HTTP 206 Partial Content — What It Means and How to Fix It

Common Causes

• Client explicitly requests a byte range using the 'Range' header.
• Resuming an interrupted download.
• Streaming media content (e.g., video or audio) where only a segment is needed.
• Fetching specific parts of a large file for display or processing.

Code Examples to Handle HTTP 206

curl -I https://httpbin.org/status/206

fetch('https://httpbin.org/status/206')
  .then(response => {
    if (response.status === 206) {
      console.log('Handled Partial Content');
    }
  });

import requests

response = requests.get('https://httpbin.org/status/206')
if response.status_code == 206:
    print("Received Partial Content")

How to Fix It

1. Verify the client's 'Range' header: Ensure it's correctly formatted (e.g., 'bytes=0-499' or 'bytes=500-').
2. Check server-side support for 'Range' requests: Confirm that the server is configured to handle partial content requests and sends the 'Accept-Ranges' header.
3. Examine the 'Content-Range' header in the server's response: This header should specify the byte range included in the response and the total size of the resource (e.g., 'Content-Range: bytes 0-499/1234').
4. Ensure the requested range is valid: If the client requests a range outside the resource's bounds, the server might return 416 (Range Not Satisfiable).

Related Status Codes