How the download queue actually works

The queue is the least glamorous part of Grab Media and the part people email me about most. It is a single line: first submitted, first processed. No paid skip-ahead tier. That keeps costs predictable for a free tool, but it means you need to read the table instead of refreshing the page every ten seconds.

Queue position numbers

When status is pending or processing, you will see a place-in-line badge. #1 means your job is next when a worker is free. #4 means three other jobs ahead of yours—not three seconds, three full download attempts that may each take minutes if the sources are large.

Position can jump if someone ahead cancels, fails fast, or was a guest session that expired. It can also move backward if new jobs arrive while you are reading—rare, but possible when many people paste URLs at once.

Progress percentage

Progress is a best-effort estimate, not a promise. Early stages (resolving the page, picking a stream) may sit at 10–30% while the server talks to the origin. Downloading bytes moves it faster. Merging audio and video tracks for some hosts stalls around 70–90% even when things are healthy.

If progress is frozen longer than fifteen minutes and queue position is #1, check whether the source site is down. If position is high, wait—others are still ahead.

Guest versus signed-in users

Both get a personal list tied to browser storage or your account. Signing in helps when you queue from a phone and download from a laptop later—the list follows the account. Guests keep jobs in local storage; clearing site data removes history even if the server still has the file briefly.

Retry button etiquette

Failed jobs show Retry. Use it once after you fix the URL or confirm the source is back online. Hammering retry on the same broken link fills the queue with duplicate failures and slows everyone down—including you, because your retries count as separate jobs in line.

Completed and downloaded columns

Completed means we have a file ready. Downloaded (checkmark) means you clicked our download button at least once. We track that so you can tell which rows you already saved locally. The checkmark does not delete the file automatically; storage policies may clean old files server-side over time.

If status flips to failed with no obvious reason, start with the troubleshooting guide.