Tips and Tricks?

  1. Hover on buttons to get additional info on what they do.
  2. Right-click on download items in the table view to get more actions like Resume, Restart, Refresh, Open File, Open Folder, e.t.c. Note that once you select 'Manage Manually', the batch handler will no longer manage such items with the rest until you select 'Add back to queue'. See download item context menu explained for more info.
  3. Sometimes you need to go to Options > Clear Links/Docs Cache to clear the cache if you are having link search issues. This is because web pages and their links are cached by default to save data usage and enable faster link search on slow connections. This is okay except sometimes websites send wrong pages/links which may be due to traffic congestion and if those pages/links were cached, you're screwed for at least an hour unless you clear the cache manually as shown above. If you are confident of your internet connection speed and are not worried about data wastage, you can un-check Options > Cache Links/Docs and never have to worry about this.
  4. Don't be greedy and download too many links at the same time or you may risk getting blocked by the website you're downloading from (sometimes permanently). Sometimes this restriction isn't limited to WFDownloader App and may also affect your web browsers since the ban is usually by IP address so be careful. Same thing goes if you have a slow connection. Just leave the default of 4 at a time.
  5. While WFDownloader App has strong resume support and will be able to resume links even long after they are expired, you are advised to complete your download batches within a month span. This is because no file on the internet lasts forever. The file may end up being deleted or modified or worse the server may get taken down along with all its files (Rapidshare, MegaUpload R.I.P.).
  6. If you're having trouble resuming a download item on the download links section or you have its progress set to 'Stopped', right-click the item and select 'Properties' to see the reason why. Also using 'Restart' rather than 'Resume' usually fixes the problem however, this will restart the download from the beginning!
  7. By default, the ability to customize a newly created batch is hidden/skipped since the default is good enough for most use cases. If you want to change the name of the batch, set the number of simultaneous downloads, change how files are saved into folders, or set how download conflicts are resolved, you will need to enable this option. To do this, go to Options > General Settings and uncheck the "Skip pre-batch creation step" option. If the batch has already been added to application, you can still change some of its properties by right-clicking the batch and selecting "Properties".
  8. If want to change the way files are saved into folders, you can do that from the "General Settings" via the "Child folder save options" item. You can set it to save all files in the same parent folder, create a sub-folder for for each downloaded file, etc. To do this for a specific batch only, right-click on it and click "Properties" to get the option.
  9. If you're having issues with the builtin browser (e.g. captcha solving errors) or don't want to use it, consider importing cookies from your browser which has a number of advantages.
  10. Always save before exiting the application via the 'Save' toolbar button. It really helps against future headaches and frustrations and you will be able to continue where you left off via the adjacent 'Load' button after application restart. If you want this done for you automatically, go to Options > General Settings and select Autosave on exit.
  11. Always use the latest version of the application. When a new version is out, you will be notified via the status bar at the bottom right corner of the application. It can't be stressed enough how much headaches, pains, and frustrations you'd avoid by just adhering to this advice. And so, before reporting any issues you are facing, ensure you are using the latest available version. You can see it here.
  12. If you haven't read the faq, you should do that now. It gives you an overall idea of what WFDownloader App is and things you could do with it.