When you upload a QuickTime or other movie file to Dropbox, and then get the “public link” to give to someone else, Dropbox does a really cool thing and redirects the original movie file link to deliver a very simple web page with the movie embedded in it instead. Which looks great in a browser if you just need to view a quick clip — but what if you actually intended for the link to be a download instead?
It turns out the trick is a little obscure, but fairly simple. All you need to do is add ?&dl=1 to the end of the “public link” URL. So:
http://files.getdropbox.com/.../movie.mov
becomes instead:
http://files.getdropbox.com/.../movie.mov?dl=1
Once you do that, Dropbox forces the download link, and the movie will download instead of playing in your browser.
thanks for this but my link looks like this https://dl-web.getdropbox.com/get/sharedfoldername/moviename.mov?w=901fd66f
I think the difference is that you are talking about public links and I have a shared folder. I have tried fixing the first part of the link and the last part like you have shown but I get to a page that says I don’t belong there. Any ideas, short of getting the original sender to send a public link, or reup in a zip file?
thanks
I was talking about public links, yes.
If you have a shared folder, I would think it should show up in your Dropbox, and you could just access it at a file level with the Dropbox app for your operating system. That’s how it works for me anyway. (Please note, I am not Dropbox Tech Support.)
This little trick was a big help to me. Thanks!
THANK YOU! This was driving me crazy today.