Some PDFs won't download via HTTP requests

Questions
1

n8n Version 1.74.3
Manual Execution
Self Hosted and running via Docker.

I’m performing an HTTP request to download a PDF file. For some reason some links aren’t downloading while others do. I’ve added a lot of headers, redirects etc but nothing solves it. When I make the get request in Postman it works but in n8n it isn’t.

Link that isn’t working: https://bannermansbatch.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/Head-Hunter-COA.pdf
Exampleink that works: https://www.flowerhouseny.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/09/FH0683-Cap-Thai-Indoor-Flower-3.5g.pdf

2

It looks like your topic is missing some important information. Could you provide the following if applicable.

  • n8n version:
  • Database (default: SQLite):
  • n8n EXECUTIONS_PROCESS setting (default: own, main):
  • Running n8n via (Docker, npm, n8n cloud, desktop app):
  • Operating system:
3

@adamchu22 what happens when you run it with no headers and no auth (and no options)?

4

I added the headers because calling the pdf link didn’t work without them. Thought it might help.

5

I suspect that the non-working site has some measures in place to prevent hotlinking.

6

In the end I just opted to add a timeout and if it fails or hits the timeout I use an API call to Firecrawl instead.

1 Like
7

This topic was automatically closed 90 days after the last reply. New replies are no longer allowed.