---
title: "206 Partial Content — what it means and how to fix it"
description: "The server is returning only the requested byte range of a file, not the whole thing. What causes an HTTP 206, what to try as a visitor, and what to check if it is your own site."
url: https://atoneplace.net/error/206/
site: "At One Place"
---

# HTTP 206 — Partial Content

**HTTP 206: Partial Content**

The server is returning only the requested byte range of a file, not the whole thing.

## What 206 actually means

The client sent a `Range` header asking for part of a file and the server obliged. This is what makes video seeking, resumable downloads and parallel download managers work: a browser scrubbing to the middle of an MP4 asks for exactly those bytes rather than fetching the file from the start. The response carries a `Content-Range` header saying which bytes it contains and how large the whole file is.

## Common causes

- A video or audio player requested a byte range to seek
- A download resumed after being interrupted
- A download manager fetched several chunks of one file in parallel

## If you're just trying to view the page

1. Nothing — this is how seeking and resuming downloads are supposed to work
2. If video seeking does not work on a site, the server is probably ignoring range requests rather than returning 206

## If it's your site

1. Advertise support with `Accept-Ranges: bytes`; without it clients will not try
2. Serve `Content-Range` correctly — an off-by-one on the end byte corrupts downloads in ways that are painful to trace
3. Many application frameworks do not implement ranges; serve large media through a static file server or CDN that does
4. If the requested range is outside the file, return 416, not 206 with empty content

## Reference

- **Status code:** 206
- **Reason phrase:** Partial Content
- **Category:** 2xx — Success
- **Cacheable by default:** Yes
- **Defined in:** RFC 9110 §15.3.7

## Common questions

### What does HTTP 206 mean?

The server is returning only the requested byte range of a file, not the whole thing. The client sent a `Range` header asking for part of a file and the server obliged. This is what makes video seeking, resumable downloads and parallel download managers work: a browser scrubbing to the middle of an MP4 asks for exactly those bytes rather than fetching the file from the start.

### How do I fix a 206 error?

Nothing — this is how seeking and resuming downloads are supposed to work

### Is 206 a client error or a server error?

206 is in the 2xx range, which means success. It is not an error at all.

## Related pages

- [200 OK](https://atoneplace.net/error/200/)
- [204 No Content](https://atoneplace.net/error/204/)
- [201 Created](https://atoneplace.net/error/201/)
- [202 Accepted](https://atoneplace.net/error/202/)
- [207 Multi-Status](https://atoneplace.net/error/207/)
- [203 Non-Authoritative Information](https://atoneplace.net/error/203/)
- [205 Reset Content](https://atoneplace.net/error/205/)
- [208 Already Reported](https://atoneplace.net/error/208/)
- [226 IM Used](https://atoneplace.net/error/226/)

## Sources

- Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) Status Code Registry — IANA (https://www.iana.org/assignments/http-status-codes/)
- RFC 9110: HTTP Semantics — IETF (https://www.rfc-editor.org/rfc/rfc9110.html)