If you can't resume the failed download, that is irritating. Large files like videos, movies, high-resolution images or other files that are big take time to download and may fail at any time before the downloading is completed.
The reason for the error in completion of download may be the network error, server timeout or sometimes unknown error. The incomplete downloaded file is of no use and its waste of precious bandwidth and your time.
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Even if you are using an Internet download manager, they also fail many times.
It will not need any resume support and the file will download byte by byte so no waste of bandwidth at all. Dropbox will take care of not corrupting the file.
It may take little extra time than the dedicated Internet download manager software but its worth as you have a sure way and you will never lose the download in between.
I tried it and now using it for downloading any file larger than 500 MB to be sure, that I will never lose the downloaded file halfway.
Do you have any other sure-shot way to download larger files? Please share.
The reason for the error in completion of download may be the network error, server timeout or sometimes unknown error. The incomplete downloaded file is of no use and its waste of precious bandwidth and your time.
♛Pin to your Pinterest board: https://www.pinterest.com/pin/161074124159328009/
Even if you are using an Internet download manager, they also fail many times.
I wasted about 10 GB bandwidth trying to download Windows 10 Technical preview which failed at about 2 GB and for more than 5 times. Every time the FDM shown error 'file in service has changed'.
| Here is the best way to download large files. ➤ We will first save it to cloud service like Dropbox, without downloading the file locally. ➤ This process is fast and there is no way to fail or getting errors as this will happen from server to server irrespective of your ISP or your network speed. ➤ Now you can use the Google Drive or Dropbox desktop client as your free download manager. |
Concept
We will download or save the large web file direct to cloud storage services like Dropbox or Google Drive. Then the Dropbox desktop client will sync the file and download it to your hard drive.
It will not need any resume support and the file will download byte by byte so no waste of bandwidth at all. Dropbox will take care of not corrupting the file.
It may take little extra time than the dedicated Internet download manager software but its worth as you have a sure way and you will never lose the download in between.
Prerequisites
- You have to have a Cloud storage account like Dropbox or Google Drive or OneDrive. (Preferred is Dropbox. Why? More about it below)
Sign up for Ballloon. For this, you need a Google account. It's free and you will find it useful for many other purposes.Ballloon is now a paid service. But there is a better alternative.- A better and completely free alternative thoaimedia is available.
- There are many similar services to download files directly to cloud storage but all of them have the file size limit.
Only Ballloon is really useful that can save files up to 5 GB in size.
Steps
- Get the URL of the file.
- Get the real URL of the final downloadable file. Not the forwarding URL.
- Eg. In case of downloading Windows 10 ISO, if you directly copy the URL from Microsoft website to download the ISO, it's something like this http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/p/?LinkId=522144 but the real ISO is located at http://iso.esd.microsoft.com/W10IP/4B33E0680A465FBA52C09A34454D5EB6/Windows10_InsiderPreview_x32_EN-US_10162.iso
- To get the real URL, just try to download the file with Google Chrome. Once the download is started, cancel it and go to the download tab and then copy the real URL of the file.
- Now you have grabbed the downloading URL of the file you want to download without fail.
- Go to Thoaimedia and paste the URL in the 'file URL' box.
- Give name as you want.
- Select the cloud service you wish to save the file to. I used Dropbox. You have to allow Thoaimedia and give access permissions.
- Select folder where you want to save the file.
- After a minute or two, the file will be saved to your cloud account. You can check if the process is completed from the web account.
Note that sometimes, you may get 'Time Out' error from Thoaimedia website. But wait for 5 minutes and check on your cloud service from website. Not from the desktop client. You may have the file saved there.
- The desktop client will start to sync and download the file.
Why use Dropbox instead of Google Drive or OneDrive?
- Sync is faster and robust. Works fine even with slow Internet connections. Google Drive shows 'unable to connect' error on slow connection. (Personal Experience)
- Dropbox gives you the correct information about how much file is downloaded and how much time is remaining to complete the sync process.
- There is no way to know such information in Google Drive and OneDrive.
Extra
If you get some problem with Dropbox to save file from Thoaimedia, you can first download the file to Google Drive and then transfer it to Dropbox by using Mover.io .I tried it and now using it for downloading any file larger than 500 MB to be sure, that I will never lose the downloaded file halfway.
Do you have any other sure-shot way to download larger files? Please share.
About The Author
thank you sir , it helped me a lot :)
ReplyDeleteYou are welcome.
Deletehi jsut use a download manager for links, use: as example on folders:
Deletehttps://www.dropbox.com/sh/lotsofchars/FOLDERNAME/FOLDERS%20ECOND?dl=0 and change dl=0 to dl=1, these links of folders you find by watch View page source and find (ctr+f) by folder name you see in dropbox browser page.
Thank you so much. You are a life saver.
DeleteThank you sir so much. You are a life saver.
DeleteThis worked magically for me.
The updated Thoaimedia link is: https://save.thoaimedia.com/
Thank you for the update. The link is updated in the post.
DeleteIt worked nicely! Thanks! :)
ReplyDeleteIt worked nicely! Thanks! :)
ReplyDeletewhat a load of shit = drop box downloads are abysmally slow
ReplyDeleteif you don't like dropbox, you can use any other cloud service. Function is the same.
Deletecan something compresses it also
ReplyDeleteThere is no way to do that as the file is saved directly from file host to your cloud storage account.
DeleteI tried downloading a 3.2gb file with Dropbox but after four hours and downloading almost half the file, it stopped syncing and I had to resume the download afresh. Let us see if it succeeds now.
ReplyDeleteinstead of fresh download, you should restart the Dropbox app.
Deletei dont know why but the 2gb file isnt showing 2gb but 600+kb in my file dropbox.
ReplyDeleteit will take time to download the large sized file. See in the dropbox web.
DeleteIF still not working, try again by deleting the old file.
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
ReplyDeleteThank you sir, It helped me a lot. I have one software on dropbox of 1.2 GB.I could not do direct download, It downloads halfway then faild.
ReplyDeleteBut as I syncd dropbox,it worked fantastically for me. Thank you very much for your wondrful article.Thanks
Happy that the trick helped you. Thanks for the complements.
Deletedownload keeps timing out
ReplyDeleteEven though, it shows timed out error. Check your cloud storage after some time. The file goes there without any problem. I had the same experience.
DeleteThank you sir! Does videos work? I followed the instructions you provided above, but I couldn't play them after I downloaded from Dropbox to my hard drive. Am I doing something wrong? Thank you
ReplyDeleteI think, the method to download any file do not edit anything with the file properties. If you can play the file online, it should play after download also.
Deletewant to download a 18.2GB file with daily 1GB data limit of internet connection... any solution?
ReplyDeletesir,what i do when i downloading the files in windows app .i mean how to find its url ? and how to fix downloaded file in that app?
ReplyDeleteDear Kunal, I do not understand your question. What is mean by Windows APP? Do you mean that, Dropbox Windows client? If you want to download the file stored in your Dropbox account, you can go to the web Dropbox and get the shared or public URL of particular file.
DeleteSir downloading when I stop downloading and it started another day then this trick work ?
ReplyDeleteAs long as you are using Dropbox, it saves the parts you have downloaded and continue downloading the remaining part even if you restarts your PC. So its safe.
DeleteIs ti 1 gb file but dropbox only download 3mb file. I try it a few times
ReplyDeleteI think, you are entering wrong URL. Look for the real url and if the file size of entered url is correct.
DeleteI have uploaded my file on Dropbox. Now, how to sync my file on the Dropbox into my computer? Do I need to download the Dropbox app?
ReplyDeleteAbsolutely, you need to download and install Dropbox desktop client so that it can sync your file to local storage. That is the trick. Hope that helped you.
Deletethank you so much. Your article saved me! i couldnt download large files for a while now
ReplyDeleteis uploading of link to dropbox take our data
ReplyDeleteis uploading take our data
ReplyDeleteIs there any way to get the real URL with Firefox? I can't seem to get files to download on Chrome from Library Genesis (libgen).
ReplyDeleteI tried using Firefox and I get the URL, but I don't think it's the "real URL," and the URL I do get doesn't work with this.
Please wait until the download starts and then copy the url.
DeleteYes I did that. It doesn't work for me.
DeleteWhat error you are getting? Where is the problem? Please explain.
DeleteYou can use a third party file download manager to get the file exact URL.
DeleteVery happy I found this. Not sure why it works better than just downloading to through the browser, but I'm glad it does!
ReplyDeleteGiving access permissions to some unknown service does not seems as a good practice
ReplyDeleteI have everything saved to Google drive. Dropbox is exclusively used for such purpose. Like saving this party apps days, sync files of new apps, and downloading of large files. You can use new account if you want.
DeleteYes are eight, but this should be mentioned in the article for less advanced users.
DeleteGood tip however :) thx
Thank you for the tip. I am updating the article. Anyway, the free Dropbox account is limited to 2GB and so it is only used for such purpose and you can take risk with that.
DeleteThank you dear.
I used FF to DL a copy of Win 10 today and it was chugging along at 550kps. Was going to take 1 hour and 25 mins it said so I went and took a nap (I'm 75 I can do that). Woke up 50 mins later and it had stopped/failed at 40% on the bar meter. So i started back up and low and behold it started back at 1.1MBps and finished in 7 minutes. I was happy... perfect that it started up again and continued at the point it had stopped. Using Win 10, and latest FF version on 2 month old $199 Dell Laptop.
ReplyDeleteThat is great if the Firfox worked for you. Your connection is fairly fast and you woke up before the link expired.
DeleteI am happy for you.
Tried opening thoaimedia in chrome...got this msg:
DeleteYour connection is not private
Attackers might be trying to steal your information from thoaimedia.com (for example, passwords, messages or credit cards). Learn more
NET::ERR_CERT_DATE_INVALID
Automatically send some system information and page content to Google to help detect dangerous apps and sites. Privacy Policy
tried to open thoaimedia in chrome , its marked as insecure file..
ReplyDeletehttps://thoaimedia.com/save/ (https is struckthrough!!)
Please add it to exception and process. It will work then.
DeleteGreeting sir,
ReplyDeleteI have this huge file that I want to download from google drive, as I click on th e folder to download first it makes it a zip file and then chrome browser takes over the download, but I want to download this file with IDM, as internet connection is slow and if connection goes I have to restart the download.
Please help!!!
here is the link I want to download as one complete folder.
https://drive.google.com/open?id=0Bxm0akrW86U9QkZKc0g0WG5uMjQ
Hi Nishant,
DeleteI think you should download the file individually so that Google Drive should not zip them. Also, if the Google Drive is culprit in the process, you can transfer the files to Dropbox or any other service.
Please feel free to contact if there is any problem. Also please share the screenshot if possible. Cheers!!
What is the error?
ReplyDeleteSir how could i enlarge my dropbox from 2GB to 25GB or more
ReplyDeleteHi, You need to buy the extra storage. There is no other way.
DeleteYou.re a lifesaver. Not only does it fix interruptions but by using Dropbox as an intermediator for my downloads, it bypasses any download speed problems. I was trying to download a file and was only getting 400kb/s. I used Dropbox to download it and it was going at 8mb/s !!
ReplyDeleteGlad to know that, it helped you. Cheers!
Delete