Download function mobile player - "there was a problem downloading the specified content locally"

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Posted on by alexjames

The Powerapps function documentation states that invoking the Download function in mobile players will prompt the user for a location to save the file natively

I've tried on different environments across two different tenants and when I run the function suggested in test (link to a Microsoft hosted PDF) I return the same error in both Android and iOS mobile players:

"There was a problem downloading the specified content locally"

The function is: Download( "https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?linkid=827480" )

The Error Kind is 17.

Anyone able to shed any light on whether it is possible to download a PDF via the iOS or Android mobile players (rather than launch in a separate web browser)?

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Building Power Apps

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Nandit 1,568 Moderator on at

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Hi alexjames,

I have not tried this on Mobile device but the Launch function works the same way for such URLs. Can you try using Launch instead?

Where is your PDF stored, is it a Document Library? You can try using something like this:

Launch(ThisItem.'Link to item' & "?Download=1")

Hope this helps.

Kind regards,

Nandit

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alexjames 12 on at

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Hi Nandit

Yes I can use launch but I don't want to be sending people out of the native application into a web browser (that could very well not be signed in to the Tenant's / Entra) unnecessarily prompting another sign in / authentication

I'm looking to download directly to the file system without the need for a browser middleman

Thanks!

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timl 36,391 Super User 2025 Season 2 on at

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Hi alexjames,

I suspect the problem is because the go.microsoft.com URL doesn't point directly to a PDF. Instead, it's a redirection to the actual URL of the PDF.

The call to Download attempts to download this redirection, hence the error code 17.

If specify the actual PDF URL in the call to Download, does that work on your mobile device?

Download("https://compass-ssl.microsoft.com/assets/39/6f/396f3996-419c-433e-a465-25d1c7bb10b5.pdf?n=QS-Surface-Book-overview.pdf")

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alexjames 12 on at

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Hi Timl

Thanks for looking

I did spot the redirect and have tried to with some directly hosted links as well to no avail sadly.

I'm also getting a similar issue with downloading files hosted within an attachment control on mobile devices. Where you link to a blob within attachments and clicking on an attachment in view mode downloads the file on web / browser, when in iOS / Android I get a 'Couldn't Download File' error on the control

This suggest it is a file system permissions issue. I've tried this on multiple iOS and android devices so doesn't seem device specific

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timl 36,391 Super User 2025 Season 2 on at

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Hi alexjames,

I've tested this on 2 Android devices. I see the same problem that you report, despite allowing the storage permissions.

The only thing I can suggest is to raise a support ticket. This seems to me a bug as it clearly isn't behaving in the way that's stated in the documentation.

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Mookmac_Ceox 2 on at

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Did you ever get a resolution for this @alexjames ? I have the same problem today just testing with a simple direct URL to a PDF on a completely public website.

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