Solved: Backups won’t download from cPanel (stops at 500MB)

I just had this problem and didn’t find any solution online so thought I would share here.

I was using WHM and logging in to a clients account via cPanel, and then trying to download backups.

The backups would start downloading but repeatedly fail upon getting to around 525MB (or 500MB on some browsers).

Was really strange. Started trying to debug I wanted to eliminate as many things as possible that it wasn’t. So:

Not an issue with WiFi or internet connectivity
Not local network issue (as I tested the download on WiFi/Fibre as well as mobile network)
Not an issue with HD space (493 GB was available locally)
Not an issue with the specific file, it happens on different files.
Not a problem with the cPanel account as the same issue happens with another cPanel account
IP is not blocked as I’ve connected with different IPs and it still happens
Not my machine as I’ve tried two machines (Intel Mac, M1 Mac)
Not the operating system (one running Big Sur, one running Monterey)
Not the browser (tried Chrome and Safari)

What the hell is the problem?

The solution to backups won’t download from cPanel (stops at 500MB)

Turns out it was super simple solution. As I use WHM to manage all my clients cPanel accounts, this was actually the problem.

For some reason logging in as a user in WHM and then logging in to cPanel accounts from there causes this download issue.

So the answer is to log in to the individual cPanel accounts directly, and then download the files from there. Sorted.