Blokads is blocking downloads that use the Android Download Manager service

[thanuj10]

This is a very critical bug that needs to be fixed. Any app or that uses the Android Downloads manager is blocked by blokada and i do not know why it does it. Download Manager is already added in the app whitelist. This mostly happens with browsers that use WebView and depend on androids download manager for downloads. Chrome and Firefox and browsers that use their internal download manager is not affected.

Steps to reproduce

1. Open Via or similar browsers.
2. Download something.
3. Download does not start.

Expected behaviour

Downloads must start and finish.

Actual behaviour

Downloads do not start and nothing is added to the download queue. Once Blokada is stopped and download reatarted, Download starts and resumes normally.

Configuration

1. Blokada version - 3.6 (Latest Release)

2. Device model - Nokia 6.1 Plus

3. Android version / ROM - Android 9.0/Pie

Questions

1. How long have you been using Blokada? About a year

2. How long time ago has the problem started to happen? Almost always, never reported.

3. How often does this problem happen to you? Everytime i download something.

[peterroth]

Hi,

Thanks for reporting it. Are you use the download doesn't start? If you want, doesn't your phone report that the download finished? The package com.android.providers.downloads.ui isn't whitelisted, this is the user interface of the com.android.providers.downloads package. Can you try to add the earlier to the whitelist and test the behaviour again?

The criticality of a bug depends on a lot of factors. This is not critical and not yet identified as a bug.

[thanuj10]

Yes i'm very sure the download does not start. For more clear instructions on repo the bug -

1. Download Via or Firefox Lite(i tested both, Via is bit more easier to work with)
2. Download any file, I tried downloading Bromite.apk and Firefox Fenix from Github and Taskcluster respectively.
3. Starting download shows a prompt on the screen indicating the download has started, but there is no notification or the download isnt added to the download list in downlaods app.
4. Checking the browsers downloads page i get this - Firefox Lite - Nothing is shown Via - A download is shown, but the filesize is shown incorrect (0bytes of -1.0bytes).
5. Turning of blokada makes the browser(s) resume the download.

Ill try whitelisting the app you mentioned above, Thanks.

EDIT - I've whitelisted the app you mentioned. The app exhibits the same behaviour.

[ghost]

Let us know as if its that simple,the UI needing a whitelisting,that could be defaulted if needed. Also can confirm at least with the LineageOS default,this used to baffle me that downloads never worked but I figured try later. Thought it was just me!

[peterroth]

@thanuj10 could you elaborate on the "The app exhibits the same behaviour."?

[thanuj10]

@rpeter85 i meant that the app still blocks downloads after whitelisting com.android.providers.downloads.ui

[larabih]

I confirm the same incident. I use Firefox Focus and when I download a file, the download start icon appears briefly and disappears immediately. I disable Blockada and re-download the file and then everything works fine. the same behavior occurs when I use webview applications such as Frost for facebook

Configuration

• Blokada version - 3.6 (Latest Release)
• Device model - Oneplus One
• Android version / ROM - /e/ e.fondation system version 0.5 based on Android nougat 7.1.

Questions How long have you been using Blokada? since the version 2.x.x

How long time ago has the problem started to happen? when i was on LineageOS 15 and now on /e/ system

How often does this problem happen to you? Everytime i download something

[peterroth]

Can you tell me which browser do you face the issue with? Firefox Focus, is there another one?

[thanuj10]

Im my case all webview based apps and browsers have this problem. Via, Firefox Lite, Firefox Focus.

[larabih]

@rpeter85 : Browsers:

• Firefox focus : download don't work
• Firefox : download works fine
• Bromite (based on chromium): download works fine

Apps

• Frost for facebook: an open source wrapper of the facebook mobile version. It have option to download fb videos but it don't work when Blokada is running.

[thanuj10]

As i said before, Browsers with an internal download manager work fine. But Webview based apps do not download stuff.

[matteocoder]

Can the issue be caused by this bug? @thanuj10 Do you have any devices with Android 6 or earlier to see if you can reproduce the issue?

[thanuj10]

Yeah i do actually. Ill try reproducing the bug devices with android 6 or earlier.

Side note - This bug exists on Android 7.1.2 also

Edit - Went through the bug link posted above. Seems like an Android Problem :(

[racuna]

Same here, MIUI 10, Android 8.1

[thanuj10]

Seems like other adblockers that use similar mechanism like Blokada allow downloads through android's download manager when whitelisted.

Source - Adgaurd and DNS66 both allow downloads when android's download manager is whitelisted.

Seems like a problem with the default whitelist, maybe in the next update let blokada whitelist all system apps by default?

[peterroth]

In v4, system apps can be whitelisted as well :)

[thanuj10]

Ah, then the problem might be sorted. Excited for v4's release!

[Buntbart]

Same here: LOS 16 without GApps, Browsers: Lightning, Firefox Klar, Privacy Browser, FOSS Browser. All fail to start downloads when Blokada is active

[larabih]

@rpeter85

In v4, system apps can be whitelisted as well :)

If apps can be whitelisted, blokada will not block ads domains from this apps or I misunderstood ?

[thanuj10]

@larabih yes whitelisting will allow ads to show. But generally speaking, system apps do not show ads.

[thanuj10]

Can i ask about the progress on this issue? Im forced to use other adblocking apps as this blocks download manager and i use it alot..

[larabih]

@thanuj10 This problem was confirmed on the ROM LineageOS. Personally I use firefox to open download links instead of Firefox Focus which I usually use.

[Herbstfreud]

I opened this as Issue #209 already. Seems to be a kind of restriction in Android itself.

A browser which can handle downloads with Blokada enabled is Fennec, also available at F-Droid.

[ikanakova]

Same problem here (Blokada 3.7 installed from F-Droid, on Android 9 / Nokia 6.1 / Android One, Firefox Focus 8.0.11 installed from Google Play) - cannot download files, but without Blokada it works (tested on Nokia 5 with same Firefox Focus).

[peterroth]

Can you let me know what exactly should be whitelisted to be able to download things? I want to add that to default whitelist.

[Herbstfreud]

There is something that can be whitelisted for that? This would be really interesting - I haven't seen anything for this.

Or is there some type of alternative download manager or alternative webview engine that can be installed?

[soredake]

Any progress on this?

[thanuj10]

@rpeter85 I've seen some other VPN Based adblockers whitelist the Download Manager app by default.

[SeriousHoax]

I face the same problem too. Happens on Firefox Focus and a third party twitter app that I use named, Flamingo for twitter. Download manager is whitelisted but still this happens. I'm forced to use another adblocker at the moment. Seen some version 4 screenshots and seems like finally it's gonna have everything we want feature wise. Hopefully a solution for this problem would be found before the release of version 4.

[thanuj10]

Problem still not fixed in V4.

[SeriousHoax]

Well, version 4 got released today! Didn't notice. This problem needs to be fixed soon.