finished)

• because it's in storage/emulated/0/Download folder, and when I share it via Gmail, the file is called downloadfile-21.bin.

After I rename it to xyz.pptx, it works.

Why does this happen?

Answer 1

I have the same issue. First I thought that it is related to security of facebook groups but it is a different issue. The filename contains an invalid character like ő, ű.

Facebook launches the downloader app which seem to use the MI Browser or something similar to download the file and it fails to catch the filename properly so the download app replaces it with download-xxx.bin. I suspect that the download app has a character encoding issue. It works well with standard ASCII file names.

I couldn't even download it, so I had to do a trick first. If I copy the link to the MI Browser it will remove the illegal characters from the filename before downloading. This mechanism seems to be broken on the phone so for my case download fails with invalid URL error. Go to settings, applications, manage applications, MI browser, clear defaults Now go back to facebook and download the file. Open downloads, select the file, press open, select download here app. Now you have the downloadfile-28.bin in your directory. You can open it then with the matching app.

I can only propose a workaround: Tap on the downloaded file in the notification area which opens the downloaded list (press the check for finished downloads). Tap on the downloaded file. Select copy in the source row. Now open chrome and paste the url. Press enter and save the file. You can find it in the download folder.

Answer 2

In my case, i was getting issues with pdf files. So i used an application named Drive PDF Viewer to open the bin file. It works perfectly. It doesn't open with neither official acrobat pdf nor any Mi viewer.