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Why does OneDrive take a long time to download files.

Anonymous
2021-03-25T02:46:15+00:00

Hi,

Today I tried to download some files from my OneDrive account using my browser but it is taking hours. That file is about 4GB but my browser says it would take about two hours. I thought it was a problem with my internet connection but it has about 28Mb/s download speed. When I checked the download speed of that file, it was about 500Kb/s. So it must be a problem with the OneDrive servers. I planed to do my downloads using my night time data but now it is also consuming from my  day time data which I have only 15GB left. I don't know if this is normal but once I uploaded files to OneDrive and it had an average speed of 5Mb/s.

Does anyone have any idea to speed things up?

Thank you in advance.

Microsoft 365 and Office | OneDrive | For home | Windows

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  1. Anonymous
    2021-03-30T11:35:36+00:00

    Hi Ezra Johns,

    Based on your description, we understand that you are facing issue with slow downloading in OneDrive on the Web.

    The time it takes to upload or download a large amount of data to or from OneDrive depends on your internet connection speed, how close you are geographically to our servers, how much your internet service provider (ISP) lets you upload in a day, the speed of your computer, and other factors.

    Here are some tips for maximizing the transfer speed: 

    • Use a wired instead of a wireless connection.
    • Avoid running other apps on your computer when you are uploading or downloading a large amount of data.
    • Avoid using your internet connection for other activities while you are transferring a large amount of data. It might help to upload or download at night when the connection is getting less use from other people in your household and when your internet service provider’s (ISP) bandwidth is getting less use from other users in your area.

    More information for you to reference: Maximize upload and download speed - Office Support (microsoft.com)

    We fully understand that long download times make people feel irritable, however, the 4 GB file is really a large file which requires more time to download. Thank you for your understanding.

    Tin

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4 additional answers

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  1. Anonymous
    2021-06-28T21:09:41+00:00

    My suggestion is avoid one drive and likewise I Cloud. They are so quick to upload to, but they make it so slow to download from. I am slowly removing downloading all my files from One Drive. There is absolutely no reason for it to be so slow. But it is Microsoft, the home of Internet Explorer / Edge. Enough said!

    30+ people found this answer helpful.
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  2. Anonymous
    2021-03-26T02:25:34+00:00

    I am downloading files in my onedrive using my browser to my local download folder. I have disabled sync in onedrive because I don't want onedrive to download 1TB of data in cloud to my local storage. Yesterday I wanted to download a file about 4GB and it took about two hours. I want to know a way to speed it up.

    2 people found this answer helpful.
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  3. Anonymous
    2021-04-01T10:27:23+00:00

    Hi Ezra Johns,

    May I ask if there is any progress on your question? If you have any questions, please feel free to contact us and we will try our best to help you.

    Tin

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  4. Anonymous
    2021-03-25T09:18:34+00:00

    Download files? why and to where?

    If you download to the local device, to My Docs\ they will simply be uploaded to OneDrive again

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