Is Wget 401 unauthorized error bothering you? We can help you fix it.

Wget is a free utility to download files in the command line.

At Bobcares, we often get the request to solve such errors. We provide fixes for our customers as a part of our Server Management Services.

Today, let’s analyze the cause and see how our Support Engineers fix Wget 401 unauthorized error.

Explore more about Wget and 401 error

Wget is a command to download files from the web without user interaction. Above all, it works for HTTP, HTTPS, and FTP as well.

401 is an HTTP response status code. The server returns this error when the user fails to authorize to access the data.

For instance, when .htpasswd is securing a directory and the user provides wrong login information then it will result in a 401 status code. Moreover, it acts the same when we try to access Wget.

Let us discuss how our Support Engineers about the common error and how we fix it.

Cause and Fix for Wget 401 unauthorized Error?

Recently, one of our customers faced the same problem let’s see the major reason for the error. Let us discuss how our Support Engineers resolve the error.

.htpasswd authorized

Basically, sometimes we protect files with .htpasswd. If we try to download the file with Wget without using proper logins then we see Wget 401 unauthorized error.

Thus, our customer also got same below error message :

$ wget http://to-some-domain.tld/path/to/file
HTTP request sent, awaiting response... 401 Authorization Required
Authorization failed.

In this case, the client didn’t pass the username and password parameter. As a result, it is showing this error as it fails to authorize. So while using Wget we can pass the username and password prompt as below command :

wget --user=username --ask-password http://to-some-domain.tld/path/to/file

We can also use curl to download files with below command :

curl -u username http://to-some-domain.tld/path/to/file

It will ask for a password. And with validation, the download will start.

Check for invalid URL

This is one of the errors we will see if we try to access a URL without having a login session. For ASP.NET sites, if we access URL in the browser, we will see the below error :

If we try to access with Wget, we will get the same 401 error. For such links that need login sessions to access can not be accessed with Wget. We can use curl to store cookie/login session and scrap data.

[Having trouble in fixing Wget errors? – We’ll fix it for you.]

Conclusion

In short, Wget 401 unauthorized error occur due to multiple reasons that include .htpasswd authorization and invalid URL. Today, we saw how our Support Engineers fixed errors related to the Wget.