What the number on a running transfer means

One press, two waits, and only the second one is counted

Pressing Download file starts a short preparation on our side. The file you chose is assembled and made ready to hand over. Nothing counts up during that period, because there is no agreed total yet to count against.

The figure appears when the handover begins and your browser starts writing bytes to your storage. From that point the two waits are over and a single measurable transfer is running.

The figure is bytes on your disk over the size on the row

The number is arithmetic, not an estimate of effort. It is the quantity of the file already written to your device divided by the total size printed on the row you selected. At 40 percent of a 250 MB row, 100 MB is on your disk.

That is why the size column is worth reading before you press anything. The row tells you the denominator of the fraction you are about to sit and watch.

Why the count climbs in steps rather than in a line

Data does not arrive in a perfectly even stream. It comes in blocks, your browser gathers them, and the display refreshes on its own schedule, so a figure that jumps from 12 to 19 and pauses before jumping again is a normal transfer rather than a struggling one.

The time-remaining estimate shown beside the figure is calculated from the speed of the last few seconds. On a line whose speed varies, that estimate swings between generous and pessimistic while the actual transfer proceeds steadily. Read the percentage and the megabytes; treat the remaining time as a rough guide.

A figure that has not moved for several minutes

A frozen number means no new bytes reached your disk during that period. The transfer does not restart itself and no recovery happens in the background, so waiting longer costs you time and returns nothing.

Cancel it and delete the part-written file before you try again. A part-written MP4 keeps its full name and opens in a player, which makes it easy to mistake for a working copy weeks later. Then press Analyze on the address again and start the row from the fresh list.

Finishing a large row on a slow line

You can turn the figure itself into a forecast. Note the clock when the count reaches 10 percent. Whatever that took, the remaining file needs roughly nine more of the same. Two minutes to the first tenth means around twenty minutes in total, and you now know that before you have committed the afternoon to it.

If the answer is longer than you are willing to keep the tab open, go back to the list and take a row further down. A smaller file has a smaller denominator, so every block that arrives moves the figure further. The same connection that cannot finish a 900 MB row finishes a 120 MB row of the same video comfortably.

What reaching 100 percent does not prove

The figure measures bytes received. It says nothing about whether the picture inside them plays on the device you intend to use, and it says nothing about the sound, because some sources publish sound as a row of its own.

Give the finished file one minute of attention. Open it, jump to the final section, and confirm the picture and the audio are both there at the end. A file that satisfies that check is done with; a file that does not needs the row running again.

Free use while the transfer runs

A free account covers three downloads a day, with the count returning to three at midnight UTC, and every single file has to be under 150 MB. Pro lifts the daily count and the size ceiling and takes the advertising away.

The prepared copy on our side expires on a short timer, which is why the transfer is worth starting while the list is in front of you rather than after a break. Once the figure completes, the MP4 belongs to your device and needs no connection at all.

Related pages

• The steps between Analyze and a finished file
• What a dropped connection leaves behind
• Planning around the size on each row
• Pasting an address and taking the MP4 row
• Filing the video once it lands