# Unable to download when running MetaPhlAn3

**URL:** <https://forum.biobakery.org/t/unable-to-download-when-running-metaphlan3/5118>\
**Category:** MetaPhlAn\
**Created:** [April 11, 2023, 4:12pm UTC](https://forum.biobakery.org/t/unable-to-download-when-running-metaphlan3/5118 "2023-04-11T16:12:06Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![ziyiwang726](https://yyz1.discourse-cdn.com/flex027/user_avatar/forum.biobakery.org/ziyiwang726/32/2018_2.png) [@ziyiwang726](https://forum.biobakery.org/u/ziyiwang726)\
**Post date:** [April 11, 2023, 4:12pm UTC](https://forum.biobakery.org/t/unable-to-download-when-running-metaphlan3/5118/1 "2023-04-11T16:12:06Z")

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Hi,

I am writing to seek assistance with an issue I have encountered while running the metaphlan for provided test dataset on cluster.

MetaPhlAn version 3.0 (25 Feb 2020)

**The code I run:**  
$ metaphlan SRS014476-Supragingival\_plaque.fasta.gz --input\_type fastq \> SRS014476-Supragingival\_plaque\_profile.txt

**The error message I got:**  
Downloading [https://www.dropbox.com/sh/7qze7m7g9fe2xjg/AAA4XDP85WHon\_eHvztxkamTa/file\_list.txt?dl=1](https://www.dropbox.com/sh/7qze7m7g9fe2xjg/AAA4XDP85WHon_eHvztxkamTa/file_list.txt?dl=1)

Warning: Unable to download [https://www.dropbox.com/sh/7qze7m7g9fe2xjg/AAA4XDP85WHon\_eHvztxkamTa/file\_list.txt?dl=1](https://www.dropbox.com/sh/7qze7m7g9fe2xjg/AAA4XDP85WHon_eHvztxkamTa/file_list.txt?dl=1)  
Traceback (most recent call last):  
File “/rsrch6/home/biostatistics/zwang26/.conda/envs/map4-4.0.6/bin/metaphlan”, line 10, in   
sys.exit(main())  
File “/rsrch6/home/biostatistics/zwang26/.conda/envs/map4-4.0.6/lib/python3.6/site-packages/metaphlan/metaphlan.py”, line 1187, in main  
pars[‘index’] = check\_and\_install\_database(pars[‘index’], pars[‘bowtie2db’], pars[‘bowtie2\_build’], pars[‘nproc’], pars[‘force\_download’])  
File “/rsrch6/home/biostatistics/zwang26/.conda/envs/map4-4.0.6/lib/python3.6/site-packages/metaphlan/metaphlan.py”, line 589, in check\_and\_install\_database  
index = resolve\_latest\_database(bowtie2\_db, ls\_f[‘mpa\_latest’], force\_redownload\_latest)  
UnboundLocalError: local variable ‘ls\_f’ referenced before assignment

Any help is greatly appreciated.  
Ziyi

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![xiaoafei](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/x/2acd7d/32.png) [@xiaoafei](https://forum.biobakery.org/u/xiaoafei)\
**Post date:** [April 11, 2023, 4:48pm UTC](https://forum.biobakery.org/t/unable-to-download-when-running-metaphlan3/5118/2 "2023-04-11T16:48:23Z")

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[http://cmprod1.cibio.unitn.it/biobakery3/metaphlan\_databases/](http://cmprod1.cibio.unitn.it/biobakery3/metaphlan_databases/)

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![aitor.blancomiguez](https://yyz1.discourse-cdn.com/flex027/user_avatar/forum.biobakery.org/aitor.blancomiguez/32/86_2.png) [@aitor.blancomiguez](https://forum.biobakery.org/u/aitor.blancomiguez)\
**Post date:** [April 14, 2023, 1:23pm UTC](https://forum.biobakery.org/t/unable-to-download-when-running-metaphlan3/5118/4 "2023-04-14T13:23:05Z")

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Unfortunately, the dropbox download has been deprecated and thus old versions of metaphlan 3 will not be able to automatically download the database. I recommend you to upgrade the metaphlan code to 3.0.14