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itch.io Community » itch.io » Questions & Support

.ZIP Files getting corrupted on download

A topic by kagetodev created Nov 22, 2023 Views: 1,756 Replies: 18

Viewing posts 1 to 15

kagetodev300 days ago(+17)

(just to note, my games are NSFW)

I've been getting reports of .zip files getting corrupted when downloading from itch. Then I went to test, and it seems to be true for this page of mine: https://kagetodev.itch.io/special-harem-class-v0-2-4.

I've tried reuploading the files, then reuploaded with different names, then tried .7z instead of .zip, but the problem persisted. That doesn't seem to happen with the .apk download though.

For some reason, on downloads that end up failing, it caps my download speed to around 8mb/s. It also always stops at around 460mb.

I ended up adding external links for now, but I'd like to be able to rely on itch's internal downloads.

Any idea on why that might be happening, and what can I do to fix it?

leafoPinned ReplyAdmin300 days ago (2 edits)

Thanks for the reports, I’m trying to collect info about the issue, can you please post in this thread with more details if you have the time: https://itch.io/t/3306553/download-file-corruption-reports

Thanks

Winterfire300 days ago(+3)

I have the same issue, also NSFW: https://winterfire.itch.io/legacy-of-hestia
The downloads worked fine on the first days, but yesterday i've started receiving reports about corrupted downloads.
I've tried downloading my own game, and it first starts downloading at 20mb/s or more, expected speed for my internet connection, however it eventually drops to 8mb/s, then lower until it finally fails.

It doesn't say "the download has failed" as it would normally happen, but it looks no different than a successfully downloaded game, except for the fact that the size doesn't match up (in my case, only the first 800mb get downloaded). Of course that means the zip will not extract.

redonihunter300 days ago(+1)

I had a corrupted file and thought it was a corrupted file.

Later I downloaded another game and the dl stopped twice without notice, as if finished, but I noticed the file size was too small.

I tried using alternate download method and that seemed to work. All failed downloads came from the domain dl.itch.zone. The working download came from developername.itch.io.

It is quite unnerving that the download claimed to have finished instead of reporting an error.

dan2bit300 days ago (3 edits) (+2)

can confirm this for both versions of (NSFW) https://altosandherdone.itch.io/the-headmaster/
the browser downloads a too-small version, and the app just struggles and restarts the download after 10-20% "progress"
UPDATE clicking the Downloads not starting? link and switching to alternate download mode has been successful. Suggest changing the text of this link to "Downloads corrupted or not starting?" or putting everyone on "alternate" download mode by default.

denisjohantales300 days ago

I have seen your solution, yet is still disrupting for the users and in my case, since I am releasing a free demo, no paid option, the alternate download method doesn't even show up, so i hope devs will look in this fast.

xzekai300 days ago

same issue here, damn

395games300 days ago

Same issue on my side. NSFW as well.

https://395games.itch.io/childrenofmorn

elektrongyorsito300 days ago

same
~200MB of 2.2G downloaded and shows 100%. File is corrupt.

Winterfire300 days ago(+2)

dan2bit's solution works, but that heavily caps the speed at 8mb/s or lower...

freyon777300 days ago (1 edit)

yes dan2bit sollution work for files under 1GB download is fast.

Azienda300 days ago

I contacted support this morning about this. Still didn't get a reply but I guess they are working on it.

Skorge Games300 days ago

Same issue here! Has anyone come across a solution? I also have a free demo so I can't find an option for an alternative download.

denisjohantales300 days ago

There is not a solution sadly, I have just put on a text on the dowload page telling the users "The site is experiencing download issues" and to try later if the download fails. Until they fix it on Ich.io side we can't do much else sadly..

Skorge Games300 days ago

Ah well, I'm sure they're working on it. I was looking around more though, even though my download is free,I was able to get the "Downloads not starting?" button to work. I'm not sure if it's because I have a second optional file you can download, (it's a .txt file with credits for the assets I used), but it seemed to work for me for now!

Iceblade02300 days ago

Experiencing this also (as a user). Seems that the downloads fails at different points in time on desktop browser, the itch.io program and on mobile.

Noire.dev300 days ago

same thing here https://hypernoire.itch.io/danils-mod

BlueSunset2809298 days ago (2 edits)

If I may ask, are you European based? I've noticed an issues where if you attempt download some games from within Europe you would get a corrupted version but if you were to instead download from the US you could install fine, which I personally verified through a VPN as well as some users still being able to install the game that's supposedly corrupted. I reckon the EU server Itch are using is deteriorating and corrupting it's instances of the programs, seems plausible since this issue has really started to ramp up recently within Europe but outside is unaffected.

Current best fix is to either use Alternate Download Mode or a VPN, neither of which are exactly elegant but it is what it is until this gets fixed.

redonihunter298 days ago(+1)

There is the other thread where the problem was officially said to be with the new hosting services itch uses. They pushed a hotfix, but it does not seem to have fixed the issue, yet.

There are reports from USA, Europe, Asia for those corrupted files.

It also seems to be chance based. With small sample size you can get any tendency. Someone posted it happened for a 15MB file. Others have downloads being silently stopped above 2GB.

Also, depending on how the archive was compressed, you can install a game, and the missing files won't affect the game for some time - or you can't even decompress. This is quite normal for this type of error, but we are not used to this kind of error. It should not happen, not silently. Normally the browser would tell you, that the download failed. And on the tcp/ip protocol there should not be any mishaps to begin with.

Timeouts, connection resets and the like maybe. But not this. I would guess they screwed up some load balancing or other obscure things. One server thinking the other server handles the transfer, while being in the middle of one, or other occult shenanigans.

This topic has been auto-archived and can no longer be posted in because there haven't been any posts in a while.