Use DownThemAll to download all files you want from websites in one go

Martin Brinkmann
Aug 19, 2013
Firefox
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16

When the Internet started to get traction back in the good old days, you had to use download managers for larger (that was 1 Megabyte or more) downloads as you risked having to wait a long time again if the Internet connection dropped or the connection to the server. Resume, which some download managers supported, was a godsend back then.

Internet connections got faster eventually and more reliable as well, which moved download managers from a must-have program to a niche. They are still useful, do not get me wrong, but not essential anymore as they have been in the past.

That does not mean that you cannot use them to speed up certain operations for you. That's what this guide is about.

DownThemAll

DownThemAll is a browser extension for the Firefox web browser that adds download manager capabilities to it. It does not require third party programs of any kind, and works right out of the box after installation.

One of the things that you can use it for is to download files that are linked on a website in a single operation. Let me show you how this is done:

  • Visit a page like Reddit's picture group, or any other website that lists multiple files of a certain type that you want to download.
  • Right-click on the page and select DownThemAll from the options.
  • The download manager displays two tabs on top. New users are probably clicking on pictures and media there assuming that what they want to download is listed there. This is however no the case.
  • Pictures and media displays elements that are visible on the page. If you would use it, you would download thumbnail images and not full images.
  • The "real" full sized images are listed under links instead.
  • Basically, links is for linked contents, e.g. program download links, full size images and other linked contents, while pictures and media only for media that is visible on the page.
  • Use the filters at the bottom to select the types of files that you want to download, e.g. images, and make sure the download directory is set correctly.
  • All files highlighted under download will be downloaded, while non-highlighted files won't.

Advanced Tips

You can use the fast filtering feature to filter for specific file types that you are interested in. This can be handy if you want to download file types not displayed in the preset filters listing, or if you want to mix specific file types such as jpg, png and zip and rar.

If you are using custom filters regularly, you may want to consider adding them to the filters list in the options. You can create your own custom file filters here.

download filters

Here you find other features of interest as well. You can change the number of concurrent downloads, and downloads per server, or modify the extension's interface appearances.

DownThemAll can download linked files and media files that are displayed on a page directly. It comes to its limits when sites use JavaScript and other scripting languages for downloads.

Verdict

You can use DownThemAll just like any other download manager out there, to download large files to your system. The integration in Firefox is excellent, and the option to download all files of a select type from a web page at once is certainly something that heavy downloaders will appreciate.

Are you using a download manager? If so, what is your program of choice and why?

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Comments

  1. andy said on August 29, 2017 at 9:41 pm
    Reply

    I’ve tried with both a) Links and b) Pictures and Media and I can only ever get thumbnail sized images. WTF?

  2. Anonymous said on January 11, 2017 at 7:30 pm
    Reply

    Thank you alot. you help me

  3. myname said on October 25, 2016 at 12:56 am
    Reply

    Would be nice to be able to limit the image or video size to download

  4. Susan said on July 11, 2016 at 6:40 pm
    Reply

    How do you create “negative” filter — in other words, a filter that doesn’t list a specific type of page/file in the downloads list? On a page with facebook comments, the list can be quite long. Would be easier to sniff out and find certain file types by exculding other pages. I tried putting -https//www.facebook.com in the Fast Filter box, but that didn’t work.

  5. Anonymous said on June 14, 2016 at 10:40 am
    Reply

    Why is this page still up? Support for firefox seems to have stopped in 2013.

    1. Martin Brinkmann said on June 14, 2016 at 10:49 am
      Reply

      The last update of the extension was published in April 2016 at the time of writing. Hardly something that I would call stopped.

  6. guest said on January 24, 2016 at 6:22 pm
    Reply

    Does not work. Does actually not do anything!

    1. jance said on April 24, 2017 at 3:25 am
      Reply

      Then you must not know what you are doing!I’ve been using this for years now.

  7. Karteek said on December 13, 2013 at 2:06 pm
    Reply

    Hey do you know how to use this with uploaded.net website ? When I try to use this add on with uploaded.net it is issuing second request and just downloading a small HTML file. I am a free user of uploaded.net.

    Thanks !

  8. peaquod said on November 20, 2013 at 4:49 pm
    Reply

    Cant get this to work,I am trying to d/l multiple rar files but only the links are downloaded.
    Please help

  9. tom said on August 20, 2013 at 12:45 am
    Reply

    few while ago I used Orbit downlaoder. Recent update has more negative feedback hence decided to use free download manager. I also use jdownloder.

    Do you have review of filezilla? or details on free portable download managers?

    1. Martin Brinkmann said on August 20, 2013 at 2:02 am
      Reply

      Filezilla is not a download manager, it is a (s)ftp client. Free Download Manager is great. Why do you want to switch?

  10. Xmetalfanx said on August 19, 2013 at 10:11 pm
    Reply

    sometimes I use “Free Download Manager” though if I use a DM at all .. DownloadThemAll is the one i have been using for years. As another users said when Firefox messes up downloads (doesn’t happen alot, but it does happen), DownloadThemAll can download that same item from the same server, without issue. I love DownloadThemAll

    -Xmetalfanx

  11. JohnJ said on August 19, 2013 at 6:35 pm
    Reply

    DownloadThemAll has been my GoTo FF extension for a number of years now. It’s easy to use and really does make multi-file DLs so much easier; especially on music blogs and the like. Highly Recommended!

  12. Sheila said on August 19, 2013 at 10:48 am
    Reply

    I’ve been using DTA for a while now and I love it!!!!!!

  13. Ficho said on August 19, 2013 at 3:08 am
    Reply

    DownThemAll is great.With built in Firefox/Pale Moon download managers
    sometimes files are corrupted like nvidia installers,but with DTA everything is fine.
    I also use EagleGet,great light download manager.

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