If a customer is having trouble accessing their downloads, the cause is almost always one of a small set of usual suspects. Most issues are quick fixes you can resolve from the Fileflare admin or by walking the customer through a couple of steps. This page is also a customer-friendly reference you can send to a buyer experiencing issues.
If the issue is specifically that download emails aren’t arriving, see Troubleshoot email delivery instead. This page focuses on issues at the download itself — once the customer has the link.
When you’d use this
- A customer reports they can’t download a file they purchased.
- A customer says their links say “expired” or “limit reached” unexpectedly.
- A customer can’t find the file after downloading it (especially on iPhone).
- Downloads stopped working after a Shopify checkout or storefront change.
Walk through these checks first
1. Did you set a download limit you forgot about?
The single most common cause of “I can’t download” is a global limit the merchant set and forgot — e.g., 1 download per order, 2 IP addresses per order. The customer hits the limit on their second click and sees an error.
- Go to Fileflare → Settings → Download controls.
- Review the global download limit and IP limit settings. If they’re stricter than you remember, that’s likely the issue.
- To temporarily fix it for a single customer: open their order, and override the global limits for them.
2. The link says “expired”
The expired message means the order’s expiration date has passed (or you set order expiry to a negative number — see Block downloads). To fix:
- Open the customer’s order in Fileflare and check Expiration date of download links. If it’s in the past, set it forward or remove it.
- If you didn’t intentionally expire the order, check your global expiration setting in Settings → Global limitations — too short a window will expire orders unexpectedly.
- Click Resend email after fixing.
3. The customer is downloading from an old app’s email
If you migrated from another digital downloads app, the customer might be clicking the old app’s email by mistake. Ask them for a screenshot of the email they’re using — if the link doesn’t go to a Fileflare-hosted URL, it’s the old app. Resend the Fileflare download email from their order.
4. Bots and link-scanners are eating their download attempts
Mail server scanners, corporate firewalls, and security software often pre-fetch links to check for malware. Each pre-fetch counts against the customer’s download limit. Symptoms: the customer says they haven’t clicked yet but already hit the limit on first try.
Fix: open their order, uncheck Use global limitations, and bump their limit. Email tracking on the order page can help you see if a link was pre-clicked.
5. The PDF is too large
Selling PDFs over ~10 MB causes problems for customers on phones with limited storage or slow connections. The download appears to fail silently. Compress the PDF — Adobe’s compressor reduces size without losing quality — and use Replace asset to swap it. Existing customer links still work after the swap.
6. Browser extensions interfering
Privacy extensions, ad blockers, and download managers sometimes mangle Fileflare’s download URLs (the URLs are signed for security; modifying them invalidates the signature). Ask the customer to try the link in incognito/private mode — that disables extensions.
7. Customer can’t find the downloaded file (iPhone, Android)
This is a customer education issue, not a Fileflare issue, but it’s the #1 support ticket for music and ebook stores.
- iPhone: downloads typically save to the Files app under Downloads (iCloud Drive or On My iPhone). For audio files, they don’t auto-import into Apple Music — the customer needs to open them from Files.
- Android: downloads save to the device’s Downloads folder, accessible via the Files or My Files app. Android’s docs.
8. Customer accounts: looking in the wrong place
If you’ve enabled customer account downloads, the download box appears on the order page inside the customer account, not on the account home page. Customers sometimes log in, see no downloads, and assume something’s broken. Ask them to click into the specific order.
9. Thank-you page or Order Status page shows no downloads
If the Fileflare app block isn’t installed in your checkout extensibility configuration, the download box won’t render on the thank-you/Order Status page even if the feature is enabled in Fileflare. To fix: in Shopify checkout editor, add the Fileflare app block to the Thank You and Order Status pages. See Thank-you page downloads.
Anything else
If you’ve worked through all of the above and the customer still can’t download, ask them for a screenshot or screen recording of what they’re seeing — most issues become obvious from the actual error message. Then contact support with the details and we’ll dig in.