This is quite troubling to download things from ensembl browser now that the Chrome and Edge browser have disable their "enable-ftp" flags. User is foolishly directed from one browser to the other mentioning that this link can't be opened in current browser. I have tried firefox too but the link never works!! I think Ensembl must try figuring a way out for it because this is a real trouble. Thankfully I was somehow able to get files from Ensembl Bacteria using "Internet Explorer"
Hi there,
Since yesterday, I'm having trouble accessing data in ENSEMBL Plants and Bacteria. Things seem to work fine in ensembl.org though.
I can't download any data using the browser, and can't access the FTP site using browser / rsync / wget.
I've tried several machines, and also contacted the help desk (didn't get an answer yet).
Is anybody else experiencing the same issue? Any ideas for workarounds?
Thanks!
1 answer
One more work around is to use HTTP instead of ftp in your URL. So for instance if you have URL: ftp://ftp.ensemblgenomes.org/pub/bacteria/release-51/gff3/bacteria_120_collection/pseudomonas_alkylphenolica_gca_000746525
Change it to
http://ftp.ensemblgenomes.org/pub/bacteria/release-51/gff3/bacteria_120_collection/pseudomonas_alkylphenolica_gca_000746525
It's tremendously frustrating for us. We're working on updating all the links in the website to go to http://ftp.ensembl.org/pub/ instead, which works everywhere, but we keep finding more! The trouble is, anyone who is working with an FTP client still wants the usual ftp links, so there's a bit of a UX issue there of how to direct the proper bioinformatics with FTP clients one place, but the biologists who just want to point and click somewhere else.
We respect your tiresome efforts and hope that it will be worked out in the near future!!
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Thank you, this is very helpful - I was able to get the data I needed.
Still weird that I can't access the standard FTP. I'll wait for reply from the help desk.