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

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.

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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