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# If Safari can’t download an item from the web

Safari can handle most types of files found on the web, but you may occasionally have trouble downloading or opening a file. Here are some possible reasons.

Downloading is incomplete

- You can’t open a file while it is being downloaded. Wait until downloading is finished, and then try again to open the file.

- Sometimes a file isn’t completely downloaded because there was a problem or the file was damaged. Try downloading it again.

- In Safari, open the downloads list to view the list of downloaded files. If downloading is paused, click the Resume button. The Resume button is orange with a curved arrow.

  To open the downloads list on Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard or Windows, choose Window > Downloads. On Mac OS X 10.7 Lion, click the Show Downloads button near the top-right corner of the Safari window:

You can’t find the file

If the file has been downloaded but you can’t find it, open the downloads list and click the magnifying glass next to the file’s name.

To open the downloads list on Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard or Windows, choose Window > Downloads. On Mac OS X 10.7 Lion, click the Show Downloads button near the top-right corner of the Safari window:

Note:If you moved the file or changed the download location after downloading a file, Safari won’t be able to find or open the file from the Downloads window.

The file’s application can’t open the file

- If you can’t open the file, you may not have an application that can open it. Check the site where you downloaded the file for more information.

- If you can’t open the file with the application that created it, the file may have been corrupted during the download. Delete it and try downloading it again.

The downloaded file is compressed

The downloaded file may be a compressed archive or disk image that contains the file you want. If the file is from a trusted site, double-click the file to decompress it.

### Related Topics

Download files

If a downloaded file is missing

Specify how Safari downloads files