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I realize that you are having heavy traffic issues but am I going to be able to even download any of the stuff I purchased at all? It's been several days and I keep checking periodically and it seems to be having issues at every hour of the day...
Is there somewhere else I can download this?
Hey Alyxia. I got my first file a little while ago, so I understand the frustration. Try the following:
Select one product.
Click to start personalisation.
Wait about 10 minutes, leaving the browser tab open.
Try to download.
If it doesn't work, wait another 10 minutes.
Rinse, repeat.
Good luck!
You may have to wait to get the "Personalizing..." message now. Which *seems* slightly different from yesterday.
So, just choose a single PDF you want and click its download link. If you don't get the message, wait 5 minutes and click again. When you do get the message, wait 10 minutes and click again.
At this point the page may just refresh again, removing the message and possibly even logging you out of your download page. But don't worry, your file personalization is "in the queue" and you just clicked before it was available. Wait another 5 minutes and click again.
You should eventually get to a auto-download page. Let it auto-start the download, and let that download finish before you attempt another.
This method has worked for me for the 3 PDFs I wanted and I can wait for the rest.
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BTW, these PDFs are very nice! Easy on the eyes, fast to load (YMMV), and the key concept links in the Core Rulebook are super helpful.
Kudos Paizo!
I've been trying tree different browsers, Eventually one starts working. When I end up with problems there, I try the other twwo and usually one starts working.
I am slowly but surely getting there.
At my current rate of download it will take me a year, YES A YEAR, to finish retrieving my 117 files. I have 1 of 117 and this is day three.Why would you want to download all 117 files right now?
I'm in the same situation, so here goes:
* Why? Well, why not? Whether it was cheap or not, I paid for it. It was advertised as I was paying that I could download them in any way I like, so I want to download them all. I keep a library of my own if you want to know, but that's beside the point: I don't need to explain why. If Paizo can't handle this, they should humbly (:p) apologize and explain (which they are doing nicely, so kudos there). They should also fix this, it's their job (well, no kudos yet ;) ).
* Whether you download one file now and the rest later, or whether you download them all right now, the total bandwidth used for serving the PDF's and the processor power to watermark the PDFs is the same. Paizo needs to find a way to securely serve these PDFs in a timely manner.
* A simple back of the envelope calculation indicates Paizo having a backlog of downloads of not seconds, not minutes (which is barely acceptable in this day and age), not days, but YEARS with their current system. I may be lucky to be served before, but someone else will still wait for it. Unless something big is done soon.
* I click on a download a few times a day, and I don't even get the "Personalizing" message any more--just a scroll down of the page until what I clicked on is at the top of the page.
* I personally don't mind waiting for a week or three and then downloading everything all at once. I DO mind this trickling speed of downloads which would take me a year to get everything.
* After 3.5 went on to 4.0 and my beloved Living Greyhawk was scrapped, Pathfinder kept things alive. Even though I had to stop playing for personal reasons around the same time, I am very grateful for that. I don't think I'll find the time to play properly anytime soon, but still I'm glad to have paid them what I paid, even though I probably won't use them much. If I were to use these PDFs a lot, this would have been a great bargain. But for me , this is just a way of saying thanks. But I'd still like to get the PDFs in a reasonable time, just to complete my library. ;)
(Edit: Spelling, and removed the speed requirement math. I should not speak of things I know little about.)
So, correct me if I'm wrong (as I'm very new here), when you want to download a file, you go to My Downloads and then click on the file name. What should I do then? Nothing seems to happen. No messages, no download. However, when I log out and back in the "date last downloaded" says "Today". But I don't have anything downloaded anywhere. What am I doing wrong?
You need to click the file name, note how it adds a bit of text "Personalizing... Click link again in 10 seconds to download". The servers are a bit loaded so give it 10-15 minutes instead of 10 seconds, then click the link again. If that still doesn't download, wait another 10 minutes before trying again and keep doing that until it works. If you get a timeout error for "remote3", copy/paste that URL and try again or in another browser.
Also for people saying 117 files... are you grabbing all 4 versions of each file? If so, don't. It's all the same thing, just different ways of packaging it (the lite versions exclude background images to make it more mobile device and printer friendly). Just grab one version of each file.
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Whether you download one file now and the rest later, or whether you download them all right now, the total bandwidth used for serving the PDF's and the processor power to watermark the PDFs is the same.
In fact, this is not true. It would be true if there were no wasted effort, but the reality is that the flood of requests is causing many to get 'lost'... the bandwidth is still being expended, but then the results are not achieved... so then it is attempted again... and again... and again. So attempting to download all the files now is requiring VASTLY more bandwidth and processing power than spreading out the downloads would. That was rather my point.
I personally don't mind waiting for a week or three and then downloading everything all at once. I DO mind this trickling speed of downloads which would take me a year to get everything.
Again, that was my point... if you waited "a week or three" and then downloaded everything at once you could do so in a couple hours. I know, because I have downloaded vastly more files than this bundle contains from Paizo multiple times in the past. The only reason you have "this trickling speed of downloads which would take me a year to get everything" is because you are trying to get everything at the same time as thirty-six thousand (and counting) other people.
So, correct me if I'm wrong (as I'm very new here), when you want to download a file, you go to My Downloads and then click on the file name. What should I do then? Nothing seems to happen. No messages, no download. However, when I log out and back in the "date last downloaded" says "Today". But I don't have anything downloaded anywhere. What am I doing wrong?
You're not doing anything wrong. It seems like things may have gotten a bit worse in the last couple of hours. Perhaps more people waking up and trying to download.
After reading a few of the latest posts, I decided to try to download one more PDF to see if my "method" was still working, and although I did see a "personalizing" message a while ago, I haven't been sent to the downloading page yet.
Interestingly, if I click on a previously downloaded file, it goes straight to the download page. I wonder if we've hit a storage limit somewhere.
It would be nice to get an update from Paizo about the current state of things.
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Maybe it would help to walk people through how the downloading process usually works here;
1: You go to the 'My Downloads' page
2: You click on the name of a file to download
3: A couple of page loads flash past
4: The download starts
5: There is a message at the top of the page saying, 'click here if your download doesn't start within 5 seconds'
You can then click on the name of a second, third, fourth, et cetera file to repeat steps 2 - 5 and have several files downloading simultaneously. The most I can recall doing is about 20 at once. More would be possible, but usually they are finishing downloading and needing to be saved locally faster than you can open more than that.
So, the '10 second personalization' thing that is happening now? That's normally one of the pages that flashes past in step 3. It is only built in to the system to tell people what is going on during 'high traffic' periods when the personalization might take ten whole seconds. Normally, you'd see it maybe one time in ten. Likewise, the 'click here if download doesn't start within 5 seconds' thing is another 'high traffic' backup... normally the download starts before the page with that message finishes loading.
Obviously, none of that bears any resemblance to what is happening now. However, it should help to explain why the belief that 'it will take a year to download everything' is incorrect. The current situation is not the norm. If not for the huge rush of people trying to download ALL of their files at once you could download any one file in seconds and the full bundle about as fast as you could click all the links, unzip the files, and save them out.
So again, if you don't have any pressing need for the files right now you can save yourself a lot of frustration by waiting. Or download one file and read through it before downloading the next.
Tried downloading again for like the 15th time. Sill nothing, this is completely ridiculous and very poor planning from the largest RPG company!
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It's also worth noting that all of the rules are available online in the PRD. It's just missing the (admittedly pretty) artwork and some (very limited) campaign setting specific details.
So, while you might not have immediate access to the books, you do have immediate access to the vast majority of the rulebook line (including some books that aren't in the bundle!).
I know that I'm not part of the Humble Bundle Group, but i did make a standard transaction purchase of a 3rd party book/pdf Bundle, and i don't know if this is the way it is with any 3rd party stuff or if it is because of the recent fiasco with the Humble Bundle, but after 3 days i haven't even been given the opportunity to download the PDF portion of my order. because last time i did a book/pdf bundle I had the PDF right away, and the book came in its own due time.
As instructed, I am waiting for quite some time after I click and get the "personalizing" message (up to a few hours, even). The problem is, when I go to click again after that, I get yet another "personalizing" message rather than the download. Does this mean it is starting over?
I have managed to get 3 files down (over 2.5 days), but not some of the original ones I tried (ie. Advanced Players Guide and Core Rulebook).
Am I doing something wrong? Or is it luck between getting a download or another personalizing message?
Thanks in advance and I am not upset or impatient. Just wondering or hopefully providing new feedback.
This has just become a mess.
Yep, haven't seen a file personalize in hours, let alone be able to download.
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Well, I am going to throw my comments into the ring too.
I just went in for this bundle. All in, because it is an amazing value, and a good cause (particularly when you can add a charity of your choice to the mix). I'm sure the charities thank you, Paizo, for your amazing donation incentives!
I am well aware that an event this large can bring servers to their knees. I am also well aware that the system's not going to get 'fixed' any time soon. I also know that my PDFs will be here later, I'm certainly not gonna need to download everything right away. In fact, all I really want up front is the core rulebook, so I can start looking through it. Everything else? It'll be there (hopefully) when I get to it.
But the way the system is set up right now.... there's really no messages telling you what's going on. You click it once, it says "personalizing, click again in 10 seconds" (well, clearly wait longer, as the red text right now tells you).... but what's effectively happening is you're being told to wait a bit and click the same link, and hope something different happens. You aren't being told WHEN it's ready. Just that they're trying to MAKE it ready, and it should be ready at some point.
On top of that, if you wait too long, you get logged out. Now, the red text and the post SAYS that that's not an issue... but when you go back to the download pages after logging back in, the "personalizing" bit is gone. And doesn't come back if you click again. So we, as the consumers, are completely unaware of what is going on. Did we lose our place in the queue? Are we sending new requests every time we click? Does the system even know that we're still here and waiting?
There's no transparency. There's no indications of what's going on. There's no estimated time limit, place in queue, there's NOTHING to let us know if it's working or not.
And that's troubling. And it's probably what's causing a whole lot of extra clicks, and slowing everything down even more.
As I'm looking at this, this system seems poorly equipped to handle even small amounts of traffic with this kind of setup. The whole system could benefit with some more experienced eyes reworking it and optimizing. It'd take some loads off the server. Of course, it would also take a pretty major overhaul that wouldn't be done any time soon too.
I'm still gonna try to get my book (been at it all day so far). And then let the server hopefully balance out in the coming weeks, or months, until it's time to collect the rest.
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Yeah getting really frustrated now. Bought the bundle the first day and have only successfully downloaded 3 of the files.
So a couple comments in regards to what Paizo posted in the other thread about keeping us updated...
No the new hardware is not picking up the slack like you said it would - nor is any "improvements" in the programming that you may have done.
And no the files don't stay in the queue after the response of "Personalizing" comes up because when I try again later - maybe 10 minutes, maybe 4 hours - it still wants to "personalize" the files again.
So I attribute the 3 files that I did get downloaded as flukes of the system.
Its a shame that Paizo can't see past their own nose and allow other sites involved in etrade (like rpgnow and drivethru rpg) sell their files.
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I think the Paizo servers rolled a 1 on their save verses Humble Bundle check.
It would be nice if the download page could change so that it said 'Personalizing' when you have the file request in queue, better if it gave an approximate percentage, and 'Waiting to Download' once a personalized copy was available. Keep that personalized copy around a little while -- at least an hour.
I have waited up to an hour without getting the personalized copy, yet it says that I've downloaded it. I'm not convinced I've made any forward progress towards getting any files.
Edit to add: No sooner do I write this than I finally manage to download a file successfully. It is just taking so long to personalize (over half an hour) that I hadn't caught it at the right time. I had waited over an hour at other times, but evidently by then the personalized file had been cleared off.
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I too have a recommendation: disable, or at least significantly extend the timer on, automatic logout. Part of the problem that I can see for people trying to download their stuff is that we keep getting logged out mid-personalization, which, if it doesn't yank us out of the queue, sure feels like it. It would be nice if I didn't feel like I was playing chicken, trying to get as far as I possibly can through the queue before my account is automatically logged out.
Fixed now, should be delivering again. That said, still a lot of folks hitting it.
Minor additional suggestion - switch off personalisation for free downloads. Trying to download the Roleplaying Guild Guide - a free product. That fires off a personalisation request and gets trapped in the same queue. Why DRM it in the first place?
The number varies by load, which is why I have resisted given something exact. Generally it doesn't persist longer than a couple of hours.