eDonkey link / .part file format

.part · .met · partial download container · introduced 2000 by Jed McCaleb / Hendrik Breitkreuz

What is a eDonkey link / .part file?

eMule and aMule store in-progress downloads as .part files paired with .met metadata files. Each .part is the raw partial download; the .met records which 9.5 MB chunks have been verified. eDonkey peer-to-peer was huge through the mid-2000s and these files still appear in legacy downloads folders.

Most readers reach this page after double-clicking a .part file and finding their operating system unsure what to do with it. The good news: eDonkey link / .part is a well-understood format with mature tooling on every major platform. It is supported in one click by mainstream archivers on Windows, macOS, and Linux.

How to extract a eDonkey link / .part file

Opening a .part file is straightforward on every modern operating system. The exact steps depend on which platform you are on:

On Windows

Locate the .part file in File Explorer.
Right-click the file. If you have 7-Zip installed, choose 7-Zip → Extract Here. On Windows 11 the built-in extractor handles ZIP, 7z, RAR and several other formats directly through Extract All…
If prompted, pick a destination folder and click Extract.
The extracted files appear in a folder next to the original archive.

On macOS

Find the .part file in Finder.
Install The Unarchiver from the Mac App Store, or Keka for both creating and extracting.
Right-click the file → Open With → The Unarchiver (or just double-click after Unarchiver is set as the default).
The extracted folder appears next to the archive.

On Linux

Use your file manager: right-click the archive → Extract Here (file-roller on GNOME, Ark on KDE).

On the command line, run one of:

7z x archive.part    # works for almost any format

The files appear in the current directory.

How to create a eDonkey link / .part file

To pack files into a .part archive, you typically need an archiver that supports writing this format. Not every tool can create every format — for example, only WinRAR can create real RAR files. The sidebar lists the software known to read and write eDonkey link / .part.

On the command line, the canonical create command is:

# Use 7-Zip, PeaZip, or the format's reference tool to create .part files.

If you regularly create archives at scale, a dedicated archive automation suite can wrap this command in scheduled jobs, integrity checks, and offsite replication.

Strengths

Resumable across sessions
Chunk-level verification

Weaknesses and limitations

Specific to eMule / aMule
Format never standardized outside the project

Typical use cases

Resumable peer-to-peer downloads
eDonkey / Kad networks

Technical details

eDonkey link / .part uses the None algorithm and is identified on disk by the magic byte sequence (varies). The standard MIME type is application/x-emule. The format is an open specification and is free for any use.

Frequently asked questions

Is eDonkey link / .part safe to open?

Archive files are containers — they are only as safe as what they contain. A .part from a trusted source is fine; one received from a stranger can hold malicious executables, scripts, or files engineered to exploit bugs in your archiver. Always keep your archiver updated, and never run unknown executables that come out of an archive. A safe workflow is to extract into a sandbox and scan the contents before opening anything.

What is the maximum file size?

Modern implementations support archives in the multi-terabyte range. The practical limit is your filesystem (FAT32 caps at 4 GB; ext4, NTFS, APFS, and exFAT all comfortably handle multi-TB files).

Can I password-protect a eDonkey link / .part?

Some archivers can wrap eDonkey link / .part files in an encrypted container, but the format itself does not always include built-in encryption. Check your archiver's documentation.

How does eDonkey link / .part compare to other formats?

See our format comparison pages such as ZIP vs 7z, ZIP vs RAR, and tar.gz vs tar.xz for side-by-side feature tables.