When I try to open Steinberg Download Assistant I get this error message - “A connection to the download server could not be established. Check your internet connection and try again.”
But I am connected to the internet so where is the problem?
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It’s a crap piece of software. I’ve often had this message, and then browsed the web for a solution. Go figure. I’ve restarted the program, the PC, uninstalled/reinstalled, and still get the same message. Even the forced updates give the same error - after downloading the installer! And to cap it all, it doesn’t even show all the software for which I have licences,
Better to use the Steinberg download page.
Steinberg recently updated the download servers and you need a new release of the Download Assistant. See here.
https://helpcenter.steinberg.de/hc/en-us
Releases before 1.35 will not connect anymore.
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Ok. Thanks! Will try this
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Why decide to make this a customer problem? It could easily have been managed to migrate to new servers without breaking so many installed versions in the wild. Come on Steinberg, you can do better.
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It seems it was an emergency fix related to some third-party component (not sure whether it was something in the software or on the server side). There was a window of about four days after the announcement where you could auto-update to 1.35, then all earlier versions permanently lost connectivity. You must manually update to a supported version if you did not take advantage of that small window to auto-update to 1.35.
I doubt that Steinberg chose to foist a breaking change on the user community - it was more that they had no choice.
in my experience, things like that 4 day window are a choice. Even if they had to rebuild their server and restore from backup, they could have kept it going. Even if they had to host with another provider, they could have changed DNS.
unless they are doing silly things like baking server IP addresses or certificate fingerprints into the client or something.
I had a bit of trouble manually downloading the latest download assistant as well. The links on the support page were not found and just redirected to the Steinberg home page.
We can only speculate, but an external provider doing an emergency deprecation of a potentially compromised private key or root certificate might given Steinberg no alternative to accepting a breaking change at short notice.
It has happened now - the users have to move on.
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I guess it comes down to how sensitive your design is to such risks.
Having designed a few of these systems myself, there are ways around all of this if you think about it before you write code and deploy systems. Not much you can do if you don’t. Hopefully they learned from this.
If there’s any one thing I learned from 28 years in networking, it is that you cannot rely on anything to keep working 100%. Certainly not your servers, internet links, SSL certificates, DNS, or anything provided by others. Not 100%, it’s always less. Even 99.9% uptime is 0.1% downtime, which is still way too much for critical systems.
I updated “Downlaod Assistant” to the 1.35 version but still getting same error message “A connection to the download server could not be estabilished…)”
Additional I deinstalled Download assistand restarted my Mac and installed again v1.35 but still same error.
Internet connection is available.
Any idea how to bring it running?
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I also can’t download the Dorico 5.1 update, or the new Download assistant. “The network connection was lost” and this is from Safari (macOS). It looks like the steinberg download servers are not working properly. Please fix this Steinberg. Everything else on my network connections is working totally fine.
This is not an issue many are facing now. e.g., I just tried downloading something in the Download Assistant and it worked.
If you want a solution that other users might provide tell us exactly what you see, explicitly, with all info available to you.
Steve, do you have 1.35 of the download assistant?
I still have 1.34 but can’t upgrade because of this issue.
How exact do you need things, Steve? What more do you want? I’ve tried opening the download assistant, it fails, see my screen shots above, and direct downloading from the web fails.
I suspect it may be an issue just with MacOS and Safari
macOS Sonoma: 14.2.1
Safari: 17.2.1
Downloading .dmg’s directly with Chrome worked. I suspect the upgrade to 1.35 of the download assistant will help it too.
The instructions were to update the download assistant before a certain date. Since you didn’t, you got the message you saw.
The other problem you were having was on your end, which you solved by using a different browser.
There is no problem with the download servers, you just needed to update your software, and use a browser that permitted you to do the task.
Glad you got it sorted.
Of course, otherwise it would not have worked.
Exact enough so that in gathering that information, you fully understood what you needed to do, which you did.
Where were those explicit instructions published on downloading the software before a certain date that was an obvious place for most users to see? Anyhow, you’re rather smug and not helpful. Thanks a ton.
I truly might be smug, but I am helpful. Looking for the exact info enabled you to solve the problem. Sorry your feelings were hurt.
I’m just a user, I don’t get paid to help answer the hundreds of questions I have helped people with over the years, or the many things I have taught others, after learning them myself from other more experienced users when I started out. – just like many other long-time Forum members.
The notice is on the front page of the Steinberg Support website and it was also sent via email to subscribed users.
It was also posted here on the forum
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I’ve followed your instructions, uninstalled, reinstalled, rebooted. I never had a version but 1.35. Still I get the “won’t connect” message. I now know what Steinberg tech support looks like. Good luck getting anyone to use your products. I’m done.
This is a user forum, you are not talking to Steinberg.
And you also checked firewalls, antivirus, etc.?
You do not even mention your operating system. So good luck with what you are doing.
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