I'm having download issues. What can I do?
In order to investigate download issues that have been reported to us, we require the following information in the report:
- Country: The place you're downloading from, please make sure you are not using a VPN when testing as this may make this information inaccurate.
- ISP: The name of your Internet Service Provider, the company who you pay for your internet access.
- Test download speeds: You'll need to try and download each of our test files in this article.
- Your download link: The link generated for you when downloading a file.
- TraceRoute: This is detailed information about your connection to our services, which allows us to identify any common stalling points.
We must have all of this information before we can help you. Please post your findings in our Feedback, Suggestions and Questions forum. To get the information required, please follow the troubleshooting steps below, there is a posting template at the bottom of the article:
Understanding what is within our control
We do our best to provide access to all mods for users all over the world, however we are sometimes hampered by conditions beyond our control. A download link between two computers is deceptively simple, but it can involve the data you requested being sent halfway around the world before it arrives on your computer, passing through hundreds of different servers and cables. If there is a problem with any piece of equipment along the route it may be beyond our ability to fix. Our developers work hard to ensure that your downloads are being routed to the server with the best connection but there are times where these limitations that are outside of our control mean that we cannot provide you a fast download speed. In these cases, we may ask you to consult with your Internet Service Provider (ISP) to see if they can improve the way they route your traffic to our servers.
Please note that the minimum download cap we enforce is 1MB/s. If you are getting a consistently limited speed which is lower than the maximum for your membership tier, this is not being enforced by us and is either a connection problem or a limit from your ISP. You can read more about our download caps and membership tiers here.
The sense checks
Before we get into the more advanced troubleshooting, it's important to cover the simple problems we often encounter which can be fixed with relative ease.
- Downloads don't start: You should consult our "Troubleshooting website issues" page. This is normally caused by a browser addon or privacy setting.
- Make sure you stop any other downloads: We often find that users report issues while Steam is downloading a 40GB update in the background, which is hogging all your bandwidth. This can also happen with Windows Update and any other software which automatically downloads content.
- Update your mod manager: If you're downloading with a mod manager, please ensure you have the latest version. You should also try and download files manually to see if the problem is exclusive to the mod manager, in these cases it may be more useful to seek support with your chosen application.
If you're still having problems, continue to the steps below.
Server Tests
In this section we'll be checking your maximum connection speed to each of our server locations. For each of these links please stop all other downloads on your PC, click a link, allow 20-30 seconds for the speed to stabilize, take a note of the speed, then stop the download and try the next one.
EU Servers - Amsterdam, Prague
US Servers - Los Angeles, Chicago, Miami
Asia/Oceania Servers - Singapore (Premium only)
If you're a Premium user, you have the ability to change to your preferred server in your Site Preferences.
Note: Smaller files are served using the CloudFlare CDN which we do not have the ability to offer a test for. This includes files under 20MB for regular users and under 500MB for Premium users.
Getting an example download link
We'll need to grab a couple of download links to add to the troubleshooting post. If possible please locate two files, one that is under 20MB and another that is over 500MB.
Please download these files manually and retrieve the full download link from your browser (example below).
TraceRoute Test
Next, we want to check the quality of the connection between your PC and our servers by performing a TraceRoute operation. To do this you'll need to:
- Open a command prompt window on your computer. (Press Windows+R to open the “Run” box. Type “cmd” and then click “OK”.)
- Type "tracert files.nexus-cdn.com" in and press enter.
- You should be able to copy the results of this test by selecting all (Ctrl + A) and copying the text (Ctrl + C).
- If you wish, remove any personal information (such as your Windows account name) from the copied text after you paste it.
Posting Template
Finally, you should create a new topic on the forums including the test results. If you like, you can use this format by copying it and replacing the sample data with your information:
Country: UK
Internet Service Provider (ISP): Virgin Media
Download tests:
- Paris: 10MB/s
- Amsterdam: 10MB/s
- Prague: 10MB/s
- LA: 10MB/s
- Chicago: 10MB/s
- Miami: 10MB/s
- Singapore: 10MB/s
Download links:
TraceRoute results:
C:\Users\NexusMods>tracert files.nexus-cdn.com Tracing route to files.nexus-cdn.com [195.181.173.81] over a maximum of 30 hops: 1 2 ms 1 ms 1 ms 192.168.0.1 2 * * * Request timed out. 3 13 ms 11 ms 9 ms exe2-core-2a-xe-121-0.network.virginmedia.net [80.6.130.245] 4 * * * Request timed out. 5 14 ms 15 ms 12 ms m686-mp2.cvx1-b.lis.dial.ntli.net [62.254.42.174] 6 * * * Request timed out. 7 23 ms 24 ms 20 ms us-nyc03a-rd1-xe-0-0-2-8.aorta.net [84.116.137.57] 8 21 ms 20 ms 20 ms nl-ams14a-ri1-ae-8-0.aorta.net [84.116.135.38] 9 30 ms 21 ms 20 ms 213.46.182.186 10 * 23 ms * unn-195-181-173-81.datapacket.com [195.181.173.81] 11 * 22 ms * unn-195-181-173-81.datapacket.com [195.181.173.81] 12 22 ms * 24 ms unn-195-181-173-81.datapacket.com [195.181.173.81] Trace complete.
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