Please don't share your incomplete downloads
 

Am I the only one who is slightly annoyed by people that share their incomplete downloads?

AMEN!!!!
 

unfortunately, many p2p programs have lots of clients who share tons of incomplete or crappy as h*** files. this is unfortunate.

yeah, I've suggested that limewire puts a filter in that allows you to block files under/over a certain size (with exceptions for .jpg, .gif, etc.), and files that start with "T-0013134...."

This would probably also cut out the obvious viruses and trojans that are 126kb called "Lord of the Rings (complete)" or whatever.

I was unable to find an answer to my question about Incompletes either in the postings or the FAQ's (i.e., how do you continue the search to complete your "Incompletes"), so I picked up on this thread. Would appreciate learning the answer to this question. Thanks.

you have to go to the "incomplete" library, and copy the name of the file you were downloading (without the t-09434 stuff). Then paste it into the search window and try to find the same filename/size again. It should resume your download where it left off (this hasn't been working for me tho).

Sort of lame that you can't reconnect to that same user, or doubleclick in the library to re-search).

The most annoying thing is when you have to sit for hours or even days for a 400-Mg file to finish downloading, only to find out that this file doesn't work. I was chatting with a guy the other day, while downloading a really big file from him, and after an hour or so, he noticed the file I was downloading and he send a message to me saying that file I was downloading doesn't work. He can't even get it to mount!!!!!!!
So he tried it, and he knew that it doesn't work, so why DA HELL is he sharing it?????!!!!!!
Also people who share Demo's, Beta's, or Trial versions should right something indicating that this is not a full version, and you can downloaded it from the publishers site probably a lot faster.

Sharing incomplete - broken files
 

Well this primarily happens because once a download is complete it by DEFAULT goes into the shared folder.

You do not have a chance to check it out before it goes in the folder.

You have to check each file as it is downloaded or you run a chance of sharing an incomplete or damaged file.

I always try to check out files as they finish and remove any that are incmoplete or damaged or sup-par.

I would think if you filtered out "incomplete", that iit would help a great deal, and a lot more over time if more people do it. This is because it would (hopefully) filter out the incomplete folder that the person is apparently sharing (dumb). Obviously, NOT sharing the incomplete folder is the best method here, but how to get people who don't know better to cooperate? This issue should, in time be self correcting as more people become familiar with file sharing and as clients add features to show the length of media files and such. Then nobody would really want to download a file if they know in advance it is incomplete, even when it says it is in the name. Unfortunately, the size of the file does not always give a true representation, as encoding methods effect the size. The length of the media in minutes and seconds is in my opinion the best method available, and it should be easy to implement.

YES YES YES This is what should happen if you doubleclick a file in the Incomplete folder. Or at least a right-click or command-click or something should pop up an option box with re-search as an option.

Please! Feature request!

I agree with the thread title, too. If people will just take two minutes to weed through our own files and take out the broken ones, the whole network gets faster, with less bandwidth wasted on people downloading garbage files.

Thank you Thank you
 

I have never figured out why ppl take the time to download a file and then not check to see if the file is a working copy. I get so tired of titles that are wrong also. I spent hours downloading a movie the other day and the title did not matched to the movie at all. Between the wrong titles and non working copies it hard to keep smiling sometimes.:mad:

I usually "launch" the file after starting the DL, especially if it's a large file. If it doesn't launch, I'd quit right away. If the title and the content don't match, you can find it out before you spend hours of DL.

Is it only me that thinks there are some users who alter titles on purpose? But after all, we are all doing something morally dodgy, so I won't try to preach about it...

I agree completely about the incomplete files. I usually compare the sizes of the files before I choose one to download. Sometimes it's obvious that it's not complete. Other times...

But, I usually trash any incomplete files I have as soon as I realize that it didn't finish.

My question is: LimeWire automatically includes the Incomplete folder as a shared folder. I didn't choose it. How do I change that? I don't see it in my editable list of shared folders. I tried to click on the Incomplete folder in the Library window and delete it, but it didn't work.

Thanks.

Although I don't think LW would "automatically" allow incomplete files to be shared, this is where you go.

Go to Tools>Options>Sharing, and find "shared directories". If your LW is sharing your incomplete files, in here you should find the folder which keeps them. Highlight the folder, and click "Remove".
It might be the case that,
1. when you first started up LW (and was asked about the files you want to share), you might have selected the folder named "incomplete files" by chance (in which case you just remove this folder), or more likely
2. at that time, you might have selected the folder which includes the "incomplete files".

Make sure that your "shared folders" don't have the folder named "incomplete files" within them.

Happy sharing.

Oh, and to the person who started this thread, no, you're not the only one who's annoyed. I'm annoyed big time especially at those who've renamed the incomple files and made it look as if they're completed.

i wonder if the problem may be that question when you install an update to limewire:

"allow limewire to search for media on your hard-drive to share."

I bet it's picking the temp files from the previous limewire version.

PS why don't they put in an auto-update feature, that replaces or deletes the old version?

About sharing incompletes.

I don't know, but perhaps if you allocate a whole drive to sharing, giving the root X:\ as the shared directory,then the incompletes must be on that drive and are not filtered by the software. I have a folder in the root and use that as my root to share. Incompletes are in a separate folder on the drives root.

Dave E.

Normally this would work for files like MP3s but I've found some files out there (mainly DivX AVI video clips) that have all of the necessary information required to properly play the file stored at the END of the file rather than at the beginning (ie. size, codec version, and whatever other junk is needed). These files will not play unless they're complete.... starting them before they've completed downloading ALWAYS generates an error. So far, I've been lucky for not downloading any duds yet.

About sharing incompletes.

I don't know, but perhaps if you allocate a whole drive to sharing, giving the root X:\ as the shared directory,then the incompletes must be on that drive and are not filtered by the software. I have a folder in the root and use that as my root to share. Incompletes are in a separate folder on the drives root.

Dave E.

Oops! Seem to have posted this twice!

Regarding my incomplete folder... My previous version of LimeWire used to put the Incomplete folder in the LimeWire folder. It wasn't in a shared folder. Now LimeWire puts it in my Music Files (my shared folder). I've moved it out, but when I relaunch, it is put back in. I've gone to Tools>Options>Sharing and there is no "Incomplete" listed as a separate item. I've tried going to the Library window and clicking on the Incomplete folder and clicking remove. Nothing happens. Unless anyone else has any ideas...

By the way, I'm using Mac OS 9.1.

A couple of things:

1. I always installed LimeWire without allowing it to search. It defaults to sharing your Incomplete directory. I always have to change this. I'll share complete files, but not my incomplete directory. There's too much low-quality data out there as it is for me to add to the problem.

2. Skill is a critical factor. I've downloaded many files designated "corrupt" or "broken" to discover they simply need a little more effort. Windows users tend to have the most difficulty (and limited skills/access to resources). One of my big frustrations in this area is DMC. Windows Digital Content Management (read encryption with online key) is a real pain. I'd like to know that a file is encrypted before I spend the time downloading (.wma, .wmv). It would be nice if this information were somehow available. Too frequently I download a file to discover it is impossible to obtain permission to access--I'd rate this as 1-in-4 at a guess from experience.

3. Feature request - I realize there may be many hidden pit-falls behind this, but better tracking of files would be very handy so that you could leverage partial files when downloading from multiple hosts (and still end up with a complete download. You would also be able to download a partial, have LimeWire recognize it as a partial, and then when a complete is available, complete the file. I don't know that this is possible at this time with the current technology we have (within reason), but it seems like it would be worth investigating.

How do you change your Incomplete folder?

The reason LW defaults to your incomplete folder is that the newer versions are able to utilitise parts of incomplete files to help combine sources for speedy & effective dwnlding. Sure de-selecting it as a shared folder is easy to do however. As for changing the location of an incomplete folder, I'm not sure other than perhaps trying to change the location of the LW Dwnlds folder. The 2 should be located on the same level (to my knowledge.) So try your Saving options & choose Browse & select an new location at a different folder/directory hierarchy level as before. I'm a mac person but my dwnlds folder & its accompanying incomplete folder are both on a different HDD partition to the LW program.
Don't forget to move your files across to it. Though this might cause an issue in itself for presently incomplete files!

This is an old thread I shouldn't have dragged up b/c some of those issues no longer apply!!

Incomplete Files
 

I have never downloaded a incomplete file but i did not know it was a problem i will stop sharing my incomplete files.

It's not a problem. This thread is very old & it was my mistake for bringing it up to the present. LW can now utilise incomplete files for assisting people accumulate resources. I assure you, there's no need to change anything.