Safari can’t resume this download: what to do

Resume from the Downloads list

Safari lists every download under the Show Downloads button in the toolbar. A download that stopped (because you clicked Stop, the connection dropped or the Mac went to sleep) keeps a Resume button (a circular arrow) next to its name. Click it, and Safari asks the server for the rest of the file.

If the download isn’t in the list, Safari may have cleared it: Safari › Settings › General › Remove download list items can remove items after a day, when Safari quits or as soon as they finish. Set it to Manually if you want failed downloads to stay put.

Find the unfinished .download file

Until a download finishes, Safari keeps it in your download folder as a file named like big-file.zip.download. That file holds what’s been downloaded so far and where it came from.

• To continue it, double-click the .download file, or Control-click it and choose Open With › Safari. Safari puts it back in the list and tries to carry on.
• Leave it where it is. Moving, renaming or opening it with another app is the easiest way to lose the progress.
• Not in Downloads? Check Safari › Settings › General › File download location. You may be saving somewhere else.

Why Safari can’t resume some downloads

Resuming means asking the server for “the rest of the file, from byte X on”. That only works when:

• The server supports it. It’s an optional feature of the web; Apple’s developer notes say servers aren’t required to support it. If a server doesn’t, every retry starts at 0%.
• The file hasn’t changed. If the file on the server was replaced since you started, the part you have no longer fits, so the download starts over.
• The link still works. Many download links are made for you and expire after a while, which is common with cloud storage and sign-in downloads. Go back to the page for a fresh link.
• Safari can find the partial file. See the section above.

And sometimes it’s Safari: people on Apple’s community forums have reported downloads that restart from zero on the Mac even though the same download resumed on another device. If the Resume button keeps failing on a big file, try another tool.

Big files: stop it happening again

• Keep the Mac awake. Plug in and keep the lid open. In Terminal, caffeinate -i stops idle sleep until you press Control-C.
• Use a steady connection (a cable, or sit close to the router) and pause other big transfers until it’s done.
• Check the drive. A USB drive formatted as MS-DOS (FAT) can’t hold a file over 4 GB, however many times you retry.
• Resume from Terminal. With the direct link, curl -L -O -C - "link" continues a partial download each time you run it.

All of these, with the commands explained, are in how to download large files on a Mac.

Using a download manager with Safari

A download manager keeps its own copy of the unfinished part and retries automatically, so a dropped connection costs seconds instead of the whole download. It can also split a file across several connections, which helps when a server limits how fast each one can go.

Lynx, our download manager for Mac, doesn’t have a Safari extension yet. From Safari, you give it a download by its link:

1. Control-click the download link on the page and choose Copy Link.
2. Switch to Lynx. It shows the link you copied. Press Return.
3. Lynx splits the file across up to 32 connections, and if the connection drops it picks up where it stopped, as long as the server allows it.

For apps with Safari integration, see using a download manager with Safari, or compare more apps in the best download managers for Mac.

Same problem in Chrome? See Chrome download failed? How to resume it on a Mac.