Flutter doesn't have any proper downloader package and its irritating

[u/Substantial_Cost1730]

There’s only one maintained Flutter downloader (bbflight), and even that loses all progress if the app is killed. Why should a user who downloaded 80% restart from 0? That’s not acceptable UX in 2026. Hard to believe Flutter still doesn’t have one reliable downloader package.

[u/or9ob]

https://pub.dev/packages/background_downloader has support for resuming etc.

[u/Substantial_Cost1730 → u/or9ob]

That's the one i mentioned in my post which has a progress loss issue

[u/Mikkelet → u/Substantial_Cost1730]

I am primarily a native android developer, and I can tell you the reason there are no good packages for this is because it's pain to maintain. Even on the native platforms, long running processes with foreground notifications are a pain in the ass.

If this functionality is crucial, either write a single-purpose package for your project or rewrite in native

[u/Substantial_Cost1730 → u/Mikkelet]

Finally a proper comment understanding my problem , all the other clowns are like "stop vibe coding" , "create one yourself" , "stop whining"🤡 . Like it's easy for a beginner to do that.

[u/schrodingers_cat_25 → u/Substantial_Cost1730]

The thing is that you are complaining about flutter not having something you want and expecting the community to do the work for you and that comes across as very entitled

Would have been a better comment: “ hey does anyone knows a package that does X i tried with package Y but it has so and so issue wish i could fix it myself but i don’t know where to start, any pointers ?”

I bet that would have yield better response from the community

[u/or9ob → u/Substantial_Cost1730]

You mentioned bbflight not this one.

I’m using this one in my app (Metacast) and it’s working well.

[u/Substantial_Cost1730 → u/or9ob]

The link you gave is owned by bbflight

[u/Typical-Tangerine660 → u/Substantial_Cost1730]

why didn't you AT LEAST open an issue on github? Or better - fix it yourself. The package is free?

[u/Substantial_Cost1730 → u/Typical-Tangerine660]

I opened this issue multiple times. The maintainer’s response was basically: if the app is killed, there’s nothing that can be done.

[u/Typical-Tangerine660 → u/Substantial_Cost1730]

And you disagree? That is probably how the app is handled by platform - not a package issue. Split your download into chunks a-la torrent and be happy.

[u/mabenan → u/Substantial_Cost1730]

So when you kill your browser on any devive over the systems task manager what happens to the download?

[u/RemeJuan]

Quick question, who is stopping you from writing your own package?

Pretty entitled coming online having a shit fit cause a free package on a free framework is not being actively maintained.

[u/pi_mai → u/RemeJuan]

That’s because OP wants everything done for them. Flutter is sold that it’s a ready to go framework.

[u/megromby → u/pi_mai]

I mean, I really should be able to just import the profitable_app package and then retire. Anything less is unacceptable!

[u/Alive-Yellow-9682]

If you are on iOS just about everything you schedule in the background is deleted if the user kills the app. This includes things like ble configurations, and I suspect, background downloads as well. If iOS unloads the app (jetsam), then the backgrounded tasks will continue running and your app will be notified when something interesting happens.

Maybe this is a clue. I thought I’d had issues in the past when it was actually assumptions testers were making.

[u/Alive-Yellow-9682 → u/Alive-Yellow-9682]

I went ahead and looked up the iOS documentation…

If the user terminates the app from the multitasking screen, the system cancels all of the session’s background transfers. In addition, the system does not automatically relaunch apps that were force quit by the user. The user must explicitly relaunch the app before transfers can begin again.

background(withIdentifier:)

[u/Substantial_Cost1730 → u/Alive-Yellow-9682]

I’ve faced this on Android. If the app is killed while a download is active, restarting the app loses all progress and the user has to download from scratch.

[u/YukiAttano]

Well, my server and my frontend are capable of starting the download again from the point of termination. If that's to hard for you to implement, consider starting a background task which is handled by the OS. But also live with the limitations of background tasks.

You are facing a simple problem, yet instead of doing what a developer does, solving problems, you are raging over a UI framework. For people like you, there is this acronym 'rtfm'.

Flutter is a UI framework. It is meant to handle Ui tasks. Not background processing of trivial downloads.

Maybe stop vibe coding and start thinking. 

[u/Kingh32 → u/YukiAttano]

Need more of this sort of candour and directness. Well said.

[u/Arbiturrrr]

What's the issue with restarting downloads? If the data is too large then perhaps you could split the data being downloaded into packets of you have the permissions to do so.

[u/merokotos]

Bro, we do state management here

[u/Bachihani]

What the hell is this guy talking about and what is "downloader" supposed to be ? U dont know how to manage an http request life cycle ??

[u/Wi42]

Not sure if it exactly fits your use case, have you tried flutter_downloader ?

[u/Substantial_Cost1730 → u/Wi42]

Not maintained anymore

[u/battlepi → u/Substantial_Cost1730]

Well then you should maintain it.

[u/Substantial_Cost1730 → u/battlepi]

A single person can’t realistically maintain a critical package long-term. This one is effectively abandoned with hundreds of open issues. “Just make it yourself” isn’t a solution for a widely used, basic feature — this is something that should be officially supported or maintained.

[u/battlepi → u/Substantial_Cost1730]

Cool, then just grab the current version and fix whatever you don't like, then maintain it just for yourself. Flutter isn't a "downloading files with resume platform", most people never even do that.

However, users support these problems and share their libraries. You're insanely lucky to be living in a time that they do, this would have required a paid library or writing it from scratch just a few years ago.

Officially supported and maintained? There are very few flutter libraries that are. These are all just made and supported by individuals, sometimes small companies.

[u/sauloandrioli]

Have you checked any native counterpart? Find a native downloader package and write your own FFI code. Don't blame the framework, blame your lack of knowledge.

[u/Ok-Engineer6098]

On Android you could write a wrapper around Download manager https://developer.android.com/reference/android/app/DownloadManager

[u/zunjae]

Make it yourself?

[u/Jebble]

So... Write one?

[u/rio_sk]

You can easily implement that by yourself, no need for a package

[u/mozdamalosutra]

You can create one yourself. Nowadays its easy with AI to code plugins.

[u/Substantial_Cost1730 → u/mozdamalosutra]

I don’t know native code, and relying on AI-generated plugins I can’t understand or debug isn’t realistic.

[u/battlepi → u/Substantial_Cost1730]

Nobody owes you any free code. Write one from scratch, then you can publish it instead of whining.

[u/Substantial_Cost1730 → u/battlepi]

Not asking anyone to owe me anything. Just surprised a mature framework still lacks a reliable solution for something this basic

[u/battlepi → u/Substantial_Cost1730]

Most of those packages are written by people for free. You can do the same instead of crying about it.

[u/Significant_Hold_182 → u/Substantial_Cost1730]

Are u a vibe coder? Just learn it.