Ultra Fast Downloads with aria2 on Android: Multi-Connection Download

We have all been to the situation where downloads are not as fast as we expect and we couldn’t decide whether culprit is our Network, the Server or the Download Utility/Browser we are using.

With aria2 you can get best out of your Network and the Server and can download files at optimal speed.


What is aria2?

aria2 is the next generation open-source download utility with lots of features and options and can download files and torrents in very efficient manner. You can read more about aria2 at aria2.github.io and can check documentation for latest version here.


How to download faster with aria2 on Android?

On Android, use an open source app Aria2App which can be downloaded from F-Droid or Play Store to install and control aria2 in GUI.

On first run, select In-App downloader and on next screen select the latest binary i.e. aria2 1.34.0 at the time of writing. Select In-App downlaoder again after binary download completes

Open sidebar menu and select Global Options. Note that we can set options per download as well.

Search for split in Global options and change the value from default 5 to 16. Fav the option to find it easily in Quick global options menu later.

Search for max-connection-per-server and change the value from default 1 to 16 and fav. Apply the settings and verify values in Quick global options menu.

You are ready for the action now. Tap +, select Add URI and enter URL of the file (app should populate it from your clipboard if you have copied it already). Save and proceed with ?. Your Multi-Connection download should start and you can see details.

Note: You can add multiple URLs of same file here. e.g. AFH provides many mirrors, you can copy all of them to download simultaneously from different servers.

Due to the distance from Server and higher latency in Mobile Networks, download over single connection can be very slow and may not use the available bandwidth in full potential. Multi-Connection download over aria2 eliminates that limiting factor and you get best possible speed from your network.

Above screenshots are from my otherwise not-so-fast Jio LTE network and the 1.2 GiB file used for testing can be downloaded from here.

Why 16 only?

.. to be updated.

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