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I've got Firefox running on the Nexus 10, and I'm trying to download a video from a URL. When I tap on the video link, it starts trying to play in the browser, instead of downloading the file. How can I download the file?

Long-pressing on the URL does not provide a download or "save" option.

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I'd definitely say the browser is just detecting that the video is supported and playing it. Potentially you could create an HTML form that would let you enter a URL and then explicitly launch it as a download. You should be able to bookmark it and have it on your device to keep things simple. I agree though that the browser should really support saving it. – Matthew Read♦ Dec 10 '12 at 23:53
Yeah, it should provide the option at least. I know some other people want it to play in the browser, but I'm trying to download it for offline playback in the future. Thanks for the comment. – Trevor Sullivan Dec 11 '12 at 0:08

3 Answers

up vote 5 down vote

Download a downloader (download manager) app like aDownloder. Long press on the Video URL in browser and select "Share" from the context menu. Then select share with aDownloader (or any other downloader app that you install). This should start downloading using the download manager app.

This may not always work as some sites don't let you download videos. Give it a try.

Edit

As of December 2012, I don't see any way to get something like "Save link as" option in Firefox for Android. However, in some cases clicking on a video link automatically starts downloading the video, but in most cases it starts playing them. Best you can do is to request Firefox to add this feature. Meanwhile, you can try a download utility as I mentioned earlier or use an alternative browser that has this feature for your video downloads.

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Thanks for the tip, but I don't want to download a "downloader" utility. This functionality should easily be built into the web browser, just like Chrome. – Trevor Sullivan Dec 10 '12 at 19:38
:( Can you paste here the URL to the page from which you are trying to download the video so I can give it a try myself? – Suraj Bajaj Dec 10 '12 at 19:42
@SurajBajaj Here's an example page where I'm trying to download a video: channel9.msdn.com/Shows/Defrag-Tools/… I'm trying to download the high quality MP4 video file. – Trevor Sullivan Dec 10 '12 at 23:36
I've cleaned up the comments here ... just err on the side of being polite and a lot of problems go away, folks :P – Matthew Read♦ Dec 10 '12 at 23:49
@TrevorSullivan: Well, I don't see any way to get something like "Save link as" option in Firefox for Android. However, in some cases it automatically starts downloading the video, but in most cases it starts playing them. Best you can do is to request Firefox to add this feature. Meanwhile, you can try a download utility as I mentioned earlier or use an alternative browser that has this feature for your video downloads. I will update this information in the answer. – Suraj Bajaj Dec 11 '12 at 6:14
up vote 1 down vote

on android you have to add this feature via an addon. after installing the Save link option will appear as on a desktop Firefox. https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/android/addon/save-link-menus/?src=search

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up vote -1 down vote

Did you try chrome browser. It has the save link option in long press menu.

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Good point, but the question clearly mentions Firefox for Android. There may be many other browsers which do that, but this question is about Firefox. – Suraj Bajaj Dec 11 '12 at 5:54

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