Killer Tech Tips

If you use iTunes on Windows to download songs, movies and podcasts, chances are you’re annoyed by poor download speeds and disconnections. Despite having a strong internet connection, you’ll find iTunes suspending a download, sometimes even after it reaches 90%. Most of these iTunes downloads are non-resumable.

Internet Download Manager comes to the rescue, though. You can set IDM to capture your iTunes downloads automatically. IDM speeds up your iTunes downloads by opening multiple connections simultaneously, and it is claimed that IDM could increase download speeds by upto 500%. Here’s a step-by-step guide on how you can use IDM to increase iTunes download speeds:

First, open Internet Download Manager and hit the ‘Options’ icon in the toolbar. You can also go to Downloads > Options from the menu bar.

In the General tab, make sure that the option ‘Use advanced browser integration’ is checked. Now, hit the ‘Add browser’ button right below the list.

Navigate to the Program Files directory where iTunes is usually installed and pick iTunes.exe, as shown below:

Click Open, and then click OK to exit the Options dialog. iTunes downloads will henceforth be captured by IDM. Restart iTunes and IDM. Start downloading something on iTunes. In the screenshot below, you’ll see a podcast about to be downloaded.

IDM will now capture your action, and a dialog box will open up asking if you’d like to start the download on IDM. Hit ‘Start download’.

The movie/podcast you choose will now get downloaded via Internet Download Manager. As easy as that.

The only downside to this workaround is that iTunes is not aware that your movie/podcast/song has been downloaded via Internet Download Manager. You can’t open the file from iTunes directly – but you can go to your downloads folder any time to play or view the podcast, song or movie you just downloaded.

That’s how you make downloads via iTunes faster. Hat tip: Sai Nikesh

Related posts:

1. How to Automatically Update Your iTunes Library?
2. How to sync selected songs to iPod/iPhone/iPad?