Attempting to Download ComfyUI Models: 5 Hard-Learned Lessons
What I Wish I Knew Before Attempting to Download ComfyUI Models:
5 Hard-Learned Lessons from Stalls, 404s, and 130GB Hauls
October 16, 2025 • 8 min read Part 2 of the n8n AI Studio Journey Series
The Download Reality: From "Quick Pull" to Overnight Saga
My Download list
I thought grabbing models for ComfyUI would be simple: Spot FLUX.1-dev on Hugging Face, fire off hf download, and watch 24GB magic unfold for text-to-image bliss on my RTX 3090. Wrong. It was cryptic hex temp files, 95% stalls on WAN 2.2's 14GB chunks, and auth walls that turned optimism into 2AM log dives. After 130GB+ of trial-and-error—fueled by Reddit rants and GitHub issues—these five lessons emerged. If you're prepping checkpoints, LoRAs, or upscalers like SUPIR, this could've saved me a full day. Pulled from HF docs, community threads, and my sweat equity, it's your shield against the "is it frozen?" curse.
Lesson 1: Repo IDs and Paths Play Tricks—Always Scout with Searches and Go Direct
Hugging Face repos sound straightforward, but "Fanghua-Yu/SUPIR" 404'd hard—the ComfyUI-optimized fork hides at "Kijai/SUPIR_pruned." WAN 2.2's diffusion models lurk in nested split_files/diffusion_models/, stalling CLI pulls until I grabbed Comfy-Org's repack. Even basics like ControlNet variants trip you if the ID's off.
The Fix: Google "model-name ComfyUI Hugging Face" to confirm the exact repo and structure. For singles, bypass repo confusion with resolve URLs—wget lands them clean in models/controlnet for auto-scan. Common pitfall: Mismatched paths lead to "model not found" in workflows.
Example for ControlNet inpaint (1.4GB, ~5 mins on decent Wi-Fi):
textcd /path/to/ComfyUI/models/controlnetwget -c https://huggingface.co/lllyasviel/ControlNet-v1-1/resolve/main/control_v11p_sd15_inpaint.pth
Refresh ComfyUI's UI—boom, it's there. Pro tip: Test with tiny files like clip_l.safetensors (246MB) before beasts.
Lesson 2: Authentication Bites Only Gated Repos—Don't Blanket-Login Publics
I hammered hf login on every pull, bloating sessions unnecessarily. Public staples like clip_l.safetensors or WAN's base files? Zero token needed—they fly free. But gated gems like FLUX.1-schnell demand it post-ToS acceptance, or it's instant 403s, even if you've "agreed" on the page.
Streamline Your Flow: Eye the HF repo for a "gated" banner. Publics: Straight wget or aria2c. Gated: Whip up a read token at huggingface.co/settings/tokens, then CLI-login or append ?token=hf_YourToken to URLs. ComfyUI-Manager shines here—set your token as an env var for in-app pulls without venv toggles.
Public starter (clip_l for FLUX encoders):
textcd /path/to/ComfyUI/models/clip_visionwget -c https://huggingface.co/comfyanonymous/flux_text_encoders/resolve/main/clip_l.safetensors
Gated hack: Aria2c with token for resilience. Watch for 2025 updates—HF's CLI now flags gated status upfront in searches.
Lesson 3: hf_transfer Rockets Speeds but Ghosts Resumes—Switch to Aria2c for Bulletproof Big Files
HF CLI's hf_transfer flag teased 2-3x boosts on my gigabit setup, but it flaked on WAN's 14GB low-noise—partials trashed, restarts from zero every hiccup. Default ETag resuming? Gold, but single-threaded crawls. Enter aria2c: Multi-threaded champ that chews CDNs, resumes flawlessly, and hits 100+ MB/s on spotty lines.
Level Up: Unset for CLI safety: unset HF_HUB_ENABLE_HF_TRANSFER before hf download. But for speed + reliability, aria2c rules—install via sudo apt install aria2, crank threads. HF docs note hf_transfer's production-ready but proxy-averse; aria2c fills the gap.
SUPIR FP16 upscale (7GB):
textcd /path/to/ComfyUI/models/upscale_models/supiraria2c -x 8 -s 8 -c https://huggingface.co/Kijai/SUPIR_pruned/resolve/main/SUPIR-v0F_fp16.safetensors -d . --summary-interval=60mv [hex-temp].safetensors SUPIR-v0F_fp16.safetensors
Rename that temp hex blob post-pull. Cloud users: -x 16 for bandwidth feasts. GitHub tools like hfd wrap aria2c for repo-wide grabs.
Lesson 4: Venv Crutches HF CLI Only—Ditch It for Wget/Aria2c's No-Fuss Freedom
Sourcing source venv/bin/activate unlocked HF CLI's huggingface_hub magic but sparked PATH meltdowns when I forgot to deactivate for plain wget. Reality: System wget/aria2c snag public files sans Python overhead; venv's CLI-exclusive for gated/repo clones.
Keep It Simple: Activate just for hf download --repo-type model; deactivate for directs. Post-venv, peek: pip show huggingface_hub (0.23+ for ComfyUI harmony). Issues spike on portable installs—deactivate prevents venv bleed.
GitHub-sourced RealESRGAN (upscale essential):
textdeactivate # If venv's oncd /path/to/ComfyUI/models/upscale_modelswget -c https://github.com/xinntao/Real-ESRGAN/releases/download/v0.1.0/RealESRGAN_x4plus.pth
Perfect for Docker mounts where envs clash. ComfyUI's extra_model_paths.yaml ties multi-drive paths sans venv drama.
Lesson 5: "Stalls" Are Sneaky—Monitor Aggressively and Nail Permissions Early
Downloads "froze" at 95%? Nah—slow CDNs or silent permission blocks on mounted drives. My HDD (/media/inky/abc2) rejected writes till chown; no error, just limbo.
Eyes Wide Open: Bash a watcher: watch -n 30 'du -sh*.safetensors | tail -1; ls -1 | wc -l'. Aria2c's verbose summaries catch redirects. Pre-pull: sudo chown -R $USER:$USER /path/to/ComfyUI/models. Post: Inventory with find /models -type f \( -nme "*.safetensors" -o -name "*.pth" \) -exec ls -lh {} + | sort -h. Reddit gripes: Arch mismatches (FP32 vs. FP16) crash loads—stick to CUDA-matched FP16 for RTX.
Toolkit Triumph: Chaos to Clean Hauls
Starting with direct URLs, aria2c threads, and venv smarts flipped my marathon from pain to process. Small tests first (clip_l), then scale—FLUX.1-dev lands overnight, no sweat. Edit extra_model_paths.yaml for SSD/HDD splits:
textbase_path: /ComfyUI/modelsexternal:base_path: /media/inky/abc2/modelscheckpoints: checkpoints
ComfyUI-Manager next for node-tied ease. Payoff: Offline gen sans API chains. Models shift fast—HF updates, community tweaks keep it fresh.
Resources to Fast-Track Your Pulls
HF CLI Deep Dive: Downloading Models Guide
ComfyUI Folders 101: Install Models Wiki (Folder breakdowns, git LFS tips)
Aria2c Starter: Reddit's HF Downloader Node for cloud speeds
Pitfall Patrol: r/comfyui threads on large file fails
