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When you download a file from the MEGA service, you are shown a pretty download progress bar within the browser. Once this progress bar reaches 100%, your browser then begins to download the file. That is, only once the graphical download is complete, your browser's normal download process is started. What exactly is going on here?

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It uses the fileSystem api: http://developer.chrome.com/apps/fileSystem.html

Which basically writes the file to a sandboxed section of your local file system:

AppData\Local\Google\Chrome\User Data\Default\File System\

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Ah interesting. So the graphical download creates the file in the directory mentioned in your answer. The start of the browser download is the movement from that directory to your download destination folder. Is that right? What are the benefits to this? – Jeff Mar 4 at 20:03
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Yes, exactly... Well, it seems to copy, not move the file. As for the benefits, i'm struggling to see any! "Resumable" downloads is one, but not being able to choose your download folder isn't ideal. I'm also struggling to find out how long the file is stored in your User Data folder, as i downloaded something from mega about 3 days ago and the 250mb file is still there. – Dodswm Mar 5 at 19:41
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All the downloads on MEGA are encrypted using a private key that only you have. When you choose to share a file, you have to give them the key, or you have an option to include it in your download link url. The download must be decrypted using this key before it can actually be downloaded. This is what is most likely happening during this time. Larger files may take longer to decrypt.

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Where is the data stored though? It doesn't let you save it anywhere until it's downloaded and decrypted, so it's obviously storing it somewhere temporarily during that time. – Sean Gordon Mar 3 at 11:17

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