Problems With Downloading (Read Here First)

[Brian Bauman]

Good evening! I'm checking in following GenCon to discuss a little bit about the new downloading functionality, some of the problems that have cropped up, and the best things to do when something goes wrong with your downloads going forward.

First, some background. Our primary goal with the recent changes was to better accommodate thousands of people attempting to download files simultaneously, and it appears on this front we were unequivocally successful. For those interested in the details, the changes centered around automatically scaling our infrastructure, and making some efficiency improvements to our existing personalization strategy.

The improvements, however, also necessitated some fundamental changes in the underlying environment, which has resulted in a few issues. These issues seem to overwhelmingly fall into two categories, which I will discuss in turn.

The first error involves personalized files occasionally reporting a size of 0 bytes. This issue appears to stem from the file storage environment reporting a size that is slightly out of date (from before the finished file is completed and stored). In effect, this error can be considered a user interface bug, and can be safely ignored until it is resolved. The downloaded files will still be fine.

The second error manifests in the form of missing or empty files within the download itself. In single-file downloads, this error creates bundles that are only about 150 bytes in size. The root cause for this issue is typically unavailability of the source file, whether this means it is missing, misconfigured, set with incorrect permissions, or other variations on the same. These issues are, in almost all cases, fixable. When reporting this sort of problem, please include the name of the file you attempted to personalize and download, and the time you initiated the download, as precisely as you can remember.

Note that it is possible for this issue to manifest simultaneously with the previous issue, but the two are unrelated.

Happy gaming!

[Pogiforce]

I'm having a third issue, which is that half my downloads don't list, and are instead in collapsed subcategories that I can't expand. I have to click, declick, and resort sidebar options just to get those downloads to appear, and that's if I'm lucky and it doesn't just show me the ten most recent Starfinder scenarios instead of what I'm actually looking for. With this current system, every attempt to download something is an ordeal.

[JayRS]

101 Forest Spells by Rite Publishing is still broken.

[Brian Bauman]

The first error should no longer be occurring. All downloads should now correctly report their sizes.

Pogiforce, the issue you are running across is related to CSS error that we are currently working on resolving. I appreciate your patience.

[David knott 242]

101 Forest Spells, The Book of Many Things, and The Book of Many Things Volume II: Shattered Worlds are all still tiny unusable files.

[necromental]

I tried to download playtest pregenerated characters but the page just keeps refreshing instead of starting the download. Tried it again on My Downloads, and it does the same thing (also none of the other files there can be downloaded).

[Daniel Gago]

Daniel Gago wrote:

necromental wrote:

I tried to download playtest pregenerated characters but the page just keeps refreshing instead of starting the download. Tried it again on My Downloads, and it does the same thing (also none of the other files there can be downloaded).

I have the same problem but with all my files.

[Brian Bauman]

Those of you experiencing page refreshes instead of downloading - can you please provide your operating system information as well as your browser and version?

I am unable to reproduce download errors in Firefox or Chrome when downloading Pathfinder Society Playtest Pregenerated Characters from here. In both cases, I am able to download the 5.1 MB bundle within a few seconds.

I am also looking into the individual files listed in this thread as malfunctioning.

[David knott 242]

I have tried my downloads using Internet Explorer and Google Chrome on separate computers, both with Windows 10.

[Marc Waschle]

I cant download anything either at work using IE or at home on my phone or my Ipad using Safari. This has been going on for days!

[bhodges623]

I have been having the same problem with 2 files I ordered on 8/4 (order #5359950). I did not get a response to either of two emails I sent. When I called customer service, they said they'd look into it but couldn't offer an ETA or a fix. The two files are coming in ~150b and unzip to an unreadable 0K PDF. I have tried downloading on Chrome, IE and mobile. Help please.

[Daniel Gago]

I use a MacBook Air and try to open the files with safari. I have checked and I'm able to download the playlets bundle in mere seconds but none of the rest of my digital content.

[necromental]

Windows 7, Firefox 61.0.2 (64bit). I managed to download it with chrome, but it's still bugged with firefox.

[Daniel Gago]

I keep on having the same problem. Unable to download anything.

[Robert Brandenburg]

bhodges623 wrote:

I have been having the same problem with 2 files I ordered on 8/4 (order #5359950). I did not get a response to either of two emails I sent. When I called customer service, they said they'd look into it but couldn't offer an ETA or a fix. The two files are coming in ~150b and unzip to an unreadable 0K PDF. I have tried downloading on Chrome, IE and mobile. Help please.

Sorry for the inconvenience-- there was an issue with the file in our database which is now fixed. You may have to refresh your downloads or click the "having problems? Click here" link, but it should be able to give you the PDF now.

[JayRS]

101 Forest Spells is still broken.

[Marc Waschle]

I cannot download ANYTHING! Firefox, IE, my IPAD, my phone....NOTHING WORKS! I'm unable to download ANY of my digital content. It has been this way for several days almost a week!

[Brian Bauman]

David Knott,

I was able to download both Book of Many Things PDFs while testing with your account. Perhaps try those again?

For those of you trying to obtain 101 Forest Spells, the source file that was uploaded for us to distribute appears to be missing a required component for PDFs. We're looking into whether it's possible for us to resolve this problem ourselves or if we will have to obtain a fixed file from the publishers.

[Brian Bauman]

Marc Waschle wrote:

I cannot download ANYTHING! Firefox, IE, my IPAD, my phone....NOTHING WORKS! I'm unable to download ANY of my digital content. It has been this way for several days almost a week!

Marc,

I'm able to download several files while testing with your account. Can you please provide more details regarding what is happening for you, and where things seem to be going off the rails?

[Marc Waschle]

Well, whenever I click on any file it does the rotation thing and then says personalizing. I wait the 60 seconds and then click again and it thinks for a minute then goes to the problems? click here so I do and then it goes back to the personalizing again.

This happens in firefox, ie, my ipad and my phone.

Not sure what else to do or try, nothing downloads.

[Marc Waschle]

SWEET!

I just got things to download with Firefox!!!!

I will try on other platforms when I get home!

Thanks for doing whatever you did! If you didnt do anything thanks anyway!

[Daniel Gago]

It is solved for me now. Thanks a lot!

[Dragnmoon]

So I can download still but the downloads no longer start automatically. I have to right click and "save as".

Is this intentional?

[Brian Bauman]

Marc,

I'm glad it's working for you now. It shouldn't be possible to get the "problems" link below a file without the main link taking you directly to the ready download, so it's intriguing that you weren't able to download at all but still got that link presented to you.

Glad you're all worked out, Daniel Gago!

Dragnmoon,

It is a known side effect of several necessary changes in how downloads work that allow them to exist in more than one place. So, not intentional per se, but expected for now.

[KILLGORE302]

I also have been waiting to download all month. I remember getting the Skitter Shot DL back at the end of July and pretty much all of August I cant download anything. I click, it says click again, I do, it does nothing. Please fix cause I have been looking at D&D 5e since.

[Brian Bauman]

Greetings, Killgore

While emulating your account, I'm able to download both from the front page and from your personal download page within a few seconds of clicking a link. When it does nothing for you, does it say "click again in 60 seconds" or "click again to download"?

[Swiftbrook]

Brian Bauman wrote:

Marc,

I'm glad it's working for you now. It shouldn't be possible to get the "problems" link below a file without the main link taking you directly to the ready download, so it's intriguing that you weren't able to download at all but still got that link presented to you.

I'm just chiming in to say that this happened to me too. I'm not sure if I was running Firefox or IE at the time (or tried both). Sorry, not a lot of help there.

Today I tried again. I'm running Firefox 56.0.2 (yes out of date). I also have several security/blocking features in place so I don't necessarily attribute it to your site. Today when I tried with IE 11 (no extra security) I downloaded after a little delay.

I've been on both sides of IT. I've sat down at someones computer and they have not been able to recreate their problem. It's frustrating but it happens.

[Max Hellspont]

Hello, I am having the same problem. I just purchased Westbound (PFRPG) PDF by ICOSA Entertainment (Saturday, August 25, 2018 at 11:00 PM EST). When I try to download it gives me a zip file size 157 bytes; when I open the zip file it says the document is 0 KB. When I try to open the file it says Adobe Acrobat Reader can't open because either not supported file type or file is damaged.

I'm using Microsoft Edge on a Windows 10 PC. Thanks for your help!

[Brian Bauman]

Thanks for the detailed report, Max!

I looked into the file, and it appears that the source file uploaded for us to distribute is misconfigured. I will forward this to the right person so we can request that ICOSA Entertainment replace the file.

[Max Hellspont]

Sweet! Thanks!

[Charles Scholz]

My downloads page is stuck on "Date Last Updated".
I can switch it to "By Company", but when I try to go to "Date Purchased" or "Date Last Downloaded" it just goes to "Date Last Updated".

This isn't much of a problem when I get the latest Paizo products, but if I order something that is a year or more old, I have to scroll down until I see that it was "Never" downloaded to find it.

[Johnico]

I'm having issues downloading the Playtest update file and the Playtest bundle. Whenever I click the links to download either, be it on the playtest page or on my downloads page, I get taken to an error page. The text of those errors are below:

Updates link wrote:

This XML file does not appear to have any style information associated with it. The document tree is shown below.

<Error>
<Code>AccessDenied</Code>
<Message>Access Denied</Message>
<RequestId>CD6557948CCD0FAA</RequestId>
<HostId>
NnIutxX3leFuaqmAkUREEKSy1gPE31E0SdM5WzIlAHP6id8qbvz68z0xHbXICUnMaz9TFasSfhA =
</HostId>
</Error>

Bundle link wrote:

This XML file does not appear to have any style information associated with it. The document tree is shown below.

<Error>
<Code>AccessDenied</Code>
<Message>Access Denied</Message>
<RequestId>B54B743DB695B00D</RequestId>
<HostId>
j1pZw8wDNIop0yzYC2i5JBiR0EK/zj5Jp3SLlI4Aawpgv128WIao16RYhCwmrYZnmHkkJRjoj6A =
</HostId>
</Error>

[Brian Bauman]

Charles,

We are aware of that issue, and the front-end team has it on their backlog to address.

Johnico,

I've sent you a private message requesting more information.

[Peff]

Echoing the above post by Johnico, same issue trying to download the Starfinder Armory PDF:

Starfinder Armory (Single File) wrote:

This XML file does not appear to have any style information associated with it. The document tree is shown below.

<Error>
<Code>AccessDenied</Code>
<Message>Access Denied</Message>
<RequestId>0228502E09D29114</RequestId>
<HostId>
RYz0mZbRGovsPFFd0DbXtcOiaiLhaAApyhLkiqfHyN3dQ2zNL2Ni5fL6jByg8fBXDbctMXs+lbA =
</HostId>
</Error>

[Brian Bauman]

Hello, Peff.

Generally, the AccessDenied error means that the file you are attempting to download doesn't exist. Almost always, the cause for this is that the file was requested for download several days prior, and has since expired. There is currently a UI bug that causes the download page to try to link you through to the expired file anyway, rather than generating the file again.

You should be able to bypass this issue by using the "Problems downloading this file? Click here." button to force the file to be regenerated for you. Please let me know if this doesn't work.

[gbonehead]

I finally was able to download again. I've realized that my troubles were due to a significant change in the download behavior.

Previously, the system would personalize the file, or if it was ready would auto-download the file, with a "Problems downloading this file? Click here" link you could click to download the file directly if the auto-download didn't start.

The change to make the "Problems downloading this file? Click here" link instead cause it to re-personalize the file took me a long time to figure out - I'd personalize the file, which would say "click again in 60 seconds" then would click it again, and when the auto-download didn't start, would click the "Problems downloading this file? Click here" link like I've been doing for like the last ... I dunno ... 10 years?

Which would begin the cycle over again, making me think something was hosed up. I know this makes me sound like a bit of a dullard, but that's the way it worked for years and I wasn't expecting the change, so I'd give up and try again later, waiting for the behavior to get "fixed." Which of course it never did since it was on purpose, and the web site's been down a fair amount which also hindered my troubleshooting.

Anyway, things mostly seem to be working now, though my sorting seems to work somewhat randomly as well - sometimes it works, and sometimes it just does the spinny thing with no change.

But at least I can download my files :)

[Brian Bauman]

Max Hellspont, Westbound should be good to go for you. I appreciate your patience.

We currently have all 0-byte downloads issues resolved that we know about, with the exception of 101 Forest Spells.

I tried to respond to all outstanding error reports on this board in their respective threads. If I'm missing your issue, please feel free to bump that thread or repost it below.

[David knott 242]

The Book of Many Things Volume 2: Shattered Worlds is still a bad 173 byte file. I think the publisher is trying to get yet another version uploaded, so it might be just as well to focus on getting that newer version uploaded correctly.

[Chris Lambertz]

Hey David! It looks like the issue with this particular product was a mismatch in files where while the site was down, the publisher attempted to upload an updated file. I've manually prodded it and it should download as expected for you.

[Justin Sluder]

When attempting to download the Playtest Rulebook, I instead receive a download of the Update document.

[Brian Bauman]

Justin,

Thanks for bringing this to our attention - it should be resolved. If you click the "problems downloading this file" link under errant link, it should get you set up with the proper file this time.

[Scryangi]

I don't know if this is where to ask this.

I cannot download "The Very Last Book About War (PFRPG)". I used Internet Explorer and Google Chrome. if I download it, I get a file 1KB large which claims it is either not a PDF or corrupted.

Should I direct my question somewhere else?

[JoFaye]

I cannot download "The Show Must Go On" Extinction Curse 1of 6. I download the file and it comes up empty with 0KB size listed. The time was 6:19am on Sunday May 3rd

[AJCarrington]

Did you click on "Problems downloading this file? Click here." (as noted above). I was having an issue last week and got everything sorted by forcing the site to regenerate the file for me.