Dropbox URL download options

April 25, 2021

Dropbox URL share can be readily used in scripts and programs including cURL and Wget. Be aware that Dropbox treats user agents like cURL distinctively to ease automation. When using less common web clients like Matlab, it may be necessary to set the URL options correctly–as should also be used for cURL and Wget. For example, Dropbox share URLs commonly end in “dl=0”, which will result in a webpage download instead of the intended file. We suggest changing the link to end in “dl=1”, which may resolve the unexpected behavior with automated clients.