Laravel Version

11.32.0

PHP Version

8.3.23

Database Driver & Version

No response

Description

Binary files (e.g., PNG, XLSX) served via response()->download() or Storage::disk(...)->download() are downloaded with the correct file size, but are corrupted and unreadable. This issue did not occur in earlier versions of Laravel or PHP.

When replaced with a manual download using readfile() and header(), the file downloads correctly.

Laravel & PHP Version

• Laravel: 11.32.0
• PHP: 8.3.23 (cli)
• Flysystem: league/flysystem v3.30.0
• Symfony/http-foundation: v7.3.1
• No middleware or response modification involved

Steps To Reproduce

Reproduction Steps :

return Storage::disk('local')->download('export/sample.png');

// Even when switching to:

return response()->download(storage_path('app/export/sample.png'));

// the file downloads but is unreadable (corrupted).

Working Manual Fix :

$path = storage_path('app/export/sample.png');

if (ob_get_level()) ob_end_clean();
header('Content-Type: ' . mime_content_type($path));
header('Content-Disposition: attachment; filename="' . basename($path) . '"');
header('Content-Length: ' . filesize($path));
readfile($path);
exit;

Notes:

• File size is identical in both versions.
• Tried with various files: PNG, PDF, DOCX.
• Issue persists even after clearing Laravel config, route, and view caches.
• No middleware or buffering logic interferes.
• Confirmed both on local and production environment.
• Switching away from Flysystem (from SFTP to local) does not fix the issue.

Suggested Fix:

Please review changes in:
• StreamedResponse usage in Laravel 11
• readStream() handling in Flysystem 3
• MIME/header management in Laravel’s response wrapping

A return to fpassthru() or readfile()-based binary streaming may solve this.

Thank You 🙏

I’m happy to help test any patch or proposed fix.