Where do downloaded files go?

Question

I downloaded a file (PDF) from a web page using the Internet Explorer in Windows Mango. As soon as I downloaded it, I was able to see the document in Adobe PDF Reader. But where is the file stored? How do I move it to the documents folder in my OneDrive ?

Where will the other file formats (the ones not recognized by any of the phone applications) get stored after you download? Is there a way to retrieve them?

Answer 1

With every file type that is downloaded from Internet explorer (or your e-mail), there should be an application associated with the file type to open it. When the file is downloaded, the associated application will help read its contents. For eg:

1. PDF - Adobe Reader App.
2. Text files, zip files, MS Office docs - Microsoft Office Hub.
3. Pictures - Pictures Hub

... and so on. Once the file is downloaded to the application, you'll only get the options the application has, to work with the file. That is, Adobe reader as yet does not allow to move files to sky drive.

If you attempt to download an unknown file type from Internet Explorer, you'll get the message Can't download file. Windows Phone doesn't support this file type.

Answer 2

Since Windows Phone 8, developers can register a handler for file extensions. See http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windowsphone/develop/jj206987(v=vs.105).aspx

This is my old answer. It is only valid for Windows Phone 7: Windows Phone uses something called "isolated storage". This is a virtual storage space created on the internal storage by each application that needs to save files onto the phone. Every application can only read and write to its own isolated storage space. So no other application can see or use other applications files.

There are a couple of special cases. Some applications have associations with other applications. Such as the browser and the email reader that can make other applications save a file of an certain type into its own isolated storage and show it for the user. For example if you download a PDF file in Internet Explorer the PDF reader will download it to its own isolated storage and then the PDF reader will launch and show the file for the user.

As far as I know, external developers can not associate their own programs with other programs in this way. So if I were to make an NES emulator I can't make the phone automatically start NES games, which were downloaded in Internet Explorer, within my NES emulator application.

So all applications that have the need to use files from other sources have to have their own way of retrieving them from this source.