Download file corruption

A topic by BlueSunset2809 created Nov 22, 2023 Views: 298 Replies: 7

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BlueSunset2809278 days ago (1 edit) (+1)

I've been trying to install the new ZIP, but winRAR is not having it, throwing the same errors every time I try reinstall or repair the ZIP file, those errors being an unexpected end of archive and then, after using the winRAR repair tool, that the archive is corrupt and there's a checksum error coming from Laser2.png being corrupted.

Anyone else seen this and, if so, how did you get around it? Tried the winRAR repair tool and that's no good.

Edit: Felt it worth adding, I've also tried with previous versions (0.5.6) and get the same error, if anyone had to deal with it in earlier versions and has any advice.

bitshiftgamesDeveloper278 days ago(+1)

This is odd, because this is the second report of this in a few days, but ONLY the second. If the upload was actually corrupt, I'd expect a torrent of complaints because NO ONE would be able to play it. I've also tested the most current version myself, downloaded straight from Itch, and it extracts and runs just fine. For the record, I tend to use either Windows's built-in zip support, or 7zip, so I can't speak to Winrar specifically, but as far as I can tell the zip file is fine. Try a re-download, on another hard drive if possible in case your drive is failing, and let me know if you're still having issues.

BlueSunset2809278 days ago(+1)

No luck with 7Zip or a fresh drive, getting the corruption error for Lazer2.png again.

Doing a bit of digging this appears to be an error with Itch itself, with reports of this starting to pop up that are only hours old, with the 2nd and 3rd links when googling being for this same issue, with one of these being a creators forum post trying to fix this in their own games. Not strictly sure what's causing it to only affect some, I know it's not browser because I've tried a couple, including non-Chromium based, drives because I've tried a couple locations now, or decompression software because 7Zips happy for you but not me.

I'll try going through the alternate download mode, which some on these forums have said can bypass this issue but this appears to be capping out at 400KB/s so it'll likely be tomorrow before I can test it, with me being on UK time.

At this point it's looking like Itch have done goofed and it's just too soon to see what devices failing downloads have in common.

bitshiftgamesDeveloper278 days ago (1 edit) (+1)

Very strange. Just double-checked again, still working fine for me, but it's clear you're not the only one who's had this issue. At least it seems to be somewhat limited, but I hope Itch gets their shit together. Downloading a game and having it just NOT WORK is a really bad first user experience, and it risks turning new players off instantly. Also I'm not a high IQ, high-paid sysop, but how hard is it to have FILE DOWNLOADS work in current year? I thought that was pretty much a solved problem for at least the past 15 years. With the exception of a handful of oddball situations, I haven't had download corruption be a major problem since I was downloading over dial-up in the late 90s.

The other thing that baffles me is that it's CONSISTENT. If I'm understanding you right, you've tried to download it multiple times, back to back, and it breaks EVERY TIME. Which is...wild.

That said, steer clear of anything fancy, the Itch program or whatever they call it. Just download direct if you aren't already. Hope you have better luck eventually, and if they still haven't fixed this in a few days, let me know and I'll be sure you get a copy one way or another.

BlueSunset2809277 days ago(+1)

I've got it to work through using the Alternate Download Mode. For anyone else reading this, you can enable this in the 'downloads not starting?' menu.

My only assumption, and this is coming from a CS student with no knowledge of how Itch's server clusters are set up, is that using a device with a UK based IP address is having me pull the file from an European server that's on the blink that other users are avoiding by simply being directed to alternate instances of the file in different locations, could be worth trying with a VPN to verify, but it's the only reason that comes to mind for this consistent failure and it's resolution through Alternate Download Mode.

Thanks for the responses though, I know it can be a headache and a half when Itch decides to be, well, Itch, and the game so far is proving worth the effort, even if I must admit there were points I was tempted just to walk away and hope Itch pull themselves together in a week or so.

bitshiftgamesDeveloper277 days ago (3 edits) (+1)

Excellent, glad to hear you were able to get it working eventually, and thanks for the info, helps a lot as I keep an eye on this. The region issue is certainly a good theory; while I get purchases from all over, the majority are still in the US, as am I, so that might also go to explain why I haven't had more complaints, and why I'm not able to reproduce the issue.

Allow me to further speculate. This gives some interesting additional info: apparently Itch just uses google cloud storage, which is blocked in a variety of settings. So it's not even an issue of Itch having issues with their servers: Itch DOESN'T HAVE servers. It just rents space from Alphabet. The UK in particular is known to massively filter and censor their internet on a national scale, for a variety of Orwellian reasons, and it wouldn't be surprising if file lockers like google cloud are on one or more shitlists with the UK's censorship orgs, probably more for enabling filesharing than anything else. Alternatively, they may not be trying to fully block it, but their filters may be causing some kind of unexpected glitchiness: needless complexity in software always increases bugs.

Disregard, I'm an idiot, that was an ancient post. Itch DOES have its own CDN, they just migrated recently, and this caused issues. As of now, it SHOULD be mostly resolved according to them.

TheCursedJackal278 days ago(+1)

If I can quickly jump in to say something, I had a similar issue with downloading the latest version. Not sure what happened, but it was saying something along the lines of 'please install the next disk and press Continue'. No idea what it meant, but further investigation revealed that the 0.6.2 version didn't download fully, it was only at around 450 MB as opposed to 543 MB. Re-downloading it does seem to have solved the issue, as I can access it now, but I wanted to see if you had maybe been getting a similar error?

bitshiftgamesDeveloper278 days ago

Very strange. Yeah, looks like it's an Itch issue, worth checking to make sure the file is at least as large as it's supposed to be.

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Download file corruption