Pause video file download via JS?

In JavaScript, you cannot directly pause or stop the download of a video file once it has started. The download process is handled by the browser's networking layer, and JavaScript does not have control over low-level network operations like pausing downloads.

However, if you want to prevent the video from being played or displayed until a certain condition is met (e.g., user interaction), you can use the HTML video element's preload attribute.

Here's how you can achieve this:

htmlCopy code
<video id="myVideo" controls preload="none">
  <source src="path/to/video.mp4" type="video/mp4">
  Your browser does not support the video tag.
</video>

<button id="startDownload">Start Download</button>
<button id="pauseDownload">Pause Download</button>

<script>
  const video = document.getElementById('myVideo');
  const startButton = document.getElementById('startDownload');
  const pauseButton = document.getElementById('pauseDownload');

  // Start the download when the start button is clicked
  startButton.addEventListener('click', () => {
    video.load(); // This will initiate the download
  });

  // Pause the download when the pause button is clicked
  pauseButton.addEventListener('click', () => {
    video.removeAttribute('preload'); // This will pause the download
  });
</script>

In the above code, the preload="none" attribute for the video element tells the browser not to automatically preload the video file when the page loads. Instead, you can initiate the download by calling the load() method on the video element when the "Start Download" button is clicked.

To pause the download, you can simply remove the preload attribute from the video element, which will cause the browser to stop fetching the video file. This effectively pauses the download process.

Keep in mind that pausing the download in this manner does not cancel or delete any data that has already been downloaded. The partially downloaded video will still be available in the browser's cache, and the download can be resumed if needed.

Please note that the behavior of video downloads can vary across different browsers, and some browsers may have different caching and download strategies. Additionally, users can often interact with the browser's built-in download controls, and they might pause or cancel downloads on their own.