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Avoid a 'download' problem with iDisk and media files Network
I have been trying to get a large (700+MB) AIFF file to one of my clients using a File Sharing page through my .Mac account. It took a long time to upload (5+ hours on an aDSL line), and neither my client nor I could download it (but that's another story...). I decided to try to delete it and try again. I opened the iDisk in the Finder, navigated to the Music folder where it was located, and...

...every time I would select the file itself in the Finder, my network traffic meter (MenuMeters installed) would show that the file was being rapidly downloaded, and the Finder had been hijacked (spinning beachball, unable to force quit, even with Activity Monitor). The only thing I could do to stop the file from 'downloading' (a search found no trace on my HD) was to force restart. I went through this a few times until the solution dawned on me.

I have the Finder set to column view, and the View Options set to show the Preview column. Any time I select an AIFF or other media file, the Preview column shows a Play control. I reasoned that since this AIFF file is on a network volume, perhaps the Finder was trying to load the file into the Preview. Sure enough, I switched the Finder window to icon view before selecting the file, and had no more problems. I was able to delete the file and start over. Now, if abyone has any hints regarding large AIFF files and the .Mac FileSharing page, I'll be grateful!
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Avoid a 'download' problem with iDisk and media files | 27 comments | Create New Account
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Avoid a 'download' problem with iDisk and media files
Authored by: abyone on Mar 10, '05 10:57:41AM

Sorry, I don't have much experience with Apple's .Mac service


(OK, so creating an account to take advantage of spelling mistake - and then posting a lame joke and providing no helpful hints in response is probably not the best use of this forum. But I've been looking at being a more active member of this communitey and not lurking so much anymore. So this gave me a good excuse to finally create an account. My future posts will be more useful - I promise!)



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Avoid a 'download' problem with iDisk and media files
Authored by: bluehz on Mar 10, '05 11:07:19AM

You could almost certainly be sure that the "Preview" is a problem. Like you said - it is attempting to preview the file over the internet, which will be slow at best.

I personally do not have a .Mac acct - but its my understanding that you would have to pay for a LOT of extra storage in order to hold a 700mb file or am I mistaken.

Personally I would recommend for files of this size you let the intended receipient (I assume you are doing a 1 to 1 transfer as opposed to offering publically) log into your local mac and collect the file - either via AppleShare or ftp. FTP is going to be the most effecient, but slightly more time consuming to setup. Although if this is a longterm thing it will be well worth it. I would recommend persuing this PureFTP tutorial:

http://www.macdevcenter.com/pub/a/mac/2005/03/04/ftp.html

If you wish to do it as a one time thing using AppleShare, the transfer will probably be a bit slower, but it can be done. Look for numerous AppleShare or filesharing hints around MacOSXHints.



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Avoid a 'download' problem with iDisk and media files
Authored by: Anonymous on Mar 10, '05 12:24:44PM

i too have had problems with large files. In the end i gave up...i think it has something to do with webdav and isp's. Send a disk ! may take a day or two but hey no problems when it get there.

good luck



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Avoid a 'download' problem with iDisk and media files
Authored by: osxpounder on Mar 10, '05 02:25:19PM

If security is an issue [perhaps the AIFF file should remain private between business associates], you can do this, or something similar, to permit a SFTP transfer:

- create a user on your Mac
- place file in user's Public folder [you might need to change permissions on the file so that anyone can open it]
- ask your client to download Fugu
- give your client your Mac's IP address, and the user and pass you created for your client
- client connects with Fugu and downloads the file

What do you think, folks? Crazy? Useful?

---
--
osxpounder



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Avoid a 'download' problem with iDisk and media files
Authored by: prk on Mar 10, '05 02:46:39PM

When will Apple put sftp into the finder? That's what I want to know.



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Avoid a 'download' problem with iDisk and media files
Authored by: windrag on Mar 11, '05 12:25:24AM
- ask your client to download Fugu
Great, but I didn't mention before that my client is on Windows, unfortunately. We Mac users sometimes forget…

---
Ryk A. Groetchen
700MHz iBook 16 VRAM G3
640MB RAM
OS X 10.3.8

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Avoid a 'download' problem with iDisk and media files
Authored by: jacobolus on Mar 11, '05 01:39:45AM

That's why PureFTP is so cool. It's much more configurable than the one that comes with OS X in the sharing pref pane



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Avoid a 'download' problem with iDisk and media files
Authored by: windrag on Mar 11, '05 12:29:45AM
Personally I would recommend for files of this size you let the intended receipient (I assume you are doing a 1 to 1 transfer as opposed to offering publically) log into your local mac and collect the file - either via AppleShare or ftp. FTP is going to be the most effecient, but slightly more time consuming to setup. Although if this is a longterm thing it will be well worth it. I would recommend persuing this PureFTP tutorial: http://www.macdevcenter.com/pub/a/mac/2005/03/04/ftp.html
Wow. This looks like something useful, but as I am not an IT professional, my mind kind of blanked out after about the 10th paragraph. I imagine this might be the case with my client as well. Thanks for the tip, though!

---
Ryk A. Groetchen
700MHz iBook 16 VRAM G3
640MB RAM
OS X 10.3.8

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Avoid a 'download' problem with iDisk and media files
Authored by: luhmann on Mar 10, '05 01:18:56PM

As long as the file is under 1GB you can share it with your client using yousendit.com



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Avoid a 'download' problem with iDisk and media files
Authored by: windrag on Mar 11, '05 12:14:51AM

Wow. I tried this (yousendit.com). Followed the instructions. Had to force quit Safari and the Finder. No data was uploaded. I have yet to see if my client gets an email notifying him of the (nonexistent) download.

After I tried and failed to upload the file, I went through the site for answers. I was amazed at how little information is given, despite headings like "How it works" and "About Us." Maybe it works, but it didn't for me. Thanks for the tip, though.

---
Ryk A. Groetchen
700MHz iBook 16 VRAM G3
640MB RAM
OS X 10.3.6



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Avoid a 'download' problem with iDisk and media files
Authored by: tpierry on Mar 12, '05 02:16:55PM

I tested yousendit with an 80 Meg quicktime movie. I sent it to myself just to try it out. It took about 30 minutes to upload, but it worked just fine. The download speed was pretty decent (around 250kB/sec).

I'm using Firefox. I didn't try it with Safari.



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Avoid a 'download' problem with iDisk and media files
Authored by: prk on Mar 10, '05 01:29:08PM

In column view, there is a little arrow that is pointing down when the preview is open. Click that arrow to close the preview. This way you can remain in column mode, but not have to download the previews.

I have my preview closed all the time and only open it when I'm previewing files (ie: looking for a photo).



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Avoid a 'download' problem with iDisk and media files
Authored by: adrianm on Mar 10, '05 01:33:16PM
You could convert it to Apple's lossless compressed format and get it to about half size. I'm assuming you don't want to compress it lossy to AAC.

Or split it up into smaller chunks using split from the Terminal, for example.

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Avoid a 'download' problem with iDisk and media files
Authored by: Beavix on Mar 10, '05 02:01:32PM

Or at least compressing the AIFF file into a SITX archive, which can be 20- 25% smaller than the original file (according to my own experience with uncompressed sound files).



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Avoid a 'download' problem with iDisk and media files
Authored by: macintaz on Mar 10, '05 02:20:39PM

Even faster convert it to AAC and than youll have a 60 MB file and re constute it back to AIFF of course you will lose some of the Quality but it will be much Faster

My two cents



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Avoid a 'download' problem with iDisk and media files
Authored by: DavidRavenMoon on Mar 10, '05 03:30:36PM

Or use Apple Loss-less compression.

---
G4/466, 1 GB, Mac OS X 10.3.8



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Avoid a 'download' problem with iDisk and media files
Authored by: windrag on Mar 11, '05 12:21:38AM
Or split it up into smaller chunks using split from the Terminal, for example
My client is a Windows user. Is there a simple, non-geeky way that a typical non-tech user could re-join files split in such a manner? This might be a good option if they can download several small files and join them in a non-Unix, Windows GUI kinda way. ALC (Apple Lossless) is moot, as the client is a Windows user. Thanks for the tips!

---
Ryk A. Groetchen
700MHz iBook 16 VRAM G3
640MB RAM
OS X 10.3.8

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Avoid a 'download' problem with iDisk and media files
Authored by: pcook on Mar 11, '05 12:07:40PM

iTunes for Windows! Your PC friend will have no problem dealing with Apple's Lossless codec. You will save lots of space in an untterly non-geeky fashion.

Try yousendit again. My PC friend found it much easier to deal with files delivered this way and it worked for myself and many others without a hitch.

---
-Peter



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Turn off preview or Use iChat to Send
Authored by: JohnMehringer on Mar 10, '05 08:54:45PM

You can turn off preview in the window View->Show View Options or if you both have accounts for iChat you can send files through it. I believe that iChat sends files point to point and not through the aol server.



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Avoid a 'download' problem with iDisk and media files
Authored by: jsb99 on Mar 10, '05 08:57:41PM

I have made images containing the file and also compressed them into zip archives (or gzip). Anything that stops the idisk from treating them like media. In general I have had problems with .mov and .mp4 files and filesharing using idisk.



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Avoid a 'download' problem with iDisk and media files
Authored by: glusk on Mar 10, '05 10:32:17PM
One problem I regularly have with .mac file sharing via the web page is having .mac sit/hqx encode the file for me.

For example, sometimes I'll load up a TIFF file from my Mac and iDisk and then from a Windows machine browse over to my .mac website. Going to the file sharing web page and clicking on download sometimes gets me an hqx file. Is .mac trying to be helpful??

I've never understood this and have occasionally had to copy the file to my sites folder (instead of Public) and manually type the URL from the Windows machine. Could this be the source of trouble? Anyone else seen this?

G

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Avoid a 'download' problem with iDisk and media files
Authored by: jacobolus on Mar 11, '05 01:14:17AM

That's why PureFTP is so cool



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Avoid a 'download' problem with iDisk and media files
Authored by: jacobolus on Mar 11, '05 01:15:34AM

sorry about the above post. i'm new to these forums and meant to post it as a reply to one of the responses a ways above



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Avoid a 'download' problem with iDisk and media files
Authored by: meikokun on Mar 11, '05 04:36:15AM

since your client has a peecee, and you can't use ichat, why not use the skype facility to send him/her the file. It doesn't seem to run at full bandwidth speed, but at least you can have a cup of tea and a chat whilst it's going across the ether. Get skype, you'll be using it soon enough anyways (I'm sorry to sorry it kicks ichats arse when it comes to audio chatting)
cheers
dd



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Avoid a 'download' problem with iDisk and media files
Authored by: quentinsf on Mar 11, '05 05:41:24AM

Agreed, Skype's good for audio. But when I use anything other than iChat for regular text-based chatting, I realise just how much I miss iChat!

Also, Skype is better at going through firewalls, but has much more trouble dealing with any unusual audio setups - e.g. external USB audio devices - that iChat.



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Avoid a 'download' problem with iDisk and media files
Authored by: meikokun on Mar 11, '05 01:01:44PM

yep, I ain't arguing with you on any of those points. Ichat is better at echo cancelling too, but when you DO use earphones or whatever, skype can't be beat.
Also, if my memory serves me well, ichat is faster at the file transfer thingy, which is what this post was all about, but in a cross-platform world (what do you mean, 'we're a minority'? ;) skype is the way to go.
Now, if apple were to do an iTunes on iChat....
Cheers
dd



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Avoid a 'download' problem with iDisk and media files
Authored by: MJCube on Mar 12, '05 03:08:06AM

The very quickest way to avoid a preview appearing in the next column is: Don't select the file. Just drag it to the destination. Unlike icon and list views, dragging a file in column view doesn't select it. This is fastest because there's no need to restore a setting afterward.



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