Chrome Download Diagnostics

When Chrome downloads stall or get cancelled, the browser stores detailed state in a SQLite database. This is useful for diagnosing why downloads failed (e.g. Safe Browsing, network issues, etc.).

Chrome's Download History DB

Location: ~/.config/google-chrome/Default/History

For a Docker/Kasm container:

docker cp <container>:~/.config/google-chrome/Default/History /tmp/chrome_history.db

Key Queries

All recent downloads with state + reason codes

import sqlite3
conn = sqlite3.connect('/tmp/chrome_history.db')
cur = conn.cursor()

state_map = {
    0: 'IN_PROGRESS', 1: 'COMPLETE', 2: 'CANCELLED', 
    3: 'INTERRUPTED', 4: 'INTERRUPTED_AUTO_RESUME'
}
reason_map = {
    0: 'No interrupt', 40: 'FILE_SECURITY_CHECK_FAILED',
    50: 'NETWORK_FAILED', 51: 'NETWORK_TIMEOUT', 
    52: 'NETWORK_DISCONNECTED', 58: 'SERVER_UNAUTHORIZED',
    70: 'USER_CANCELED', 71: 'USER_SHUTDOWN', 80: 'CRASH'
}
danger_map = {
    0: 'SAFE', 4: 'UNCOMMON', 1: 'DANGEROUS', 2: 'DANGEROUS_URL'
}

cur.execute('''
    SELECT id, target_path, state, interrupt_reason, 
           total_bytes, received_bytes, danger_type, end_time
    FROM downloads ORDER BY id DESC LIMIT 15
''')
for r in cur.fetchall():
    sid, path, state, reason, total, recv, danger, et = r
    s = state_map.get(state, f'UNK({state})')
    name = path.split('/')[-1] if path else '(no path)'
    total_gb = f'{total//1024//1024} MB' if total else '?'
    print(f'ID {sid}: {name} → {s} ({total_gb})')

Check for in-progress downloads

SELECT * FROM downloads WHERE state=0

Common Error Patterns

Scenario	State	Reason Code	Danger
Large file killed by Safe Browsing	CANCELLED (2)	40 (FILE_SECURITY_CHECK_FAILED)	4 (UNCOMMON)
Network dropped mid-download	INTERRUPTED (3)	52 (NETWORK_DISCONNECTED)	0
User cancelled	CANCELLED (2)	70 (USER_CANCELED)	0
Chrome crash	INTERRUPTED (3)	80 (CRASH)	0

Chrome Managed Policies (Linux)

Policies live in /etc/opt/chrome/policies/managed/ for system-wide or under the user's profile. Multiple JSON files are merged automatically.

To disable download scanning:

{
    "DownloadRestrictions": 0,
    "SafeBrowsingEnabled": false,
    "SafeBrowsingProtectionForDownloadEnabled": false
}

After writing the policy file, restart Chrome: pkill -f chrome (the Kasm container will auto-restart it).

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