download large AI models aria2c

Attempting to Download ComfyUI Models: 5 Hard-Learned Lessons

comfyui
October 16, 2025•4 min read

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

See Part 1

ComfyUI models downloadHugging Face ComfyUI tipsdownload large AI models aria2cComfyUI gated reposhf_transfer issuesComfyUI model installation guide
About Regard: Building Freedom Through Shared Knowledge Regard launched Real & Works after grinding through the chaos of content marketing, wearing every hat in the book—writer, WordPress coder, systems architect, graphic designer, video editor, and analytics guru. The hustle was relentless, but the burnout was inevitable. Running a one-person show while competing with studios flush with staff wasn’t just tough—it was draining every ounce of time and resources he had. Armed with a deep background in programming and systems design, Regard decided to break the cycle. He built automated content pipelines, starting with a streamlined YouTube shorts video workflow that hums along via self-hosted setups, powered by service APIs for inference, composition, and posting. It’s lean, it’s mean, and it’s entirely under his control—no subscriptions, no middlemen, just pure, efficient creation on his own terms. Now, Regard’s mission isn’t about landing clients—it’s about spreading knowledge to set creators free. He builds in public, sharing every step, stumble, and success, from the code to the crashes. His goal? To show that anyone with enough grit and guidance can build their own automated systems, right on their own servers, using APIs to make it happen. Follow his journey, grab the lessons from his wins and losses, and take charge of your own creative freedom.

Regard Vermeulen

About Regard: Building Freedom Through Shared Knowledge Regard launched Real & Works after grinding through the chaos of content marketing, wearing every hat in the book—writer, WordPress coder, systems architect, graphic designer, video editor, and analytics guru. The hustle was relentless, but the burnout was inevitable. Running a one-person show while competing with studios flush with staff wasn’t just tough—it was draining every ounce of time and resources he had. Armed with a deep background in programming and systems design, Regard decided to break the cycle. He built automated content pipelines, starting with a streamlined YouTube shorts video workflow that hums along via self-hosted setups, powered by service APIs for inference, composition, and posting. It’s lean, it’s mean, and it’s entirely under his control—no subscriptions, no middlemen, just pure, efficient creation on his own terms. Now, Regard’s mission isn’t about landing clients—it’s about spreading knowledge to set creators free. He builds in public, sharing every step, stumble, and success, from the code to the crashes. His goal? To show that anyone with enough grit and guidance can build their own automated systems, right on their own servers, using APIs to make it happen. Follow his journey, grab the lessons from his wins and losses, and take charge of your own creative freedom.

LinkedIn logo icon
Back to Blog