Downloading

A project downloads in runs: each time you start it, its plugin goes through the source and downloads what it finds. This page covers starting and stopping, the queue, following a run while it goes and what happens when you close the window.

Start, stop, continue

The run buttons are on the project's card; the open project has no start button of its own.

•  Start from the beginning goes through the source from the start. Files the project already has are not downloaded again, and neither are files you deleted in NeoDownloader.
•  Stop ends the run. The card says Stopping until the plugin has wound down; nothing already downloaded is lost.
•  Continue where it stopped appears after a run that did not finish, when the plugin can pick it up where it left off. It takes the rest of the work instead of going through the whole source again.

Run a finished project again to get what is new on the site:  Start from the beginning goes through the source again, and the card then says +12 new for what the run added.

The queue

By default, two projects download at the same time. Start a third, and it waits with In queue · 1 on its card; more waiting projects are numbered In queue · 2 and on, in the order described below. A project keeps its place among the running ones until its run is over.

Waiting projects start in the order they were created: the older project goes first, whatever order you clicked in. A waiting project cannot be moved ahead.  Take out of the queue on its card removes it; start it again, and it gets its place back by the same rule.

How many projects run at once is Projects running at once in Settings… → Program → Runs; raise it, and a project waiting in the queue starts at once.

Separately, Simultaneous downloads in Settings… → Program → Downloads caps how many files a running project downloads at once; with two projects running, each keeps to it on its own, and a site may still allow fewer.

Watch a run

While a project runs, its card shows how many files are done and how many there are in all, the size so far and the speed. When the project is open, a strip along its bottom shows the same line with a dial for every file downloading right now; a dial spins while the file's size is not known. A number such as +3 stands for files that did not fit. Something on the strip always moves while the run goes: when no file is downloading, moving dots mean the plugin is reading the source, and an hourglass turning over means files are waiting their turn. Before the first figures arrive, the strip says Working on the source…

Click the strip to open What is happening: the Files count and the Downloaded size, what the plugin reports, and the reasons downloads are waiting, if there are any.

A file that fails is tried again, with a longer wait before each try; Attempts per file says how many tries it gets in all, 5 by default.

When a site needs you - to sign in, or to check that you are a person - the run shows the site's page in a window and waits for you. That window opens in the NeoDownloader window you started the run from.

Why a run waits

A run can hold files back on purpose. If nothing is downloading because of it, the strip shows the hourglass turning over; the reasons are in What is happening:

The reason	What it means
Waiting: example.com allows 2 at a time (8 queued)	The plugin takes only this many files at a time from the site, to go easy on it. There is nothing to do but wait.
Waiting: the plugin allows 2 at a time across all sites (8 queued)	The same, but the limit is shared by all the sites the plugin downloads from.
Waiting: your limit of 10 downloads at a time is full (8 queued)	The Simultaneous downloads setting is full. You can raise it.
Waiting: example.com asked us to slow down - 9m 42s to go	The site asked for a slower pace, and the run sits out the time the site named.

The free version's limit

In the free version a run stops when the project reaches 100 pictures, 10 videos or 10 other files. The Free version limit window says which, for example This project reached the free version's limit: 100 images. The run stopped.

Files that were still downloading go back to waiting, together with everything found but not yet downloaded. Once you upgrade to Premium, start the project again, and it takes the rest. Starting a project that is already at a limit opens the same window instead.

Close the window

Closing the NeoDownloader window closes the program, and every download stops.

The next time NeoDownloader starts, a strip at the bottom offers Restore the work: 2 projects. Restore puts them back in the queue, the ones that were downloading first; each continues where it stopped when its plugin can, and otherwise starts from the beginning without downloading its files again. Dismiss forgets them. The offer also goes away by itself after a minute, or as soon as you start a project yourself.