Empty Zip files downloaded unless authenticated

Author: madduckCreated Jul 13, 2026Updated Sep 19, 2026
Labelsbugregression

Hello,

If we share a link such as https://files.toni.immo/public/share/pvf58oZ5Ej_vhVT1tYYWJg for people to download files, and they download a Zip file, the downloaded file will be empty:

Brandschutz.zip: Zip archive data (empty)

If I am authenticated with FileBrowser, however, the download works.

I've verified that cacheDir is writeable by the process owner, but according to strace and fswatch, downloading the link does not actually trigger any file operation underneath, or anywhere really.

Here is all that happens file-related when I GET the download URL:

root@filebrowser:/srv/docker/data/tmp# strace -e file -fp 2154658
strace: Process 2154658 attached with 12 threads
[pid 2154658] newfstatat(AT_FDCWD, "/m/Wissen/Brandschutz", {st_mode=S_IFDIR|0755, st_size=0, ...}, AT_SYMLINK_NOFOLLOW) = 0
[pid 2154658] openat(AT_FDCWD, "/m/Wissen/Brandschutz", O_RDONLY|O_CLOEXEC) = 8
[pid 2154658] newfstatat(8, "feuertrutz-vdma24000.pdf", {st_mode=S_IFREG|0755, st_size=255507, ...}, AT_SYMLINK_NOFOLLOW) = 0
[pid 2154658] newfstatat(AT_FDCWD, "/m/Wissen/Brandschutz", {st_mode=S_IFDIR|0755, st_size=0, ...}, 0) = 0
[pid 2154658] openat(AT_FDCWD, "/m/Wissen/Brandschutz", O_RDONLY|O_CLOEXEC) = 8
[pid 2154658] newfstatat(8, "feuertrutz-vdma24000.pdf", {st_mode=S_IFREG|0755, st_size=255507, ...}, AT_SYMLINK_NOFOLLOW) = 0

No mention of a Zip file. If I monitor /var/lib/docker with inotify, I only see read-access to the index, and a write access to a log file.

Any ideas what the problem might be that's causing empty Zip files for unauthenticated users?

Originally posted by @madduck in https://github.com/gtsteffaniak/filebrowser/discussions/2599

Source: gtsteffaniak/filebrowser