I've been running WIndows 10 for a little while now, over a month. Now, for some reason I cannot download a file. If I try from Firefox, it fails, if from IE it fails and if from Edge it fails. I'm stumped??? I can surf the web but just can't download any file at all. I've tried downloading attachments from my gmail as well as software from other web sites. Nothing works? HHHEEELLLPPP!
What are the error messages you get?
Try disabling your anti-virus software.
Try it from Safe Mode with Networking. You can get there by clicking on Power then right click on Restart.
I have no special anti-virus. Windows Defender and Windows Firewall, that's it. I've tried Safe Mode, no luck. If I go into FireFox and try a download an attachment from gmail it just says Failed - googleusercontent.com - and a time. If I try IE or Edge there are no error messages at all. Apart from downloading everything is fine. It is a dual boot machine and if I boot to Linux Mint, then everything works fine, including downloads. I did do a download a few days ago, so something must have changed but for the life of me I don't know what.
As for the disabling Anti Virus, I disabled Anti Virus AND the Windows Firewall, no luck either. Still keeps saying failed.
Have you dissabled any Services, While i was playing around with W7 years ago i dissabled one and had this problem, but like i said it was years ago.
The only thing i remember is that was nothing really to do with Browsers/downloading.
It might point you in the right direction.
Roy
I experienced a couple of of permission based issues with file downloads; I would attempt to save to my documents directory, and it would give me a permission error, forcing me to save to the desktop. From there, I was able to move the file to the doc directory or wherever else I wanted to save to. It seems to come and go. Weird.
Hi
There is a possibility that malware is preventing you from being able to download. That has been a symptom on machines I have cleaned before.
You'll need go to a different device and download an AV on to a usb stick (I recommend Malwarebytes). Then return to your device, install and scan
Like a say. Just a possibility. Well worth checking out though I reckon...Please advise of the outcome
I have the exact same problem. Suddenly can't download a file from any website. I click a file download - it makes an attempt, then acts as though I never clicked the download link (no message, no error) Malwarebytes scan came back clean as did Vipre antivirus. (I do not run both programs simultaneously) Disabling AV does not change anything....Hi
There is a possibility that malware is preventing you from being able to download. That has been a symptom on machines I have cleaned before.
You'll need go to a different device and download an AV on to a usb stick (I recommend Malwarebytes). Then return to your device, install and scan
Like a say. Just a possibility. Well worth checking out though I reckon...Please advise of the outcome
This seems to be login dependent because I can download files fine with my sons login (non-admin) but can't with mine (admin).
I have no idea what to try next other than creating an new admin user account. This is crazy......
Has anyone had luck figuring this out?
Hi,
Something has tampered with the policy settings for the admin account in an attempt to take control of that machine.
Cheers,
Ok - so how do I fix it?Hi,
Something has tampered with the policy settings for the admin account in an attempt to take control of that machine.
Cheers,
Hi,
Either use your son's account and temporarily make it an admin account. Then delete your account, make a new one for yourself and reset your son's to whatever it was once yours is working properly.
Or make a new admin account for yourself from within your existing account and delete the faulty one.
Or start a hunt for whatever is disallowing you to download files which could be time consuming.
If that's no option or too much hassle, then backup up whatever you think you need and reinstall from a clean drive.
Which is what I'd do if I suspected something fishy and had no clue where it came from. YMMV but I don't waste time on my machines trying to figure it out when a clean install is often that much faster and more reassuring securitywise in the end.
Cheers,
