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How to resume an interrupted large download on a Mac

By Suraj, Unloop Studio · Updated

Short answer

A download can only resume if the server supports partial (range) requests and the partial file is kept. In Chrome, check the Downloads page for a Resume button. From Terminal, curl -C - continues a download from where it stopped. For regular 100 GB+ transfers, a resumable downloader saves hours.

Try the browser first

  1. 1Open the Downloads list (⌥⌘L in Chrome).
  2. 2If a failed item shows Resume, click it.
  3. 3If it only offers Retry, the download will start again from zero.

Resume with curl

Run the same command again after a failure and it continues from the partial file:

curl -L -C - -O "https://example.com/big-file.zip"

Why cloud links often restart

Some share links expire, redirect, or generate a new file each time, so the partial download no longer matches. Desktop sync apps or command-line tools from the storage provider usually handle this better than a browser.

FAQ

Why does my download start again from 0%?

Either the server doesn’t support resuming, the link changed, or the partial file was deleted when the download failed.

Can a download survive a power cut?

Yes, if the tool keeps the partial file on disk and the server supports range requests — that’s the approach ResumeDL takes.