15 April 2025
Summary:
After a recent Ubuntu update (in my case, 22.04 LTS), all browsers suddenly stopped downloading files. Clicking download links would either do nothing, fail silently, or never show a file picker dialog. This turned out to be caused by missing xdg-desktop-portal packages — a dependency increasingly required by sandboxed browsers like Brave, Chromium, and sometimes Firefox (especially Snap versions).
What Happened:
I lost a good chunk of my day debugging a strange issue:
- In Brave and Chromium, attempting to download a file would bring up a file picker, but after selecting a location, nothing would happen. No error, no download.
- I’m running Ubuntu 22.04 with GNOME, and the browsers were installed via official
.debpackages. - I checked permissions, tried new profiles, confirmed disk access — nothing helped.
Eventually, I found that installing the following packages resolved the issue instantly:
sudo apt install xdg-desktop-portal xdg-desktop-portal-gtkAfter restarting the browser, downloads worked normally again.
Why This Happens:
Ubuntu is transitioning toward more sandboxed app models (Snap, Flatpak, Wayland-native apps), which rely on the xdg-desktop-portal system for access to things like file pickers, downloads, and device permissions. If these packages are missing — or mismatched with your desktop environment — certain apps silently fail to complete file operations.
This especially impacts:
- Brave
- Chromium
- Firefox (Snap version)
- Flatpak apps
- Electron apps
Lessons Learned:
- This issue is subtle and easily missed because there's no crash or error message — just a broken UX.
- It can happen after system upgrades or switching desktop environments (e.g., GNOME to KDE) without re-installing the correct portal packages.
- It's a growing pain in the transition to sandboxed app ecosystems like Flatpak/Snap/Wayland.
Fix (for GNOME-based desktops):
sudo apt install xdg-desktop-portal xdg-desktop-portal-gtk(For KDE users: use xdg-desktop-portal-kde instead.)