Large Digital Downloads Fail on Windows

So I found this in the documentation…

To ensure files are protected from direct linking, Force Download can be used. Files will be served by PHP. However, if your files are large, or server is underpowered, you may experience timeouts during download – in this case you would need to either look at your server or use the redirect method.

If your server supports it, use X-Sendfile; its the most reliable method. Apache serves the download giving you the best performance. Files are also protected by a .htaccess file making this method secure.

So it appears to be the server setup. However, it is somewhat vague and doesn’t specifically state what to look for on the server. There is the mention of X-sendfile for security, which I definitely want to use. However, I don’t think GoDaddy shared hosting allows for this method. Which means I would probably have to upgrade the plan to a Virtual Dedicated or find hosting elsewhere. That’s a huge step to take though without knowing whether or not it is going to solve the issue. Anyone have any experience with this issue?

Thanks,
Wil

I’m exploring this issue as well but have not gotten as far as you, Wilhud. I’m curious how large your zip files are as I’m working with files up to 500mb.

Our file is not as large as yours. Ours is approx. 100MB in size. I tried increasing the php max_execution_time and was able to confirm in my php_info that the increase did take effect. I don’t think it did anything however, as users are still having trouble downloading. We aren’t getting quite as many complaints about failed downloads, but I think that has more to do with the fact that less traffic is downloading now. Unfortunately, it is cost prohibitive to upgrade to a VPS server right now. As a workaround we’ve been manually delivering the files to users who are having issues, but that is an extremely tedious process. I’d really like to see if anyone has gotten this to work on a shared hosting environment and if so, how.

Thanks,
Wil

I’m in the same boat. GoDaddy hosted, 850mb video product to sell. The purchase goes through fine, but no download at all.

I’ve tried with Redirect and Force Download and, of course, we know the x-SendFile won’t work with shared GoDaddy, all to no avail.

I also set up with a small >1mb .mp4 test file and even that won’t download. When the link is clicked the browser loads it up like it wants to play the file instead of initiating a download. Not sure what is up with that yet.

I’m on this daily and am happy to keep this thread appraised of anything I figure out.

if you guys have anything new to report since your last post I would appreciate the info.

Thanks!

You should not be using regular hosting servers for ecommerce downloads no matter how large the file.
You need Amazon s3 storage. Once your files are on S3 you can send out downloads link that expire according to a time you set – hours or days, so the buyer cannot download again. Also the download is on a cloud platform for super fast delivery anywhere in the world.
It is very very inexpensive to use. No monthly fees. Billed according to size.

I use this for my movies which are 1Gb to 3Gb sizes each.

https://aws.amazon.com/s3/

@emptymind Are you saying you just keep your files on the Amazon s3 storage then link to that storage for your file source?

i.e. in WooCommerce set my digital product link to the Amazon s3 storage location of the source file, but still use all my WooCommerce functionality including download limits and expiration’s.

Appreciate the feedback!

All, I did successfully get it working for filesize 230MB and under. Over that and it craps out while the file is downloading, which is most likely related to the timeouts of the shared GoDaddy servers, which makes emptymind’s post all the more intreging.

I also had the following settings in WooCommerce:

Enable Guest Checkout: Off
File Download Method: Force Downloads
Downloads Require Login: On
Force Secure Checkout: Off

With these settings I had very consistent results with file sizes 230MB and under.

Still not there on the 850MB, but its better and once I hear back from emptymind if I am understanding him correctly, this may be solved for me for the extremely cheap file storage fee at Amazon S3.

Yes.
Sign up for Amazon S3. You get billed for what you use and it’s minimal.

Keep your files in a bucket (folder) on your S3 storage – there is a very easy to use consol for doing all the uploads, configuring etc. For example for a movie you need to designate this as an attachment so it downloads instead of playing in a browser. You also set permissions – who can see the files etc.

I do not use Woocommerce yet – I only joined yesterday but I do use Shopp and it is the same. For Woo I think you may need an extension for amazon S3. So when you go to your product and select download option you will then see an option for adding the url of your file on amazon S3.

You do not need to force downloads – this is done i the S3 consol panel. You also can set the expiry of the download link – so the user or cusotmer cannot share it.

Hope this helps.

That is awesome! I will definitely be playing with that option tomorrow.

I’ll keep reporting back to this thread and maybe if you end up using WooCommerce my efforts will lay some ground work for you and repay the favor.

Thanks much!

@emptymind, if you didn’t already know WooCommerce has a plugin that works with Amazon S3.

https://www.woothemes.com/products/amazon-s3-storage/

I am having a similar problem as well, my file is Approximately 50 MB, but I am not able to upload it with woocommerce it tells me the max allowed is 10 MB I have edited my PHP.ini file to allow 100 MB, but still get the warning… If I work around and upload the file using fileZilla, It Woocommerce doesn’t see it when I try to attach it to my downlaodable product. So I want to back you guys up a step and ask you how you got the files into your woocommerce to start…
I do plan to follow up on the Amazon service, but would like to have this question answered if possible..

Thank you
Rass

I’ll see if I can help… More info is need first though.

Where have you put your file when you uploaded it through FTP? (i.e what is the path to the file).

Can you see the file when you try to attached it to the product in WooCommerce or is it not listed?

If you can see it, are you saying you are able to attached it to the product page, but you cannot see it to download when accessing it from the front end through a product purchase? I did have some issues with the product not downloading and/or a link not appearing for downloading after purchase.

Let me know and we’ll go from there.

Ok Here are details,
I’ve uploaded it to the directory:
/*******.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/woocommerce_uploads/2013/11

where the ***’s stand for my webpage. I put it there, because a smaller zip file I uploaded using woo’s uploader appeared to end up there.

When I try to attach it to the product I do not see the file. it is in Zip format.

And that’s it, I can’t finish setting up the product without the digital product it’s about. So I have yet to get to whether it’s downloadable.

Other info I am using Atspace.com for my hosting service.

Thank you for your interest.
Rass

@rass sorry I dropped off there. I got slammed with work and lost track of this thread. Do you still need some help?

Yes,
I’ve been working on other projects too, but yes I haven’t figured a workaround on this limit yet.
Thanks in advance for any thought or suggestions you may have.
Rass