Proposal: Allow configuring threshold for direct browser download in Console (e.g., from 50GB to 10GB)

[Fengqiv]

Hi MinIO team,

We've observed an issue when users try to download large files (e.g., 30GB–40GB) via the MinIO web Console. Currently, it seems that only files larger than 50GB are directly handed off to the browser for downloading. For files smaller than that threshold, the Console attempts to buffer the content, which often leads to failed downloads—especially in bandwidth-limited or memory-constrained environments.

After multiple tests, we found that download failures are consistently caused by the Console trying to cache large files instead of delegating the task to the browser. This behavior negatively affects usability for regular users handling large files below 50GB.

Feature Request:
Could you consider making the 50GB threshold configurable, or lowering it (e.g., to 10GB), so that files above a more conservative size are automatically handed off to the browser for direct download?

This would:

Improve reliability of large file downloads.

Reduce memory/buffer pressure on the Console.

Enhance user experience without requiring backend changes.

Thank you for your consideration and for your great work on MinIO!

Best regards

[marktheunissen]

Interesting one, here is the original PR FYI #2964

I have transferred this to the Console repo.

[ramondeklein]

@dvaldivia Why not remove all download code from the console and just return a signed URL? Then all downloading is handled by the browser. That would make it a lot easier. Or is this "custom" download implemented as a work-around to deal with reverse proxies that implement buffering?

[cesnietor]

@ramondeklein is in the current state cause the minio server might not be exposed (airgapped) the same way the console is (just ui port is exposed). see #3284 for context.