I'm working in a company that uses Azure cloud storage, and I've been tasked with downloading files from our cloud server to create backups on an external hard drive. However, when I download files, they give me random filenames instead of the intended names. For example, a file named GP24-xxxx.tif downloads as 9a453a49cc0ef3d617bb50c17231bbb0.tif. I can rename them manually, but that's really time-consuming. Can anyone explain why this is happening and how I can download the files using their original names?
5 Answers
Have you considered using Azure CLI commands? They might provide a better way to handle your downloads.
I suggest trying Azure Storage Explorer. It's a user-friendly tool that can help manage your Azure storage more effectively. Plus, there are often better methods for doing backups, depending on what you're trying to achieve. What's the overall goal you're aiming for?
You're probably downloading the blobs with their internal IDs. Check the metadata or use Azure Storage Explorer to preserve the file names during download. If not, it defaults to those generated names.
There are indeed more efficient ways to back up cloud data. What you need is to directly access the actual files on physical media.
When files from Azure Storage come down with weird names, it's usually because the download client uses blob names, which can be random GUIDs rather than the actual file names. One way to fix this is to set the Content-Disposition header for the blob to specify the filename you want. You can do this in code with the Azure Storage SDK or directly in the Azure portal by updating the blob's properties. Check out this link for more details: [StackOverflow link].
I don't have admin access. I can log into the website where the files are located, and I have permission to download them, but that's about it. Access is pretty limited for normal users.