Downloading files - 🤗Hub - Hugging Face Forums = 40rem)" rel="stylesheet" data-target="discourse-ai_desktop" /> = 40rem)" rel="stylesheet" data-target="discourse-reactions_desktop" /> = 40rem)" rel="stylesheet" data-target="poll_desktop" /> Downloading files 🤗Hub vindictive June 9, 2026, 11:48pm 1 why does hf hate people downloading files, i mean that has to be the reason it is virtually impossible to completely download any file without hf cutting it off just to spite you lea97338 June 10, 2026, 12:13pm 2 It’s false it works totaly so it 's just your wifi Bidram June 10, 2026, 12:19pm 3 Maybe try a download manager like IDM? I’ve never had my downloads get cut off when using it. Are you downloading through your browser’s default downloader? John6666 June 11, 2026, 4:41am 4 Hmm, without knowing exactly what you are downloading, how you are downloading it, and which browser or tool you are using, nobody can give very precise advice here… Also, there really are occasional cases where the problem is on Hugging Face’s side, in a recent deep change in the download stack, in a temporary incident, with your ISP, or somewhere along the network path between you and HF. So the first step is to narrow down where the failure is happening. The same kind of issue may also affect other large downloads, not only HF. Very roughly, for Hugging Face downloads, I would think about it like this: First, identify the download path “Downloading from Hugging Face” can mean several different things: Download path What it means First thing to check Browser download button Clicking a file in the Hub web UI and letting the browser save it Browser, OS, Wi-Fi/network, VPN/proxy, file size, where it stops Browser default downloader Chrome/Firefox/Edge/Safari’s built-in download UI Try another browser or a download manager Download manager IDM, aria2, browser extension, etc. Whether it actually resumes or restarts from zero hf download CLI Hugging Face Hub command line download hf --version, hf env, auth, cache, timeout Python huggingface_hub hf_hub_download() or snapshot_download() Python version, huggingface_hub version, cache path transformers / datasets Automatic downloads via from_pretrained() or load_dataset() Exact function call and package versions Git / Git LFS / Xet Repository-style clone/pull/download behavior Git/LFS/Xet path, file size, repo type Third-party app LM Studio, ComfyUI, Ollama-related tooling, etc. App name/version, then compare with browser or CLI These paths can fail for different reasons. A browser download problem is not the same diagnostic situation as a Python cache problem, a datasets.load_dataset() problem, or a large-file Xet transfer problem. The official Hub Python docs describe hf_hub_download() as the main function for downloading a single file and caching it locally, while snapshot_download() downloads an entire repository snapshot. The CLI command hf download uses the same underlying helpers, but gives you more visible logs than a browser download: Download files from the Hub Hugging Face Hub CLI guide If you are using only the browser Start with the simple checks first. Please post: Detail Why it matters Browser and version Browser downloaders behave differently OS Windows/macOS/Linux/Android/iOS can matter Exact repo link People need to know what file is involved Exact filename A model repo may contain many files File size 500 MB, 5 GB, 50 GB are different cases Where it stops Immediately, halfway, near the end, after sleep mode, etc. Whether it restarts from zero Important for resume diagnosis Whether another browser works Separates browser-specific behavior from network/HF behavior Whether VPN/proxy is enabled VPN/proxy/corporate/campus networks can affect large transfers Whether other large downloads fail Helps separate “HF-specific” from “general network path” Simple things worth trying: Try another browser. Try a more stable network if possible. Disable VPN/proxy temporarily if you can. Avoid letting the machine sleep during a large download. Try a download manager if you are using the browser’s default downloader. Try downloading a smaller file from the same repo. Try downloading another large file from a different site. This is not about blaming your Wi-Fi. It is just the fastest way to separate local network instability from a site-specific or transfer-stack issue. Why a download manager may help The suggestion to try something like IDM is practical. Download managers sometimes help because HTTP supports “range requests”: instead of requesting the whole file from byte 0 every time, a client can request only a byte range. If the server/path/session supports it, this can allow partial download, multi-part download, or resume behavior. Useful references: MDN: HTTP range requests aria2 manual: --continue But this is not magic. A download manager can help only if the server response, URL/session/auth state, and network path allow the tool to resume correctly. Some URLs may expire. Some authenticated or redirected downloads may not resume cleanly. Some large-file backend paths may not behave like a simple static HTTP file. So the useful report is not just “I tried IDM.” The useful report is: Browser default downloader: result: failed at <where> Download manager: tool: <tool name and version> result: resumed / restarted from zero / failed at <where> error: <exact error if any> If you are comfortable with the command line This is optional. If you only use the browser, say that. If you can use the terminal, hf download is often a better diagnostic path than a silent browser download because it gives clearer output and uses the official Hub client path. Install/update: pip install -U huggingface_hub Check your environment: hf --version hf env hf auth whoami Try a single file: hf download <repo_id> <filename> For example, if the repo is org/model-name and the file is model.safetensors: hf download org/model-name model.safetensors If the file is inside a subfolder, use the path inside the repo: hf download <repo_id> <path/inside/repo/file> You can also preview what would be downloaded: hf download <repo_id> --dry-run The CLI docs mention --dry-run as a way to list which files would be downloaded and their sizes before actually downloading them: HF CLI: hf download For slow connections, the CLI docs also mention increasing the download timeout: export HF_HUB_DOWNLOAD_TIMEOUT=30 hf download <repo_id> <filename> Reference: HF CLI: download timeout Environment variables: HF_HUB_DOWNLOAD_TIMEOUT If the problem is with Python, Transformers, or Datasets Please say the exact code path. These are not the same: from huggingface_hub import hf_hub_download from huggingface_hub import snapshot_download from transformers import AutoModelForCausalLM AutoModelForCausalLM.from_pretrained(...) from datasets import load_dataset load_dataset(...) The transformers and datasets libraries may call huggingface_hub under the hood, but the visible symptom can look different from a direct hf download test. Useful details to post: Python version: OS: huggingface_hub version: hf_xet version, if installed: transformers version, if relevant: datasets version, if relevant: exact function call: repo id: filename or dataset config/split: public/private/gated: cache path: exact error or stall point: A quick version check: python - <<'PY' import platform print("python:", platform.python_version()) try: import huggingface_hub print("huggingface_hub:", huggingface_hub.__version__) except Exception as e: print("huggingface_hub unavailable:", repr(e)) try: import hf_xet print("hf_xet:", getattr(hf_xet, "__version__", "unknown")) except Exception as e: print("hf_xet unavailable:", repr(e)) try: import transformers print("transformers:", transformers.__version__) except Exception: pass try: import datasets print("datasets:", datasets.__version__) except Exception: pass PY A note about recent Hugging Face large-file downloads and Xet For large model or dataset files, Hugging Face downloads are not always just “one simple static file over one simple HTTP connection.” The Hub stores very large binary files differently from ordinary Git text/code files. Hugging Face’s Xet docs explain that large files are tracked through pointer files and stored remotely, while the repository itself stays small: Xet: our Storage Backend The newer Hub client stack also uses hf_xet for Xet-backed transfers. The Xet docs say that as of huggingface_hub 0.32.0, installing/updating huggingface_hub also installs hf_xet, and transformers / datasets use huggingface_hub underneath when their versions are in that range: Using Xet Storage This matters because old advice may be stale. For example, the huggingface_hub v1 migration docs say that hf_transfer support was removed, HF_HUB_ENABLE_HF_TRANSFER is ignored, and HF_XET_HIGH_PERFORMANCE is the current high-performance Xet knob: Migrating to huggingface_hub v1.0: hf_transfer So if you see older posts saying: HF_HUB_ENABLE_HF_TRANSFER=1 hf download ... that may no longer test what you think it tests on current clients. Optional advanced CLI/Xet tests Only use these if you are already using CLI/Python downloads. These are diagnostic switches, not universal fixes. Try the default path first: hf download <repo_id> <filename> Try Xet high-performance mode: HF_XET_HIGH_PERFORMANCE=1 hf download <repo_id> <filename> Try disabling Xet to test whether behavior changes: HF_HUB_DISABLE_XET=1 hf download <repo_id> <filename> If disabling Xet makes the same file stable, that is useful evidence. It suggests the problem may be related to the Xet path, Xet cache, client version, filesystem, route, CDN path, or local environment. But do not assume HF_HUB_DISABLE_XET=1 is a permanent fix. For some very large files, the non-Xet HTTP path may not be available or may be limited. There are GitHub reports where a roughly 59 GB file failed through the regular HTTP method with a message saying the file was too large and that hf_xet should be installed: huggingface_hub issue: HTTP download fails for files >50GB There are also reports where large downloads behaved differently depending on environment, for example Colab versus local machine: huggingface_hub issue: Large downloads via HF hub stuck GitHub issues are not proof that your exact case has the same cause. They are useful examples of why “download failed” needs more detail. Sometimes it really can be HF or the route It is also fair to say that the problem is not always local. Hugging Face’s status page has recorded incidents involving stalled or hung large-file downloads. For example, one April 2026 incident affected Hub file downloads for XET-enabled repositories, especially users routed through certain US Central CDN endpoints: Hugging Face status page That does not mean every current download failure is an HF incident. It just means the possibilities include: local Wi-Fi instability ISP routing VPN/proxy/corporate/campus network behavior regional CDN path browser downloader behavior download manager behavior expired/redirected/authenticated URL behavior Hugging Face temporary incident Hub client version issue Xet transfer path issue cache or filesystem issue third-party app behavior The only practical way forward is to narrow it down. Quick decision tree Download failed or restarted ├─ Are you using the browser? │ ├─ Yes │ │ ├─ Try another browser │ │ ├─ Try a stable network / no VPN / no sleep mode │ │ ├─ Try a download manager │ │ └─ Post repo, filename, size, browser, OS, failure point │ └─ No │ ├─ Are you using a third-party app? │ ├─ Yes │ │ ├─ Name the app and version │ │ ├─ Try the same file in the browser │ │ └─ If possible, compare with `hf download` │ └─ No │ ├─ Are you using CLI? │ ├─ Yes │ │ ├─ Post `hf --version` │ │ ├─ Post `hf env` │ │ ├─ Post `hf auth whoami` │…