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Forum Discussion

cohenben's avatar
cohenben
Helpful | Level 5
7 years ago

Is there a fix if my Dropbox file download keeps failing?

Every time I try to download a file I get a failed status in Chrome or Safari. When I download in Firefox it fails, however Firefox allows me to "restart" the download and it begins again where it left off... so I can complete the download by repeating this as many times as necessary per file. Very annoying.

 

For a larger file (say 4 GB) I had to do this "restart" in Firefox 4-5 times before the file reached the end of the download and completed successfully.

 

I see this is an on-going issue for Dropbox for several years - is there an indication as to waht is causing this? Going to have to ditch the service altogether if there is no real fix.

 

Ben

 

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  • chrismonico's avatar
    chrismonico
    7 years ago
    Good news here, the problem has been fixed...I was able to download a 23GB file from the web @ a consistent 30mb/sec...took 13 minutes. Dropbox support emailed me this morning to let me know:

    We've had our engineers working on this and the good news is the problem has been fixed. Please check again and you should find that the correct modified time is now displayed on files uploaded via the Dropbox website.

    Sorry for any inconvenience this caused.

    Thanks everyone

  • AJS1's avatar
    AJS1
    New member | Level 2
    7 years ago

    Dropbox downloads are still very poor on my system. Its seem Dropbox is a bit of a one trick pony; great for synch, poor for downloads or uploads or file management.

  • Sanchez's avatar
    Sanchez
    Icon for Dropbox Staff rankDropbox Staff
    7 years ago
    Hey cohenben, welcome to our community! 

    To be honest, this sounds like some kind of connection issue on your end. This could be an actual issue with your internet service, or some kind of application that's interfering with the download, and causing it to time out. 

    • What message or error do you get when the download fails? 
    • What device and operating system are you experiencing this on? 
    • What types of files are you seeing this with? 
    • Where are the files being downloaded from? 
      • your Dropbox? 
      • someone else’s Dropbox? 
        • if so, how are the files shared with you? Shared link? Shared folder with full edit rights? 

    Let me know about this, and we’ll go from there.
    Cheers
    • cohenben's avatar
      cohenben
      Helpful | Level 5
      7 years ago

      This is almost certainly NOT from a connection issue on my end - I attempted the same download process from both home and office. At home I have Optimum and at the office we have Spectrum Business. So - let's rule that out.

       

      Thanks for the response - to answer your questions:

       

      • What message or error do you get when the download fails?
        • In chrome - the error is "Transfer failed - network issue" ... in Safari and Firefox the transfers just fail. They are generic failure notification in each browser.
      • What device and operating system are you experiencing this on?
        • I'm on a Mac. Running Sierra. Latest versions of Chrome, Safari and Firefox.
      • What types of files are you seeing this with? 
        • Video files (.mp4) - file size range from 900 mb to 4.7 GB have been tested and have same result.
      • Where are the files being downloaded from? 
        • From my dropbox.

       

      • Sanchez's avatar
        Sanchez
        Icon for Dropbox Staff rankDropbox Staff
        7 years ago
        cohenben, thanks for getting back to me with that. Let’s go ahead and put you in touch with our support team. By submitting a ticket here, a member of our team will be able to have a look at your account through our support platform, and provide additional troubleshooting steps. 

        Have a great weekend!

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