Fetch Softworks

Corrupt PDF Downloads (4 posts)

• Started 12 years ago by Nick
• Latest reply 12 years ago from Scott McGuire

• Nick Member

  Hi,

  Windows Techie here nervously dabbling in trying to help out our MAC users!!

  They use Fetch V 5.6 and are downloading various PDF files from one of our cutomers sites. However they occasionally (and thats the problem) get corrupt pdf's E.G the other day they downloaded a total of 23 files but found, by looking through their trained eye, that 4 were corrupted. The corruption can take the form of a blank side of plastic which should be printed or worse still a few lines or shading corruption which takes quite a bit of skill and experience to spot! I've tested the same download using Filezilla on my PC and no corruption.

  I'm told there is no error reported by Fetch at the time and indeed if they go back and re-download the corrupt files again they do come through ok.

  They are only achieving approx 45 KB/s download speed which, to me, is very slow. I have asked the customers own IT Support for assistance but they say it's always been around 45 KB/s. This only started happening in the last two-three weeks. One theory was some files have non-standard characters in the file name EG a A-circumflex and that MAC's "struggle" (their words , not mine) with these characters, however I'm not convicned this is the real issue as why would a second/third attempt eventually download the same filename? Also not convinved about the speed issue, why would that cause corruption?

  Any help would be greatly appreciated, I have copied the transcript but as previously mentioned it does not show any errors.

  Regards
  Nick

  Posted 12 years ago #

• Scott McGuire Administrator

  Hi Nick,

  Thanks for contacting us.

  Fetch always issues the same commands when downloading a file, so when there's a problem a file the first time and it works the second time, usually this indicates some problem on the server. But that's a general statement and without further information I can't say for sure if that's the case here.

  As you say, the filename shouldn't make a difference here; that shouldn't affect the contents of the files. But that's an interesting data point that we'll keep in mind.

  And no, the speed at which files are downloaded shouldn't make a difference or result in corruption.

  Anyway, in order to help diagnose this problem or offer an opinion about what might be the cause, we'd need to see either the Fetch log file from when the problem occurred. The Fetch log file is like the Fetch transcript, except the Fetch log file contains some additional debugging information.

  So here's what I'd recommend. The next time this problem happens, have the users make a note of the files that have the problem, and then either you or they should send the Fetch log file to us, and tell us which files had the problem. Then we can take a look at the log and see if we can find any clues about what the cause of the problem might be.

  To find the Fetch.log file:

  * Click the desktop background to select the Finder.
  * In the Finder, go to the "Go" menu and choose "Home"
  * Open the Library folder
  * Open the Logs folder
  * Find the file named "Fetch.log"

  The file may be somewhat large, so you may want to compress it before sending it to us. (Select the Fetch.log file, go to the File menu, choose Compress, and send the resulting zip file instead.)

  Attach the log to an email to bugs@fetchsoftworks.com .

  Please also include a brief description of the problem and mention that you contacted us on the message board before - just as a reminder - and as I said, please include names of the files with the problem.

  If you have this information for a previous incident (the Fetch log file keeps the last 1-2 days of information, depending on how many transfers the user has done), you can go ahead and send us the info now.

  Please let me know if you have any questions about the above.

  Thanks,

  Scott McGuire
  Fetch Sotworks

  Posted 12 years ago #

• Nick Member

  Thanks for the quick response Scott.

  A fetch.log is on its way to bugs@fetchsoftware.com along with the corrupt filename and a brief history of the problem.

  Here's hoping for a solution!

  Regards
  Nick

  Posted 12 years ago #

• Scott McGuire Administrator

  Hi Nick,

  Thanks, we received the log and we're taking a look at it and will follow up with you by email.

  Scott McGuire
  Fetch Softworks

  Posted 12 years ago #