Aspera Desktop

How Pixwel moves large media with IBM Aspera high-speed transfer — how it works today through Aspera Connect, and the move to the Aspera Desktop app.

Pixwel uses IBM Aspera to move large media files quickly and reliably. Aspera’s high-speed protocol (FASP) transfers big trailers and masters far faster than an ordinary browser download, and lets you pause and resume without starting over.

Aspera needs a piece of software running on your computer to do the transfer. Today that’s the Aspera Connect browser plugin; later in 2026 it moves to the standalone Aspera Desktop app.

How it works today: Aspera Connect

Right now, Pixwel transfers run through Aspera Connect — a small client and browser plugin installed on your machine. When you download a file:

• The transfer runs through Aspera Connect and appears under Active Transfers on the Downloads page, with pause, resume, and cancel controls.
• If Connect isn’t installed or running, Pixwel falls back to a standard browser download. That still works, but it’s slower for large files and can’t pause or resume.

If you’ve ever been prompted to “install Aspera Connect” or to allow a browser extension when downloading, that’s this client.

What’s changing

Aspera Connect depends on a browser plugin mechanism that modern browsers have deprecated, so IBM is retiring Connect in favor of a standalone app. Later in 2026, Pixwel will move from Aspera Connect to Aspera Desktop.

When the switch happens, you’ll need to install Aspera Desktop to keep getting high-speed transfers. Without it, downloads will fall back to slower standard browser downloads.

What Aspera Desktop is

Aspera Desktop is IBM’s standalone, high-speed transfer application. Instead of a browser plugin, it’s a normal desktop app that runs in the background. When you start a transfer in Pixwel, the web app hands it off to Aspera Desktop, which does the actual high-speed transfer — no browser extension required.

It’s a free IBM transfer client, available for Windows and macOS — see IBM’s system requirements for the current supported versions.

Installing Aspera Desktop

1. Get the app

   When Pixwel switches to Aspera Desktop, starting a transfer will prompt you to open or download the app. You can also get it directly from IBM’s Aspera downloads page (look for IBM Aspera for desktop).

2. Install and launch it

   Run the installer and open the app. Allow it to run in the background so Pixwel can hand transfers to it.

3. Return to Pixwel

   Back in Pixwel, start a download as usual. Pixwel detects the running app and routes the transfer through it.

Using it

Once Aspera Desktop is installed, the experience is the same as today: start a transfer from Pixwel, and track it under Active Transfers with pause, resume, and cancel. The difference is that the work is done by the standalone app rather than a browser plugin.

Don’t want to install it? You can still download files — Pixwel falls back to a standard browser download. This is fine for smaller files, but large media transfers much faster, and resumably, through Aspera Desktop.

See also

• Downloads — where transfers appear and how download permissions work.