RSS Feeds - AttachmentExtractor Runs Without Actually Extracting Files

    Hello, I am trying to extract mp3 files from podcast RSS feeds and I found Thunder's Add-On on the Thunderbird Add-On dialog. It seems to be the perfect tool, but I can't make it work.

    • Thunderbird version: 60.9.0 (64bit)
    • Operating system + version: Linux Mint Cinnamon 19.2 Tina (Ubuntu 18.04)
    • Version of the add-on: 1.5.3

    I have an RSS feed with twenty-two messages. Each has an MP3 attached. I can highlight them all. I can select a folder to download the attachments to. I can start the extraction and it claims to have done the extraction. But there are no files in the destination folder. I tried to do individual messages, groups of ten and all. The dialog says it has completed, but it hasn't. Or, it has put the files somewhere other than the folder I selected. I set the default to "Downloads" and tried that without success.

    Am I missing something? Any help or guidance will be gratefully received.

    Thank you,

    Tater

  • graba November 9, 2019 at 5:14 PM

    Approved the thread.

  • Thunder November 9, 2019 at 6:10 PM

    Changed the title of the thread from “AttachmentExtractor Runs Without Actually Extracting Files” to “RSS Feeds - AttachmentExtractor Runs Without Actually Extracting Files”.

    One more information about feeds in Thunderbird:

    The attachments are not stored in Thunderbird. The feed messages have only a link in their source code to the attachments, which were downloaded in the moment you click on the link. Because of this, it is not necessary and not possible to detach attachments from feeds.

    Thunder,

    Thank you for your response. I am new to RSS, and Thunderbird for that matter. Thunderbird shows them as an attachment, and the add-on acts as though they are (shows in context menu), which is why I thought they were attachments.

    I suppose I will have to see if I can find another solution for grabbing files in bulk from new (to me) RSS feeds.

    Thanks for taking the time to let me know.

    Tater

    If you want to proof my information, you can press Ctrl + U in Thunderbird, to see the souce code for a selected message. There in you can see the "missing" attachments data and the link to the attachment.

    Maybe you should consider to read the feeds in Firefox and try to use the browser addon "DownThemAll" to download masses of files.

    Thank you again.

    I looked at the source and Thunderbird calls them "X-Mozilla-External-Attachment-URL:" and shows them as though they were an attachment. Thank you for pointing that out to me.

    Unfortunately, DownThemAll" also failed to download the mp3s when I loaded the XML file on Firefox. It will pull the html files with the titles and stuff, but not the mp3 files.

    I did some searches for RSS tools and utilities, but apparently no other person has ever had the need to download a largish number of mp3 files from an RSS feed before.

    I guess I just get to save them one at a time. Which is a real pain for podcasts with 300, or more, episodes.

    Thanks,

    Tater

    Quote from Tater

    Unfortunately, DownThemAll" also failed to download the mp3s when I loaded the XML file on Firefox.

    Try to visit the relating website and try to use DownThemAll instead of reading the feed in the browser.

    That option doesn't gain me anything because there is a page for each episode. So I would have to go to each page and download one episode no matter how I effected the download process.

    I found and am trying a podcatcher program now, gPodder, which seems like it may facilitate downloading and organizing the mp3 files.

    Thank you for taking the time to help me, I really appreciate it.

    Tater