I was using jDownloader for the Mac and while it was great software, it was coded in Java, making it non-native. I don’t mind the interface being different, but the start-up time was incredible slow.

So I tried out Speed Download to see if it was good, and I have to say that it was disappointing for the best native Mac download manager software around. Irony? Speed Download is a paid software (commercial), while jDownloader was open-source.

The main differences that got me to love jDownloader were – efficient clipboard monitor that keeps track of any download URLs that you copy, and puts it into its waiting list automatically. Then it automatically checks whether those links are live – useful if you often use file hosts like Rapidshare, Hotfiles, DepositFiles, etc.

That’s not all – after you’re done downloading your file, jDownloader actually automatically extracts them for you – which is so helpful, especially when you’re downloading a multi-split archive (.rar, .r01, .r02…).

So despite the slow load speeds of jDownloader, I’m sticking to it. What’s more, when I uninstalled Speed Download (I was using the Speed Download 5.2.5 demo), it didn’t let go of its hold on FireFox. That’s even after using AppZapper to uninstall it from my Mac. So some downloads that I do with FireFox got mangled – the downloads didn’t occur, and resulted in FireFox showing this long loading screen without actually doing anything nor showing the download prompt.

To fix this, I had to manually disable and uninstall the Speed Download plug-in from my Mac, which involved going to this location to delete it:

Mac HD/Library/Internet Plug-Ins/SpeedDownload Browser Plugin.plugin (note that it’s your system folder, not your user folder)

After that and a restart, and finally all was well again =)

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