Why does Safari not download files after Sequoia update?

I'm having the same problem in Safari 18.0 running on Sonoma 14.7. I have no extensions installed in Safari.

When downloading a video file to an SMB share, Safari creates a <file name>.download package. At the end of the download, in the downloads panel of Safari, there's an error "cannot move file".

I can open the SMB share in Finder, then minor click on the <file name>.download package, and then select "Show Package Contents". My video file is in the package. I can drag the video file from the package to the target directory on the SMB share, so it's not a permissions issue on the SMB server.

Same download works fine in Chrome, no problems.

> So if you are using a network volume, don't do that.

Thank you. In our setup no files are saved to local disk; all files are saved to NAS. I do not know any reason why this function should be removed in Sequoia, especially since Ask for each download remains a choice in the settings.

I believe this is a bug in Sequoia Safari, not a problem of user practice.

> There are only a handful of people reporting this problem

Sequoia is quite new, and probably most users are defaulting to the Downloads folder.

I can confirm that downloads don't work properly when the download folder is on an SMB share.

Personally, I think this is actually great news. Maybe this will inspire Apple to actually improve their networking.

The behaviour that I'm seeing is identical to what I experienced around 2013 when building a bad idea of an app. I abandoned the app when I realized that Apple's networking stack just wasn't reliable. So, I went back to work and circa 2017 wound up at a place with an unlimited budget, great IT staff, and an unbelievably fast network. Still had Mac networking problems. I had to copy a file locally, make my changes, then copy the file back to the network. No way could I open a file directly on the network. I had to be careful with QuickLook too. That would lock up the system. I didn't start to see this problem in Sequoia. I saw it in Mavericks.

Clearly, this hasn't been a priority for Apple. But maybe if people start experiencing networking problems with Safari, the Apple Safari engineers will pressure the Apple networking engineers to fix their code.

Until then, don't try downloading to a network volume. It won't work.

To clarify further...

I'm running Ventura and everything was working fine with Safari downloading anywhere... until the latest Safari Version 18.0 (18619.1.26.111.10, 18619)

After that, download starts; file.download is created on my NAS drive; and then when all done, Safari says it couldn't move the file.

This is new and is happening to everyone I'd guess who happens to always or sometimes (as do I) choose a download location on a NAS -- I haven't tried just an external drive.

AND YES, I did set that the new Safari should have access to FULL DISK ACCESS in settings.

This is clearly a bug in the new Safari.

Apple has no idea about how to manage this. Days ago I used AppleCare to try solve this and they began with not useful tests as reboot, reboot secure mode... So I left the support.

Safari can't save downloads to network share folders, does not matter if destination is a Mac or a SAMBA Linux share, always happens what this issue describes.

If you print to PDF from Safari, no problem it's saved in network share.

Other browsers (ie Firefox) or copying from Finder to share --> no problem.

They even told me to upgrade to Sequoia "to test".

Do anyone has a solution for this or knows an open Apple case about this?

I use Little Snitch and not going to remove it, as only Safari is having issues.

Thanks

Edit: This is happening me both in Ventura 13.7 and Sonoma 14.7, so not only a Sequoia thing.

I'm running Safari 18.01 and MacOS 15.01 and have the same issue. All of my downloads saved directly to my NAS are saved with the extension ".download" but saves normally when downloaded locally. I do not have any extensions running at the moment either.

> Check to see if your downloads folder is set to Downloads. Settings>General>File Download Location

It is set to 'Ask for each download'.

That choice was valid before Sequoia, it should still be valid. I do not have any reason to download files to the Download folder, they must go to other locations.

None of the solutions here apply.

> You’ll need to review what 3rd party system modifications you have installed. The most likely candidate is some kind of file-sync system.

I don't think that's likely at all:

1. This is a new behavior under Sequoia
2. No 3rd party modifications or 'file sync' system has been added
3. The issue does not appear with other browsers

Having the same issue, download folder is on a NAS. works fine if downloading straight to a mac. wish this was fixed since I work off my NAS

I have the issue too. Safari updated to 18 and now I cannot download to a NAS.

Same Problem since Safari 18.0 on Sonoma 14.7 with Synology NAS. This is clearly related to Safari. Deleted Little Snitch rules, no difference.

Safari 18.0.1 has not fixed the issue, still have the same problem. "Cannot move file" error when saving to a NAS.

Just to clarify a couple things on what I reported 2 days ago (September 18, 2024):

I'm using SONOMA 14.7, not Sequoia. Was waiting for a bug fix release before I upgrade to Sequoia.

The Sonoma 14.7 upgrade that I applied this week included Safari 18.0.

The issue that I'm experiencing is with Safari 18.0.

Downloads to network drives worked fine with the previous (17.x) version of Safari. They don't work with Safari 18.0.

DuckDuckGo browser creates download packages in a very similar process to what I reported in the problem with Safari 18.0. I have had no issues downloading files with the DuckDuckGo browser -- it completes the download and moves the file from the package to the target location on the network drive.

Generally, users have more than one browser, so they can just switch to a different product. That could explain the low number of reports here.

You’ll need to review what 3rd party system modifications you have installed. The most likely candidate is some kind of file-sync system.