URL downloader

The four steps behind one button

Pressing Analyze starts a short sequence, and knowing the order of it explains most of what you see on screen afterwards.

The address is fetched. The page that comes back is read the way a browser reads it, so the media it serves is identified rather than guessed at. Each media file found is measured and listed as a row with its resolution and its size in megabytes. Then you pick a row, press Download file, and that one file transfers to you.

• Fetch: the address is opened and any redirect it hits is followed to the page it lands on.
• Read: the page is parsed and the video files it serves are identified.
• List: each file becomes a row carrying its real resolution and its real size, so the choice is made on facts rather than labels.
• Transfer: the row you chose is sent to your device and saved by your browser.

The work happens on our servers

Fetching and reading the page is done on our side, not on your machine. A phone and a desktop produce the same list from the same address, and an old laptop is no slower at Analyze than a new one.

Your own connection matters at the last step. The file you selected travels from us to you, and that leg depends on your network. A fast Analyze followed by a slow transfer is the normal shape of a download on a weak connection.

Why the wait is different every time

There is no fixed duration for Analyze, because the time is spent on somebody else's page. A light page that answers at once returns a list in a second or two. A heavy or slow page takes longer, and nothing on our side hurries it along.

The transfer that follows is a separate clock, set by size. A 30 megabyte clip finishes quickly on a reasonable connection. A two gigabyte recording takes as long as two gigabytes take. For a result sooner, take a lower resolution row: the size column decides the wait.

What the progress indicator is telling you

While Analyze runs, the indicator means the address is being fetched and read. There is no percentage attached to that stage, because the page has not reported how much there is to read.

Once the transfer starts, movement means bytes are arriving. A number climbing steadily is a healthy download. A number climbing slowly is a large file or a weak connection, and it still ends in a complete file. A number frozen for minutes is the case worth acting on.

Nothing is emailed and nothing waits in a queue

The file goes straight from the transfer into your browser's downloads. No email address is asked for, no link is sent afterwards, and no job list holds your download until a server frees up, because we keep no copy for you to return to.

That has one consequence: the tab is part of the transfer. Keep this page open from the moment you press Download file until the file finishes writing. Closing the tab or letting the machine sleep ends the transfer, and nothing is stored to resume from.

If a transfer stalls partway

A transfer that stops moving does not repair itself, so cancel it rather than waiting. Delete the partial file, because a half-written video plays from the start and then ends abruptly, which is easy to mistake for a working download later on.

Then work through the causes in order. Most stalls clear on the second attempt with a different row.

• Choose a different row from the same results list. A second encoding is a different file and frequently transfers cleanly when the first one will not.
• If every row stalls, press Analyze on the address again. A source that was refusing requests a moment ago usually answers on the retry.
• Check the free space on your drive. A transfer that halts near the end of a large file is often a disk with no room left.
• On a phone, keep the screen awake and stay on one network. Moving from Wi-Fi to mobile data mid-transfer ends it.

Related pages

• Addresses, parameters and tracking tags
• Running through several addresses in a row
• Using the tool with nothing installed
• Downloading from an unfamiliar site
• The steps between Analyze and the file