Starting with version 3.0.852 (15 April 2010), the source code was made available in the project's Subversion repository instead of being included with the binary package.

[7] The source code for version 5.0 and newer is not available and the GNU General Public License agreement has been removed from the app.

The ability to download YouTube videos was included in the program's functionality until October 16th, 2021, when one of the developers, Alex, indicated that Google had filed a complaint report, requesting the option be disabled.

Researchers discovered that the site was intermittently redirecting users to domains that served a malicious version of the Free Download Manager software.

This malware included a script that installed a backdoor on Linux devices to steal passwords, browsing history, cryptocurrency wallet files, and cloud service credentials.