Use a Download Manager to Download Lots of Files

Need to download lots of files or huge files?

The user interface is generally the best way to download files from the Dataverse. However, the Dataverse platform defaults to your browser download settings which may lead to unsuccessful attempts in a large data situation.

You can also use the “Free Download Manager” (FDM), which is an extension that you can install in your browser that “catches” downloaded files from the web and does various things with them, including monitoring their file integrity so if you lose a connection it can pick up where you left off. You set a download location and select options to manage the downloads, such as setting a download time, bandwidth limits, or just having the download run in the background and not take up too many system resources.

Typically you will still need to click each file to download, but once each file is queued, the download manager will help manage the downloads. You can even schedule each one to download at a specific time. There are configuration options for adjusting bandwidth and breaking the job into threads to help speed. Some transfer time is still unavoidable, but if properly configured, you should not need to monitor the transaction physically.

How to install the Free Download Manager

1. Go to https://www.freedownloadmanager.org/ and download the installer for Windows or another platform.
   
   

   Open

   

   Free Download Manager webpage
   Open

   

   Choose your browser extension from Edge, Chrome, or Firefox.

2. Run the installer to install the FDM

3. Open the program, click the menu top right and click on "Preferences."

4. Scroll to “Browser Integration” and click the button for the browser that will be used for the downloads (i.e., Edge, Firefox, Chrome)

5. Follow the instructions from the page that pops up to add the extension to the browser (i.e., Add to Firefox button)

6. Set any other settings on the preference page (or leave them all at the defaults)

Connect to the file locations

1. Go to the site that you want to download a file from. Make sure the FDM shows as added on the browser.
   
   

2. Choose a file on the site to download and follow whatever steps are required to download it. The FDM will take over the download action and appear with a list of files in the queue to download.

3. If the queue list doesn’t appear (the preferences page displays), click the left arrow on the top right to go to the download lists.

From here, you can stop and start downloads, delete downloads, and see the progress of the downloads. You can quickly adjust the bandwidth allocated for the downloads from the quick menu at the bottom left and use the scheduler to schedule a day/time to download the file.