puppeteer - how to set download location

I realize this is an old thread, but this thread popped up first for me when looking for how to set Puppeteer default download location. I was able to set the download location using the following code,

let customChrome = path.resolve(__dirname, './customChrome')
        let prefs = fs.readFileSync(customChrome+'/Default/Preferences');
        let obj = JSON.parse(prefs);
        obj.savefile.default_directory = path.resolve(__dirname, './downloads');
        obj.download.default_directory = path.resolve(__dirname, './downloads');
        fs.writeFileSync(customChrome+'/Default/Preferences', JSON.stringify(obj));
        const browser = await puppeteer.launch({
            userDataDir:customChrome,
            headless: false,                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                 
            args:['--disable-features=site-per-process','--no-sandbox']
        });

This will set the default download directory for files before the process starts. Essentially, Puppeteer creates a custom profile each time it runs, we can override that profile and define the download directory.

The first time you run the above code, you will have to comment out the fs.readFile to fs.writeFile as the UserDirDirectory is created if it does not exist the first time that Chrome is started.

All profile related data is then stored in the customChrome/Default folder. How to pass userDataDir profile folder to Puppeteer

This is how you can set the download path in latest puppeteer v0.13.

await page._client.send('Page.setDownloadBehavior', {behavior: 'allow', downloadPath: './myAwesomeDownloadFolder'});

The behaviour is experimental, it might be removed, modified, or changed later.

Pst, you can try more tricks listed here, on your own risk :).

All given solutions weren't working for me in the newer version of puppeteer 15.5.0

using puppeteer-extra with puppeteer-extra-plugin-user-preferences plugin did the trick.

// make sure puppeteer-extra & puppeteer-extra-plugin-user-preferences are installed

const UserPreferencesPlugin = require("puppeteer-extra-plugin-user-preferences");

const downloadImageDirectoryPath = process.cwd()

puppeteer.use(
  UserPreferencesPlugin({
    userPrefs: {
      download: {
        prompt_for_download: false,
        open_pdf_in_system_reader: true,
        default_directory: downloadImageDirectoryPath,
      },
      plugins: {
        always_open_pdf_externally: true,
      },
    },
  })
);

In newer versions of Puppeteer (I'm using v14.1), the Accepted Answer no longer works:

await page._client.send('Page.setDownloadBehavior', {behavior: 'allow', downloadPath: './myAwesomeDownloadFolder'});

> TypeError: page._client.send is not a function

Instead, I had to explicitely create a new CDPSession:

const client = await page.target().createCDPSession()
await client.send('Page.setDownloadBehavior', {
  behavior: 'allow',
  downloadPath: './myAwesomeDownloadFolder',
})