Pretty sure that chrome for android just puts downloaded files into the downloads folder. I think the solution is to always download files into the downloads folder rather than an application data folder that users would find difficult getting to. Firefox for android for example downloads into it's own app data folder due to restrictions with file management. Makes it impossible to find those files unless you use firefox's own dl manager.

I think something should be done about this too. Or atleast an easier way to retrieve downloaded files and be able to move them to another location.

Ah but WHICH downloads folder?

The user ends up looking in all thirteen different places on his device... and still might not find it.

Even if it is in an inaccessible (by other apps) folder, the name should still be shown.

And in that case, calling it "Download" would be misleading... it should be called "Later browsing" to not confuse it with normal downloads...

There is only ONE downloads folder. It is in the same directory as "Music", "Movies", "Pictures", and "DCIM".
It should not be called "Later browsing"
This folder is created when you install android.

Nice to know that there is only one downloads folder. Alas it apparently has nothing to do with where chrome saves the downloaded file.

+ UX
- me

+dahlke FYI

+talo, dimich since this seems like an offline pages request

All strict file downloads in Chrome are currently stored in the Android Download folder. If that file is viewable in Chrome (video, audio, txt, etc.) it will open up in a Chrome Custom Tab. The directory where the file is stored is provided at the top of the page.

If you download a web page (using the download arrow in the 3 dot menu), then it is stored inside Chrome's app directory since Chrome is the only app that can properly render the offline web page. In this case, clicking the I icon in the 3 dot menu just shows the original URL. 

jidanni@, from your description, it sounds like you downloaded the page instead of just the text file. 

Hmm ok it looks like you can make an offline page request to a txt file.  Should we restrict this or covert it to a normal download if it is a file type that we know should probably be a download?

This question has come up a couple of times. I think most users will want that file as a standard download, but that does mean that the download UI now has inconsistent behavior depending on whether the page is a traditional web page or a file navigation. We need to think through all the implications.

This issue has been Available for over a year. If it's no longer important or seems unlikely to be fixed, please consider closing it out. If it is important, please re-triage the issue.

Sorry for the inconvenience if the bug really should have been left as Available.

For more details visit https://www.chromium.org/issue-tracking/autotriage - Your friendly Sheriffbot

aboss@ & dimich@ do you have any thoughts on comment 10 and 11?  I'd be fine with converting these to normal downloads if they're non-typical web page types.