Downloading files from the Internet through the browser is very simple and that we can do with most. However, the download managers for Chrome or Firefox, for example, do not stand out precisely because they are complete and have many options available. An example is not being able to later pause and resume a download or not downloading multiple links at the same time. Simple Mass Downloader is an extension that precisely helps us avoid these limitations in Google Chrome.
What is Simple Mass Downloader for?
Simple Mass Download works as a separate download manager from the one that is integrated with the browser. But the most outstanding point is that it allows you to download all the elements of a website in a simple way and at once. What it does is analyze that site, lists each of the elements that are linked, such as images or files, and downloads them.
It also serves to filter all the links on a web page and download only what really interests us. It’s even capable of naming those files based on contextual information, so we can better organize downloads.
The main features of this free plugin for Chrome are the following:
- It allows to extract links from an open tab, from the clipboard or from a text that we select on a web.
- It has filters to configure and download a type of files in a simple way, as well as functions to rename files in bulk.
- It also shows thumbnails of the images and allows you to sort them according to size or dimensions.
- We can create automatic folders for downloads according to rules that we define, in addition to saving a list of favorite rules.
- Another function is to pause and resume downloads, open files, or set limits.
We can say that one of the main utilities of this extension is to be able to download a large number of files at once. Take, for example, a web page that hosts a large number of images or videos that we want to download. Instead of going one by one clicking on each link, simply with this add-on we can download everything at once. The same would happen if we access a website to download a certain program, but it has many versions and we want all of them to test them on different computers. Just select the file type and download them all.
Steps to use this plugin
To start using Simple Mass Downloader, the first thing we have to do is download it from the official Chrome store. We always advise downloading this type of add-ons from official sources, since this way we guarantee that it will work well and also there will be no security problems.
When we have installed it, a quick tutorial will appear with the main points to take into account to use the extension. It also includes tips for getting the most out of the plug-in and being able to download files without any hassle.
Once this is done, we can go to the top of the browser and see the icon next to the address bar. Just clicking on it will open the main window, where it shows us different links. One of them is Load Page Links , which is used to load all the links of the page where we are at that moment. You just have to click on it and something similar to what we see in the image will appear.
In this case, we have tried this article and we see the different links, images and any file that you can download. But, what would happen if we enter a page where we can download an operating system, for example? It would show us all the elements as in the previous case, but it would also include the ISO of the download file.
We can select any file that interests us, such as that Ubuntu ISO, and we click the button at the bottom right, where it indicates Add the file to the download queue. You already know that you can add all the files you want.
From that moment on, the download will start automatically and we will be able to see the process in the Download List section. There we can pause and resume a download when we want.
If you see that many files appear when you enter a tab on a website and you are only interested in downloading the images, for example, you can filter it. Just click on All types and there select from the list. For example images, audios, videos … It will only show us the type of file that we have selected.
Additionally, we can go to the Options and settings section, which appears at the top right. There we can modify some sections such as showing or not past downloads, creating a text filter, etc. Any change we make, we simply have to confirm it by saving that configuration.
Any download is added to the extension
But it is not only used to add links to the extension and download the files in bulk. It also adds any downloads that we make with the browser. This includes any file and any quantity. We can manage downloads from Download list. There it will show us the files that are being downloaded and we can pause them, resume them, see the size, etc.
What Simple Mass Downloader does is become the browser’s default download manager once we install the extension. In this way we will stop downloading files directly from Chrome, from its integrated download manager, and download from this tool.
Therefore, regardless of whether or not you need to download multiple links from a website, you can also use this extension as your default download manager. It is interesting to be able to download large files and pause and resume them when we are interested. We will have a range of options that are not available from the default version of Chrome.
In short, Simple Mass Downloader is a free extension for Chrome, very easy to use, which allows us to download multiple links or files from a website. We are not even going to limit ourselves to a specific page, but also to be able to select several tabs that we have open or even all the websites that are in a Google Chrome session. In all cases we will be able to manage those downloads.