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How To Stop A Download On Mac

It is always irritating to see downloads stops at a certain point even without any action from the user side. Download managers solved this problem to an extent, but still there are people who experience such download problems on their computer. So, we have an article on “why does download stop before it is finished” to help you understand the reasons and possible solutions for this. Having a look at them maybe the lifesaver next time you face the error.

How to disable your Mac from automatically opening downloads from the web. Open Safari and click Safari in the menu bar. Click Preferences. Make sure the General tab at the top is selected. Go to This opens the contents of your Google Drive. If you’re not signed in, click Go to Google Drive to sign in now. Right-click a shared file. A menu will appear. You’ll see the Share with Others window.

Why does Download Stop Before it is Finished?

There are several reasons why the downloads stop before getting complete. Here we are listing few of them to let you understand the possible reasons.

Due to Antivirus or Firewall

Antivirus and Firewalls are helpful to an extent. Even though, they may also cause some problems in certain situations. If any of the sources from where the downloading file is served has there in the blacklist of the Antivirus or the Firewall, there is no way to download it when they are turned on. Even it is a good security measure, some legitimate sites also get blocked by Firewalls or antivirus. This blocks the data flow at a certain point of time where the download becomes unresponsive. Most of the times, such errors will be bypassed by the Download Managers.

UnResoponsive Server

If thousands of users using the server where the file that you are trying to download is located at the same time. And if the server has no much resources to handle such a massive real-time traffic, some downloads might get affected. At the point where the bandwidth reached its maximum, your connection with the server gets temporarily disconnected and the download stops. If you are using the browsers to download such files, you may not be able to resume it. But using a Download Manager can help most of the times.

Connection Issues

If you have a faulty or slow connection, the possibility of losing connection with the target server is very high. So, you should use a better connection to download files especially the bigger ones. For small files that size few MBs, the connection speed is not a problem. But for larger files, you better take a good connection before trying to download again after numerous attempts.

Browser or Software Problems

It is very uncommon to have the problems by the Browsers and download manager software. Even though, it happens rarely. If you are using some bad browsers or some spammy download managers, they may not be able to handle the connection as a good software. So the download stops at the middle.

The Solutions

Now, you’ve got a basic idea about how the downloads getting interrupted. So, it is the time to look for the solutions which may help to get rid of this and download those important files.

Download from a Mirror Link

In some cases, there may be a mirror link given alongside the original link of the file. You can try downloading from the mirror link instead of the original one. But the bitter truth is that most of the legitimate websites will not offer such mirror links. If there is one, you are lucky.

Try Disabling your Firewall or Antivirus

As I mentioned before, if you are trying to download the file from a website that you believe is safe but the antivirus blocks it with any security message, you can try disabling the Antivirus or Firewall. Most of the modern day security softwares come with options to disable it for a certain period. There are also options to add those URLs to the exclusion list so that the Antivirus or Firewall will ignore the threat in that URLs. Either disable it until the file gets downloaded or add it to the exclusion list.

How To Stop A Download On Macbook Pro

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Note: We do not recommend this as it may expose your computer and data to the security risks. So, only disable your security measures in case you hardly believe the website is trustable and will never cause problems to your computer.

Try again after some time

This is the easiest method that you can do. Just sit back on your chair and try it again after a few minutes or hours in some cases. If the problem is caused by the high real-time or the server side issues, trying after a few moments may help you download the files without any interruptions. You could also try pausing the download for a few moments and resume it later. This worked for few of our readers so that just mentioned here.

Use a Download Manager Software

How To Stop Downloads Pc

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Some browsers may not have the ability to download the required files efficiently. So, the download managers come into the playground. They are more stable and uses the bandwidth just for fetching the data from the origin server. Browsers won’t use the whole bandwidth or speed for download purpose only that considerably reduces the download speed and sometimes the quality of the downloaded files. So, switching to a Download Manager such as Free Download Manager can do the magic.

Diagnose your connection

If you are still not able to completely download the files, it is the time to diagnose your internet connection. Either you have a slow internet or a faulty modem, a diagnosis may help you. If you have a slow connection, there is not much to do other than upgrading it to a better one. If the problem is anything like bad DNS or wrong network configuration, the problems could be solved from the diagnosis itself. Windows and Mac both comes with the diagnosis features that you just have to right-click on the connection button and choose something that says “Diagnosis.” You can also depend on external software for this.

Yesterday when I went to my iTunes account information to change my billing address, I saw a button “Download Now” on top and it said I have some items awaiting download. I clicked on the button out of curiosity and suddenly saw a long queue of apps and movies being downloaded to my Macbook.

How To Stop A Download On Mac Windows 10

I don’t understand why the iTunes on my Mac downloaded my previously purchased iPhone apps without any notice. Unfortunately, there is no easy way to stop or cancel those downloads, so you might see your free hard drive space running out very soon. Here are the steps to stop the iTunes downloads.

1. Open iTunes app, you will see a download icon on top right of the window. Click on the icon, a pop-up window will appear with a list of pending downloads. You will be able to delete movies only from the list. Just select the items, right click and choose Delete.

How to stop a download on macbook pro

How To Download Mac Apps

2. In case you have apps being downloaded, you can’t delete them using the above solution. You will have the option to pause downloads but they will resume the next time you open iTunes. To fix this issue, you will need to close iTunes, open Finder, navigate to Music -> iTunes -> iTunes Media. Now, you will see some folders corresponding to your downloads and a plist file. You’ll just need to delete this file and uncompleted downloads. You can also delete files in the Mobile Applications and Movies folders.

How To Stop A Download On A Macbook

That’s it. Did you have the same issue and how did you solve it?

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