Safari used to store the URL where a file was downloaded automatically from but doesn't anymore.

Question

Safari used to store the URL where a file was downloaded automatically from but doesn't anymore.

In PDFs that I have downloaded, it's nice to have the URL of where the file was downloaded from in a field like "From:" in the file's get info. In fact, Safari used to do this but doesn't anymore.

Does anyone know why they stopped doing this and how to reenable or create this for Safari whenever it downloads a file? Basically, adding the file's URL and storing it or writing it into the file's get info settings.

Thank you.

MacBook Pro 16″

Posted on Mar 30, 2025 1:32 PM

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Answer 1

PRP_53

Level 10

94,939 points

Mar 31, 2025 1:40 AM in response to Alex Zavatone

Perhaps not a good example as the two PDFs I just downloaded now.

Were each from two different Financial Institutions which I deal with

The third was a Quick Start Guide for a Printer I use

The 2 Financial Institution PDFs do have the Url within the " Get Information "

The Third from Epson does not

What do I make of this ?

If the Author of the PDF decides to include or not include the URL.

What we are left with what they offer, barring having to Add Details URL to the PDF manually

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Answer 2

Mar 31, 2025 2:52 AM in response to PRP_53

This is excellent insight into the problem. It's inconsistent. The Where From tag under More Info is sometimes there and sometimes not.

I found a Terminal command you can use on the files and there are a few.

     mdls -name kMDItemWhereFroms

Then press the space bar and drag your file in aftr it.  

A simple mdls and the file path also works.  

That also shows all of the keys in the attributes for the file like kMDItemWhereFroms (which we are looking for)

kMDItemDocumentIdentifier          = 0
kMDItemEncodingApplications        = (
    "ABBYY FineReader 10"
)
kMDItemFSContentChangeDate         = 2025-03-30 17:56:01 +0000
kMDItemFSCreationDate              = 2025-03-30 17:56:01 +0000

And guess what?  kMDItemWhereFroms is missing.  

But some .DMG files have Where from.  Everything else I downloaded from Safari doesn't.

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Answer 3

PRP_53

Level 10

94,939 points

Mar 31, 2025 3:01 AM in response to Alex Zavatone

Alex Zavatone wrote:

This is excellent insight into the problem. It's inconsistent. The Where From tag under More Info is sometimes there and sometimes not.

Yup and dependent on the Author of the PDF

Not much more can be said about this, except for those what what the URL included to add that information manually

You are welcome

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Safari used to store the URL where a file was downloaded automatically from but doesn't anymore.