What is .part?

[Skinman]

I finally found out how to make my video downloadable with this add on but it just downloaded something called myvideoname.mp4.part. What is that?

[mig]

.part files are temporary and are used to resume downloads in case an error occurs. You should not try to open open those files as it may lock the download. Just wait for the download to finish and the file to be renamed as .mp4 or another video file extension.

[C123]

Anyone know why files now download as .part until it completes? A few months ago they downloaded as .mp4 or whatever and you could actually watch them while they were still downloading. What changed DLH or Firefox?

[mig]

As explained above, downloading to .part instead of directly the final .mp4 extension allows to resume a download in case an error occurs.
For regular downloads, you can still watch the file being downloaded if you make the file association in your OS between the .part extension and your video player.
For chunked streams like HLS, the files are unplayable in their .part form as the file misses important information that can only be added at the end of the download, when renamed to .mp4.

[C123]

Thanks for replying and  yep I realize what .part files are but I play through a WD media box connected over the LAN to the downloading PC so don't have the option to get it to play the file until it completes and becomes a known video type. Up until late 2015 this was not the case, .part files didn't exist on my setup and I could watch a file while it was still downloading so I'm guessing something changed in DLH. I was hoping there is a option setting to prevent the .part thing but cant find it so I guess I'm stuck with waiting for the DL to complete.
Cheers.

[mig]

I think i forgot to tell about one thing: on VDH 6.0.0 (you have to wait for a couple of weeks for that version to be officially released or install now the latest 6.0.0ax development version from https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/video-downloadhelper/versions/), if you configure the number of retries to 0, regular downloads should skip the .part extension and write directly an incomplete but playable file. Of course, you lose the ability to automatically recover failed downloads.
To configure that parameter: open VDH settings > Behavior, set parameter Number of download retries to 0

[C123]

Thanks mig. for me that will be a good tradeoff.

I'll look out for the new update.

[C123]

Update. Checked my version, 5.6.1 and the 0 retry option is in that one also. Now I can download and watch again. Thanks a bunch.

[anuhea55 00]

I recently updated to v6.2.0 and saw the extra .part. I came from v5.4, where everything was still working for me.   I remembered reading where Mig said to reset the "retries to 0"....which I did and now no .part.  Other than no retry after failed download and the ability to now view the partial .mp4 or maybe .flv, is there any benefits to keep/notkeep the .part.  Does the VDH work faster or if conversions are necessary, is this piece required?

Also, if a .part file exists and there is a download failure, is the recovery automatic, or what does the user do.  Can he double click the failed file indicator in the FF download arrow box, or is the failure indicated in a VDH spinning ball box, ....where is it and what does one do to restart.  Does restart commence from where the failure occurs?  What happens during the Automatic Recovery?

I plan to do some reviewing of the "howto use", the v6 document that Mig posts under the Support link.

[mig]

Some .part files can be played (if they are being downloaded from a single URL), some like HLS cannot (because very important file information are written only at the end of the download).
If you can play downloading .mp4 and not .part, it's just that your OS does not associate .part files with your video player. Easy to fix.
In fact, there is no good reason to set retries to 0.

[anuhea55 00]

Thanks Mig, so the other part of my question was how does the retries work when the VDH fails or get aborted.  I'm presuming that the abort was because of network error.  Is it automatic, or does the user intervene?  What does VDH do to recover.  I'm just trying to get a feel of what happens during failure.  The only reason to keep retries is for recovery or HLS or maybe speed.  Keeps my folders cleaner during a download.

[mig]

Yes, VDH tries to resume the download the configured number of times before giving up. It's automatic, the user does not have anything to do.