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file downloads have wrong content-type header

Hello,

I'm testing out dropbox v2 files api. when I call "POST https://content.dropboxapi.com/2/files/download" API, the downloaded file seems to be always returned with the content-type header set to application/octet-stream. Am I doing something wrong or is this to be expected?

As far as I can tell the contents of file file are OK, it's just the header that's wrong

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Accepted answers

Greg-DB

Receiving a 'Content-Type: application/octet-stream' response header on a successful /2/files/download call is the expected behavior.

The Dropbox API doesn't return specific mime types for files, but you can get the file extension from the file name and keep your own file extension to mime type mapping as desired.

All comments

Greg-DB

Receiving a 'Content-Type: application/octet-stream' response header on a successful /2/files/download call is the expected behavior.

The Dropbox API doesn't return specific mime types for files, but you can get the file extension from the file name and keep your own file extension to mime type mapping as desired.

timrobinson33

Thanks - it seems a bit strange that a web-based file transfer API doesn't support content types but that's their decision I guess.

For unrelated reasons I ended up using "files/get_temporary_link" instead of "files/download" and strangely enough when you download the file from the temporary link, the content-type appears correctly. I guess this might be another workaround for someone who doesn't want to map the mime types manually

rdutton

Thanks for this actual solution. Using "files/get_temporary_link" required an additional API call to deliver the file, but is preferrable IMO to guessing with the file extension.