Torrents
uTorrent
μTorrent is a BitTorrent client originally created by Ludvig Strigeus (ludde), and is
currently maintained by a team of developers at BitTorrent, Inc. A client is a computer
program that follows the rules of a protocol. For example, HTTP (HyperText Transfer
Protocol) is the protocol used for transferring web pages and other content, and your HTTP
client (or web browser) is the program you use to get those web pages. Some popular
browsers include Microsoft Internet Explorer, Mozilla Firefox, Opera, and Apple Safari. To an
extent, they all work in the same way because they follow the same set of rules. Just as
there are multiple HTTP clients, there are multiple BitTorrent clients that observe and
conform to guidelines set in the BitTorrent protocol definition, and μTorrent is one such
BitTorrent client.
So what sets μTorrent apart from other BitTorrent clients?
Micro-Sized Yet Feature Filled: Most of the features present in other BitTorrent
clients are present in μTorrent, including bandwidth prioritization, scheduling, RSS autodownloading
and Mainline DHT (compatible with BitComet). Additionally, μTorrent
supports the Protocol Encryption joint specification and peer exchange.
Resource-Friendly: μTorrent was written with efficiency in mind. Unlike many other
BitTorrent clients, it does not hog valuable system resources, allowing you to use the
computer as if it weren't there at all. Additionally, the program itself is very portable,
being contained within a single executable small in file size.
Skinnable and Localized: Various icon, toolbar graphic and status icon replacements
are available, and creating your own is very simple. μTorrent also has support for
localization, and with a language file present, will automatically switch to your system
language. If your language isn't available, you can easily add your own, or edit other
existing translations to improve them!
Actively Developed and Improved: The developers put in a lot of time working on
features and making things more user-friendly. Releases only come out when they're
ready, with no schedule pressures, so the few bugs that appear are quickly addressed
and fixed.
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Features List
Although compact and resource-friendly, μTorrent does not skimp on features, with a
feature set that rivals those of larger clients, such as Azureus, BitComet, and BitTornado.
μTorrent's more notable features include:
Bandwidth limiter
Data transfer quota limiter
Disk Cache system
Distributed Hash Table (DHT) support
Download bar
Download scheduler
Embedded tracker
HTTPS tracker support
Initial Seeding (Super Seeding)
IP Blocklist support
IPv6/Teredo support
Local Peer Discovery (LPD)
Local Tracker Discovery
Localization
Magnet URI support
Micro Transport Protocol (uTP) support
Multi-scrape support
Multi-torrent interface with queueing support
NAT Port Mapping Protocol (NAT-PMP) support
NAT Traversal through UDP hole punching (uTP only)
Peer Exchange
Protocol Encryption
Proxy support
RSS "Broadcatching"
Search bar
Selective file downloading
UDP tracker support
Unicode support
Universal Plug and Play (UPnP) support
Web Interface
Web Seeding support
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System Requirements
μTorrent was designed with relatively basic system requirements in mind. Machines
running any Microsoft Windows operating system from Windows 2000 and newer are able to
run μTorrent as well. Support for operating systems older than Windows 2000 has been
dropped since μTorrent v2.0.
Users of non-Windows operating systems may be able to use μTorrent on their
computers with the use of a special piece of software that allows the operating system to run
Windows applications. Note that there are no guarantees of any kind that everything will
work properly when μTorrent is used on alternative operating systems.
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μTorrent User Manual
Chapter 02: Basic Guides
This chapter provides basic guides for μTorrent. Be sure to read this chapter, especially
if you are new to BitTorrent in general.
The Basics of BitTorrent
Setup Guide
Port Forwarding
Downloading With μTorrent
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The Basics of BitTorrent
BitTorrent (often abbreviated as BT) is a peer-to-peer (P2P) protocol (a description and
set of rules on how to do things) created by Bram Cohen, designed to distribute data in such
a way that the original distributor would be able to decrease bandwidth usage while still
being able to reach at least the same amount of people. Cohen's idea was to "break" the file
being transferred into smaller segments called pieces. To save bandwidth, each person
downloading (more commonly referred to as peers in the BitTorrent community) would have
the pieces that they acquired available for upload to other peers in the swarm (the entire
network of people connected to a single torrent). In this way, much of the load of sharing the
file to every peer interested in it is offloaded to the peers. Note that a seed is basically a
peer with every piece, so when a peer successfully attains all data in the torrent contents,
that peer becomes a seed as well.
While on the surface, it appears that the only way to maintain a swarm's health is for
there to always be a seed connected to the swarm, that is not the case. The most important
factor to determining whether a swarm can continue to allow peers to complete a torrent is
the availability. The availability of a torrent is the number of complete copies of the torrent
contents there are distributed in the part of the swarm you're connected to, including the data
you have. In most cases, if there is an availability of 1.0 or greater, then even if one single
person does not have all the pieces, they are all still distributed across the entire swarm and
can be acquired to form the complete file.
In order for everyone to be able to locate one another, there needs to be some
centralized location that peers could connect to in order to obtain the other peers' IP
addresses. BitTorrent trackers serve as this centralized location. In the most basic
explanation, for each given swarm, a tracker only needs to collect a peer's IP address and
port number to share with other peers connecting to that same swarm.
Because of the very nature of BitTorrent, speeds are not guaranteed for any given
torrent swarm. While you may get great speeds in one swarm, you might not in another. This
is due to the fact that BitTorrent is a P2P protocol, so it depends on the upload speeds of the
other peers you are connected to to generate your download speeds. A common
misconception held by many people is that torrent swarms that contain more seeds and
peers are faster than those with less. This is not always the case. There can be a swarm
with only a few seeds and/or peers on fast Internet connections, and you'll be able to get
great speeds from them, while a swarm with many more seeds and/or peers might contain
mostly people with slow, dial-up Internet connections, will get you terrible speeds from them.
In the same vein, connecting to more seeds and/or peers does not equate to greater speeds,
and seeds don't necessarily give better speeds than normal peers.
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μTorrent User Manual > Chapter 02: Basic Guides
Setup Guide
The focus of this section is to help you configure μTorrent to be able to obtain the
optimal speeds for your Internet connection. While configuring it properly does not guarantee
that you will hit your maximum upload and/or download speeds, it guarantees that μTorrent is
doing the best it can to get good speeds. Be sure to read this entire section if you are
unfamiliar with configuring μTorrent, because you will be expected to have read it already
when asking for help elsewhere.
The Setup Guide
When you open μTorrent for the first time, you are presented with the μTorrent Setup
Guide. As stated in the wizard, following the simple directions will help you select the optimal
settings for your Internet connection.
In the first part, you are asked to select your upload speed from the dropdown menu. If
you do not know this information, you can test your Internet connection speed by selecting a
location closest to where you are situated, and click the "Run tests" button at the bottom of
the dialog. When you are running the speed test, make sure you are not using your Internet
connection for anything besides the test. If you have any other computer on your network,
disconnect them or shut them off before running the test. Run the test several times, and
take the average of your upload speed given in the tests. After the speed test, μTorrent will
automatically attempt to configure the settings based on the results of the test. If you wish,
you can manually select your connection's upload rate from the dropdown menu, but do note
the fact that there is a distinction between bits and bytes, and speed results are generally
given in kbps (kilobits per second), which should not be confused with KiB/s (kibibits per
second). Additionally, the tests may not be 100% accurate due to factors outside of your
control, so if the closest option is only a little bit higher than what you received on the tests
(perhaps by 10%), it's generally safe to select that. If the difference is greater than that, it's
best to select the lower option and manually set the correct upload speed. Do not be tempted
to select an option much higher than indicated on the speed tests in hopes that it will help
you download faster, as it will not, and might end being detrimental to your speeds instead.
In the second part, a port is randomly selected for you the first time the Setup Guide is
displayed, though you are free to change the port used. Alternatively, setting the port to 0
indicates to μTorrent that you would like for it to select a random port after the changes are
confirmed. After you select your port, left-click "Run tests" to check that the port is open. It is
essential that a port is open for μTorrent to listen for incoming connections on. If you are
having trouble opening a port, continue reading onto the port forwarding guide.
When you finish configuring everything, left-click "Save & Close" and you're done! If, for
whatever reason, you need to return to this wizard to make a change, you'll find it accessible
by selecting "Options" then "Setup Guide..." (or press Ctrl + G ) in μTorrent. Alternatively, you
can left-click on the network status icon in the status bar.
Correcting Some Settings
If you manually chose a connection upload rate and found that you had to round down
when selecting your connection type in the Setup Guide, you should adjust your upload
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speed limit to take advantage of the extra upload speed you actually have. Take the average
upload speed you received when taking the test and divide it by 10, then round it to the
closest whole number. Now use this calculated number as your global maximum upload rate.
Testing Your Configuration
Because torrents don't necessarily guarantee speeds, you can't just pick any random
torrent and expect to be able to test the speeds properly. Luckily, there are many torrents out
there that are seeded perpetually by computers sitting on fast broadband connections. Try a
test torrent to test your configuration!
When properly configured, μTorrent should be able to attain the maximum speed
possible for most common consumer Internet connections with these test torrents without
much difficulty. Because these torrents are simply used for testing your connection speeds, it
is safe to delete them whenever you are finished testing. Remember that these speeds are
not indicative of how fast every torrent you come across will download.
ISP Interference
Some Internet Service Providers (ISP) block or throttle BitTorrent connections because
of the high bandwidth it generates due to the sheer number of people using BitTorrent.
Protocol Encryption combats this attack vector by hiding the fact that connections are
BitTorrent connections. Some ISPs cannot distinguish an encrypted connection from any
other random data connection, so they are unable to label it as a BitTorrent connection, and
consequently, cannot block or throttle it for being a BitTorrent connection. In general, there is
no harm in enabling Protocol Encryption, other than a marginal increase in peer
communication overhead.
Take note that some ISPs are starting to identify even encrypted BitTorrent connections
with upgraded hardware, so even Protocol Encryption might not help users getting throttled
by their ISPs. For a list of ISPs known to throttle, check the Bad ISPs list on AzureusWiki. If
your ISP is known to throttle or block BitTorrent traffic, then you may want to consider setting
the encryption to "Forced" and disable legacy incoming connections. If that fails, then the
solution would probably be to switch to an ISP that does not throttle or block.
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μTorrent User Manual > Chapter 02: Basic Guides
Port Forwarding
A large portion of the time, users complain that they are not getting great speeds with
μTorrent. While it's possible that there is no issue because of the very nature of BitTorrent, it
is equally possible the user is not allowing incoming connections to reach his computer, and
thus, is not making optimal use of μTorrent's ability to connect to peers with that torrent.
Being unable to accept incoming connections means your computer is in a firewalled state.
In μTorrent, if you are unable to get a green network status icon after a long period of
transferring different torrents, it is an indication that you might be in a firewalled state.
Why Being Firewalled is Bad
Many firewalled users find themselves thinking "Hey, I'm firewalled, but I can still transfer
the files, so it must mean I'm okay!" What they fail to realize is that being firewalled does not
necessarily mean you cannot download at all, as firewalled users can still make outgoing
connections, connecting to peers to transfer data in that way. While this is true, that's all you
are limited to. That means that if someone else tries to initiate a connection with you, the
attempt is blocked by your firewall.
You must then realize that you might not be the only firewalled user in the swarm. Since
firewalled users can only make outgoing connections, and cannot accept incoming
connections, it is natural that they (the firewalled users) cannot connect to each other. Being
in a firewalled state not only cuts into the potential speed you could be attaining when not
firewalled, but also means you are of very limited use to other peers in the swarm. Because
there are less people available for firewalled users to connect to, they are open to less
sources for data. Additionally, because they cannot accept incoming connections, other peers
do not connect to them, so they lose even more attention. Essentially, peers who are not in a
firewalled state have the potential to connect to many more sources of data.
Removing yourself from being in a firewalled state does not mean you have to get rid of
your firewall entirely. The only requirement is that you allow the application you wish to be
unfirewalled in to listen to the port they want to through the firewall, also known as port
forwarding. In the case of μTorrent, you need to set your firewall to allow μTorrent to listen
to the port set in the connection preferences.
Although it may sound like a security risk to "poke" a hole in your firewall, it is not the
case. If no application is listening on the port that is opened in your firewall, any incoming
connections on that port will be ignored. If an application is listening, security is up to that
application. Unless there is a known, fully-remote exploit for the current version of μTorrent
that would break your computer's security setup, there is no risk in opening a port on your
firewall for μTorrent.
Forwarding Ports in Your Software Personal Firewall
Nowadays, it is not uncommon for people to have a software personal firewall installed
on their computers. While many people simply allow applications they recognize to access
the Internet, oftentimes, it is not enough, as the firewall may continue to block the port that
the allowed application is trying to listen on. As such, specific firewall rules may need to be
created in order for μTorrent to work on a computer with a software personal firewall
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installed. The general rule of thumb you should follow is that you have to allow incoming
TCP and UDP connections through the listening port set in the connection preferences.
Because you are forwarding a specific port in your firewall, it is imperative that you do not
have μTorrent randomize the listening port each time it starts.
Because of the wide variety of software personal firewalls available today, there is no
way to include specific instructions for every product. Though this is the case, there is one
specific firewall that μTorrent can create a firewall rule for automatically, and that is the
Windows Firewall. The relevant option assumes you are running Windows XP with at least
Service Pack 2 (SP2) installed or newer, and have the firewall enabled.
Forwarding Ports in Your Router
With broadband becoming the prevalent way by which people access the Internet, and
multiple computers in each home becoming a common sight, routers are often used to share
the broadband connection across the computer network in the home. Even if multiple
computers are not being used on the broadband connection, ISPs often supply routers for
their customers to use. What many people don't realize is that routers themselves act like a
firewall that, when left unconfigured, will generally leave your computer firewalled, even if
you have your software firewall configured properly.
Universal Plug and Play and NAT Port Mapping Protocol
As with software personal firewalls, there are a wide variety of routers available, and
because of the sheer number, it is impossible to include port forwarding instructions for each
router model in this user manual. Fortunately many routers support Universal Plug and
Play (UPnP) or the NAT Port Mapping Protocol (NAT-PMP), which allow μTorrent to open
a port on the router automatically without user intervention, then close the port when the port
is done being used. The problem with these zero-configuration protocols for automatically
telling routers to forward ports is that they may not be supported by all routers, and
different/incompatible implementations of the protocols may be included in many routers. By
default, UPnP and NAT-PMP are enabled in μTorrent. If you find that you are still in a
firewalled state, then it likely means your router does not support either protocol, or includes
an implementation incompatible with the implementation used by μTorrent. If this is the case,
then it is recommended that you disable these features in μTorrent, set up a static IP, and
forward your ports manually.
Setting Up a Static IP
On most routers, a connected computer's IP address on the network is picked from a
pool of IP addresses available for the router to choose from through Dynamic Host
Configuration Protocol (DHCP). The keyword here is "dynamic," as this indicates that each
computer's IP address is assigned on-the-fly based on what IP addresses are still available in
the router's pool of usable IP addresses. While some people get lucky and keep their LAN IP
addresses for a long period of time, that is not a guarantee under DHCP. As such, port
forwarding rules might work one day in forwarding traffic through a specific port to a specific
computer at its LAN IP address at the time that the rule was made, but it may cease to work
on another day because that specific computer's LAN IP address may have changed along
the way. Some routers (notably, Linksys routers) don't even bother to forward ports to
computers whose LAN IP addresses are within the DHCP IP range. Because of these
reasons, it is necessary that you set up a static IP address for your computer (preferrably,
outside of the DHCP range) before you continue with forwarding your ports manually on the
router.
Note that static IP refers to static LAN IP, which is different and unrelated to WAN IP.
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Your LAN IP address is the location of your computer within your network, but is not public
for anyone to see besides the other computers within your network. Your WAN IP address is
the IP address that people outside of your network see your network at, but it does not
reveal the internal IP address allocation on your LAN, which may contain multiple computers,
each (naturally) having their own LAN IPs. In the context of setting up a static IP for port
forwarding, your WAN IP is irrelevant, and is normally not used in any step along the way.
The directions for setting up a static IP can be found on PortForward.com.
Manual Port Forwarding
Assuming you have a static IP set up properly, the final step would be to do the actual
port forwarding on your router. To get to the router configuration, you can normally visit the
Default Gateway IP address in your web browser (you may have to append http:// before
the IP address in some web browsers for this to work). From there, you look for some method
of forwarding ports or allowing/hosting "applications" through the firewall, whereby you
forward incoming connections on the listening port selected in μTorrent over both TCP and
UDP to your computer's IP address, which should be the IP you selected when setting up the
static IP. A list of many routers and port forwarding instructions for them can be found on
PortForward.com. Be sure you know your router's exact brand and model. If your router is
not listed there, you should consult with your router's documentation, or search the Internet
for more detailed instructions.
Testing Your Configuration
After you forward your ports, use the port checker from step 2 of the Setup Guide to test
whether the port was opened correctly. If it confirms that the port is open, then you're done! If
otherwise, then go over the previous instructions and make sure you did not skip a step or
make any mistakes. If you're absolutely sure you configured everything properly, then there
might be other problems at hand. In that case, you should read the advanced guide on port
forwarding.
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Downloading With μTorrent
Similar to needing a URL, like http://www.utorrent.com, to go to a website and
download content, a .torrent file is required to download content available through
BitTorrent. Most of the time, you can download this file from a website, though you can also
get it from a friend or some other form of transfer. Many websites offer .torrent files as one
method of downloading files available through that website. Sites that contain .torrent files
are generally repositories of only the .torrent files, and usually don't create or directly make
available any of the content being shared. These sites are either index sites or trackers.
While torrent index sites list .torrent files for download, torrent trackers merely coordinate
the swarm. Many torrent trackers function as a torrent index as well, listing the torrents that it
tracks (and sometimes, torrents from external trackers as well).
So where do you go about looking for these .torrent files? Searching with your favorite
search engine, and attaching the word torrent to the query generally works wonders in
finding you decent results, but μTorrent also includes a built-in search bar to some of the
more popular .torrent file search engines.
Adding a Torrent
Once you obtain the .torrent file you wish to download, you simply import it into μTorrent.
There are several ways of achieving this in μTorrent:
Double-click the .torrent file (only if .torrent files are associated with μTorrent)
Drag-and-drop the .torrent file into μTorrent
Select "File" then "Add Torrent" (or press Ctrl + O ) in μTorrent and open the .torrent file
If you know the direct URL to the .torrent file, but don't have it on your hard drive, you
can select "File" then "Add Torrent from URL" (or press Ctrl + U ) in μTorrent and enter
the URL of the .torrent file
After opening the .torrent file, tell μTorrent where you'd like the torrent contents to be
saved. If μTorrent doesn't automatically start downloading, you can start the torrent job
manually by selecting the torrent job in the list and pressing the "Start" button on the μTorrent
toolbar, or by right-click ing the torrent and selecting "Start".
What to do After the Torrent Job Finishes Downloading
After a torrent job finishes downloading, you may view the files that you have
downloaded. While you can also remove the torrent job from the torrent jobs list if you so
wish, you are highly encouraged to leave the torrent job seeding (uploading after you have
obtained every piece). Although the length of time that you should leave the it seeding is not
defined in particular, it is recommended that you share until the amount of data you upload
reaches at least the same as the amount of data that you have download, also known as
reaching a 1.0 ratio. This ratio is calculated by dividing the amount of data you have
uploaded by the amount that you have downloaded. Granted, it is technically impossible for
every person in any given swarm to reach a 1.0 ratio, but people who leave the swarm
before even getting close to that ratio are abhorred in the BitTorrent community, and are
labeled as leechers (which carries a strong negative connotation). Because leechers have a
detrimental effect on swarms, some people resort to vigilante tactics and block connections
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to leechers. Additionally, private trackers may ban leechers.
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μTorrent User Manual
Chapter 03: Advanced Guides
The intent for this chapter is to help users in more advanced situations that most typical
users of μTorrent won't find themselves having to deal with.
More Port Forwarding
Migrating to Another Location
Switching from Another Client
Alternative Operating Systems
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More Port Forwarding
Even after having carefully and laboriously followed all the port forwarding instructions
previously written, you've found that your port simply refuses to open up. So what exactly is
the problem? Possibilities include (but are not limited to):
Intentional ISP interference: Some ISPs are known to simply block connections to
unauthorized ports, in which case your entire network is essentially placed into a
firewalled state.
Internet connection type: One prominent example of this being the source of the
problem are Internet connections that are received wirelessly (though satellite or
something similar). Customers of wireless connections are very often not given WAN IP
addresses, and so are permanently in a firewalled state. In fact, any kind of connection
where you are not in control of the NAT will generally leave you in an unfirewalled state.
Such is the case with university-provided connections, where network administrators
generally block connections to unauthorized ports.
Proxy service: Some ISPs place their users behind a transparent proxy, whereby the
port checker might be unable to detect the forwarding state properly. In that case, try a
test torrent and let it run for a while. If the network status light turns green, then
everything's probably configured properly. Even then, though, being behind a proxy
essentially places one behind a firewall, so you might still suffer problems as if you were
behind a firewall.
Network hardware blocking: Some modems are known to cause issues with your
computer being in a firewalled state even though they technically aren't routers. One
notorious example is the Motorola SurfBoard brand of modems, which you can read up
about at the PortForward.com forums.
User error is also a very common problem when it comes to port forwarding issues, but
assuming that everything in the basic port forwarding guide was followed carefully, and none
of the above possibilities are applicable, then the problem very likely lies with another issue
called double NAT. Unlike any of the other issues listed above, double NAT problems can
often be taken care of, provided the user follows the necessary steps as described below.
Double NAT
Double NAT occurs when your computer is sitting behind two or more routers. In most
double NAT cases, it turns out that the user has a dedicated router, but was also
unknowingly provided with a modem by their ISP that came with router or firewall capabilities.
When that is the case, the user simply forwards ports from the router to the computer, leaving
the modem alone, and this is exactly where the problem lies. Because the modem acts as a
router as well, if it is not configured properly, it essentially means that the user remains in a
firewalled state, since the dedicated router that the user did configure is not actually
receiving incoming connections on the forwarded port due to everything being blocked by the
outermost router -- the modem. Be aware that this is a specific case of the issue at hand. In
more severe cases, users can have more than just two routing devices, and rectifying the
problem can become that much more difficult, depending on the solution taken.
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Removing or Disabling the Extraneous Router
In the simplest of cases, ridding yourself of the double NAT situation comes down to
simply removing the extra routers, or disabling their routing capabilities. Using this method
assumes that the extraneous routers being operated upon are absolutely unneeded on the
network. If that is not the case, then the only solution you have is to chain port forward. With
the method being described in this section, only one router should end up on the network,
that router being the one that your computers are actually connected to. Some examples are
as follows:
You have a modem that acts as a router, a dedicated router that is connected to the
modem, and then your computers that are connected to the router. In this case, you
should disable the routing capability in the modem, so that you're left with only the
dedicated router as the sole router on the network (which is the one connected to your
comptuers).
You have a modem that acts as a router, two routers, and all of the computers
connected to the same router. In this case, you should disable the routing capability on
the modem, and remove the router that no other computers are connected to.
As you can see, the general rule of thumb is that you remove all extraneous routers.
You'll notice, though, that the modem with routing capability never gets removed -- that's
because the modem function is important for allowing you to actually connect to the Internet.
In any case, to disable the router in the modem, you have to physically connect a computer
directly to the modem, then visit the configuration page for the modem. Before actually
disabling the routing capability, you must be sure to check whether your modem contains
login information for your ISP. If it does, then you are going to have to make sure you have a
copy of that information on hand. This is most often the case for people using a DSL modem
and router, where login information is usually stored where the PPPoA/PPPoE configuration
page is. That aside, setting the modem to bridge mode is what you should be combing
through its configuration page for. After you do this, everything should hopefully be fine. If
you find that your Internet connection no longer works, you should fill the login information
you copied into the appropriate location in the remaining active router on your network (if you
copied PPPoA/PPPoE settings from the modem, copy it into the PPPoA/PPPoE settings in
the router).
Chain Port Forwarding
This method can be very annoying, as it requires that you set static IPs for and forward
the desired port through each and every one of them. Basically, you need to follow the basic
port forwarding guide for each and every router, except that the IP you're forwarding to is the
IP of the next router in the chain of routers leading up to your computer. Each router must be
assigned a static IP address, which can normally be set in its configuration pages. While
specifics can't be delved into because of the sheer number of different routers available, the
following case example might be of use to illustrate the process more clearly:
You have a modem that acts as a router. A dedicated router (router A) is connected to it.
Another dedicated router (router B) is connected to router A. Your computer is
connected to router B.
The modem's routing subnet starts with 192.168.1.x. It forwards the port specified in
μTorrent to router A, which is at IP address 192.168.1.5 on the modem's subnet.
Router A has a static IP set to 192.168.1.5. Its own subnet starts with 172.16.1.x.
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It forwards the port specified in μTorrent to router B, which is at IP address
172.16.1.3 on router A's subnet.
Router B has a static IP address set to 172.16.1.3. Its own subnet starts with
10.0.0.x. It forwards the port specified in μTorrent to your computer, which is at IP
address 10.0.0.6 on router B's subnet.
Your computer has a static IP address set to 10.0.0.6, and because the port was
forwarded from the modem to router A, and from router A to router B, then from router B
to this computer, the port checker considers your client to be connectable.
Please be aware that that was just an example. Many conditions, including the IP
addresses, the number of devices on your network setup, or how everything is connected,
will most likely differ from the example. All you can do is adapt the example to your situation
and configure everything accordingly. Setting the static IP addresses up properly is extremely
important when chain port forwarding. Any mistakes (or failure to do so) means more
troubleshooting in trying to figure out which device's IP address changed if your port
suddenly becomes unforwarded.
More Troubles
If you do not see an answer or solution above, or you are unsure of what your problem
is, please join the IRC channel, or the forums to ask for more assistance. Do explain what
you've tried so far with some level of detail so that people know what you have attempted,
and what else you could try (if anything).
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μTorrent User Manual > Chapter 03: Advanced Guides
Migrating to Another Location
In some cases, you might find that you need to move your files, be it due to simple
reorganization, possibly to reinstall Windows, or maybe even to move μTorrent and all the
torrent jobs along with their contents to a new computer. In any case, the process is simple,
though it can turn out to be a lengthy one. Realize that along the way, you might lose your
accumulated statistics for each torrent job, but that does not mean you lose the statistics on
the associated trackers, so do not fret about that.
Reinstalling Your Operating System
In the simplest of cases, reinstalling your operating system only requires you to make a
backup of the data onto a new drive or partition if the torrent contents and μTorrent settings
directory are located on the same drive or partition as the operating system you are trying to
reinstall. After everything is completed, you simply have to move the files back to their
previous locations, and μTorrent will resume everything without issue. If you did not have an
encapsulated "installation" of μTorrent, then make sure you have the same username before
moving the settings directory back into %AppData%. If you are unable to perform any of the
above, you will have to take the long route of performing the migration as if you were really
moving the torrent contents.
Moving to a New Computer
Migrating μTorrent to a new computer simply requires that you copy your files to your
new hard drive, along with backing up the entire μTorrent settings directory. The most
difficult part of this process comes with the placement of the μTorrent directory and the
torrent contents. If you want to complete the process with minimal effort, it becomes a simple
matter of making sure the paths for all the files related to μTorrent and the torrent contents
on the new computer are identical to the respective paths on the old computer.
If you had an encapsulated "installation" of μTorrent, an identical username is not
necessary. Otherwise, if the μTorrent settings directory was located in
%AppData%\uTorrent, then you will have to create a user with the same exact
account name on the new computer as on the old computer, then move the μTorrent
settings directory into the proper location on disk.
If you plan on moving the drive over to the new computer, then as long as the drive
letter remains the same, you save yourself the headache of dealing with paths.
Otherwise, if you're going to copy the files from the old drive to the new drive, then you
should make sure the torrent contents' paths remain identical.
If any of those tips fail, and you are unable to keep paths identical for either the settings
directory or the torrent contents, then you're in for a very long ride, and will have to perform
everything as if you had moved the torrent contents.
Moving Torrent Contents
This process, if you haven't already figured it out, might require the most amount of time
out of any of the "migration" processes, as it might require that you allow μTorrent to verify
the data integrity of the torrent contents after the move. What's time consuming isn't really
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the procedure itself, but the fact that rechecking can take a lot of time, depending on the
torrent contents' sizes, and how many different torrent jobs you want to move. All that's
needed when you're moving torrent contents is that you stop the torrent job in μTorrent, move
the torrent contents to wherever you need them to be, set the download location for each
associated torrent job for the moved contents, and start the torrent job. If μTorrent doesn't
recognize the existing data, stop the torrent job and force re-check for each relevant torrent
job.
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μTorrent User Manual > Chapter 03: Advanced Guides
Switching from Another Client
Now that you've made the switch to μTorrent, you're probably wondering if or how you
could import all the torrent jobs you were running in your previous client. Rest assured that
the process is a relatively simple one, and only requires a bit of patience, depending on how
much data is being "imported" into μTorrent -- the larger and more numerous the torrent
contents being imported, the longer it will take, because it all means that the data integrity
checking will take longer as well.
Removing Extra Extensions
There is a simple matter to tend to first before proceeding with the import, and that has
to do with a specific feature in some other clients. Some other clients append a special
extension to incomplete files to indicate that they are incomplete, and μTorrent (if the relevant
option is enabled) is no exception. Because of this extension, μTorrent might have trouble
recognizing the torrent contents, and will ignore them instead. To fix it, all you have to do is
remove the special extension from any incomplete file. If there are many files, this can quickly
become a boring and tedious task. Luckily, a simple batch script can be used to rename all
files with the unwanted extension:
@for /r %%i in (*.XT!) do @move "%%~fi" "%%~dpni"
Copy and paste the above line of code to a new text file, then change the XT! to the
extension you wish to remove. BitComet, for example, appends a bc! extension to the end of
incomplete files, so you would replace the XT! in the script with bc!. Now, save the text as a
batch file (rename.bat, for example), and all you have to do is move the batch file to the
directory containing files you want to rename, and run the script, then repeat for any other
directory containing files you want to remove the specified extension for. Note that the above
script is recursive, so any files contained within any other directory in the same directory as
the batch file will be renamed as well if they have the specified extension.
Importing Torrent Jobs
With extra extensions out of the way, the rest of the process is smooth sailing in that
you'll likely get no errors. All you need to do is to open the .torrent file in μTorrent, and point it
to the location that the torrent contents were already saved to while you were using your
other BitTorrent client. μTorrent will automatically check the data integrity, and assuming
everything went well, will resume where you left off previously. Realize that you must do this
for each and every .torrent file you wish to import.
There is an alternative method for loading .torrent files that does not require manual
user intervention, but it's best left for people with many torrent jobs to import. Additionally,
there is one major prerequisite before this method can be used: all torrent contents you wish
to import must be located in a common directory, not organized in any fashion, but simply
located in that directory as if it were the directory you selected to download the torrent
contents to. That aside, you can start setting the process up as follows:
1. In the Directories preferences, tick the "Put new downloads in" checkbox, untick the
"Always show dialog on manual add " checkbox, and select the path to the directory
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that all your torrent contents are located in. Make sure the "Don't start the download
automatically" option is left unticked.
2. Now create a new directory somewhere, then go to the auto-load torrents option and
set it to point to that newly-created directory.
3. After confirming the changes, move all the .torrent files you wish to load into the
directory you just told μTorrent to automatically load .torrent files from, and μTorrent
should do so, automatically starting and checking all the torrent contents.
If a torrent job is already completed, μTorrent will automatically place it in seeding mode.
After everything is imported, feel free to revert the changes made to the μTorrent settings.
Changing .torrent Associations
Another thing you might want to do when switching to μTorrent is to unassociate .torrent
files with your previous client, and have them open with μTorrent by default. If you plan on
keeping the other client, and want μTorrent to open .torrent files by default, you should look
in your previous client's options and find a way to have it not associate itself with .torrent files
automatically, if it does so. In any case, all you have to do in μTorrent is associate it with
.torrent files in the Preferences.
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μTorrent User Manual > Chapter 03: Advanced Guides
Alternative Operating Systems
In a world where most end users only know about or are familiar with Microsoft
Windows, it's easy to forget that there are alternative operating systems out there, right? For
those of you who aren't using Windows, it's still possible to run μTorrent in your operating
system, it just takes a bit more fussing around to get it running more nicely (though there
might still be residual problems in functionality due to operating system limitations).
Running on Wine (*BSD, GNU/Linux)
Wine is an open source project that aims to implement the Windows API on Unix-like
operating systems. In simpler terms, it is an attempt to allow users running a Unix-like
operating system (such as *BSD or GNU/Linux) to execute applications that normally run
only on Windows. The first step in running μTorrent on Wine would, naturally, be to download
and install the latest version of Wine from WineHQ.org if you haven't already done so.
When Wine is installed, the only thing you need to do is run μTorrent by using the wine
command in a terminal window. Wherever you have your μTorrent executable located at on
your filesystem, you simply run μTorrent with the command wine FULL_PATH (where
FULL_PATH is the full path to the μTorrent executable) in in the terminal window. Naturally,
there are many different (and easier) ways to execute μTorrent through Wine, but because
there are infinitely many combinations of softwares available for use on the Unix-like
operating systems, the most generic way will have to suffice.
So where exactly is the hard part in using μTorrent on Wine? It's in the limitations that
come with using Wine and its incomplete implementation of the Windows API. Because of
this, and the fact that Wine is unable to integrate too deeply with its host operating system,
there are several known issues you should be aware of:
Problem workarounds: Some known issues with Wine have been worked around in
μTorrent with a set of "hacks" enabled through sys.enable_wine_hacks.
Boss-Key: Boss-keys do not work under Wine.
Graphical oddities: There are several oddities in the interface running μTorrent under
Wine...
By default, the interface sticks out like a sore thumb, with the gray Windows
application window background in all its glory. Users can modify the theme colors in
the "Desktop Integration" tab of winecfg to better integrate Wine-run applications
with surrounding applications.
If the list-view has a black background, then make sure the Windows version is set
to Windows XP in winecfg.
Open Containing Folder: Because Open Containing Folder attempts to open a
Windows Explorer process, and the native Windows Explorer is not present on
alternative operating systems, it will open the Wine implementation, which looks
unimpressive, and does not work very well. Unless you can tolerate it, don't bother
using this feature under Wine.
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Open File: "Open" in the torrent jobs list context menu or on the Files tab will not work,
as they attempt to run a Windows application associated with the file type, but since
there are none, they fail.
Settings directory: Because Windows environment variables do not apply in
alternative operating systems, it naturally follows that %AppData% does not either. You'll
find that the μTorrent settings directory is actually located at
~/.wine/drive_c/windows/profiles/USERNAME/Application
Data/uTorrent, where USERNAME is your username on the operating system.
Start on system startup: Because alternative operating systems have different
methods of booting applications at startup, the usual methods of adding a startup entry
in Windows (be it in the Registry, or in the Start menu) won't work. Start μTorrent on
system startup should be disabled.
System tray: The system tray feature has been reported to be flaky under Wine, so if
you have issues using it, you should disable all relevant options.
.torrent file association: Due to the inability of Wine to map file associations to
applications run through Wine, the feature is rendered useless. Check association on
startup should be disabled. An alternative method of "emulating" file association would
be to use the auto-load torrents feature to tell μTorrent to automatically load files from a
directory on your filesystem. In that way, you can simply drag or download .torrent files
into that directory, and if μTorrent is running, it will automatically load the new files.
Running on Darwine (Mac OS X)
Darwine is a port of Wine for use on Darwin and Darwin-based operating systems, such
as Apple's Mac OS X. Darwine requires an X server to work, so if you don't already have it
installed, you can find the installer in the Apple Restore DVD, or by downloading it along with
Apple's XCode.
Installing Darwine should be a cinch. Just as with Wine, it's generally best to download
and install the latest version of Darwine. After installed, you should be able to simply doubleclick
μTorrent's executable file, and Darwine should automatically run the application. If not,
then run WineHelper.app (which should be located in the installed Darwine directory) then
open μTorrent's executable file. That's all!
Not unlike Wine, there are several known issues in using μTorrent with Darwine that you
should be aware of:
Shared bugs: Due to its heritage, Darwine exhibits all of the same issues that Wine
does.
Drag-and-drop: Drag-and-drop doesn't work under Darwine.
Secondary-click: Option + left-click doesn't send a secondary-click event to μTorrent
because it has not been implemented in Wine.
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μTorrent User Manual
Appendix A: The μTorrent Interface
This appendix provides detailed descriptions of most of the interface elements in
μTorrent.
Main Window
Main Menus
Toolbar
Category List
Torrent Jobs List
Detailed Info Pane
General
Trackers
Peers
Pieces
Files
Speed
Logger
Status Bar
Preferences
General
UI Settings
Directories
Connection
Bandwidth
BitTorrent
Transfer Cap
Queueing
Scheduler
Web UI
Playback
Advanced
UI Extras
Disk Cache
RSS Downloader
Favorites
History
Miscellaneous
Add New Torrent
Add/Edit RSS Feed
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Create New Torrent
Torrent Properties
General
Advanced
Tray Icon
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μTorrent User Manual > Appendix A: The μTorrent Interface
Main Window
The main window is the part of the μTorrent interface that you'll likely be interacting with
the most, so it's good to get familiar with it by reading this section of the help.
Several sections of the main window have column-based, tabular information. Note that
left-click ing on a column will sort the items in the list by that column, alternating between
ascending and descending sort for each additional left-click . You can select what columns
you wish to see by right-click ing the column headers. If you wish to reset all changes you've
made to the columns, you can select "Reset" in that context menu.
Main Menus
Toolbar
Category List
Torrent Jobs List
Detailed Info Pane
General
Trackers
Peers
Pieces
Files
Speed
Logger
Status Bar
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μTorrent User Manual > Appendix A: The μTorrent Interface > Main Window
Main Menus
The main menus are where you'll find many of the other facilities included in μTorrent,
such as the Preferences, or the RSS Downloader.
File
Add Torrent... Ctrl + O prompts you for the location of the .torrent file that you are
trying to open on disk. If you set a default download location, the torrent job will
automatically be added to the torrent jobs list and started (if you did not set μTorrent to
start torrent jobs in stopped mode). If you did not set a default download location, you
will be prompted where you would like to save the torrent contents, with the Add New
Torrent dialog being shown by default.
Add Torrent (no default save)... Ctrl + D does the same thing as Add Torrent, but will
always ask you where you'd like to save the torrent contents, regardless of whether you
have a default download location set or not.
Add Torrent from URL... Ctrl + U allows you to open a .torrent file directly from URL
without having saved the it to your hard disk. Depending on the method used by the
website for authenticating users (if any), the URL may have to be entered in a specific
format. Magnet URIs may be used here, and μTorrent will attempt to download the info
dictionary from the corresponding .torrent file from any other client that also supports
the URI scheme.
Add RSS Feed... opens up the Add RSS Feed dialog, where you can add RSS feeds
for μTorrent to monitor.
Create New Torrent... Ctrl + N lets you create .torrent files that you can use to share
your data with other people.
Exit does just that -- it exits μTorrent. Note that exiting μTorrent automatically sends a
stop signal to trackers, so you do not have to stop all torrent jobs before exiting. Torrent
jobs that are not stopped will automatically be started when μTorrent is next opened.
Even after exiting, the μTorrent process might continue to run for a while longer. This
happens because μTorrent is trying to finish transferring pieces and write remaining
pieces to disk from memory. The process should disappear after a few seconds.
Options
Preferences Ctrl + P opens up the Preferences dialog, where you can configure most
of μTorrent's options.
RSS Downloader Ctrl + R opens up the RSS Downloader dialog, where you can
configure μTorrent's RSS settings.
Setup Guide Ctrl + G opens up the Setup Guide dialog, where you can tell μTorrent to
configure some basic settings that can affect your speeds.
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Show Toolbar F4 toggles the display of the toolbar at the top of the main window.
Show Detailed Info F5 toggles the display of the information pane near the bottom of
the main window.
Show Status Bar F6 toggles the display of the status bar at the bottom of the main
window.
Show Category List F7 toggles the display of the category list at the left of the main
window.
Show Find Pane F8 toggles the display of the Find Pane at the left of the main
window.
Show Apps Pane F9 toggles the display of the Apps at the left of the main window.
Narrow Toolbar F11 toggles the width of the Toolbar at the top of the main window.
This also hides the Add RSS Feed icon when enabled.
Compact Category List F12 toggles the display of dividers between sections at the
left of the main window.
Icons on Tabs toggles the display of the graphic icons on the tabs at the top of the
information pane.
Auto Shutdown
Disabled tells μTorrent not to perform any of the following actions. Note that
besides this option, all options in this submenu get disabled after they have
occurred.
Qu it when Downloads Complete exits μTorrent when all currently downloading
torrent jobs reach 100% download completion.
Quit when Everything Completes exits μTorrent when all currently active torrent
jobs are completed.
Hi bernate when Downloads Complete puts the computer into hibernation mode
when all currently downloading torrent jobs reach 100% download completion.
Hibernate when Everything Completes puts the computer into hibernation
mode when all currently active torrent jobs are completed.
St andby when Downloads Complete puts the computer into standby mode
when all currently downloading torrent jobs reach 100% download completion.
Standby when Everything Completes puts the computer into standby mode
when all currently active torrent jobs are completed.
Re boot when Downloads Complete restarts the computer when all currently
downloading torrent jobs reach 100% download completion.
Reboot when Everything Completes restarts the computer when all currently
active torrent jobs are completed.
Sh utdown when Downloads Complete shuts the computer down when all
currently downloading torrent jobs reach 100% download completion.
Shutdown when Everything Completes shuts the computer down when all
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currently active torrent jobs are completed.
Help
μTorrent Help F1 opens the user manual.
μTorrent FAQ opens the FAQ.
μTorrent Webpage opens the μTorrent webpage in your default web browser.
μTorrent Forums opens the μTorrent forums in your default web browser.
Check for Updates manually tells μTorrent to check for a newer stable build from the
μTorrent servers. μTorrent will continue to check for newer versions once every 24
hours after this is selected if you have enabled the option to check for updates
automatically.
Download Translation tells μTorrent to download the latest translation file and place it
in the settings directory.
Show Statistics opens a dialog displaying basic statistics that μTorrent has collected.
About μTorrent opens the About dialog, which displays the credits, version, and build
number, among other things...
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μTorrent User Manual > Appendix A: The μTorrent Interface > Main Window
Toolbar
The buttons on the toolbar at the top of the μTorrent interface allows you perform some
basic functions, most of which apply to the currently selected torrent(s). The order of the list
here reflects the order of the buttons in the toolbar. If you are unsure, you can place your
mouse cursor over a button, and a tooltip should pop up providing the description of the
button. The toolbar's visibility can be toggled by selecting "Options" then "Show Toolbar " in
the main menus, or by pressing F4 on the keyboard.
Add Torrent prompts you for the location of the .torrent file that you are trying to
open on disk. If you set a default download location, the torrent job will automatically be
added to the torrent jobs list and started (if you did not set μTorrent to start torrent jobs
in stopped mode). If you did not set a default download location, you will be prompted
where you would like to save the torrent contents, with the Add New Torrent dialog
being shown by default.
Add Torrent from URL allows you to open a .torrent file directly from URL without
having saved the it to your hard disk. Depending on the method used by the website for
authenticating users (if any), the URL may have to be entered in a specific format.
Magnet URIs may be used here, and μTorrent will attempt to download the info
dictionary from the corresponding .torrent file from any other client that also supports
the URI scheme.
Add RSS Feed opens up the Add RSS Feed dialog, where you can add RSS feeds
for μTorrent to monitor. This is hidden by default in the torrent view, but is shown while
viewing Feeds. To show the icon, disable Narrow Toolbar in the main menu.
Create New Torrent lets you create .torrent files that you can use to share your
data with other people.
Remove will remove the selected torrent job(s) using the default action when leftclick
ed. This default action can be set by right-click ing the button, holding Shift on the
keyboard, and left-click ing one of the four possible options. The default remove action
can also be performed by pressing Delete on the keyboard. By holding Shift while
pressing Delete , μTorrent will also remove the torrent contents in addition to performing
the default remove action.
Remove removes the selected torrent job(s) from the list, but all related files are
left intact on the disk.
Remove and delete .torrent removes the selected torrent job(s) from the list and
the corresponding .torrent file(s) from the .torrent file storage location.
Remove and delete .torrent + Data removes the selected torrent job(s) from the
list, the corresponding .torrent file(s) from the .torrent file storage location, and all
content downloaded from the torrent job(s).
Remove and delete Data removes the selected torrent job(s) from the list and all
content downloaded from the torrent job(s).
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Mo ve to trash if possible tells μTorrent to attempt to move any deleted file to the
Recycle Bin first rather than deleting it immediately off the disk. This works only if
the Recycle Bin has enough space allocated.
Start will start the selected torrent job(s), or add it onto the queue if the number of
active torrent jobs has reached the maximum set in the Preferences.
Pause will pause the selected torrent job(s), but won't actually stop it. This tells
μTorrent to attempt to retain connections to peers without having to re-establish them
like starting stopped torrent jobs would require. It is useful for when you need quick
access to bandwidth. Realize that while μTorrent won't drop the connections on its own
accord, the connection can still get dropped by the client on the other end of the
connection.
Stop will stop the selected torrent job(s). All connections with peers are dropped.
Move Up Queue will decrease the selected torrent's queue number, thus bringing it
closer to the top of the queue (meaning it will become active sooner than those with
higher queue numbers). Holding Shift while pressing this button will move the selected
torrent job to the top of the queue. Note that this button will not visually move the torrent
job up the list unless you sort the list by the "#" column. Pressing Ctrl + Alt + Up on the
keyboard is equivalent to pressing this button when a torrent job is selected in the
torrent jobs list.
Move Down Queue will increase the selected torrent's queue number, thus
bringing it further from the top of the queue (meaning it will become active later than
those with lower queue numbers). Holding Shift while pressing this button will move the
selected torrent job to the bottom of the queue. Note that this button will not visually
move the torrent job down the list unless you sort the list by the "#" column. Pressing
Ctrl + Alt + Down on the keyboard is equivalent to pressing this button when a torrent
job is selected in the torrent jobs list.
Preferences opens up the Preferences dialog, where you can configure most of
μTorrent's options.
The Search field allows you to enter a query to be searched on the selected search
engine. To perform the search, press the button next to the input field, or press Enter
on the keyboard. This will open the search results in your default web browser. To
change search engines, click on the dropdown arrow next to the search button. If you
are using an operating system older than Windows XP, you will need to right-click the
button to see the search engine selection menu. Note that the search button and search
field will be hidden if the search engines list is empty.
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μTorrent User Manual > Appendix A: The μTorrent Interface > Main Window
Category List
The category list contains various features in the μTorrent client, including the list of
torrent jobs, labels and apps. The category list's visibility can be toggled by selecting
"Options" then "Show Category List " in the main menus, or by pressing F7 on the keyboard.
The last selected category before μTorrent is exited will be automatically selected on the next
start. Numbers in the parentheses next to the category name indicate the number of torrent
jobs there are listed under the respective category. The treeview is composed of the
following default categories:
Find Content is a page that shows on first run with a search box and a few default
search providers, directing users to find content for their client.
Torrents applies no filters and displays all torrent jobs in your client.
Downloading only shows torrent jobs that are not finished or completed.
Completed displays all torrent jobs that have finished downloading.
Active only shows torrent jobs that are actively being transferred, whether it is
downloading or seeding. Torrent jobs must be downloading at rates above the value
specified by queue.slow_dl_threshold or uploading at rates above the value specified
by queue.slow_ul_threshold to be considered active.
Inactive only shows torrent jobs that are not being actively transferred. This includes
all torrent jobs that are stopped, waiting in the queue, or are started, but downloading at
rates below the value specified by queue.slow_dl_threshold and uploading at rates
below the value specified by queue.slow_ul_threshold.
Labels applies no filters and displays all torrent jobs in your client. Underneath this
item is the list of all labels on your client.
No Label will display all torrent jobs that have no labels set.
Feeds will display the RSS items from all RSS feeds. Underneath this item is the list
of all feeds on your client.
Apps will display the list of featured apps from the BitTorrent app store. Underneath
this item is the list of all apps installed on your client.
User-added labels will appear in the category list immediately below "No Label". Torrent
jobs with labels will be displayed under their corresponding label. Standard labels are
removed from the category list as soon as there are no torrent jobs using them.
Not all categories are mutually exclusive, so if you have a torrent job that has no labels,
and is inactive, it will show up in both the "Inactive" category, and the "No Label" category.
Multiple categories can be selected by holding Shift or Ctrl while left-click ing on a
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category. Holding Shift will select all categories in between the first selected category and
the last selected one. Holding Ctrl allows you to select (or deselect) specific categories that
aren't necessarily adjacent to each other.
RSS feeds are displayed at the bottom of the category list (below the labels). When an
RSS feed is selected, the torrent jobs list is filled with torrents as listed in the RSS feed.
Torrent jobs added from a feed are also listed in their respective source feeds.
Context Menu
If you right-click on an item in the category list, you'll see a context menu. They are
described in the following list:
Add Torrent... prompts you for the location of the .torrent file that you are trying to open
on disk. If you set a default download location, the torrent job will automatically be
added to the torrent jobs list and started (if you did not set μTorrent to start torrent jobs
in stopped mode). If you did not set a default download location, you will be prompted
where you would like to save the torrent contents, with the Add New Torrent dialog
being shown by default.
Add RSS Feed... opens up the Add RSS Feed dialog, where you can add RSS feeds
for μTorrent to monitor.
Torrent Options displays select menu items from the torrent jobs list context menu, and
behave identically to their torrent jobs list context menu counterparts. These menu items
show up only if there are torrent jobs selected in the torrent jobs list.
RSS Feed Options displays options for the RSS feed, and show up only if RSS items
are selected in the torrent jobs list. If "All Feeds" item is right-clicked, the selected
action is applied on every feed.
RSS Downloader opens up the RSS Downloader dialog.
Up date Feed allows you to perform a manual reload of the selected RSS feed(s).
Refrain from using this repeatedly in rapid succession, as hammering the RSS
feed's server won't make the feed be updated with new items any more quickly, and
you run the chance of causing the server to fail. In short, do not abuse this feature.
Toggle Feed enables or disables the RSS feed updating for the selected feed(s).
Edit Feed... opens up the Edit RSS Feed dialog, where you can edit the properties
of the selected RSS feed(s). If multiple feeds are selected, μTorrent will open an
edit dialog for each feed one at a time, opening another dialog for the next feed
only after the current feed's edit dialog is closed.
Delete Feed removes the RSS feed from the list.
Clear Feed History removes all entries in the RSS Downloader's History tab that
came from the selected feed(s).
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μTorrent User Manual > Appendix A: The μTorrent Interface > Main Window
Torrent Jobs List
The torrent jobs list is the main interface item in μTorrent. It is where your torrent jobs
are displayed, along with plenty of information for each of them. Sorting by more than one
column is possible in this list. You can do so by sorting by one column, then hold Shift on
your keyboard while selecting the secondary column by which μTorrent should sort the list
by. If an RSS item is double-click ed, it gets added to the download queue. The following is a
description of each column:
Name displays the name of the torrent job. The initial name used for each torrent job is
the name of the file being transferred (if the torrent contents consist of a single file), or
the directory being transferred (if the torrent contents consist of multiple files). A torrent
job can be renamed in the list by slow double-click ing on the torrent job, or by pressing
F2 on the keyboard while the torrent job is selected. To cancel the renaming, you
should press Esc on the keyboard. To confirm the change, you should press Enter on
the keyboard, or use the mouse to click anywhere else on the torrent jobs list.
Renaming the torrent job will not rename the file or directory being transferred.
means the torrent job is downloading without issue
means the torrent job is a queued download
means the torrent job is downloading, but there is a tracker error
means the torrent job is seeding without issue
means the torrent job is a queued seed
means the torrent job is seeding, but there is a tracker error
means the torrent job is paused
means the torrent job is stopped, but hasn't finished downloading
means the torrent job is stopped, and has finished downloading
means the torrent job has a critical error (check the Status column)
means the item is an RSS feed item that has not beed added to the torrent jobs
queue
means the release is less than 24 hours old
means the torrent job has already been added and moved to the history for the
RSS item
# displays the torrent job's place in the download queue. When a torrent job stops or
finishes, the next lowest numbered torrent job that is queued for download will start
automatically. Torrent jobs that have not reached the seeding goal will have a *
(asterisk) instead of an integer. Torrent jobs that have reached the seeding goal will
have a blank in this column. Forced torrent jobs do not follow the queue order, although
they will be assigned queue numbers like regular torrent jobs. Note that if you want the
arrow buttons to move the torrent jobs up and down in the list visually, you must sort the
torrent jobs list by this column.
Added On displays the date and time that the torrent job was added to the torrent jobs
list.
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Availability displays the number of copies of the torrent contents that are distributed in
the swarm.
Bandwidth Allocation displays the bandwidth allocation given to the torrent job (High,
Normal, or Low) . Right-click ing a torrent job on this column will bring up the
Bandwidth Allocation context sub-menu.
Codec displays the codec that the video was encoded in assuming it is a video and is
an RSS item.
Completed displays the total amount of data you have in the torrent contents that
passed the hash checks, as well as any incomplete pieces currently in progress.
Completed On displays the date and time that the torrent job finished downloading. If
the torrent job has yet to be completed, this column will be blank.
Debug displays information that might be useful in debugging problems.
Done displays the approximate percent of the torrent job that μTorrent has completed.
Its value is calculated by dividing the number under the Completed column by the
number under the Selected Size column. If gui.graphic_progress is enabled, μTorrent
will draw a progress bar behind the percentage. If gui.piecebar_progress is enabled,
μTorrent will draw a piece progress bar instead.
Down Limit displays the maximum download rate limit set on the individual torrent job.
If no limit is set, this column will be blank. Right-click ing a torrent job on this column will
bring up the Set Download Limit context sub-menu.
Down Speed displays the current speed at which data is being downloaded for the
individual torrent job. If the download rate is negligible, this column will be blank.
Downloaded displays the total amount of data you have downloaded, including those
that were wasted or failed the hash checks.
Elapsed displays the total amount of time that μTorrent has had the torrent job started
for since it was added.
Episode displays the episode number of the torrent job, if applicable.
ETA displays the estimated amount of time needed for μTorrent to finish downloading
the torrent job. If the torrent job is in seeding mode, then this column displays the
estimated time it will take for μTorrent to reach the seeding goal. If the torrent job is
stopped or has reached its seeding goal, this column will be blank. If the torrent job is
transferring too slowly, this column will display the ∞ symbol. Note that this column takes
selective file downloading into account, so only the data you select to be downloaded
will be counted in the time calculation.
Format displays the video quality of the torrent job, assuming it is a video and is an
RSS item.
Label displays the label set for the torrent job. Right-click ing a torrent job on this
column will bring up the Label context sub-menu.
Last Active displays the amount of time that has elapsed since μTorrent last finished
transferring a chunk of data for the torrent job. When the torrent job is downloading, this
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time will be reset only upon the download completion of a piece. When the torrent job is
seeding, this time will be reset only upon the upload completion of a 16 KiB block of
data. This number is updated only when the torrent job is started. It should be
understood that for stopped torrent jobs, the number is relative to the time at which the
torrent job was actually stopped.
Peers displays the number of peers you are connected to, and the number of peers in
the swarm within the parentheses. The number of peers in the swarm is an estimate
based on the maximum number of peers found either between the amounts reported by
any tracker, or the number of peers μTorrent has encountered within its peer cache. If
the torrent job is stopped, and bt.scrape_stopped is enabled, μTorrent will show the
maximum number of peers in the swarm as reported by the tracker scrapes.
Ratio displays the ratio of uploaded data to downloaded data. Its value is calculated by
dividing the number under the Uploaded column by the number under the Downloaded
column. If the torrent job was added when the file was already complete (seeding the
file upon adding), then the ratio will start from 0, and will be calculated based on the
ratio of the uploaded data to the torrent content size.
Remaining displays the amount of data left for μTorrent to download before it finishes
downloading the torrent job. Note that this column takes selective file downloading into
account, so only the data you select to be downloaded will be counted. If no data is left
to be downloaded, this column will be blank.
Seeds displays the number of seeds you are connected to, and the number of seeds in
the swarm within the parentheses. The number of seeds in the swarm is an estimate
based on the maximum number of seeds found either between the amounts reported by
any tracker, or the number of seeds μTorrent has encountered within its peer cache. If
the torrent job is stopped, and bt.scrape_stopped is enabled, μTorrent will show the
maximum number of seeds in the swarm as reported by the tracker scrapes.
Seeds/Peers displays the ratio of seeds to peers. Its value is by dividing the number in
the parentheses under the Seeds column by the number in the parentheses under the
Peers column.
Selected Size shows only the size of the torrent contents you have selected for
μTorrent to download. The size of all pieces belonging to skipped files that also pass
the checks will also be taken into account and added in this column.
Size shows the complete size of the torrent contents, regardless of whether you are
using selective file downloading on that torrent job or not.
Source URL displays the URL that the source .torrent file is located at. The source
URL is only applicable for RSS items and torrent jobs added from URL.
Status displays the current status of the torrent job. If an error occurs on this torrent
job, depending on the error, it might be displayed on this column. Otherwise, the
following are normally displayed:
Downloading means the torrent job is currently downloading.
Finished means the torrent job has been stopped after it reached seeding mode. If
the torrent job reaches this without user intervention, then it means it reached the
seeding goal.
Initial-Seeding means the torrent job is being seeded in Initial Seeding mode.
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Paused means the torrent job is paused, but not stopped (still connected to peers).
Queued means the torrent job is waiting for another torrent job to finish
downloading before starting.
Queued Seed means the torrent job is waiting for another torrent job to finish
seeding before starting.
Seeding means the torrent job is finished downloading, and is currently in seeding
mode.
Stopped means the torrent job is stopped (not transferring, and not connected to
any peers).
[F] Downloading means the torrent job is forced started and downloading, so it is
outside of the queue order.
[F] Initial-Seeding means the torrent job is forced started and seeding in Initial
Seeding mode, so it is outside of the queue order. Forced initial-seeding torrent
jobs do not obey the seeding goal.
[F] Seeding means the torrent job is forced started and seeding, so it is outside of
the queue order. Forced seeding torrent jobs do not obey the seeding goal.
Previously Downloaded means the item is a part of an RSS feed, and was
previously added to the torrent jobs list (it is listed in the RSS History tab).
RSS means the item is a part of an RSS feed, and not yet added to the torrent
queue.
Tracker displays the first working tracker's base URL.
Tracker Status displays the tracker's status.
Up Limit displays the maximum upload rate limit set on the individual torrent job. If no
limit is set, this column will be blank. Right-click ing a torrent job on this column will
bring up the Set Upload Limit context sub-menu.
Up Speed displays the current speed at which data is being uploaded for the individual
torrent job. If the upload rate is negligible, this column will be blank.
Uploaded displays the total amount of data you have uploaded.
Context Menu
If you right-click on a torrent job, you'll see a context menu. They are described in the
following list:
Torrent Options
Open will attempt to open the torrent contents for the selected torrent job(s) with
the associated application for the file type. This will only work for single-file torrent
jobs.
Open Containing Folder opens the directory containing the torrent contents in an
Explorer window. If the torrent job contents consist of a single file, that file will be
highlighted. Otherwise, the torrent job's directory will be displayed instead.
Co py Magnet URI... copies a magnet URI link to the Windows clipboard for the
selected torrent job(s), multiple URIs separated by newlines.
Open URL in Browser will open the linked URL(s) in your default web browser.
Fo rce Start takes the selected torrent job(s) out of queue order (makes it ignore
queueing) and forces it to start immediately, even if the maximum number of active
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queueing) and forces it to start immediately, even if the maximum number of active
torrent jobs and/or downloads has been reached. Forced torrent jobs will not stop
even if they reach the seeding goal. The scheduler is unable to stop forced torrent
jobs.
Start will start the selected torrent job(s), or add it onto the queue if the number of
active torrent jobs has reached the maximum set in the Preferences.
Pause will pause the selected torrent job(s), but won't actually stop it. This tells
μTorrent to attempt to retain connections to peers without having to re-establish
them like starting stopped torrent jobs would require. It is useful for when you need
quick access to bandwidth. Realize that while μTorrent won't drop the connections
on its own accord, the connection can still get dropped by the client on the other
end of the connection.
Stop will stop the selected torrent job(s). All connections with peers are dropped.
Mo ve Up Queue will decrease the selected torrent's queue number, thus bringing
it closer to the top of the queue (meaning it will become active sooner than those
with higher queue numbers). Holding Shift while pressing this button will move the
selected torrent job to the top of the queue. Note that this button will not visually
move the torrent job up the list unless you sort the list by the "#" column. Pressing
Ctrl + Alt + Up on the keyboard is equivalent to selecting this item when the torrent
job is selected.
Move Down Queue will increase the selected torrent's queue number, thus
bringing it further from the top of the queue (meaning it will become active later
than those with lower queue numbers). Holding Shift while pressing this button will
move the selected torrent job to the bottom of the queue. Note that this button will
not visually move the torrent job down the list unless you sort the list by the "#"
column. Pressing Ctrl + Alt + Down on the keyboard is equivalent to selecting this
item when the torrent job is selected.
Label allows you to set the label for any selected torrent job. All persistent labels
will be listed at the top of this submenu, and any temporary label will be displayed
below the persistent label(s).
New Label... will display a dialog asking you to enter the name of a new
(temporary) label.
Remove Label will unset the label currently placed on the selected torrent
job(s).
Ba ndwidth Allocation is an option that makes μTorrent allocate upload bandwidth
to the selected torrent job(s) based on the option selected. This option works only if
a global maximum upload rate is set, or the selected torrent job(s) each have an
individual maximum upload rate set.
High will give the selected torrent job(s) more upload bandwidth relative to
other torrent jobs of lower bandwidth allocation levels (Low or Normal).
Normal is the default bandwidth allocation given.
Low will give the selected torrent job(s) less upload bandwidth relative to other
torrent jobs of higher bandwidth allocation levels (Normal or High).
Se t Download Limit allows you to control the maximum download rate for the
selected torrent job(s). The values displayed depend on the speed popup list
settings in the Preferences. If the speed popup list is not manually overridden,
then the maximum value available for selection will depend on the global
maximum download rate limit.
Set Upload Limit allows you to control the maximum upload rate for the
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selected torrent job(s). The values displayed depend on the speed popup list
settings in the Preferences. If the speed popup list is not manually overridden,
then the maximum value available for selection will depend on the global
maximum upload rate limit.
Re move removes the selected torrent job(s) from the list, but all related files are
left intact on the disk.
Remove And
Delete .torrent removes the selected torrent job(s) from the list and the
corresponding .torrent file(s) from the .torrent file storage location.
Delete .torrent + Data removes the selected torrent job(s) from the list, the
corresponding .torrent file(s) from the .torrent file storage location, and all
content downloaded from the torrent job(s). This action can also be performed
by pressing Shift + Delete on the keyboard.
Delete Data removes the selected torrent job(s) from the list and all content
downloaded from the torrent job(s).
Fo rce Re-Check tells μTorrent to check the torrent contents of the selected torrent
job(s) for missing files and pieces that fail the hash check. Even if multiple torrent
jobs are selected to be re-checked, μTorrent will check them sequentially, one at a
time (known as a round-robin method). Pausing a torrent job while it is being rechecked
will pause the re-checking process for that torrent job, and will move onto
the next torrent job to re-check if multiple torrent jobs are selected. Any incomplete
pieces in the torrent contents will be removed during the re-checking process, so a
drop in progress percentage would not be an unlikely occurrence.
Advanced
Reset Bans allows you to clear any bans μTorrent has placed on peers in the
selected torrent job(s) for sending too many hashfailed pieces.
Clear Peer List allows you to clear all peers from the peer list for the selected
torrent job(s).
Set Download Location... lets you set the location of the contents for the
particular torrent if they are ever moved after the torrent job is added. The next
time the torrent job is started, it will be hash checked to verify the data integrity.
Show Download Bar toggles the display of a floating download bar that
shows quick statistics for the selected torrent job(s). The download bars are
separate from the μTorrent interface, so they can be displayed while the main
window is minimized or closed to tray.
Up date Tracker allows you to perform a manual announce on the selected torrent
jobs' trackers. Only trackers whose minimum intervals have elapsed since the last
manual update will be updated. This option is disabled if 60 seconds have not yet
passed since the last time it was used, or if the elapsed time since the last update
is less than the minimum interval for every selected torrent job's tracker(s). If the
condition to be enabled has been satisfied by at least one of the selected torrent
jobs, the option will be enabled, but when used, will be invoked only on those
torrent jobs that have met the conditions for option to be enabled.
Pr operties opens up the Torrent Properties dialog, where you can modify several
of the torrent job's settings.
RSS Item Options
Open will attempt to open the .torrent file(s) associated with the selected item(s) to
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be added to the torrent jobs list. Double-click ing on the selected item achieves the
same result.
Open URL in Browser will open the linked URL(s) in your default web browser.
This is useful for RSS feeds that do not link directly to .torrent files, but instead, to
a page that links to them.
Clear Feed History removes all entries in the RSS Downloader's History tab that
came from the selected feed(s).
Ad d to Favorites adds the selected items to the Favorites, attempting to create
suitable rules for the selected items.
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μTorrent User Manual > Appendix A: The μTorrent Interface > Main Window
Detailed Info Pane
The detailed info pane allows you to view detailed information about the selected torrent
job that isn't available in the torrent job list itself. There are several tabs, each of which
contain different types of information. The detailed info pane's visibility can be toggled by
selecting "Options" then "Show Detailed Info" in the main menus, or by pressing F5 on the
keyboard. The last selected tab before μTorrent is exited will be automatically selected on
the next start.
General
Trackers
Peers
Pieces
Files
Speed
Logger
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μTorrent User Manual > Appendix A: The μTorrent Interface > Main Window > Detailed Info
Pane
General
The General tab is where you'll find most of the general statistics for the currently
selected torrent job available.
Graphical Progress Bars
T he upper Downloaded bar is the general progress bar useful for getting a quick
visual outlook of the percent completed. Selective file downloading is taken into
account, so only the data you select to be downloaded will be counted. The number to
the right of the Downloaded bar is the percentage of the torrent job that is completed,
taking selective file downloading into account as well.
White represents what has not yet been downloaded.
Blue represents what has been downloaded.
The lower Downloaded bar is equivalent to the upper bar, except that it does not take
selective file downloading into account, and it also displays the distribution of pieces
completed in your torrent job. If there are more pieces in the .torrent file than there are
horizontal pixels for your desktop resolution, μTorrent will take the average completion
of adjacent pieces to decide what colors should be shown.
White represents the pieces that have not yet been downloaded.
Blue represents the pieces that have been downloaded.
The Availability bar shows the spread of the pieces in the network of peers you are
connected to. If there are more pieces in the .torrent file than there are horizontal pixels
for your desktop resolution, μTorrent will take the average completion of adjacent
pieces to decide what colors should be shown. The number to the right is the actual
availability of the selected torrent job.
Dark blue means the piece is available and common.
Light blue means the piece is available, but rare.
Red means the piece is not available within the group of peers you are connected
to.
Along with graphical progress bars, textual statistics are provided below. Any of these
fields can be copied by right-click ing it and selecting "Copy". The following is a description
of the information displayed (note that most of the information displayed here can be found in
the torrent jobs list):
Transfer
Download Limit displays the maximum download rate limit set on the individual torrent
job. If no limit is set, or the limit is set to 0, this field will display the ∞ symbol.
Download Speed displays the current speed at which data is being downloaded for the
individual torrent job. The number in the parentheses is the average download speed
throughout the time that the torrent job was in Downloading mode.
Downloaded displays the total amount of data you have downloaded, including those
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that were wasted or failed the hash check.
Peers displays the number of peers you are connected to. The second number is the
number of known peers in the peer cache collected from the tracker, DHT, and PEX.
The number in the parentheses is the number of peers reported by the tracker scrape.
Remaining displays the estimated amount of time needed for μTorrent to finish
downloading the torrent job. If the torrent job is in seeding mode, then the ETA displays
the estimated time it will take for μTorrent to reach the seeding goal. If the torrent job is
stopped, this field will be blank. If the torrent job is transferring too slowly, or has
reached its seeding goal, this field will display the ∞ symbol. Note that this field takes
selective file downloading into account, so only the data you select to be downloaded
will be counted.
Seeds displays the number of seeds you are connected to. The second number is the
number of known seeds in the peer cache collected from the tracker, DHT, and PEX.
The number in the parentheses is the number of seeds reported by the tracker scrape.
Share Ratio displays the ratio of uploaded data to downloaded data. You can calculate
it by dividing the number beside the Uploaded field by the number beside the Download
field. If the torrent job was added when the file was already complete (seeding the file
upon adding), then the ratio will start from 0, and will be calculated based on the ratio of
the uploaded data to the torrent content size.
Status displays the status of the torrent job, and is a mirror of the data shown in the
Status column in the torrent jobs list.
Time Elapsed displays the total amount of time accumulated that the torrent job has
been started.
Upload Limit displays the maximum upload rate limit set on the individual torrent job. If
no limit is set, or the limit is set to 0, this field will display the ∞ symbol.
Upload Speed displays the current speed at which data is being uploaded for the
individual torrent job. The number in the parentheses is the average upload speed
throughout the time that the torrent job was started.
Uploaded displays the total amount of data you have uploaded since the torrent job
was added.
Wasted displays the amount of data that was downloaded and deleted, either from
hashfails, or from redundant data. The number in the parentheses is the count for the
number of hashfails that occurred.
General
Comment shows the comment placed in the .torrent file by the .torrent file's creator.
Created On shows the date and time that the .torrent file was created along with the
application that was used to create the .torrent file (if it can be determined).
Hash shows the .torrent file's info dictionary hash.
Pieces shows the number of pieces in the torrent job, and the size of each of these
pieces. The number in the parentheses indicates the number of pieces μTorrent has
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successfully acquired.
Save As shows the location that the torrent contents are saved to on the disk.
Total Size shows the total size of the torrent contents. The first number displays the
total amount of data in the torrent contents, taking selective file downloading into
account. The second number is the total amount of data you have downloaded that
passed the hash checks and have been written to disk. If there is a third number here,
then it's because you are using selective file downloading. That third number displays
the total size of the torrent contents, not taking selective file downloading into account.
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μTorrent User Manual > Appendix A: The μTorrent Interface > Main Window > Detailed Info
Pane
Trackers
The Trackers tab displays the trackers that μTorrent is currently using for the selected
torrent job. The following is a description of each column:
Name displays the tracker URL, or the name of the alternative sources for obtaining
peers.
Downloaded displays the number of times the torrent job was reported to be complete
by peers on the tracker.
Interval displays the amount of time the tracker recommended μTorrent to wait before
next automatic announce.
Min Interval displays the minimal amount of time the tracker requires μTorrent to wait
before next announce. This value is dictated by the tracker, and may be different from
tracker to tracker. If the tracker specifies a minimum announce interval of less than 30
seconds, μTorrent will use 30 seconds as the minimum interval instead.
Peers displays the number of peers returned by the tracker scrape.
Seeds displays the number of seeds returned by the tracker scrape.
Status shows the current status of the tracker. If an error occurs while attempting to use
the tracker, depending on the error, it might be displayed on this column. The following
are commonly displayed:
disabled means the source will not be used for the torrent job due to the options
selected in the torrent properties. This occurs only with DHT, Local Peer Discovery,
and Peer Exchange.
hostname not found means the tracker IP could not be resolved. This may occur
due to DNS issues, or because the domain or hostname specified is invalid or does
not exist.
invalid url means the tracker specified is not valid, and cannot be used with
μTorrent. This most often occurs if the specified tracker is not of the correct
protocol (μTorrent supports only HTTP, HTTPS, and UDP trackers).
not allowed means the source cannot be used with the torrent job. This status
occurs only with DHT, Local Peer Discovery, and Peer Exchange, and only when
the torrent job is private.
scrape ok means the tracker scrape successfully returned the seed and peer
counts for the torrent job.
scrape not supported means the tracker does not support scraping.
working means the tracker responded properly on the last tracker update.
Update In displays the amount of time (in minutes) until μTorrent next announces to the
tracker.
Context Menu
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Context Menu
Update Tracker allows you to perform a manual announce on the selected trackers,
assuming the minimum announce interval has passed for the trackers. This option is
disabled if 60 seconds have not yet passed since the last time it was used, or if the
elapsed time since the last update is less than the minimum interval for every selected
tracker. If the condition to be enabled has been satisfied by at least one of the selected
trackers, the option will be enabled, but when used, will be invoked only on those
trackers that have met the conditions for option to be enabled.
Remove Tracker removes the selected tracker(s) from the tracker list. This action can
also be performed by pressing Delete on the keyboard.
Add Tracker... opens the torrent properties dialog, where you can add trackers to the
tracker list.
Use DHT is a shortcut for the Enable DHT option in the torrent properties.
Use Local Peer Discovery is a shortcut for the Local Peer Discovery option in the
torrent properties.
Use Peer Exchange is a shortcut for the Peer Exchange option in the torrent
properties.
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μTorrent User Manual > Appendix A: The μTorrent Interface > Main Window > Detailed Info
Pane
Peers
The Peers tab is where you'll find information about all the peers you are currently
connected to on the selected torrent. The following is a description of each column:
IP displays the peer's IP address and the flag of the country they're from. If Resolve IPs
is enabled, the country flag and hostname will be displayed instead.
% displays the approximate percent of the torrent job the peer has completed.
Client displays the BitTorrent client that the peer reports it is using. If μTorrent suspects
the client of spoofing (faking) its client ID, it will note it as such.
Debug displays information that might be useful in debugging problems.
Down Speed is the averaged speed at which you are downloading data from the peer.
Downloaded is the amount of data you have downloaded from the peer since the
torrent job was added.
Flags displays various letters, each carrying a special meaning about the state of the
connection:
?: your client unchoked the peer but the peer is not interested
D: currently downloading from the peer (interested and not choked)
d: your client wants to download, but peer doesn't want to send (interested and
choked)
E: peer is using Protocol Encryption (all traffic)
e: peer is using Protocol Encryption (handshake)
F: peer was involved in a hashfailed piece (not necessarily a bad peer, just
involved)
H: peer was obtained through DHT
h: peer connection established via UDP hole-punching
I: peer established an incoming connection
K: peer unchoked your client, but your client is not interested
L: peer has been or discovered via Local Peer Discovery
O: optimistic unchoke
P: peer is communicating and transporting data over uTP
S: peer is snubbed
U: currently uploading to the peer (interested and not choked)
u: the peer wants your client to upload, but your client doesn't want to (interested
and choked)
X: peer was included in peer lists obtained through Peer Exchange (PEX)
Hasherr is the number of pieces this peer sent to you that failed the hash check.
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Inactive displays the number of seconds since the last non-keepalive message was
sent with this peer.
MaxDown is the peak, unaveraged speed at which you were downloading from the
peer.
MaxUp is the peak, unaveraged speed at which you were uploading to the peer.
Peer Download Rate is an estimated rate at which the peer is downloading based on
the peer's reported change in pieces obtained. This estimation is very crude and is most
likely inaccurate, so it should only be lightly relied upon.
Port displays the listening port that the peer is using.
Queued displays the number of bytes requested by a peer that was left unsent by your
client.
Relevance is the percent of the torrent contents that the peer has that you currently do
not have.
Reqs displays the number of 16 KiB block requests you've made to the peer on the left
side, and the number of 16 KiB requests they've made to you on the right side.
Up Speed is the averaged speed at which you are uploading data to the peer.
Uploaded is the amount of data you have uploaded to the peer since the torrent job
was added.
Waited displays the number of seconds since the last request was made to this peer.
Context Menu
Add Peer... allows you to add a peer manually if you know the peer's IP address and
port. μTorrent will attempt to connect to the newly-added peer as soon as possible. Only
one peer can be added at a time, in the following format: IP:port
IPv4 IPs must be inputted in standard dot-decimal notation, like so:
127.0.0.1:80.
IPv6 IPs must be inputted in colon-hexadecimal notation (enclosed between square
brakets), like so: [0000:0000:0000:0000:0000:0000:0000:0001]:80.
Zero-grouped IPv6 addresses are accepted.
Copy Peer List will copy the IP addresses and the ports of every peer it has in its peer
cache to the clipboard, one IP:port pair per line.
Copy Selected Hosts will copy the IP addresses and the ports of each selected peer,
one IP:port pair per line.
Log Traffic to Logger Tab tells μTorrent to log connection details from the torrent job to
the Logger tab.
Reload IPFilter forces μTorrent to reload ipfilter.dat. This option is disabled when
ipfilter.enable is disabled.
Resolve IPs tells μTorrent to convert the IP addresses into hostnames for display
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purposes. This option must be enabled in order for flags to be displayed next to the
peer.
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μTorrent User Manual > Appendix A: The μTorrent Interface > Main Window > Detailed Info
Pane
Pieces
The Pieces tab displays each piece currently being downloaded by μTorrent. If a piece
is selected, then holding Shift on the keyboard while right-click ing on the pieces list will
display a context menu with the option, "Log piece info...." When selected, debug information
is added to the Logger tab for the currently-highlighted piece. The following is a description
of each column:
# is the piece's number in the .torrent file.
# of Blocks is the number of 16 KiB blocks that compose that single piece.
Availability is the number of times this piece is seen completed within the group of
peers you are currently connected to.
Blocks is the graphical progress bar for the piece. You'll notice that there are different
colors displayed for different blocks. They are as follows:
Dark blue means the data has been downloaded and written to disk.
Medium blue means the data has been downloaded, but remains in the cache in
memory, unwritten to disk.
Light blue means the data has been requested from a single peer.
Green means the data has been requested from multiple peers. Blocks only turn
green during endgame mode.
White means the data is is available in the swarm, but has not yet been
downloaded.
Completed is the number of blocks completed in the piece.
Mode is the general evaluation of the speed at which the piece is being transferred by
the peer. A piece's mode can be either fast, medium, or slow. μTorrent uses this
evaluation to determine whether a piece should be taken from fast peers or slow seeds.
This is meant to try to prevent situations where a slow seed sends the same piece as a
fast peer. Instead of allowing that to happen, μTorrent attempts to have the slower seed
send another piece, possibly something that might be rarer in the swarm.
Priority shows the priority μTorrent has assigned the piece based on the priority of the
file(s) it belongs to. If the piece belongs to multiple files, then it is assigned the highest
priority of the files it belongs to. If a piece passes the criteria for being given higher
priority by bt.prio_first_last_piece (assuming the option is enabled), and the piece's
priority is not skipped, then piece's priority is elevated by one priority level.
Size is the size of the piece.
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μTorrent User Manual > Appendix A: The μTorrent Interface > Main Window > Detailed Info
Pane
Files
The Files tab allows you to view what files are included in the torrent, as well as provide
the ability to control what files are downloaded. Double-click ing on any file will open it as if it
were opened from Explorer (meaning that μTorrent will attempt to open the file in the
associated application for the file type).
Name is the file's original path as described in the .torrent file metadata.
Path is the file's save path on disk. If the path is not an absolute (full) path, it is the path
relative to the torrent job's Save As directory.
# Pieces is the number of pieces that comprise the file.
% is the approximate percent of the file that μTorrent has completed. Its value is
calculated by dividing the number under the Done column by the number under the Size
column. Because this number is calculated using the size of all completed pieces only, it
will not increase until another piece of the file has finished downloading.
Done displays the total amount of data you have downloaded for that file that passed
the hash checks.
First Piece is the number of the first piece in the .torrent file that contains data for the
file.
Mode displays how μTorrent is using the file.
Write mode means the file is being actively written to.
Read mode means the file is not being actively written to.
Pieces is the graphical progress bar for the file.
Blue means the data has been written to disk.
Green means the data is still unwritten to disk.
Red means the data is is not available in the swarm.
White means the data is is available in the swarm, but has not yet been
downloaded.
Priority displays the priority given to the file.
high means μTorrent will attempt to complete the file more aggressively relative to
other files of lower priorities (low or normal). If there is an opportunity for this file
to become more complete, μTorrent will take it. Note that this does not guarantee
the completion of the file, or that the file will complete before other files of lower
priorities.
normal is the default priority given.
low means μTorrent will attempt to complete the file less aggressively relative to
other files of higher priorities (normal or high). If there is an opportunity for
another file of higher priority to become more complete, μTorrent will take it over
downloading for this file. Note that this does not guarantee that the file will
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complete after other files of higher priorities.
skip means the file will not be downloaded. Do note that some files share pieces
with other files. As such, you might notice that a part of a skipped file (or possibly
an entire file, if it is smaller than the piece size) is downloaded. Understand that this
does not mean μTorrent has ignored your request to not download the file.
Size shows the size of the file.
Context Menu
Open will attempt to open the selected file as if it were opened from Explorer.
Open Containing Folder opens the file's directory containing in an Explorer window,
with the file highlighted.
High Priority will set the file's priority to high.
Normal Priority will set the file's priority to normal.
Low Priority will set the file's priority to low.
Don't Download will set the file's priority to skip.
Relocate... will set the file to be downloaded to a location other than the location
selected for the entire torrent job. This option is disabled if the torrent job is started.
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μTorrent User Manual > Appendix A: The μTorrent Interface > Main Window > Detailed Info
Pane
Speed
The Speed tab displays graphs of the the global upload and download speeds, as well
as some basic statistics about disk I/O and cache usage.
T he Show dropdown menu allows you to select the type of graph you'd like to be
displayed in the graph canvas below.
Upload & Download shows a combination of the Download and Upload graphs.
Do wnload shows a graph of the current global download speed.
The light green-colored line represents the global download rate limit. If no
limit is set for the global download rate, this line will not be shown.
T he solid green-colored line represents the current global download rate,
counting only payload data (as opposed to including overhead).
The long-dashed green-colored line represents the global download rate for
payload data downloaded from local peers.
T he short-dashed green-colored line represents the global download rate,
including download overhead. If gui.graph_overhead is disabled, this line will
not be shown.
Up load shows a graph of the current global upload speed.
The light red-colored line represents the global upload rate limit. If no limit is
set for the global upload rate, this line will not be shown.
The solid red-colored line represents the current global upload rate, counting
only payload data (as opposed to including overhead).
T h e long-dashed red-colored line represents the global upload rate for
payload data uploaded to local peers.
T h e short-dashed red-colored line represents the global upload rate,
including upload overhead. If gui.graph_overhead is disabled, this line will not
be shown.
T he solid yellow-colored line represents the current upload speed going
toward non-BitTorrent receivers, like media players streaming media from
μTorrent, or browsers requesting data from μTorrent's Web UI backend.
Ne twork Overhead shows a graph breakdown of network overhead for uploads
and downloads.
Tr ansfer Cap shows the cumulative amount of data transferred over the period of
time specified in the Transfer Cap settings.
T h e solid green-colored line represents the cumulative amount of data
downloaded.
T h e solid red-colored line represents the cumulative amount of data
uploaded.
The solid yellow-colored line represents the total cumulative amount of data
transferred (downloaded and uploaded).
The light red-colored line represents the transfer cap limit.
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Tr ansfer History shows the amount of data transferred for each day in the last 31
days.The solid green-colored line represents the amount of data downloaded.
The solid red-colored line represents the amount of data uploaded.
The solid yellow-colored line represents the total amount of data transferred
(downloaded and uploaded).
Di sk Statistics shows several graphs pertaining to disk and cache access. In each
of these graphs, the lighter lines represent the graphs for writes or reads
(depending on which graph you're looking at) to and from the cache. Their more
solid counterparts represent the writes and reads to and from the disk. Textual
statistics pertaining to disk and cache access collected for the current session are
shown to the left of the graphs. The "Reset" button below resets the collected
statistics.
The Resolution dropdown menu allows you to select the interval for the time unit used
for the X-axis of each graph. The Y-axis values are average over this time resolution.
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μTorrent User Manual > Appendix A: The μTorrent Interface > Main Window > Detailed Info
Pane
Logger
The Logger tab displays logged information regarding certain events in μTorrent.
Information displayed mostly serve debug purposes, and can be useful when trying to solve
problems. Information displayed can be selected, and selected lines can be copied by
pressing Ctrl + C on the keyboard. You can access some options for controlling the Logger
tab by right-click ing anywhere on the white area in the tab. You'll be presented with the
following items in the context menu:
Peer Traffic Logging contains a set of options that control what messages are
displayed in the Logger tab pertaining to peer traffic and communication.
Error Logging contains a set of options that control what messages are displayed in
the Logger tab pertaining to errors that occur during operation.
Verbose Logging contains a set of options that control what additional, non-critical
messages are displayed in the Logger tab.
Clear all logging flags disables all of the logging options.
Copy copies the selected Logger lines to the clipboard.
Log to file... allows you to save log information to a file on disk. A full path should be
specified, otherwise the log's location will be saved to the current working directory,
which can vary depending on how you opened μTorrent. In order to log to disk
successfully, you must first select this menu item and specify the filename for the log.
μTorrent will start the log on disk from that time forward. When you wish to stop logging,
select this menu item again and leave the field blank, and press "OK" (unless you wish
to save to start writing to a new file in serial). No logger information will be written to the
log file until the logging to disk is stopped.
Dump DHT Buckets, Dump DHT Tracked, and Dump Memory Info dump advanced
debug information into the Logger.
Clear Log does just that -- it clears the contents of the Logger tab.
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μTorrent User Manual > Appendix A: The μTorrent Interface > Main Window
Status Bar
The status bar shows general information and statistics about μTorrent. Its visibility can
can toggled by selecting "Options" then "Show Status Bar " in the main menus, or by
pressing F6 on the keyboard. The leftmost section of the status bar is an empty slot that
resizes along with the window's width, so the following descriptions start from the second
item from the left and moves rightward.
The Notification section displays messages in μTorrent about the status of the torrent
jobs. If there are no issues, this section will remain blank.
Disk Overloaded means that the disk was not able to keep up with the read/write
speed. If this happens when you first add a torrent job, it's normal, and will
disappear after several minutes. If otherwise, you may want to try tweaking your
Disk Cache settings in the Preferences
Limited by scheduler means the download and/or upload rates are following the
Scheduler rules for the hour.
Stopped by scheduler means all unforced torrent jobs are stopped to observe the
Scheduler rules for the hour.
Stopped by speed test means all started torrent jobs, forced or otherwise, are
stopped to allow the Setup Guide's speed tester to obtain as accurate a result as it
can achieve. All torrent jobs stopped by the speed test are resumed after the speed
test completes.
Stopped by transfer cap means all unforced torrent jobs are stopped to observe
the Transfer Cap rules.
Seeding only means any unforced torrent job that is not seeding are stopped to
observe the Scheduler rules for the hour.
The DHT Status section displays the current status of DHT.
DHT: Disabled means you have disabled DHT, so μTorrent isn't connected to the
DHT network.
DHT: X nodes (where X is an integer) means DHT is enabled, and μTorrent is
directly connected to X other clients on the DHT network. The keyword is "directly,"
as this number is not an indication of the number of users you are effectively
connected to on the DHT network -- that number is much greater.
The Network Status section displays an icon to signify your connectability to people
outside of your firewall (software and/or hardware). Left-click ing on the icon will open
the Setup Guide. Note that the network status light can be blank as well, in which case
it simply means that no torrent jobs are started, so μTorrent is unable to check the port
status.
means everything is fine, and you are receiving incoming connections.
means no incoming connections have been received yet. Seeing this icon
doesn't automatically mean something is wrong unless it remains yellow for an
extended period of time while there are actively transferring torrent jobs. If you're
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unsure about whether your port is forwarded properly, then the best course of
action is to use the port checker in the Setup Guide.
means μTorrent wasn't able to use the listening port. Generally, this means a
firewall is blocking the port (in which case you should attempt to fix it), but it's also
possible that another application is using this port, in which case μTorrent will
inform you that there is a listening error.
The Download section starts with a "D" and displays download speed related statistics
in the following order:
The global download rate limit (in square brackets, assuming such a limit is set,
and Show speed limits in the status bar is enabled)
The total data download speed
The total communication download overhead speed (with an "O" preceding the
speed)
The total local peer download speed (with an "L" preceding the speed, assuming
μTorrent is downloading at more than 1 KiB/s from local peers)
The total amount of data downloaded this session (with a "T" preceding the
amount)
The Upload section starts with a "U" and displays upload speed related statistics in the
following order:
The global upload rate limit (in square brackets, assuming such a limit is set, and
Show speed limits in the status bar is enabled)
The total data upload speed
The total communication upload overhead speed (with an "O" preceding the speed)
The total local peer upload speed (with an "L" preceding the speed, assuming
μTorrent is uploading at more than 1 KiB/s to local peers)
The total amount of data uploaded this session (with a "T" preceding the amount)
Context Menu
Depending on where you right-click the status bar, you will get different menus to
control μTorrent's behavior.
Right-click ing anywhere to the left of the Download section will show a context menu
with the following options:
Enable Scheduler allows you to enable or disable the scheduler from the without
having to toggle it manually in the Preferences.
Enable DHT allows you to enable or disable DHT from the without having to toggle
it manually in the Preferences.
Right-click ing on the Download section will show a context menu that allows you to
control the global maximum download limit. The values displayed depend on the speed
popup list settings in the Preferences.
Right-click ing on the Upload section will show a context menu that allows you to
control the global maximum upload limit. The values displayed depend on the speed
popup list settings in the Preferences.
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μTorrent User Manual > Appendix A: The μTorrent Interface
Preferences
This section provides descriptions of all options available in the μTorrent Preferences
dialog. Nearly all of μTorrent's internal settings can be configured here. To access the
Preferences, select "Options" then "Preferences..." in the main menus, or press Ctrl + P on
the keyboard. The last selected section before the Preferences dialog is closed will be
automatically selected the next time the user enters the Preferences.
General
UI Settings
Directories
Connection
Bandwidth
BitTorrent
Transfer Cap
Queueing
Scheduler
Web UI
Playback
Advanced
UI Extras
Disk Cache
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μTorrent User Manual > Appendix A: The μTorrent Interface > Preferences
General
Language
T h e Language dropdown menu allows you to select the language for the entire
μTorrent interface. In order for this to work, you must have installed the language pack
(utorrent.lng) into μTorrent's settings directory, or in the same directory as the μTorrent
executable itself.
The More... button opens the download page in your web browser, where you'll find the
language pack available for download.
Windows Integration
T h e Associate with .torrent files button tells Windows to open .torrent files in
μTorrent. If maindoc.ico is present in μTorrent's settings directory, it will be used as the
icon for .torrent files instead of making Windows attempt to generate an icon
automatically.
T he Associate with .btsearch files button tells Windows to open .btsearch files in
μTorrent.
T he Associate with magnet URIs button tells Windows to open magnet URIs with
μTorrent.
T he Install IPv6/Teredo button makes μTorrent install IPv6/Teredo support on the
computer. Note that this option works only on operating systems released after
Windows XP with at least Service Pack 2 (SP2) installed.
Check association on startup will tell μTorrent to check associations with anything it
is associated with each time it is run. If the association no longer belongs to μTorrent at
start, the user will be prompted for further action.
Start μTorrent on system startup will make μTorrent start when Windows starts up.
Privacy
Check for updates automatically tells μTorrent to connect to the μTorrent servers to
check for newer versions upon startup. Assuming μTorrent is open for long enough, it
will continue to check for updates periodically, waiting 24 hours between each update
check (automatic or manual).
Update to beta versions tells μTorrent to inform the user about beta releases when it
checks for updates. Otherwise, the user is only informed of newer stable builds.
Send detailed info when checking for updates allows μTorrent to send a randomly
generated ID and the μTorrent version and build numbers to the update server during
update checks in order to count the number of people there are using μTorrent.
Whether or not this option is enabled, all communication with the μTorrent servers are
always anonymous.
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The Boss-Key field allows you to select a keyboard combination that, when pressed,
will toggle the visibility of all traces μTorrent on the immediate desktop. The main
window and any open dialogs, the taskbar entry, and the system tray icon all disappear
when hidden, and appear again when unhidden (by pressing the keyboard combination
a second time). To set this field, you must press the keyboard combination you wish to
set the boss-key to. To do so, press your choice of modifier keys (any combination of
Ctrl , Alt , and Shift ) and the key (letters, numbers, function keys, and so on). Make
sure the key combination you select is not used by another application, as that can lead
to conflicts.
The Clear Private Data button clears previously used paths in various locations, such
as the Add New Torrent dialog and the Create New Torrent dialog.
When Downloading
Append .!ut to incomplete files tells μTorrent to append the .!ut extension to any
file in the torrent contents that still hasn't finished downloading. Once a file is completed,
the extension gets removed from it. Note that the state of this option takes effect
immediately after the preferences are saved, regardless of whether torrent jobs are
started, stopped, paused, or queued.
Pre-allocate all files tells μTorrent to create and fully allocate every file you select to
download immediately after starting the torrent job. Note that this option does not have
an impact on hard drive fragmentation (advantageous or otherwise), as μTorrent already
allocates each file upon writing to disk even without this option.
Prevent standby if there are active torrents is self-explanatory; if there are active
torrent jobs, μTorrent will attempt to keep the computer out of automatic standby mode.
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μTorrent User Manual > Appendix A: The μTorrent Interface > Preferences
UI Settings
Display Options
Confirm when deleting torrents displays a dialog asking for confirmation when you
try to delete a torrent job from the torrent jobs list.
Confirm when deleting trackers displays a dialog asking for confirmation when you
try to delete a tracker from the Trackers list.
Show confirmation dialog on exit displays a dialog asking for confirmation when you
try to exit μTorrent.
Alternate list background color will make μTorrent alternate the background color for
each item in a list-view (be it the torrent jobs list, or one of the list-views in the detailed
info pane) between the default list-view background color and the column highlight
color. If disabled, μTorrent will simply display the default list-view background behind
every item in the list-view.
Show current speed in the title bar displays the total upload and download rates in
the title bar of the main window, before "μTorrent".
Show speed limits in the status bar displays the global rate limit (if set) next to its
corresponding value in the status bar.
System Tray
Close to tray will tell μTorrent to close the main window to system tray rather than exit
when the close button is used in the window title bar.
Minimize to tray will tell μTorrent to minimize the main window to system tray rather
than the taskbar.
Always show tray icon will display the tray icon regardless of μTorrent's main window
visibility (unless hidden with the boss-key). If disabled, μTorrent will only display the tray
icon when it is closed or minimized to system tray.
Single click on tray icon to open will make it so that it takes a single left-click on the
tray icon to display or hide the main window. If left unchecked, it would require a
double-click to achieve the same result.
Show balloon notifications in tray will display a bubble tooltip notification in the
system tray when certain events occur in μTorrent, such as the download completion of
a torrent job, an error, and so on.
Always activate when clicked will make it so that left-click ing (or double-click ing,
depending on whether the single click tray icon option is enabled or disabled) the tray
icon will only activate the main window. If left disabled, μTorrent would normally
alternate between activating and hiding the window for the same action.
When Adding Torrents
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Don't start the download automatically adds manually imported torrent jobs in
stopped mode. If this option is enabled, "Start torrent" in the Add New Torrent dialog will
be unchecked by default (but can still be enabled). If that dialog is not enabled, torrent
jobs will simply be added in stopped mode, and will have to be started manually.
Activate the program window will open the μTorrent main window (if hidden,
minimized to system tray, or minimized to taskbar). If unchecked, μTorrent will simply
display the Add New Torrent dialog.
Show a window that displays the files inside the torrent will tell μTorrent to display
the Add New Torrent dialog. If unchecked, μTorrent will simply ask where you'd like to
save the torrent contents, assuming a default download location is not set.
Actions for Double Click
For seeding torrents allows you to select the action that μTorrent takes when you
double-click a seeding torrent job on the torrent jobs list.
For downloading torrents allows you to select the action that μTorrent takes when
you double-click a downloading torrent job on the torrent jobs list.
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μTorrent User Manual > Appendix A: The μTorrent Interface > Preferences
Directories
Location of Downloaded Files
Put new downloads in specifies the default location that the contents of newly added
torrent jobs will be downloaded to.
Always show dialog on manual add tells μTorrent to display the Add New
Torrent dialog even if a default download location is. If left unchecked, μTorrent
automatically sets the download location to the specified location and adds the
torrent job to the torrent jobs list accordingly, without user intervention.
Move completed downloads to specifies the location that torrent contents that have
finished downloading should be moved to. Files are moved immediately after the torrent
job finishes downloading and the files are written to disk.
Append the torrent's label will add the torrent job's label to the path that the
torrent contents are moved to after they finish downloading.
Only move from the default download directory tells μTorrent to move torrent
contents only if it was saved to the directory specified under "Put new downloads
in". If that option wasn't set, this option should be left disabled.
Location of .torrents
Store .torrents in sets the location that μTorrent should save .torrent files to. By
default, μTorrent will save these files to the settings directory.
Move .torrents for finished jobs to moves .torrent files to the specified location after it
is completed. By default, these files remain in the same location that they were first
copied to.
Automatically load .torrents in directory tells μTorrent to check the specified
directory every second for new new .torrent files, and automatically load them. Note that
the directory specified here must be different from the directories specified in the .torrent
storage settings, otherwise, you will run into problems with .torrent files looking like
they're missing to μTorrent.
Delete loaded .torrents tells μTorrent to delete the .torrent file when it is autoloaded.
Normally, if this option is not checked, μTorrent appends .loaded to the
extension to indicate that it has been loaded and to prevent μTorrent from trying to
load the .torrent file again.
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μTorrent User Manual > Appendix A: The μTorrent Interface > Preferences
Connection
Listening Port
The Port used for incoming connections field specifies the port that μTorrent should
use to listen for incoming connections. This port must be unfirewalled for optimal usage
of μTorrent. Setting the port to 0 indicates to μTorrent that you would like for it to select
a random port after the changes are confirmed.
The Random port button selects a random port between 10000 and 65000 as the
listening port.
Enable UPnP port mapping allows μTorrent to communicate with the router to forward
a port without your manual intervention. Some devices do not support Universal Plug
and Play (UPnP), so you might still have to forward your ports manually. Disable UPnP
if that is the case.
Enable NAT-PMP port mapping allows μTorrent to attempt to forward a port with
routers that support the NAT port mapping protocol (Apple products, for example).
Randomize port each start makes μTorrent select a random port between 1000 and
65000 to use at startup. Note that this option might conflict with your port forwarding
settings, so if you manually open ports in your router and firewall, it's best to leave this
option disabled.
Add Windows Firewall exception allows μTorrent to add an entry to the Windows
Firewall exceptions list that lets it bypass the firewall. This is useful only if you actually
have Windows Firewall enabled. Note that this option works only on operating systems
released after (and including) Windows XP with at least Service Pack 2 (SP2) installed.
Proxy Server
The Type dropdown menu specifies the type of proxy you are trying to use.
The Proxy field is where you enter the proxy's URL or IP address.
The Port field is where you enter the proxy's port.
Checking Authentication indicates that you need to log into the proxy server in order
for it to work.
The Username field is where you enter the username required to log into the proxy
server for authentication.
The Password field is where you enter the password required to log into the proxy
server for authentication.
Use proxy for hostname lookups forces μTorrent to perform hostname (DNS)
lookups through the proxy. Reverse DNS is not proxied.
Use proxy for peer-to-peer connections forces μTorrent to communicate and
transfer data with peers through the proxy. By default, this option is disabled, and
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μTorrent only uses the proxy to communicate with trackers. This option may not work
with some HTTP proxies (not all HTTP proxies support HTTP CONNECT).
Note: μTorrent can only proxy UDP-based communication through SOCKS5 proxies.
Proxying of IPv6 traffic is currently not supported. By default, connection types that your
proxy does not support will simply connect as normal.
Proxy Privacy
Disable all local DNS lookups will disable reverse DNS and prevent hostname
lookups from bypassing the proxy. This will not function properly without enabling "Use
proxy for hostname lookups." If your proxy is misconfigured or not working, then DNS
will simply fail. As a safeguard, μTorrent's autoupdates and crash reports will bypass
this option.
Disable features that leak identifying information will prevent μTorrent from sharing
your non-proxied IP through handshakes with other peers, as well as through DHT. It
will also prevent it from handing out your IPv6 address to IPv4 peers and vice versa.
Disable connections unsupported by the proxy will disable connection types that
your proxy type cannot handle. For HTTP, HTTPS and SOCKS4 proxies, this will
disable all UDP-based communication (DHT, uTP, UDP trackers, IPv6). For SOCKS5, it
will only disable IPv6, as IPv6 is currently not proxied. If your proxy is misconfigured or
not working, all traffic in the client will stop.
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μTorrent User Manual > Appendix A: The μTorrent Interface > Preferences
Bandwidth
Global Upload Rate Limiting
The Maximum upload rate field limits the maximum rate at which μTorrent will upload.
Setting the value to 0 is equivalent to setting it to unlimited. This value is interpreted in
KiB/s, so please enter it as such.
T he Alternate upload rate when not downloading field allows you to define an
alternate upload rate when no torrent job is in downloading mode (only seeding). Other
than the context in which it is active, this upload rate limit behaves exactly like the
"Maximum upload rate" field. Unless you understand well the consequences of
enabling this option, refrain from using it, as it might give the impression that μTorrent is
not obeying the global maximum upload rate. This value is interpreted in KiB/s, so
please enter it as such.
Global Download Rate Limiting
T he Maximum download rate field limits the maximum rate at which μTorrent will
download. Setting the value to 0 is equivalent to setting it to unlimited. Note that
download rate limiting is very unreliable, so you might see greater fluctuations in
download speeds with this option set to anything other than 0, and μTorrent might not
be able to limit the speeds to the specified amount either. This value is interpreted in
KiB/s, so please enter it as such.
Number of Connections
The Global maximum number of connections field defines the maximum number of
connections that μTorrent can make at any given time in all active torrent jobs.
The Maximum number of connected peers per torrent field defines the maximum
number of peers that μTorrent can connect to at any given moment for each torrent job.
The Number of upload slots per torrent field defines the maximum number of peers
that μTorrent will upload to at any given moment for each torrent job.
Use additional upload slots if upload speed < 90% tells μTorrent to open more
upload slots if the current total upload speed is less than 90% of the global maximum
upload rate.
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BitTorrent
Basic BitTorrent Features
Enable DHT Network enables the Distributed Hash Table (DHT) if checked. You can
also do this by right-click ing the DHT status in the main window status bar and
selecting the corresponding option.
Enable DHT for new torrents tells μTorrent to check for peers from the DHT network
on each newly added torrent job. This option only works if DHT is enabled, and if the
'private' flag is not set in the .torrent file.
Enable Local Peer Discovery allows μTorrent to attempt to discover local peers via
multicast. If a peer is considered local, transfer rates with the peer will not be limited
unless Limit local peer bandwidth is also enabled. Local Peer Discovery will not be used
for .torrent files with the 'private' flag set. This option serves as a default setting for
newly-added torrent jobs, and does not retroactively affect previously-added. This
option can be disabled on a per torrent job basis in the respective torrent job's
Properties dialog.
Enable bandwidth management allows μTorrent to use uTP to try and gain a better
sense of how much bandwidth it should be using while maintaining quality of Internet
service.
Enable UDP tracker support allows μTorrent to communicate with trackers using the
UDP-based tracker communication protocol. Such trackers have URLs that begin with
"udp://".
Ask tracker for scrape information tells μTorrent to scrape the tracker (ask for peer
and seed counts). By default, the tracker is scraped only when the torrent job is started,
but this can be changed.
Enable Peer Exchange enables Peer Exchange (PEX) for each newly added torrent
job, provided the 'private' flag is not set for that .torrent file. This option serves as a
default setting for newly-added torrent jobs, and does not retroactively affect previouslyadded.
This option can be disabled on a per torrent job basis in the respective torrent
job's Properties dialog.
Limit local peer bandwidth: This option decides whether μTorrent should apply the
rate limits to traffic between itself and peers on the local network. Peers are considered
local if they are discovered by Local Peer Discovery, or if they are on the same LAN as
the client.
T he IP/Hostname to report to tracker field allows you to specify your IP address
when reporting to the tracker. This is used in the case where your WAN (Internet) IP
address is not reported correctly to the tracker for whatever reason (might be that you
are behind a proxy server). Note that you can type a hostname in this field, so if you use
a dynamic DNS service, you can enter your domain into this field. Also, realize that not
all trackers pay attention to this information, and often ignore it.
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Protocol Encryption
The Outgoing dropdown menu allows you to select the mode of encryption that you
prefer μTorrent to establish. All modes will accept incoming encrypted connections, and
the encryption is 2-way.
Disabled will force μTorrent to attempt to establish only unencrypted outgoing
connections.
Enabled will allow μTorrent to establish encrypted and unencrypted outgoing
connections, depending on how the peer responds to the handshake. This option
provides μTorrent with the largest pool of peers to pick from for connecting to, but
incurs additional overhead that may often be unnecessary in most typical
situations.
Forced forces μTorrent to establish only encrypted outgoing connections. Any peer
that doesn't support encryption will not be connected to. It is recommended that you
not use this option unless your ISP actively searches for unencrypted outgoing
connections, as it can impair your ability to connect to peers.
Allow incoming legacy connections allows μTorrent to accept unencrypted incoming
connections. If disabled, any incoming connection that is unencrypted will be ignored. It
is recommended that you not disable this option unless your ISP actively searches for
unencrypted incoming connections, as it can significantly impair your ability to connect
to peers.
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Transfer Cap
The transfer cap is used to control the amount of data μTorrent will transfer over a
specified period of time.
Enable Transfer Cap will enable the transfer cap if checked.
Cap Settings
The Bandwidth Cap field sets the amount of data to use as the transfer cap for the
selected period.
The Time Period dropdown menu sets the number of days to use as the transfer cap
period.
The Limit Type option sets the transfer direction(s) to count as part of the transfer cap.
Usage History
This displays textual statistics pertaining to the amount of data transferred for the
selected time period. The "Reset History" button below resets the collected statistics.
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Queueing
Queue Settings
T he Maximum number of active torrents field defines the maximum number of
unforced torrent jobs that μTorrent will allow to be active before placing it on the queue.
Torrent jobs are counted regardless of whether they're seeding or downloading torrents,
as long as they are uploading at rates above the value specified by
queue.slow_ul_threshold or downloading at rates above the value specified by
queue.slow_dl_threshold.
The Maximum number of active downloads field defines the maximum number of
unforced torrent jobs that μTorrent will allow to be downloaded before making it wait on
the download queue. This option only applies to torrent jobs that are downloading or
are to be placed in downloading mode.
Seeding Goal
T he Minimum ratio field allows you to set the ratio that you wish to reach before
μTorrent throttles the speed for the torrent job (or stops it, if you set it to do so). Setting
the ratio to -1 is equivalent to setting it to unlimited. Setting this value to 0 tells μTorrent
to ignore this value and look only at the seeding time limit. This value is interpreted as a
percentage. μTorrent will throttle the seeding process only after both this and time limit
have been reached.
The Minimum seeding time field allows you to specify the minimum amount of time
you wish for the torrent job to continue seeding at normal speeds after it has finished
downloading. μTorrent will throttle the seeding process only after both this and the ratio
threshold have been reached. This value is interpreted in minutes.
Seeding tasks have higher priority than downloading tasks will give seeding tasks
higher priority than downloads, so if your maximum number of active torrents is
reached, and a torrent job reaches seeding state, the downloading tasks will not force it
into queued seeding state.
Note: These values only affect torrent jobs added after they are set. Existing torrent
jobs will retain their current seeding goals, even if these default settings are modified.
When μTorrent Reaches the Seeding Goal
The Limit the upload rate to field allows you to set the speed that μTorrent throttles
the upload speed for a torrent job to when it reaches the seeding goal set. Setting this
value to 0 is equivalent to telling μTorrent to stop the torrent job. A change to this value
affects only torrent jobs that have not yet reached their seeding goals. This value is
interpreted in KiB/s, so please enter it as such.
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μTorrent User Manual > Appendix A: The μTorrent Interface > Preferences
Scheduler
The scheduler is used to control μTorrent during certain times of the day on certain days
of the week. With the scheduler, it is possible to tell μTorrent to stop torrent jobs, use a
different bandwidth limit, or stop downloading entirely during specified times.
Enable Scheduler will enable the scheduler if checked.
Scheduler Table
Each square in this table represents each hour in each day of each week. You can
change the color by left-click ing on a box. It cycles through dark green, light green,
white, and light red. Left-click-drag ging will cause all time blocks that the mouse
passes over to change to the new color.
Full Speed occurs during the time periods where the scheduler table is colored dark
green. During these time slots, μTorrent will adhere to the normal global upload and
global download rate limits.
Limited occurs during the time periods where the scheduler table is colored light green.
During these time slots, μTorrent will adhere to the upload and download rate limits
specified in the Scheduler Settings. Because the settings affect global rate limits, forced
torrent jobs are affected during these time slots.
Turn off occurs during the time periods where the scheduler table is colored white.
During these time slots, μTorrent will stop any unforced torrent jobs.
Seeding only occurs during the time periods where the scheduler table is colored light
red. During these time slots, μTorrent will cause unforced torrent jobs to stop
downloading, though they will continue to upload data. Forced torrent jobs will continue
downloading during these time slots.
Scheduler Settings
The Limited upload rate field sets the global maximum upload rate that all torrent jobs
should follow when operating under Limited mode. Other than the context in which it
is active, this upload rate limit behaves exactly like the global maximum upload rate.
Leaving the field blank is equivalent to setting it to unlimited. This value is interpreted in
KiB/s, so please enter it as such.
T he Limited download rate field sets the global maximum download rate that all
torrent jobs should follow when operating under Limited mode. Other than the context
in which it is active, this download rate limit behaves exactly like the global maximum
download rate. Leaving the field blank is equivalent to setting it to unlimited. This value
is interpreted in KiB/s, so please enter it as such.
Disable DHT when turning off disables DHT when the scheduler is operating under
Turn off mode.
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μTorrent User Manual > Appendix A: The μTorrent Interface > Preferences
Web UI
The Web UI is used to allow external applications to control μTorrent remotely. The
default Web UI for μTorrent is accessible to modern browsers that support AJAX.
Enable Web UI will enable the web interface if checked. When enabled, μTorrent
should automatically download the required webui.zip file from the μTorrent server. If it
doesn't, you can still download it manually from the webpage and properly place it in the
μTorrent settings directory.
Authentication
The Username field allows you to specify a username to log into the web interface, and
is required in order to use the web interface.
The Password field sets the password for this username. It may be left blank if you do
not wish to password-protect the web interface.
Enable Guest account with username enables or disables the guest account, a user
that can view (but not edit) the torrent jobs currently in your torrent jobs list. If enabled,
a username for the guest account must be specified in order for it to work.
Connectivity
Alternative listening port, if enabled, tells μTorrent to use the specified port to listen
to Web UI requests (and the internal tracker if enabled). This option is especially useful
for those who randomize their ports each time μTorrent starts. If left disabled, μTorrent
will serve the web interface over the same port as its normal listening port. You must
forward this port manually, even if you use UPnP to forward the normal μTorrent
listening port.
Restrict access to the following IPs allows you to limit the IPs that are allowed to
connect to the web interface. Multiple IPs may be specified, but they must be separated
by commas. IP ranges may be specified using CIDR notation.
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Playback
Playback allows you to seamlessly play your audio/video files with your default player
based on file extension or specify a specific player to use for all files.
Playback Player Selection
Use default player uses the player associated with the extension of the file to be
played.
Player Selection allows you to specify which player to be used for all files for
playback. You can select one of the automatically setup players in the list or browse for
your own player. Use %1 to specify the filename parameter in the command line
(Required).
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Advanced
UI Extras
Disk Cache
WARNING: Unless you fully understand the consequences of changing an advanced
setting, you should not modify it without guidance.
allow_pairing: Similar in concept to BlueTooth pairing, this option allows any external
application programmatically request a unique login password so that the application
can more easily obtain access to Web UI with minimal user interaction. The user must
explicitly give μTorrent permission to generate a login password for each application
that requests it. For security reasons, pairing is allowed only for applications running on
the same machine as the instance of μTorrent it is attempting to pair up with. Pairing
does not work unless net.discoverable is enabled.
bt.allow_same_ip: Enabling this option allows multiple incoming connections from the
same IP address. This option affects a single torrent job at a time, so you can still have
the same IP address connect to you on different torrent swarms. It is recommended that
this option be left disabled, as it weakens the anti-leech protection.
bt.ban_ratio: The lowest acceptable ratio of good to bad pieces a peer can send
before it gets banned. The lower this option is set, the more forgiving μTorrent will be
toward bad pieces, meaning that it will be less likely to ban a peer. This takes effect
after bt.ban_threshold is exceeded and bt.use_ban_ratio is enabled.
bt.ban_threshold: This option specifies the maximum number of hashfailed pieces any
single peer can send before μTorrent takes action against it (either banning it outright,
or enforcing bt.ban_ratio if bt.use_ban_ratio is enabled).
bt.compact_allocation: Enabling this option allows μTorrent to create files in a manner
such that the data are incrementally written to disk without file pre-allocation. Because
writes are compact, enabling this option may potentially lead to an increased level of
disk fragmentation while the file remains incomplete. In addition, this option further
decreases the already-low probability that a file can be previewed before completion,
since it may write the data for in-progress files out of order. Here are some things to
take note of when using this option:
If you tell μTorrent to pre-allocate all disk space, this option is ignored, and μTorrent
will pre-allocate the file anyway.
If this option is enabled, files can't be skipped. If a torrent job has skipped files, it
will not use compact allocation.
bt.connect_speed: This option specifies the number of connections μTorrent should
allow to be attempted and/or established each second, whether the connections use
uTP or TCP.
bt.enable_tracker: Enabling this option enables the rudimentary tracker embedded in
μTorrent. If you wish to use this tracker, the URL is located at
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http://IP:port/announce, where IP is your WAN IP address, and port is the
port μTorrent is listening on (or the alternative listening port if set and enabled). If you
use a dynamic DNS service, your domain may be used instead of your IP address. The
embedded tracker allows tracking of external .torrent files, and provides no way to limit
them. There is no interface for viewing the .torrent files that are tracked. It is imperative
that μTorrent is able to listen for incoming connections for this feature to work properly,
so you have to make sure you have completely forwarded your ports in order to use the
embedded tracker.
bt.graceful_shutdown: If enabled, μTorrent will take as long as it needs to finish its
shutdown sequence (writing in-progress pieces to disk, deleting files in deletion queue,
and waiting for tracker replies to stop messages -- among other things). That means
that even if it takes several minutes to shutdown gracefully, it will wait for that long, and
the process will remain in memory until then. If disabled, μTorrent will limit how long it
waits to to 10 seconds, and regardless of the state of the shutdown sequence, μTorrent
will force itself to exit.
bt.multiscrape: Enabling this option allows μTorrent to send multiple hashes each time
it scrapes a tracker, which is more efficient than sending one hash at a time. In most
circumstances, this option should not need to be disabled, as μTorrent will fall back to
single scraping if it detects that the tracker does not support multi-scraping.
bt.no_connect_to_services: This option tells μTorrent not to connect to peers using
ports specified in bt.no_connect_to_services_list as their listening ports. This stops
firewalls from complaining about μTorrent trying to send an e-mail.
bt.no_connect_to_services_list: This option specifies which ports μTorrent should
not connect to when bt.no_connect_to_services is enabled.
bt.prio_first_last_piece: Enabling this option prioritizes the first and last pieces of
each file in a torrent job, increasing the chances that they can be previewed before
download completion. μTorrent will prioritize at least the first and last 1 MiB of data in a
file.
bt.ratelimit_tcp_only: Enabling this option tells μTorrent to limit the upload and
download rates for TCP connections based on information received over the uTP
transport rather than using static global rate limits. This option is ignored if
bt.tcp_rate_control is disabled.
bt.scrape_stopped: Enabling this option allows μTorrent to get seed and peer counts
for torrent jobs that are stopped.
bt.send_have_to_seed: Enabling this option tells μTorrent to send a message to other
seeds indicating how many pieces you currently have.
bt.set_sockbuf: This debugging option allows μTorrent to automatically detect the TCP
buffer size periodically (so_sndbuf) and adjust it based on your upload speed. It does
not adjust based on latency.
bt.shutdown_tracker_timeout: This option controls the maximum amount of time
μTorrent will wait, when exiting, for each tracker to respond to a stopped event before
it forces itself to terminate. This value is interpreted in seconds, so please enter it as
such. Setting this value to 0 tells μTorrent to wait for an indefinite amount of time until it
receives a response.
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bt.shutdown_upnp_timeout: This option controls the maximum amount of time
μTorrent will wait, when exiting, for routers to respond to a request to unmap the
listening ports before it forces itself to terminate. This value is interpreted in seconds, so
please enter it as such. Setting this value to 0 tells μTorrent to wait for an indefinite
amount of time until it receives a response.
bt.tcp_rate_control: Enabling this option tells μTorrent to use information from the uTP
transport as hints for limiting TCP transfer rates.
bt.transp_disposition: This option controls μTorrent's level of bias towards using TCP
or uTP for transporting data (assuming the peer at the other end of the connection
supports both transport protocols). The following is a list of the accepted values:
1 allows μTorrent to attempt outgoing TCP connections
2 allows μTorrent to attempt outgoing uTP connections
4 allows μTorrent to accept incoming TCP connections
8 allows μTorrent to accept incoming uTP connections
16 tells μTorrent to use the new uTP header. This is an improved communication
header, but is not backwards compatible with clients that do not understand it.
This option is interpreted as a bitfield, so values can be added together to obtain a
combination of behaviors. Setting this value to 255 guarantees that all behaviors are
enabled.
bt.use_ban_ratio: This option tells μTorrent to use bt.ban_ratio to decide when a peer
gets banned after it has exceeded bt.ban_threshold.
bt.use_rangeblock: When enabled, μTorrent will automatically attempt to determine
whether an entire range of IP addresses should be banned for sending hashfailed
pieces rather than banning individual IPs one at a time. When μTorrent bans 4 IPs from
the same /24 CIDR block, it will ban the entire /24 CIDR block. When μTorrent bans 4
CIDR blocks of size /24 from the same /16 CIDR block, it will ban the entire /16 CIDR
block. When μTorrent bans 4 CIDR blocks of size /16 from the same /8 CIDR block, it
will ban the entire /8 CIDR block.
dht.rate: This option specifies the amount of bandwidth that DHT will use. The default
value, -1, tells μTorrent to manage the bandwidth usage automatically based on your
maximum upload rate. The automatic value is obtained by dividing your maximum
upload rate by 16. This value is interpreted in bytes per second, so please enter it as
such.
diskio.coalesce_write_size: This option determines the size threshold for which
μTorrent should write data out coalesced, and is relevant only if diskio.coalesce_writes
is enabled. This value is interpreted in bytes per second, so please enter it as such.
diskio.coalesce_writes: This option tells μTorrent to try to minimize the number of
writes to disk by writing more data at once. It doesn't have any effect on download
speeds, but might increase memory and CPU usage to achieve less disk writes.
diskio.flush_files: Enabling this option causes μTorrent to close file handles every
minute. It helps to reduce the effect of Windows managing the system cache badly for
some people and causing apparent "memory leaks."
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diskio.no_zero: Enabling this option causes μTorrent to skip the zero-filling process for
file allocation. This option works only on Windows XP or newer, and requires
administrator privileges by default. However, it is possible to make this work on limited
accounts by setting the "Perform volume maintenance tasks" policy appropriately in the
Windows Group Policy Editor. Skipping zero-filling speeds up the file allocation process,
but because the allocated files have shared read access, there is a risk that any
sensitive data that may have once existed at that location in disk but isn't wiped will
potentially be exposed for other applications and users to read, including those without
volume maintenance privileges.
diskio.smart_hash: This option makes μTorrent hash data from memory (if in the write
queue) instead of flushing to disk, re-reading from disk, and then hashing. This should
help reduce hard disk reads, especially when transferring at high speeds.
diskio.smart_sparse_hash: This option is a workaround for a problem in some
versions of Windows that return incorrect data to μTorrent regarding sparse files and
the amount of data that has actually been completed on disk.
diskio.sparse_files: Enabling this option causes μTorrent to allocate only the data that
it writes, but will inform the filesystem of the file's size (so that it can attempt to reserve
enough contiguous space on the hard drive without having to physically zero all of the
space out for the file). Even though space is reserved for the file, no space will be taken
for the unwritten parts of the file. Enabling this option may potentially lead to increased
disk fragmentation in rare cases where the drive does not have enough free space
available to honor the space reservation for sparse files. Here are some things to take
note of when using this option:
Sparse files work only on partitions that are formatted as NTFS.
Hash checking sparse files tends to be quicker than hash checking pre-allocated
files, as μTorrent won't have to hash zeroed-out pre-allocated data.
On Windows Vista, sparse files can cause μTorrent to run into a file system
limitation.
If you are using a non-administrator account with a disk quota, sparse files won't
work, and the file will still get fully allocated. This is a limitation with Windows that
μTorrent can't do anything about.
This option cannot be used in conjunction with pre-allocate all files. If both options
are enabled simultaneously, pre-allocation will take precedence.
When used in conjunction with bt.compact_allocation, μTorrent will reserve space
for each file in the filesystem, but it will continue to use compact writes.
diskio.use_partfile: This option is used to store data that is downloaded from files that
you told μTorrent to skip. This is necessary to prevent the file from being allocated. It
separately stores the parts of the skipped files that come with a piece, since μTorrent
must download and save the entire piece in order to confirm that it is uncorrupted, and
each piece can contain data from multiple files. The partfile is removed when you
remove the torrent job from the torrent job list.
gui.auto_restart: This option configures crash recovery in μTorrent. When this option
is enabled, if μTorrent crashes while it is minimized and the user has been idle at the
computer for more than 1 minute, this option will cause μTorrent to automatically restart,
and a notification of the crash (without a crash dump or any personally identifiable
information) will be sent to the developers. If μTorrent crashes more than once within an
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hour, this option will not cause it to automatically restart again after the first crash, as
such frequency of crashes is indicative of some important underlying problem that
should not be ignored by the user. In this situation, μTorrent will fall back to the regular
behavior (as if this option were disabled), where it displays a crash dialog that allows
the user to choose how to proceed.
gui.bypass_search_redirect: Enabling this option tells μTorrent to search directly on
the selected search engine rather than being redirected through
http://search.utorrent.com.
gui.compat_diropen: If you experience abnormal behaviors while browsing directories
in μTorrent, such as a blank browsing dialog, try enabling this option.
gui.default_del_action: This option tells μTorrent how it should remove torrent jobs
when pressing the Remove button or Delete on your keyboard. Note that any value
above 3 will cause the "Remove" button and the Delete button on your keyboard to do
nothing in μTorrent. To be safer, you'd best be setting this option in the GUI through the
toolbar method.
0 means "Remove"
1 means "Remove and delete .torrent"
2 means "Remove and delete Data"
3 means "Remove and delete .torrent + Data"
gui.delete_to_trash: Enabling this option tells μTorrent to attempt to delete files to the
Recycle Bin rather than directly erasing them from the disk. It is easier to set this option
in the GUI through the toolbar method.
gui.graph_legend: This option tells μTorrent to draw a legend over the graphs
displayed in the Speed tab to describe each of the lines drawn on the graph.
gui.graph_overhead: If enabled, this option tells μTorrent to draw communication
overhead lines in the Speed tab's transfer rate graphs. Otherwise, only the "Network
Overhead" graph will display information about communication overhead.
gui.graphic_progress: This option tells μTorrent to draw a progress bar for each
torrent job in the torrent jobs list, behind the Done column.
gui.log_date: This option causes the date to be included in the timestamp shown in the
Logger tab.
gui.piecebar_progress: If enabled, this option tells μTorrent to draw the lower
Downloaded bar as the progress bar for each torrent job in the torrent jobs list, behind
the Done column. This option works only if gui.graphic_progress is enabled, and will
hide the percentage from the column.
gui.report_problems: If enabled, this option tells μTorrent to report hangs in the user
interface thread back to the μTorrent servers anonymously. The information sent is not
personally identifiable, but can assist the developers in fixing (or identifying the cause
of) the user interface hang. Whenever a report is sent to the server, a message is
added to the Logger tab.
gui.tall_category_list: This option toggles the Category List's height between short
and tall. When taller, the Category List displaces the Detailed Info Pane's left-hand side.
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When shorter, the Category List's lower section is displaced by the Detailed Info pane. A
taller list might be more optimal for users with many labels and RSS feeds
gui.transparent_graph_legend: If enabled, this option tells μTorrent to draw a
transparent background behind the legend (otherwise, the background is opaque).
gui.update_rate: This option controls the amount of time between each update of the
μTorrent main window. The higher it is, the less frequently μTorrent updates the main
window, meaning that if you select 1000, the information displayed on the main window
is at most 1000 milliseconds (1 second) old. For users of slower computers, you might
want to increase this number to decrease resource usage when the main window is
displayed. Any value below 500 will be ignored (and 500 will be used instead).
ipfilter.enable: This option, when enabled, tells μTorrent to load ipfilter.dat and apply
the rules on connections established after it is loaded. Note that disabling and reenabling
this option will force μTorrent to reload ipfilter.dat.
isp.bep22: This option enables Local Tracker Discovery, allowing μTorrent to attempt to
discover ISP-local trackers via a series of reverse DNS lookups. The ISP-local tracker
can return a list of peers and caches (most likely ISP-local). Note that if your ISP is
known to interfere with BitTorrent traffic, careful consideration should be taken in
deciding to enable this option. Announcing to a ISP-hosted tracker indicates to the ISP
that you are using BitTorrent, and as such, can make it easier for the ISP to interfere.
Private torrent jobs are not announced to local trackers.
net.bind_ip: If your computer setup requires that you use a specific LAN adapter for
incoming connections, you may specify that adapter's IP address here.
net.calc_overhead: If enabled, this option tells μTorrent to include communication
overhead in the transfer rate calculations.
net.disable_ipv6: If enabled, this option tells μTorrent to not use IPv6.
net.discoverable: If enabled, this option tells μTorrent to listen on one of a sequence
of well-known ports for incoming connections in addition to the standard and alternative
listening ports. Because the sequence of ports is well-known to applications attempting
to interface with μTorrent, it allows for such applications to connect to μTorrent with less
effort on the user's part.
net.limit_excludeslocal: This option decides whether μTorrent should apply the
Transfer Cap limits to traffic between itself and peers on the local network. Peers are
considered local if they are discovered by Local Peer Discovery, or if they are on the
same LAN as the client.
net.low_cpu: Enabling this option reduces CPU usage slightly. You may achieve faster
speeds with this option disabled. In general, this option is useless for most people
unless they have extremely fast connections.
net.max_halfopen: This option specifies how many connections μTorrent should
attempt to establish simultaneously at any given time. On systems running Windows XP
with Service Pack 2 (SP2) or newer, if your TCPIP.sys file is unpatched, you should
leave this option at its default value.
net.outgoing_ip: If your computer setup requires that you use a specific LAN adapter
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for outgoing connections, you may specify that adapter's IP address here. Note that
Windows will sometimes ignore this setting and use other adapters due to their binding
orders in Windows. To fix this, read Microsoft's knowledge base article KB894564.
net.outgoing_max_port: This sets the upper limit for the outgoing port range. If this
option is set to some invalid port number or some value less than net.outgoing_port, it
gets ignored, and only net.outgoing_port gets looked at (meaning the outgoing port
"range" will actually be a single outgoing port).
net.outgoing_port: This option specifies the port that μTorrent should use to make
outgoing connections. Normally, μTorrent selects a port from the ephemeral port range
at random. "This can be used with full cone NAT routers to reduce the number of NAT
table entries and thus prevent cashes on some router models. When the outgoing port
is bound to the same as the incoming port that might even solve NAT problems on full
cone NAT routers" (Advanced Network Settings on AzureusWiki). This option only works
on Windows 2000 and above. This option is ignored if it is not a valid port number.
net.upnp_tcp_only: This option disables automatic forwarding of the listening port for
UDP via UPnP, telling μTorrent to forward the port for TCP only. This fixes an issue with
some broken routers that overwrite the TCP forwarding with the UDP forwarding.
net.utp_dynamic_packet_size: If enabled, this option allows μTorrent to adjust the
uTP packet size in response to connection conditions detected through information
gathered by uTP, changing up to as often as net.utp_packet_size_interval allows. If
disabled, μTorrent uses the initial packet size for all uTP communication, as set by
net.utp_initial_packet_size.
net.utp_initial_packet_size: This controls the initial size of the uTP packets that
μTorrent uses when initiating a uTP connection. If net.utp_dynamic_packet_size is
enabled, packet sizes can change dynamically during the lifetime of the uTP
connection, depending on the connection conditions; this option only controls how
μTorrent starts off. This option is interpreted as a multiplier of 150 bytes, so please
enter it as such. Any value below 1 will be ignored (and 1 will be used instead), and any
value above 8 will be ignored (and 8 will be used instead). Effectively, that means that
the initial packet sizes selectable by the user are the multiples of 150 bytes between
(and including) 150 bytes and 1200 bytes.
net.utp_packet_size_interval: This controls how often uTP alters its packet size in
response to network conditions, assuming net.utp_dynamic_packet_size is enabled.
This value is interpreted in seconds, so please enter it as such.
net.utp_receive_target_delay: This controls the threshold detected connection
receive delay that, if surpassed, will cause μTorrent to throttle back on bandwidth
usage. The higher this option is set, the more forgiving μTorrent will be toward
connection delays, meaning that it will be less likely to throttle back on bandwidth
usage. Receive delay is detected by tracking the changes in the deltas between uTP
packet timestamps and packet receive times. This option is interpreted in milliseconds,
to please enter it as such.
net.utp_target_delay: This option controls the threshold detected connection send
delay that, if surpassed, will cause μTorrent to throttle back on bandwidth usage. The
higher this option is set, the more forgiving μTorrent will be toward connection delays,
meaning that it will be less likely to throttle back on bandwidth usage. Send delay is the
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receive delay as observed by recipient uTP peers, which is reported back to the client
by the recipient peers. This option is interpreted in milliseconds, so please enter it as
such.
net.wsaevents: This option is used for tweaking if you are experiencing odd firewall
issues. Decrease the value one by one to see if it helps.
peer.disconnect_inactive: Enabling this option tells μTorrent to disconnect from a
peer that is not transferring with you after peer.disconnect_inactive_interval seconds of
inactivity. A peer gets disconnected by this option only if the connection limit has been
reached.
peer.disconnect_inactive_interval: This option sets the amount of time μTorrent
should wait before breaking an inactive connection. This value is interpreted in
seconds, so please enter it as such. Any value below 300 will be ignored (and 300 will
be used instead).
peer.lazy_bitfield: Some ISPs block seeding by looking for the complete bitfield and
closing the connection. When enabled, μTorrent does not send the complete bitfield, but
a sample of it, so as to prevent blocking of seeding.
peer.resolve_country: Enabling this option tells μTorrent to use an Internet database
of IP addresses (a DNSBL) to determine a peer's country. Even if the settings directory
contains flags.conf and flags.bmp, this option will take precedence, and the internal flag
images will be used instead.
queue.dont_count_slow_dl: Enabling this option tells μTorrent to ignore slow
downloading torrent jobs as part of the queue. If a torrent job is downloading at less
than the value specified by queue.slow_dl_threshold, it will not prevent the next item in
the queue from starting.
queue.dont_count_slow_ul: Enabling this option tells μTorrent to ignore slow
uploading torrent jobs as part of the queue. If a torrent job is uploading at less than the
value specified by queue.slow_ul_threshold, it will not prevent the next item in the
queue from starting.
queue.prio_no_seeds: Enabling this option gives torrent jobs without seeds higher
priority when seeding than other torrent jobs.
queue.slow_dl_threshold: The rate below which μTorrent should consider a torrent
job to be downloading slowly. If μTorrent is downloading at a rate above this value, it is
considered to be actively downloading. This value is interpreted in bytes per second, so
please enter it as such.
queue.slow_ul_threshold: The rate below which μTorrent should consider a torrent
job to be uploading slowly. If μTorrent is uploading at a rate above this value, it is
considered to be actively uploading. This value is interpreted in bytes per second, so
please enter it as such.
queue.use_seed_peer_ratio: When this option is enabled, μTorrent will determine the
seeding queue order based on the ratio of the number of seeds to the number of peers
connected in the swarm. The lower the seed:peer ratio is for a torrent job, the higher
priority it will be given in the seeding queue. If a torrent job has 0 peers and
queue.dont_count_slow_ul is disabled, it will be given the lowest priority. Otherwise, if
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the aforementioned option is enabled, the torrent job is treated as if there is 1 peer in
the swarm.
rss.feed_as_default_label: When this option is enabled, μTorrent will use an RSS
feed's name as the default label for any torrent jobs added without a label from the RSS
feed.
rss.smart_repack_filter: This option tells μTorrent to select an RSS item designated
as REPACK over an item without the REPACK designation if both show up in the RSS
feed.
rss.update_interval: This option sets the length of time μTorrent should wait between
each RSS feed update check. This value is interpreted in minutes, so please enter it as
such. Any value below 5 will be ignored (and 5 will be used instead).
sys.enable_wine_hacks: This option enables several workarounds for bugs found in
Wine (like list-view flickering, or improper display of files list-view in Add New Torrent
dialog). This option has no effect on Windows. For changes to this option to take effect,
you must restart μTorrent.
webui.token_auth: This option enables the token authentication system for the Web
UI, which is a method for preventing cross-site request forgery attacks that use the
authenticated browser session to issue commands to μTorrent. This option breaks
backwards compatibility with applications that are unaware of the token system.
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μTorrent User Manual > Appendix A: The μTorrent Interface > Preferences > Advanced
UI Extras
Speed Popup List
Override automatic speed popup list allows you to define the lists of speeds that are
displayed when right-click ing the corresponding item in the status bar on the main
window. If left unchecked, μTorrent automatically generates the list in context, based on
the current limit.
Upload speed list defines the upload speed list. -1 adds a separator to the list. 0
means Unlimited. Any other positive value is interpreted normally (as that value).
Each value must be separated with a comma. The values are interpreted in KiB/s,
so please enter them as such.
Download speed list defines the download speed list. -1 adds a separator to the
list. 0 means Unlimited. Any other positive value is interpreted normally (as that
value). Each value must be separated with a comma. The values are interpreted in
KiB/s, so please enter them as such.
Persistent Labels
The field here allows you to specify permanent labels that remain regardless of the
number of torrent jobs there are actually using that label. Multiple persistent labels may
be entered, but must be separated with a | (vertical pipe). Note that persistent labels
are given higher priority than normal labels in the category list, and so, are displayed
above their normal counterparts.
Search Engines
This edit control allows you to edit the list of search engines that μTorrent can use when
using the built-in torrent search facility. One search engine may be entered per line, and
must be entered as follows (where ?search= is arbitrary and depends on the search
engine being used):
Name|http://domain/path?search=
If found in the URL, μTorrent will replace the following tokens as described:
%s is replaced with the entered search query. If this is not found in the search URL,
then the query will be appended to the end of the URL instead.
%v is replaced with the client user agent ID.
In order to add custom search engines to the list on your own, you should have some
basic understanding of HTML and how HTTP GET works. The topics themselves are
outside the scope of this manual. The alternative would be to check whether your
favorite search engine serves .btsearch files that μTorrent can use to automatically
add the search engine to the list.
Blank lines are displayed as separators in the search engine menu.
If you leave the entire field blank, the search widgets in the toolbar will be hidden from
view.
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μTorrent User Manual > Appendix A: The μTorrent Interface > Preferences > Advanced
Disk Cache
The disk cache is used to keep frequently accessed data in memory to reduce the
number of reads and writes to the hard drive. μTorrent normally manages the cache
automatically, but you may change its behavior by modifying these settings. Because of the
nature of the settings, caution should be exercised when modifying the settings, as bad
settings may be detrimental to performance. Disk cache behavior can be viewed in the
Speed tab.
Disk Cache
Override automatic cache size and specify the size manually allows you to set a
new maximum memory usage for the disk cache. Normally, μTorrent automatically
adjusts the cache size based on your current download speed. This value is interpreted
in MiB, so please enter it as such. Any value below 1 will be ignored, and 1 will be used
instead.
Reduce memory usage when cache is not needed flushes unused parts of the disk
cache when μTorrent is not transferring data.
Advanced Cache Settings
Enable caching of disk writes allows μTorrent to use the disk cache to store data in
memory before writing it to disk. This option has the effect of decreasing the frequency
of writes to disk.
Write out untouched blocks every 2 minutes makes μTorrent write to disk the
16 KiB blocks of data in memory that haven't been touched for 2 minutes or longer
and don't fill up a piece. This option has the effect of decreasing μTorrent's memory
usage while increasing the frequency of writes to disk.
Write out finished pieces immediately makes μTorrent write a piece to disk
once it is completed in memory. This option has the effect of decreasing μTorrent's
memory usage while increasing the frequency of writes to disk.
Enable caching of disk reads allows μTorrent to use the disk cache to store
frequently read data into memory from disk. This option has the effect of decreasing the
frequency of reads from disk.
Turn off caching if the upload speed is slow disables the read caching if
uploading is below 40 KiB/s. This option has the effect of decreasing μTorrent's
memory usage while increasing the frequency of reads from disk.
Remove old blocks from the cache removes chunks of read cache data from
memory if they haven't been accessed for 10 minutes in order to make room for
other data. This option has the effect of decreasing μTorrent's memory usage while
increasing the frequency of reads from disk.
Increase automatic cache size when cache thrashing increases the disk cache
size when reading from disk increases (most often due to increased upload
speeds). If you override the automatic cache size, this option is not needed.
Disable Windows Caching of disk writes disables Windows' native caching of writes
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to disk. This option helps when the Windows disk cache sometimes causes an
extremely large amount of physical system memory to seemingly "disappear" while
μTorrent is downloading quickly (because it is trying to cache μTorrent's increased disk
writing rate). When memory becomes fully used, page swapping occurs, which can
cause slowdowns. On the other hand, enabling this option may cause increased disk
seeks, which may decrease transfer rates when the μTorrent disk cache is full.
Disable Windows Caching of disk reads disables Windows' native caching of reads
from disk. This option helps when the Windows disk cache sometimes causes an
extremely large amount of physical system memory to seemingly "disappear" while
μTorrent is uploading quickly (because it is trying to cache μTorrent's increased disk
reading rate). When memory becomes fully used, page swapping occurs, which can
cause slowdowns. On the other hand, enabling this option may cause increased disk
seeks, which may decrease transfer rates when the μTorrent disk cache is full.
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μTorrent User Manual > Appendix A: The μTorrent Interface
RSS Downloader
RSS web feeds deliver information and content in such a way that allows one to track
updates using an aggregator. μTorrent can aggregate and parse an RSS feed, allowing one
to automatically download newly released .torrent files that match a specified filter. Such
feeds must give direct links to the .torrent files in at least one of either the <guid>, <link>,
or <enclosure> tags in order to be used correctly. To access the RSS Downloader, select
"Options" then "RSS..." in the main menus, or press Ctrl + R on the keyboard.
Favorites
History
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μTorrent User Manual > Appendix A: The μTorrent Interface > RSS Downloader
Favorites
T h e Favorites tab manages filters that allow μTorrent to automatically download
specific torrents from a RSS feed.
The listbox displays all filters that μTorrent will use when parsing the RSS feeds. If the
checkbox next to a filter is checked, it will be used by μTorrent to pick out a torrent to
download. Otherwise, the filter is ignored by μTorrent. Filters can be sorted using dragand-
drop .
The Add button allows you to enter a new filter for μTorrent to use when parsing RSS
feeds. After you press "Add", you must name the filter immediately. You can edit this
name later by selecting the filter from the listbox and pressing F2 on your keyboard. An
alternative is to slow double-click the filter and rename it directly.
The Delete button allows you to delete the filter that is currently selected.
The ? (question mark) button tests displays the last time the selected filter matched a
torrent. It also displays the last 4 torrents matched (if any) and any currently-matching
torrents from all applicable feeds. This can be used to double-check your filter.
The Filter field allows you to tell μTorrent what you want to match. Wildcards can be
used to generalize the filter. Note that you cannot specify the season or episode number
in this filter if it is decoded by μTorrent. You must use the episode number box, or
enable "Filter matches original name instead of decoded name ". This field is case
insensitive.
The Not field allows you to specify text that, if matched by a torrent, will cause μTorrent
to ignore it. Wildcards can be used to generalize the filter. Note that you cannot specify
the season or episode number in this filter if it is decoded by μTorrent. You must use the
episode number box, or enable "Filter matches original name instead of decoded
name". This field is case insensitive.
T he Save in field allows you to specify where you want μTorrent to download the
torrent contents to. If this field is specified, μTorrent will automatically start the torrent
job. Note that if you already have a default download location set, you do not have to
set a directory here.
The Feed dropdown menu allows you to select a particular feed that you want the filter
to apply to. If you want μTorrent to apply this filter to every feed, leave this dropdown
menu as (All).
The Quality menu allows you to select the quality of the torrents, if it is a video. If what
you want to filter is not a video, leave this option as ALL. Note that setting this option is
not an absolute necessity, even if you are trying to download a video.
The Episode Number field allows you to specify specific episodes to download. This
field supports ranges, so if you want to download episodes 1 through 26 of season 3 of
some series, you input 3x1-26 into this field. If you want to specify the ending season
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in addition to the starting season, you can enter something like 3x1-4x15 into the field.
If you want to specify the beginning of a range, but not the end (you would like μTorrent
to continue every subsequent episode, including in later seasons), something like 3x1-
would suffice. Notice the - (hyphen) after the 1. If you prefer, S3E1 can also be used to
specify episodes instead of the above-shown 3x1.
Filter matches original name instead of decoded name forces μTorrent to apply
the filter on the torrent name itself. Normally, μTorrent parses the torrent name and
applies the filter on the decoded name, which excludes certain things like quality and
episode number.
Don't start downloads automatically tells μTorrent to add torrent jobs matching the
favorite in stopped mode instead of starting them automatically.
Give download highest priority places a matching torrent at the top of the download
queue (#1). Because this is not a forced start, if you pass your maximum number of
active torrent jobs after this torrent job gets started, the started torrent closest to the end
of the queue will be stopped and will have to wait on the queue.
Smart ep. filter causes μTorrent to download the first version of each new episode that
matches your filter. Note that you should not enable this option if the episode number is
not parseable (when the Episode column is empty).
The Minimum interval dropdown menu sets the minimum interval between each time
the filter is matched. For example, if set to 2 days, μTorrent will not attempt to match
the filter again until at least 2 days have passed.
(match always) tells μTorrent to check the filter for matches every time it checks
the RSS feeds.
(match only once) tells μTorrent to use the filter only once. After a torrent job is
added to the torrent jobs list by the filter, μTorrent won't check the filter for any more
matches.
The Reset button forces μTorrent to forget when it last matched the filter.
The Label for new torrents combobox tells μTorrent to set any torrent that matches
this filter to the specified label.
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History
T h e History tab displays the last 500 torrents matched. Entries can be manually
deleted by use of the Delete button at the bottom, or by pressing Delete on the keyboard.
Note that left-click ing on a column will sort the items in the list by that column, alternating
between ascending and descending sort for each additional click. You can select what
columns you wish to see by right-click ing the column headers. If you wish to reset all
changes you've made to the columns, you can select "Reset" in that context menu. The
following is a description of each column:
Download Date is the date that the torrent job was matched.
Feed is the feed from which the added torrent job was matched.
Full Name is the unparsed name of the torrent (before any information is extracted or
decoded).
URL displays the URL that the source .torrent file is located at.
Context Menu
Delete will delete the selected entries from the RSS history.
Open URL in Browser will open the linked URL(s) in your default web browser.
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μTorrent User Manual > Appendix A: The μTorrent Interface
Miscellaneous
There are several other elements in the μTorrent interface that should be explained, but
do not fit into the previous sections of the manual.
Add New Torrent
Add/Edit RSS Feed
Create New Torrent
Torrent Properties
General
Advanced
Tray Icon
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μTorrent User Manual > Appendix A: The μTorrent Interface > Miscellaneous
Add New Torrent
The Add New Torrent dialog allows you to change several options for the torrent job
before it is added to your torrent jobs list. This dialog is displayed only if the relevant option
is enabled in the Preferences. Files selected/deselected in this dialog can be
deselected/reselected in the Files tab's context menu.
Save As
The combobox allows you to specify the location you wish to download the torrent
contents. Previously used locations are saved in the combobox and can be used again.
The Skip hash check checkbox tells μTorrent to not bother checking existing data for
corruption. It is strongly recommended that you do not use this option, as corruption can
sometimes happen unknowingly, outside of one's own control. Sharing corrupt pieces is
detrimental to the swarm.
The Start torrent checkbox tells μTorrent to start the torrent job after it is added to the
torrent jobs list. If unchecked, the torrent job will be added in Stopped mode.
The Label combobox allows you to set a label for the torrent job being added. Existing
labels are displayed in the combobox, but you are free to create a new label if you wish.
The Add to top of queue checkbox will give the torrent job a queue number of 1. If
combined with the Start torrent option, this will start the torrent job immediately.
Torrent Contents
Name displays the name of the torrent job, taken from the .torrent file.
Comment shows the comment placed on the .torrent file job by its creator.
Size displays the total amount of space required for the files being downloaded.
Selective file downloading is taken into account, so only the data you select to be
downloaded will be counted. When files are skipped, the total size of the torrent
contents (not taking selective file downloading into account) is displayed next to the
selected size. The last number in the parentheses displays the amount of space
available in the disk that the torrent contents are being downloaded to.
Date shows the day and time at which the .torrent file was created.
The Select All button will mark all files to be downloaded.
The Select None button will mark all files to be skipped.
The Files list-view is a list of all files in the .torrent file, and allows you to select which
files you want to download. The following is a description of each column:
Name column displays the filename. A checkmark to the left of the filename means
the file will be downloaded, while an empty checkbox means the file will not be
downloaded. Pressing Space on the keyboard toggles this for the selected file(s).
Path is the location that the file will be downloaded to on disk. If this column is
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blank, then the file will be downloaded into the torrent job's Save As location. If this
column displays a partial path (not a full path that includes a drive root), then that is
the subdirectory in the Save As directory that the file will be saved to.
Size column displays the size of the file.
right-click ing on the list will display the following items in a context menu:
Select will mark the selected file(s) to be downloaded.
Deselect will mark the selected file(s) to be skipped.
Se lect All will mark all files to be downloaded.
Deselect All will mark all files to be skipped.
The Advanced... button brings up the Torrent Properties dialog.
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μTorrent User Manual > Appendix A: The μTorrent Interface > Miscellaneous
Add/Edit RSS Feed
The Add/Edit RSS Feed dialog allows you to enter a new feed for μTorrent to monitor, or
edit an existing feed. Feeds must contain direct links to .torrent files in at least one of either
the <guid>, <link>, or <enclosure> tags in order to be used correctly.
Feed
The Feed URL field specifies the URL that the RSS feed is located at. Depending on
the method used by the website for authenticating users (if any), the URL may have to
be entered in a specific format.
The Custom Alias field allows you to give a custom name to the feed. If unchecked,
μTorrent will attempt to automatically detect the feed name based on the title specified
in the feed itself.
Subscription
Do not automatically download items tells μTorrent not to automatically create a
simple favorite for the RSS feed to download any torrent in the feed.
Automatically download items published in feed tells μTorrent to create a simple
favorite for the RSS feed that matches and downloads any item in the feed (uses * as
the filter).
Use smart episode filter applies the smart episode filter to the simple favorite.
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μTorrent User Manual > Appendix A: The μTorrent Interface > Miscellaneous
Create New Torrent
So you've finished setting everything up, downloaded some torrents, and are now
wondering how you can share your own files with other people? You'll find that the entire
process is very simple in μTorrent, and only consists of a few steps, and you're on your way
to contributing back to the community. Despite its outward appearance, the .torrent file
creation facility's simplicity does not mean it is lacking in functionality, and in most cases, it is
all people need in a .torrent file creation utility. The only required step in creating a .torrent
file is to select a valid source, though you should configure the rest of the settings
appropriately if needed.
After you create the .torrent file, you need to find a way to share it with whoever you
want. If you're only targeting a few people, it might be easier to send the file to them directly.
If you're targeting the general public, you should upload it to a website that allows .torrent file
uploads. Public .torrent index sites often allow for this. The .torrent file can also be uploaded
to private trackers, but you should be aware that some private trackers require that you
redownload the .torrent file from their tracker in order for it to work.
Select Source
The combobox displays the path of the file or directory that will be made into a .torrent
file. You can edit this path manually if you know the file or directory's location.
Previously used locations are saved in the combobox and can be used again.
The Add file button lets you select a specific file and automatically places its path in the
combobox above. Selecting a single file disables the "Skip Files" feature.
The Add directory button lets you select a specific directory and automatically places
its path in the combobox above. Only by using this button can you make use of the
"Skip Files" feature.
The Skip Files field allows you to skip files using specific filters. This field only gets
activated if you use the "Add directory" button. Wildcards can be used to specify
multiple files.
Torrent Properties
The Trackers edit control lists all of the trackers the .torrent file will use. Only HTTP,
HTTPS, and UDP trackers are supported. Trackers are separated by a newline. Those
that are not separated by blank lines will be used as backup trackers for adjacently
listed trackers. Backup trackers will not be used unless the previously listed tracker
fails. Note that having μTorrent use multiple trackers simultaneously does not
necessarily improve the .torrent itself, so don't be discouraged from selecting some
trackers to be backup trackers. If you're not sure what tracker to use, try checking your
favorite .torrent tracker for the tracker URL to use when creating new .torrents for it.
Alternatively, you can use the embedded tracker in μTorrent here. This edit control can
be left blank if you wish to use only DHT to track the .torrent file, just be sure that you
do not make the .torrent file private.
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The Web Seeds edit control lists all the web seeds the .torrent file will use. Only HTTP,
HTTPS, and FTP web seeds are supported. Web seeds are separated by a newline.
For single-file torrent contents, the target file can be linked to directly (even if the file
name differs from the name described in the .torrent file). This isn't necessary, though;
for both single and multiple file torrent contents, the directory containing the desired files
can be listed, and clients that support web seeds should automatically append the path
and filenames described in the .torrent file onto the listed directory to obtain the full URL
to the desired files.
The Comment field allows you to place whatever comment you want in the .torrent file.
T he Piece Size dropdown menu allows you to select the size of each piece in the
.torrent file. Selecting too small a piece size for large source files creates a needlessly
large .torrent file and extreme protocol communication overhead, while using too large a
piece size means more wasted bandwidth for people who often experience hashfails,
since they'd have to redownload entire pieces over for each hashfail that occurs. Unless
you are absolutely sure you understand what the option is used for, and the
consequences that come with using it, it is recommended that you let μTorrent
automatically detect the piece size for you.
Other
Start seeding tells μTorrent to automatically add the torrent job to the torrent jobs list
and start it. Note that if you plan on uploading the .torrent file to a private tracker, you
might have to redownload the file from their tracker before it works, so this option might
be useless to you if that is the case.
Preserve file order tells μTorrent to create the .torrent file with files and directories
sorted by name, in ascending order. By default, μTorrent sorts files in the .torrent file by
size, in descending order.
Private torrent tells μTorrent to set the 'private' flag in the .torrent file, which tells
clients that support this flag to not announce this torrent job over DHT, and disables
LPD and PEX as well. Accordingly, if you plan on leaving the Trackers edit control
blank in order to make the .torrent file use DHT, you should not enable this option.
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μTorrent User Manual > Appendix A: The μTorrent Interface > Miscellaneous
Torrent Properties
In some cases, you might want a torrent job to behave differently from the default
settings, maybe in terms of speed, or maybe how it obtains its peers. With the Torrent
Properties dialog, you can edit some of these settings.
General
Advanced
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μTorrent User Manual > Appendix A: The μTorrent Interface > Miscellaneous > Torrent
Properties
General
Trackers
The edit control lists all the trackers the torrent job(s) will use, and is interpreted
identically to how the "Create New Torrent " dialog's "Trackers" edit control is
interpreted. If a private torrent job's trackers list is modified, all existing peer connections
for that torrent job will be dropped.
Bandwidth Settings
T he Maximum upload rate field will limit the maximum rate at which μTorrent will
upload for the selected torrent job(s). Setting the value to 0 is equivalent to setting it to
unlimited. Setting the value to anywhere between 1 and 3 will limit the download speed
for the torrent job to 12 times the set upload speed, and you will see a "[Limited]"
message in the Transfer tab. This value is interpreted in KiB/s, so please enter it as
such. This limit will not override the global maximum upload rate.
The Maximum download rate field will limit the maximum rate at which μTorrent will
download for the selected torrent job(s). Setting the value to 0 is equivalent to setting it
to unlimited. This value is interpreted in KiB/s, so please enter it as such. This limit will
not override the global maximum download rate.
The Number of upload slots field defines the maximum number of peers that μTorrent
will upload to at any given moment for the selected torrent job(s). This value will
override the default value. Leaving this blank tells μTorrent to use the default settings.
Seeding Goal
Override default settings tells μTorrent to override the default queueing settings for
the selected torrent job(s).
T he Minimum ratio field behaves identically to the respective option in the default
queueing preferences, but affects only the torrent job(s) whose properties are being
edited.
The Minimum seeding time field menu behaves identically to the respective option in
the default queueing preferences, but affects only the torrent job(s) whose properties
are being edited.
Other Settings
Initial Seeding enables a more bandwidth efficient method of seeding the torrent
job(s). This should be used only if you are the sole seeder in the swarm, and if there
are at least 2 peers connected. Generally, this option should not be used by people with
high upload speeds.
Enable DHT enables announcing the torrent over DHT. This option is automatically
disabled if DHT is turned off, or if the selected .torrent file has the 'private' flag set.
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Peer Exchange enables trading of peer lists with other peers that support μTorrent's
implementation of Peer Exchange. This option is disabled if the selected .torrent file has
the 'private' flag set.
Local Peer Discovery enables discovery of local peers via multicast. This option is
disabled if the selected .torrent file has the 'private' flag set.
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μTorrent User Manual > Appendix A: The μTorrent Interface > Miscellaneous > Torrent
Properties
Advanced
Web Seeds
The edit control lists all the web seeds the selected torrent job(s) will use, and is
interpreted identically to how the "Create New Torrent " dialog's "Web Seeds" edit
control is interpreted.
Run Program
The given field allows you to run a program after the selected torrent job(s) finish
downloading. There are several variables you should be aware of if you wish to use this
feature to manipulate the files you downloaded:
%F is the placeholder for the name of the file in the torrent job. This variable
assumes the selected torrent job does not contain multiple files. If this is not the
case, it will be replaced with an empty string (nothing).
%D is equivalent to the path shown in the Save As field, assuming the torrent job
contains multiple files. If it is a single-file torrent job, the path to the directory
containing the file is returned.
%N is the same as what's listed under the Name column for the torrent job.
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μTorrent User Manual > Appendix A: The μTorrent Interface > Miscellaneous
Tray Icon
The μTorrent tray icon gives you a brief overview of your torrent jobs. Placing the
mouse cursor over the tray icon will show a tooltip where you can view the total number of
torrent jobs you have currently downloading, the total amount queued for download, the total
amount currently seeding, and the total amount queued for seeding. Also, the total upload
and download speeds are displayed in the tooltip. Left-click ing on the tray icon will toggle
the visiblity of the main window, depending your system tray settings. Right-click ing the tray
icon will display a context menu, through which you can make quick settings changes to
μTorrent:
Hide/Show μTorrent toggles the display of the μTorrent main window.
Pause all torrents sets all downloading or seeding torrent jobs to paused mode.
Resume all torrents will resume the transferring of paused torrent jobs.
Download Limit allows you to control the global maximum download limit. The values
displayed depend on the speed popup list settings in the Preferences.
Upload Limit allows you to control the global maximum upload limit. The values
displayed depend on the speed popup list settings in the Preferences.
Enable Scheduler allows you to enable or disable the scheduler from the without
having to open the Preferences.
μTorrent Webpage opens the μTorrent webpage in your default web browser.
μTorrent Forums opens the μTorrent forums in your default web browser.
Exit does just that -- it exits μTorrent. Note that exiting μTorrent automatically sends a
stop signal to trackers, so you do not have to stop all torrent jobs before exiting. Torrent
jobs that are not stopped will automatically be started when μTorrent is next opened.
Even after exiting, the μTorrent process might continue to run for a while longer. This
happens because μTorrent is trying to finish transferring pieces and write remaining
pieces to disk from memory. The process should disappear after a few seconds.
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μTorrent User Manual
Appendix B: Advanced Information
This appendix provides advanced information pertaining to operation of μTorrent.
Settings Directory
URL Formatting
Wildcards
Command Line Options
Keyboard Shortcuts
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μTorrent User Manual > Appendix B: Advanced Information
Settings Directory
Although μTorrent is mostly self-contained, there has to be a location where it can store
its settings for later use after the first run. Because μTorrent does not use the Windows
Registry, it has to store its configuration in files on separate files on the disk. By default,
those files are located at %AppData%\uTorrent, which can be easily accessed by
pressing visiting "Start" > "Run" (or by pressing Windows + R on the keyboard), typing it into
the "Open" field, and pressing "OK." Typically, you'll find several .dat files in the settings
directory:
dht.dat contains information regarding DHT that μTorrent uses when connecting to the
DHT network.
resume.dat contains information regarding currently loaded torrent jobs.
rss.dat stores all RSS-related settings, and also holds the history of previously
downloaded torrent jobs. This file only gets created if you use the RSS Downloader.
settings.dat contains most of the settings in μTorrent, and also contains the information
listed in the statistics dialog.
Note that it is normal to find .dat.old and .dat.*.bad files in the same directory.
The former file type denotes good backup files for the case that the corresponding .dat file
becomes corrupted. The latter file type denotes backups of corrupted files, which may be
sent to the developer for analysis if necessary.
In addition to .dat, .dat.old, and .dat.*.bad files, μTorrent stores loaded .torrent
files in its settings directory unless a storage location is specified. These files need to be
stored in order for μTorrent to work properly, so do not delete them unless you are absolutely
sure μTorrent no longer has the associated torrent job loaded any longer. If you want
μTorrent to delete the stored .torrent files automatically upon removal of the torrent job, see
the description of the Remove button in the toolbar.
Encapsulated "Installation"
While %AppData%\uTorrent is the default directory for storing the settings, μTorrent
actually searches the directory that the executable file is located in first before looking in
%AppData%\uTorrent. As such, so long as the directory that the executable is located in
contains a settings.dat file (even a blank one), μTorrent will look no further, and use only
the files located in its current directory instead. With this behavior, it is possible to create
encapsulated μTorrent "installations" for use on portable flash drives, or just to have an
isolated copy for any other reason.
If you don't already have an encapsulated install, you can manually move the contents
o f %AppData%\uTorrent into the same directory as the μTorrent executable to create
such an install.
External Files
Besides the default .dat files, μTorrent can make use of several other files external
from the executable. Such files may modify several subtle behaviors in μTorrent, or allow you
to customize the graphical look and feel of μTorrent. What all external files have in common
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is the location at which they should be placed -- the settings directory.
Extended Functionality
ipfilter.dat is a simple text file that specifies IP ranges to block. Only blocks are
supported; any allows will be ignored. The format is as follows:
IPv4: xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx - yyy.yyy.yyy.yyy for each line, where each x
and each y corresponds to arbitrary decimal values between 0 and 9.
IPv6: [xxxx:xxxx:xxxx:xxxx:xxxx:xxxx:xxxx:xxxx] -
[yyyy:yyyy:yyyy:yyyy:yyyy:yyyy:yyyy:yyyy] for each line, where each
x and each y corresponds to arbitrary hexadecimal values between 0 and F. Zerogrouped
IPv6 addresses are accepted.
Single IPs can be specified on a line without having to write it in IP range notation. This
file can be reloaded via the context menu in the Peers tab. If you wish to make use of
this file, ipfilter.enable should be enabled. Note that only peer connections are blocked
by ipfilter.dat; tracker connections (including DHT) are not blocked, even if their IPs fall
within any ranges specified in ipfilter.dat.
utorrent.chm is the user manual. The manual can be accessed via the help entry in
the Help menu, or by pressing F1 on the keyboard.
utorrent.lng is the file that contains all available translations for μTorrent at the time of
download. When first added to the settings directory, μTorrent will automatically switch
to the system language if a translation is available. The language can be changed in
the Preferences.
webui.zip is a zip file containing data μTorrent will serve when the Web UI is enabled
and you access http://IP:port/gui/ in a web browser, where IP is your
computer's IP address, and port is the port μTorrent is listening on. Using Web UI, you
can control μTorrent from any other computer with an Internet connection and a
compatible browser installed.
Interface Customization
flags.conf & flags.bmp are files used to replace the internal μTorrent assignment of
flags to a peer's resolved IP's host domain. flags.conf is a text file that specifies the
flag order, and maps host domains to a country, whose flag is then obtained from
flags.bmp. flags.conf only works on hosts with a TLD of .net or .com, each
mapping in the format host domain|country code, where the country code is the
country's IANA-assigned two-letter code. flags.bmp is a Windows bitmap that
contains adjacently-conjoined bitmaps of dimensions 16x16 each (without any space in
between), each 16x16 square being a flag. A custom flags.conf and flags.bmp is
maintained as a community project in the μTorrent forums, compiled by eng. Pressing
Ctrl + Shift + R on your keyboard tells μTorrent to (re)load flags.conf. If
peer.resolve_country is enabled, these files will be ignored.
main.ico is the icon that will be displayed in the icon at the top-left of the μTorrent
window.
maindoc.ico is the icon that will be used as a file type icon for .torrent files upon
association. This is mainly used for older versions of Windows, which might have
problems generating file type icons automatically for .torrent files upon association.
tray.ico is the icon that will be displayed in the system tray if the relevant system tray
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settings are enabled.
tabs.bmp is a Windows bitmap of dimensions 224x16, consisting of 14 adjacentlyconjoined
bitmaps of dimensions 16x16 each (without any space in between), that
μTorrent uses when icons are displayed on detailed info pane tabs. Icons are arranged
in the following order:
General
Trackers
Peers
Pieces
Files
Speed
Logger
General (inactive)
Trackers (inactive)
Peers (inactive)
Pieces (inactive)
Files (inactive)
Speed (inactive)
Logger (inactive)
toolbar.bmp is a Windows bitmap of dimensions 288x24, consisting of 12 adjacentlyconjoined
bitmaps of dimensions 24x24 each (without any space in between), that
μTorrent uses for the images in the μTorrent toolbar. Icons are arranged in the following
order: Add Torrent
Add Torrent from URL
Create New Torrent
Remove
Start
Pause
Stop
Move Up Queue
Move Down Queue
Search
Add RSS Feed
Preferences
tstatus.bmp is a Windows bitmap of dimensions 304x16, consisting of 19 adjacentlyconjoined
bitmaps of dimensions 16x16 each (without any space in between), that
μTorrent uses for the images in torrent job status icons and the category list. Icons are
arranged in the following order:
Downloading
Seeding
Stopped
Paused
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Downloading (tracker error)
Seeding (tracker error)
Critical Error
Stopped and Finished
Queued Download
Queued Seed
Active (category icon)
All (category icon)
Inactive (category icon)
RSS Feed (icon 1)
RSS Feed (icon 2)
RSS Feed (icon 3)
RSS Feed (invalid feed)
RSS Item (new release, within 24 hours)
RSS Item (downloaded)
Multiple RSS Feed icons are needed because μTorrent treats the icons as separate
frames in an animation to indicate that there is RSS activity.
External files that change the μTorrent interface are numerous, but thankfully, there is a
central repository where you can find many of them. Check out the μTorrent Skins Page for
your skinning needs! If you ever decide to create your own interface files, feel free to submit
them on that page, and inform us about it in the forums!
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μTorrent User Manual > Appendix B: Advanced Information
URL Formatting
In most cases, when entering a URL into μTorrent, the usual http://domain/path
works just fine, but in certain special cases where the site is protected by some form of
authentication, modifications will have to be made to the URL in order for μTorrent to be able
to get to the contents.
Sites that require HTTP authentication will have to be entered as such:
http://username:password@domain/path
Sites that require cookies must be entered as such:
http://domain/path:COOKIE:uid=U;pass=P
Note that U and P must be obtained from the cookie file for the site. Also, realize that
some sites do not use uid and/or pass as the corresponding variables, and as such, you
must use the exact variable name and extra variables they do specify. For example, if the
site's cookies specify a, b, and c, with values A, B, and C respectively, you should enter the
URL as such: http://domain/path:COOKIE:a=A;b=B;c=C
Internet Explorer users can find their cookies in %UserProfile%\Cookies
Firefox users can find their cookies in "Tools" > "Options" > "Privacy" > "Cookies" >
"Show Cookies"
Opera users can find their cookies in "Tools" > "Preferences" > "Advanced" > "Cookies"
> "Manage cookies..."
Users of other web browsers will have to consult their respective documentation
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μTorrent User Manual > Appendix B: Advanced Information
Wildcards
In several places in μTorrent, wildcards can be used in place of normal characters in
order to specify a pattern of characters that μTorrent should use to match whatever it needs.
The following may be used in those situations:
* (asterisk) to match any text of any length
? (question mark) to match any single character
| (vertical pipe) is an "or" conditional
Example: *File?A*|File?B* matches any file that contains File?A anywhere in
the filename (where ? is any single character, such as a space or an underscore), or any file
that begins with File?B in its filename (again, where ? is any single character).
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μTorrent User Manual > Appendix B: Advanced Information
Command Line Options
There are several command line options you can use with μTorrent to make it behave
differently than normal. Do note that these options can only be used when μTorrent is
opened through a shortcut, by command line, or some other means that allows command line
options to be used. At any time, a space should be appended along with the wanted option at
the end of the target path for the shortcut, outside of any quotation marks that may exist in
the target path.
/ANSI starts μTorrent without Unicode support, in case anyone ever has trouble with
Unicode.
/AUTOUPDATE "FILE PATH" [/NORUN] replaces the file located at FILE PATH with
the currently-running executable and starts the executable from the specified path. If
/NORUN is used in conjunction with this option, then μTorrent won't run the executable
after the replacement occurs.
/BIGDUMP tells μTorrent to create a large memory dump instead of the minidumps it
normally creates when it crashes. This can be useful for the developer to debug
problems where minidumps provide insufficient information.
/BRINGTOFRONT forces the μTorrent window to be shown, regardless of whether it
was previously minimized on exit, or whether /HIDE or /MINIMIZED were also used as
command line options.
/DIRECTORY "SAVE PATH" ".TORRENT FILE TO OPEN" allows you to open a
.torrent file and specify where you'd like to save the torrent contents to from the
command line (without any GUI interaction), where "SAVE PATH" is the path to the
location you'd like to save the torrent contents, and ".TORRENT FILE TO OPEN" is
the location of the .torrent file. Note that the save path must not contain a trailing
backslash, otherwise μTorrent will fail to load the .torrent file. Only local .torrent files
may be used.
/HIDE starts μTorrent in boss-key mode, meaning the tray icon and the entire interface
is hidden until the boss-key is pressed. Note that you should set up a boss-key before
actually starting μTorrent with this switch, otherwise you might find yourself having a
difficult time seeing and using μTorrent.
/LAUNCHBUNDLEDURL "URL" opens URL in your default web browser.
/LOGFILE "SAVE PATH" will perform the initial file selection for the log to file feature
automatically on startup.
/MINIMIZED will start μTorrent minimized, and if minimize to tray is enabled, will start
μTorrent minimized to tray.
/NOINSTALL will tell μTorrent to bypass the installation dialog prompt.
/PERFORMINSTALL FLAGS is a bitfield that tells μTorrent what shortcuts to create,
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depending on the following possible values for FLAGS:
2 tells μTorrent to create a shortcut in the Start menu
4 tells μTorrent to create a shortcut on the Desktop
8 tells μTorrent to create a shortcut in the Quick Launch toolbar
Because the flags are interpreted as a bitfield, values can be added together to perform
each of the combined actions.
/RECOVER will allow you to open up a second instance of μTorrent instead of its
normal behavior where it simply activates the currently-running instance. In order to
prevent possible problems, it is recommended that you create an encapsulated copy of
μTorrent before opening it as a second instance, then create a shortcut for the
encapsulated copy of the executable with the /RECOVER option. Remember that two
applications cannot listen on the same port, so if you intend on having the second
instance actually be a properly-working instance, you should set the second instance to
listen on a different port, and forward that port as well.
/UNINSTALL [/S] will uninstall μTorrent after user confirmation, deleting even the
settings directory. If the install is broken enough that this switch doesn't work, running
this option in conjunction with the /S option should force an uninstall without asking for
confirmation.
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μTorrent User Manual > Appendix B: Advanced Information
Keyboard Shortcuts
Here is a consolidated list of the keyboard shortcuts in μTorrent:
COMMAND SHORTCUT
Add Torrent Ctrl + O
Add Torrent (no default save) Ctrl + D
Add Torrent from URL Ctrl + U
Create New Torrent Ctrl + N
Torrent Job Manipulation
Move Down Queue Ctrl + Alt + Down
Move Up Queue Ctrl + Alt + Up
Remove Delete
Remove and delete Data Shift + Delete
Rename F2
Dialogs
Preferences Ctrl + P
RSS Downloader Ctrl + R
Setup Guide Ctrl + G
Interface Layout
Show Category List F7
Show Detailed Info F5
Show Status Bar F6
Show Toolbar F4
RSS Downloader
Remove RSS History Entry Delete
Remove RSS Favorite Delete
Rename RSS Favorite F2
Miscellaneous
μTorrent Help F1
Copy Selected Logger Tab Text Ctrl + C
Copy Statistics Dialog Text Ctrl + C
Reload flags.bmp / flags.conf Ctrl + Shift + R
Remove Tracker (from Trackers list) Delete
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μTorrent User Manual
FAQ: Frequently Asked Questions
This section of the manual attempts to answer questions many people might ask about
μTorrent.
Installation
Features
Usage
Network
Troubleshooting
Error Messages
Incompatibilities
Miscellaneous
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μTorrent User Manual > FAQ: Frequently Asked Questions
Installation
Does μTorrent install itself?
μTorrent will install itself only if the user chooses to install it when prompted to the first
time it is run. Installation is not mandatory, and μTorrent can still run properly without the
need to be installed.
How do I backup my settings?
Simply make a copy of your settings directory.
How do I make μTorrent self-contained in one directory?
Create an encapsulated installation.
How do I reset the settings back to the defaults?
Simply delete settings.dat and settings.dat.old from your settings directory
while μTorrent is not running.
How do I share my torrents between multiple users?
Create an encapsulated installation of μTorrent and make sure you set the directory and
all of its contents to be readable and writable by other users.
How do I uninstall μTorrent?
If you allowed μTorrent to create an uninstall entry in the Windows Registry during the
initial installation dialog, then all you need to do is uninstall it from the "Add or Remove
Programs" applet in the Control Panel. Otherwise, you can simply delete the μTorrent
executable file from wherever it is stored. If you are concerned about the settings being left
behind on your computer, delete your entire settings directory as well.
How do I use μTorrent on a USB key or some other removable drive?
Create an encapsulated installation of μTorrent on the target device.
Where are the settings and .torrent files stored?
The files are stored in your settings directory.
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Features
Does μTorrent have an endgame mode?
Yes, μTorrent automatically enters endgame mode when the pieces remaining are all
being actively downloaded. During endgame mode, μTorrent requests each remaining piece
from multiple peers instead of requesting each piece from a single peer. This mode helps
make getting the last pieces of the torrent contents take much less time than it normally
would.
Does μTorrent have Unicode support?
Yes, μTorrent supports Unicode.
Does μTorrent support HTTPS or UDP trackers?
Yes, μTorrent supports HTTPS (SSL) for both trackers and RSS feeds. UDP trackers
are supported as well.
Does μTorrent support magnet URIs?
Yes, μTorrent can use and create magnet URIs compatible with the Azureus magnet URI
implementation. μTorrent can generate magnet URIs for any torrent job, and magnet URIs
can be opened from the Add Torrent from URL dialog. Metadata regarding the torrent
contents are obtained from other peers that support the feature.
Does μTorrent support multi-scrape?
Yes, μTorrent supports multi-scrape and uses it when bt.multiscrape is enabled. It
automatically detects trackers that do not support multi-scrape and falls back to singlescrape
mode for those trackers.
Does μTorrent support multi-tracker .torrent files?
Yes, μTorrent supports multi-tracker .torrent files. μTorrent announces to all tracker tiers
simultaneously, but only one tracker per tier. To see all the trackers in the .torernt file, simply
check the torrent job's Properties. To learn more about multi-tracker specification, check the
multitracker specifications at Depthstrike.com's wiki.
Does μTorrent support trackerless .torrent files?
Yes, μTorrent supports trackerless .torrent files. The built-in .torrent file creator can also
create trackerless .torrent files.
Does μTorrent support UNC-style paths or network drives?
Yes, μTorrent supports UNC-style paths (like \\192.168.1.2\C$\). Note that there
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may be increased disk fragmentation when saving to a network drive, since pre-allocation of
files is not possible across the network.
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μTorrent User Manual > FAQ: Frequently Asked Questions
Usage
How do I add additional columns to a list-view?
You can select what columns you wish to see in a list-view by right-click ing the column
headers. If you wish to reset all changes you've made to the columns, you can select "Reset"
in that context menu.
How do I block specific peers from connecting to me?
You can create an ipfilter.dat file and load it in μTorrent, and the specified peers will be
blocked.
How do I change the country flags shown in the Peers tab?
You can use flags.conf and flags.bmp to customize the country flags.
How do I change the icons in μTorrent?
You can change the icons by placing the respective interface customization file in the
μTorrent settings directory in order to customize the interface. A restart is required in order for
new interface icons to be loaded.
How do I change the interface language?
You can install utorrent.lng (by having μTorrent download the translation file, or by
getting a copy from the download page yourself). Afterwards, select the language you wish to
use from the general preferences.
How do I configure the disk cache?
The most important step is to understand how the disk cache options affect μTorrent.
Options that increase memory usage decrease disk access, while options that decrease
memory usage increase disk access.
How do I create my own .torrent file?
You can use the Create New Torrent feature in μTorrent to create your own .torrent file
to share with other people.
How do I enable DHT?
You can enable it from the BitTorrent settings. Although DHT is enabled, not all torrent
jobs might use it, as .torrent files with the 'private' flag set won't announce to the DHT
network. Additionally, any torrent job that does not have DHT enabled won't be announced
on DHT.
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How do I enable Initial Seeding (Super Seeding)?
You can enable it from the torrent job properties. If you are not the only seeder in the
swarm, you should not enable Initial Seeding.
How do I enable Local Peer Discovery?
Local Peer Discovery is enabled on a per torrent job basis. You can enable it from the
torrent job properties, assuming the .torrent file does not have the 'private' flag set. To
automatically enable Local Peer Discovery for any newly added torrent job, check the Enable
Local Peer Discovery option in the Preferences.
How do I enable Peer Exchange?
Peer Exchange is enabled on a per torrent job basis. You can enable it from the torrent
job properties, assuming the .torrent file does not have the 'private' flag set. To automatically
enable Peer Exchange for any newly added torrent job, check the Enable Peer Exchange
option in the Preferences.
How do I enable Protocol Encryption?
Enable Protocol Encryption in the Preferences. If your ISP is known to throttle or block
BitTorrent traffic, and you find that enabling Protocol Encryption is not helping, then you may
want to consider setting the encryption to "Forced" and disable legacy incoming connections.
How do I enable NAT Port Mapping Protocol (NAT-PMP)?
You can enable it from the connection preferences. Note that not all routers support
NAT-PMP, in which case you will have to forward your port manually.
How do I enable Universal Plug and Play (UPnP)?
You can enable it from the connection preferences. Note that not all routers support
UPnP, in which case you will have to forward your port manually.
How do I load a .torrent file from the command line?
Run the μTorrent executable with the /DIRECTORY command line option.
How do I make μTorrent allocate all the files when I start a torrent job?
Enable Pre-allocate all files in the general Preferences.
How do I make μTorrent append a !ut extension to incomplete files?
Enable Append !ut to incomplete files in the general Preferences. The option takes
effect immediately after the changes to the Preferences are saved.
How do I make μTorrent auto-load .torrent files from a specified directory?
Enable the auto-load option in the Preferences and select the directory you would like to
automatically load .torrent files from.
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How do I make μTorrent automatically ban peers after a certain number of hashfails?
bt.ban_threshold determines the number of hashfails μTorrent takes action against it. If
bt.use_ban_ratio is disabled, μTorrent will ban the peer immediately after it passes the ban
threshold. Otherwise, μTorrent will look at the ratio of good to bad pieces that the peer has
sent, and if it finds that the ratio is lower than bt.ban_ratio, it will then ban the peer. If enough
peers in the same range are banned, and bt.use_rangeblock is enabled, μTorrent will ban
the entire range, since there is a good probability that the entire range is poisoning BitTorrent
swarms.
How do I make μTorrent automatically move files when a torrent job finishes?
You can enable the Move completed downloads to option in the Preferences and specify
the directory you wish to move finished torrent jobs to. If you want to organize the selected
directory by torrent job label, enable the Append the torrents label option.
How do I make μTorrent automatically run a program after a download finishes?
In the torrent job's properties, there is a Run Program section in the advanced section.
When properly filled out, μTorrent will run the selected application immediately after the
torrent job finishes downloading.
How do I make μTorrent delete files to the Recycle Bin?
Enable the Move to trash if possible option in the Remove button's context menu in the
toolbar. Note that files larger than the Recycle Bin's capacity will be removed from the drive
immediately (bypassing the Recycle Bin entirely).
How do I make μTorrent download files from an RSS feed?
The first step is to find a RSS feed that links to .torrent files in at least one of either its
<guid>, <link>, or <enclosure> tags. After you add such a feed (making sure to provide
the authentication information if necessary), you can create a Favorites filter for the feed that
automatically downloads and loads the linked .torrent files from the feed that match the filter
you specify. Make sure you familiarize yourself with all of the filter options, as they can be
confusing. When the filter is set up properly and is enabled, μTorrent will take care of the
downloading for you.
How do I make μTorrent prioritize the first and last piece of each file?
Enable bt.prio_first_last_piece in the advanced Preferences.
How do I make μTorrent start in boss-key mode?
Run μTorrent with the /HIDE command line option.
How do I make μTorrent start minimized?
Run μTorrent with the /MINIMIZED command line option.
How do I make μTorrent stop downloading and only upload?
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To perform this on any and all torrent jobs, set the scheduler to seeding only mode
during the times you want it to upload only.
To perform this on a specific torrent job, stop the torrent job, select all of its files in the
Files tab, then select "Don't Download." μTorrent might continue to download pieces if there
are any left incomplete (you can check the Pieces tab), but afterwards, it won't request any
new pieces to download from other peers.
How do I make μTorrent stop seeding a torrent job at a specific share ratio?
Set the Limit the upload rate to option to 0. Now, whenever any torrent job reaches the
seeding goal, it will be stopped.
How do I make μTorrent use my proxy?
You can fill in the proxy information in the Connection preferences. Unless you are sure
your proxy server can handle the load, you should refrain from using the proxy server for
peer-to-peer connections.
How do I manually announce to trackers?
The Update Tracker feature in the torrent job context menu can be used to update all
trackers in the selected torrent job(s). Alternatively, specific trackers can be updated via the
Trackers tab context menu. Although an anti-hammer feature has been put in place to
prevent abuse of the feature, manual update of the tracker should still be avoided where not
absolutely necessary in order to minimize strain on trackers.
How do I move a torrent job to the top or bottom of the queue?
Hold Shift on your keyboard while pressing the Move Up Queue toolbar button to move
the selected torrent job(s) to the top of the queue. Hold Shift on your keyboard while
pressing the Move Down Queue toolbar button to move the selected torrent job(s) to the
bottom of the queue. The respective move up/down queue items from the torrent jobs list
context menu behave in the same way when Shift is held while the menu item is selected.
How do I quickly change the upload and download limits?
The global transfer rate limits can be quickly set from the status bar context menu. If
visible, the global transfer rate limits can also be quickly controlled from the system tray
context menu.
For to quickly change the transfer rate limits of specific torrent jobs, select the torrent
jobs you would like to modify, then right-click it and use the Bandwidth Allocation menu.
How do I rename a torrent job in the torrent jobs list?
A torrent job can be renamed in the list by slow double-click ing on the torrent job, or by
pressing F2 on the keyboard while the torrent job is selected. To cancel the renaming, you
should press Esc on the keyboard. To confirm the change, you should press Enter on the
keyboard, or use the mouse to click anywhere else on the torrent jobs list.
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How do I rename a torrent job's download directory?
In the Add Torrent Jobs dialog, you can edit the target directory before confirming the
save location. If you wish to rename or move an existing torrent job's current location on disk:
1. Stop the torrent job whose contents you wish to move.
2. Rename or move the torrent contents.
3. Use Set Download Location... from the torrent jobs list context menu to select the new
location.
4. If μTorrent doesn't automatically recheck the file, and you wish to confirm the integrity of
the files, force a re-check on the torrent job.
How do I run multiple instances of μTorrent simultaneously?
To run multiple instances of μTorrent, you can run each new instance with the
/RECOVER command line option. Because of the possibility of conflicts, you should perform
the following before running multiple instances:
1. Create a new folder containing an encapsulated installations of μTorrent (you should
copy the executable).
2. Create a shortcut for this copy of the executable.
3. Edit the shortcut's target by adding /RECOVER to the end of the "Target" path, outside
of any quotation marks, and separated from the executable path by a space.
4. Run the shortcut to open a new instance of μTorrent.
5. Configure this instance of μTorrent to use a different listening port (and different
alternative listening port if applicable).
6. If applicable, forward the port(s) for this instance in your router and firewall.
Because bandwidth must be split for each instance, you should probably run the Setup
Guide again for each instance, but select appropriate portions of your connection's maximum
upload rate for each instance you run.
How do I set a boss-key up?
A boss-key can be set from the privacy preferences. After setting it and confirming the
changes, μTorrent's visibility can be toggled by pressing the selected key combination.
How do I set the default torrent job Remove action?
The default Remove action can be set by right-click ing the Remove button in the
toolbar, holding Shift on the keyboard, then left-click ing one of the four possible options.
Alternatively, the default behavior can be configured by setting gui.default_del_action
appropriately.
How do I set the download location for torrent jobs added via magnet URI?
With magnet URIs, μTorrent does not have a copy of the info dictionary on hand, so it
does not know the name or the contents. Consequently, it must wait to find a source with the
dictionary, which may sometimes take a long time. Because of this, μTorrent uses the default
download location as the destination for the files (in case it happens to find the info
dictionary when the user is not available to set the download location manually). If no default
download location is set, μTorrent will use %UserProfile%\My Documents\Downloads
as the destination.
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How do I skip certain files in a torrent job?
Files can be skipped in the Files list in the Add New Torrent dialog. Alternatively, files
can be skipped via the Files tab context menu.
How do I sort by more than one column in a list-view?
You can sort by any column by left-click ing on its header. To sort on another column as
a secondary sort order, hold Shift on the keyboard while left-click ing on the column header
you wish to use as the secondary sort criterion.
How do I use the embedded tracker?
Enable bt.enable_tracker in the advanced preferences. Make sure you carefully read the
description of the option.
How do I use the scheduler to control transfer rates?
The most important step is to understand how the scheduler options affect μTorrent.
The rest is as simple as clicking on the time slot you wish to set up to the color
corresponding to the effect you want for the time slot.
How do I use the Web UI?
Enable the Web UI, and μTorrent should automatically install it for you. Afterwards, fill in
the username and password you would like to use to log into the web interface. If you wish to
use a different listening port from the normal listening port for the web interface, specify it in
the Alternative listening port field. Additionally, if you wish to allow only specific IP address to
access your web interface, fill in the restriction field accordingly.
What are labels and what can they be used for?
Labels are used as a powerful tool for torrent job organization in μTorrent. They can
make torrent job identification and sorting much easier for you.
To set a label for a torrent job, use the Label submenu in the torrent job's context menu.
A benefit of using labels is that they can also be used to organize torrent contents (not just
torrent jobs) with the Move completed downloads to option.
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μTorrent User Manual > FAQ: Frequently Asked Questions
Network
Does μTorrent work well on Windows XP SP2 or higher operating systems with an
unpatched TCPIP.sys?
Yes, by default, μTorrent will make at most 8 simultaneous connection attempts to work
within the 10 connection attempt (half-open connection) limit on these operating systems.
Patching TCPIP.sys to a higher limit may help if you are having problems with your
Internet connection, though increasing the limit may also cause some routers to freeze up
(due to the increased rate of simultaneous connection attempts). If you would still like to
patch the file, download the EventID 4226 Patcher from LvlLord.de.
Beware that in most cases, you should refrain from setting the TCPIP.sys limit to any
number greater than 50, as there are few (if any) benefits to be gained from higher numbers.
Also understand that net.max_halfopen should always be set to a number lower than the
TCPIP.sys limit set by the patcher (at most 80% of the TCPIP.sys limit only). For more
information on how (or whether) the half-open connection limit should be set, see this FAQ
entry.
Microsoft has made a habit of reverting the TCPIP.sys connection attempt limit through
Windows Update, which (for many users) occurs on a monthly basis. If you decide to patch
your TCPIP.sys file and raise the net.max_halfopen limit along with it, then remember to
repatch the file every time you perform a Windows Update (otherwise, you'll most likely run
into connection troubles).
How can I tell if a peer is an incoming or outgoing connection?
You can check the Flag column in the Peers tab for the peer.
How do I change the number of active torrents jobs or downloads allowed to run
simultaneously?
Change the queue settings. It is recommended that you not modify this setting unless
you understand very clearly what the consequences are behind changing this setting.
Starting too many torrent jobs simultaneously can be detrimental to bandwidth usage, so if
you are not certain about your changes, stick to the numbers recommended by the Setup
Guide.
How do I change the number of connections μTorrent uses?
Set the relevant options in the preferences. It is recommended that you not modify this
setting unless you understand very clearly what the consequences are behind changing this
setting. Starting too many torrent jobs simultaneously can be detrimental to bandwidth usage,
so if you are not certain about your changes, stick to the numbers recommended by the
Setup Guide.
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How do I change the port μTorrent uses?
The listening port for incoming connections can be set with the Port used for incoming
connections option in the Preferences. For outgoing conections, μTorrent uses the
ephemeral port range by default, but this can be changed by using the net.outgoing_port and
(optionally) net.outgoing_max_port options.
How do I forward ports?
Read the Port Forwarding guide.
How do I hide my IP address?
You don't. BitTorrent wasn't designed with anonymity in mind. Because it requires that
peers know each other's IP addresses to transfer with one another, spoofing or hiding your
IP address won't do you much good with regards to speed and/or connectivity.
VPN or proxy services may allow you to masquerade your IP address behind other IPs,
but because they act as middlemen, you are effectively firewalled behind such services,
which is a bad thing.
How do I make μTorrent report a different IP to the tracker? I'm behind a proxy and need
this function.
Set the IP/Hostname to report to tracker option in the Preferences.
How do I make μTorrent use a different upload speed when seeding?
Set the Alternate upload rate when not downloading option in the Preferences.
How do I make μTorrent use a specific network adapter?
Set the net.bind_ip option to the IP address of the adapter you wish to use for incoming
connections. Set the net.outgoing_ip option to the IP address of the adapter you wish to use
for outgoing connections.
What port should I use for μTorrent?
It is generally recommended that you not pick ports in the 6881-6889 range, as they are
commonly throttled by ISPs. Since no single port has inherent advantages over any other
port, you can simply let μTorrent pick a random port for you.
What should I set my half-open connection limit to?
To answer this question, a bit of background information may be required. The "halfopen"
(technically, "embryonic") connection limit controls how many connections μTorrent will
attempt to establish simultaneously at any given time. Half-open connections are just like
phone calls that haven't yet been picked up by the other end of the line. The half-open
connection limit controls the number of such "calls" you can attempt to make at any given
time, but does not limit how many fully-established connections (phone calls that are
successfully picked up from the other end) you can make in total.
An important point to note (that is commonly misunderstood and misrepresented) is the
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fact that the half-open connection limit does not affect the overall speed at which the you can
download or upload. At best, increasing the half-open limit may decrease the amount of time
it takes for μTorrent to attain decent speeds, but that only lasts for the first few minutes at
worst. After several minutes have passed, the connection limit will have already been
reached if there are enough peers anyhow, so at that point, there is no difference between a
low half-open connection limit and a high limit.
High half-open limits, on the other hand, cause connection problems for many users
because Microsoft limits the number of half-open connections able to be made globally in
certain versions of Windows (starting with Windows XP with SP2, up to Windows Vista with
SP1). It can be patched, but for little gain, as already explained previously (and Microsoft
resets the limit every so often with some Windows Update anyhow). Even if your half-open
connection count isn't limited by TCPIP.sys (either through patching, or you're using an OS
that doesn't impose such a limit), an increase in the half-open limit would fall into the exact
same limitations in efficacy as described above.
The rationale behind Microsoft's decision to limit half-open connections is that relatively
few legitimate and properly-designed applications can be expected to require many half-open
connections. On the flip side, if an application is attempting to establish a large amount of
connections in a very short period of time, it is usually a sign that the application is a piece of
malware attempting to communicate with other computers.
Why anyone would recommend that users increase their half-open limits as a general
speed tweak that everyone should apply is incomprehensible. It doesn't actually help with
speeds beyond the first few minutes at most, and comes with the detrimental effect of
potentially killing connections for many users. The only potential exception to the "you don't
need to increase your half-open connection limit" rule of thumb is if you have a connection
with a very fast upload rate (think "several megabits per second"), and have many torrent
jobs started simultaneously. In that situation, it may be beneficial to increase the half-open
connection limit in order for μTorrent to be able to communicate (within a reasonable amount
of time) with the large pool of peers and trackers associated with starting many torrent jobs
simultaneously.
In instances where raising the half-open connection limit is unavoidable or necessary,
the user should keep in mind that μTorrent's net.max_halfopen limit should never be set to a
value greater than approximately 80% of the TCPIP.sys half-open connection limit. So if the
TCPIP.sys limit is 100, the highest anyone should set μTorrent's net.max_halfopen should be
80. That doesn't mean it needs to be 80% either -- it can be less. That's just a safe limit
guideline to maintain quality of connection.
Why am I still receiving incoming connection attempts after I have already closed
μTorrent?
In BitTorrent, peers disconnect from the swarm without notifying every other peer in the
swarm because it would be inefficient to do so, and also because peers rarely have the IPs
of every other peer in the swarm (which would make it impossible to do in the first place).
Because most BitTorrent clients cache peer information, when they try to connect to a
particular peer in their cache, they may end up attempting to connect to a peer that has
already disconnected since they last received the peer's IP and port number.
This phenomenom is what you are observing when you see incoming connection
attempts after you've exited μTorrent. Depending on how many peers had a copy of your IP
and port number in their peer cache, this can take up to several weeks to subside. Having
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and port number in their peer cache, this can take up to several weeks to subside. Having
DHT enabled may magnify the effects, as there are many more peers using DHT than there
are connected to any one particular torrent swarm (so more users may have your IP and port
number by the time you disconnect). Although there is no way to prevent this from occurring,
disabling DHT may reduce the amount of time needed for this to taper off. Assuming your
network is properly protected, these connection attempts can be safely ignored.
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μTorrent User Manual > FAQ: Frequently Asked Questions
Troubleshooting
How should I get started in fixing my problems?
The first and most important action to take is to make sure you have everything in
μTorrent configured properly as prescribed by the setup guide and any associated guides
(like the port forwarding guide). As surprising as it may sound, many troubles that seem
unrelated to one another stem from a misconfiguration issue. Additionally, make sure you are
using the latest version of μTorrent available from the download page, since bugs get fixed
regularly from version to version (and the support staff does not provide support for older
versions). If this initial step doesn't help, try looking through these troubleshooting FAQs to
see if the problem has been addressed.
Why are my torrent jobs missing?
First, make sure you aren't looking at an improperly-configured list-view, and make sure
you've selected an appropriate category in the category list.
Assuming the torrent jobs list is truly empty, then the problem is caused by an improper
shutdown of μTorrent, either due to a crash or a forced exit. The first thing you will need to
do is reopen all of the .torrent files in the settings directory (or the .torrent file storage
location). Afterwards, you should try enabling bt.graceful_shutdown. By turning this option
on, you are allowing μTorrent the leisure of quitting cleanly, which generally solves the
problem.
If μTorrent is crashing, and this behavior is a result of the crashes, then you should try to
solve the crashes.
Why are my torrent jobs transferring so slowly? Can't I speed them up?
Make sure you've followed the setup guide carefully.
Why can't μTorrent connect to any DHT nodes?
The problem most likely occurs because something is blocking μTorrent from contacting
other nodes. Try the following suggestions to see if they help:
Make sure that when you forwarded your port, you forwarded it for UDP connections in
addition to TCP connections, since DHT makes heavy use of UDP.
If you are using PeerGuardian (or an equivalent IP blocker), you might need to stop
using it, or make an exception in the software for μTorrent's DHT bootstrap nodes at
router.utorrent.com and router.bittorrent.com, as μTorrent makes use of
DHT nodes at those addresses to get the IP addresses of other nodes in the DHT
network.
Try adding a .torrent file from Depthstrike.com's mirrors for open-source/freeware
projects to μTorrent's torrent jobs list. These .torrent files contain other DHT nodes that
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μTorrent can use to bootstrap onto the DHT network.
Try removing dht.dat and dht.dat.old from the settings directory, as these files
might have been corrupted.
Why can't I see anything in the directory browser dialog?
An incompatibility is causing the problem. To fix the issue, enable gui.compat_diropen.
Why do I get an "Invalid menu handle" error when I try opening a .torrent file from Firefox?
There may be some corruption in your Firefox preferences that causes this error to
occur. In Firefox, check the "Tools" > "Options" > "Content" > "Manage" list for the TORRENT
entry and remove it. Confirm the change in Firefox.
Why do my torrent jobs grind to a halt with "Disk Overloaded" whenever I add a new one?
The problem occurs because of a design limitation in μTorrent that should be fixed in the
future. There is nothing you can do except to wait for the problem to go away.
Why does μTorrent create or download parts of files I set to "Don't Download?"
This occurs because BitTorrent has no concept of files, only pieces. Because multiple
files can share the same piece, and μTorrent has to download an entire piece to check its
hash, it will effectively download data for another file (regardless of whether it was skipped).
There is nothing you can do about μTorrent downloading data for another file if the data is a
part of a piece that also belongs to another file that you do want downloaded. What you can
do is prevent the entire skipped file from being allocated by enabling diskio.use_partfile.
Why does μTorrent get stuck at a certain percentage for a torrent job?
Check the availability of the torrent job, the number of seeds there are in the swarm, the
the number of peers there are in the swarm, and the amount of wasted data that you've
downloaded.
If the availaiblity is below 1.0 and the number of seeds is high, then the torrent swarm
is most likely fake, and was created by anti-P2P organizations.
If the availability is below 1.0 and the number of seeds is low as well, then you will
have to be patient, as the torrent contents may simply not be well distributed.
If you are seeing a large amount of wasted data, check this FAQ.
Why does μTorrent keep downloading or uploading while a torrent job is paused?
Pausing a torrent job might not stop all traffic for it immediately because μTorrent
attempts to finish receiving and sending any queued pieces first. Because pausing a torrent
job keeps connections open, occasional bits of peer communication may show up in the
speed calculations.
Why does μTorrent not ask me where to download files, or which files I want to
download?
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If you would like μTorrent to let you select files to download before it actually adds the
torrent job to the list, make sure you enable the Add New Torrent dialog.
If μTorrent adds files without asking you anything, then that's because you set a default
download location, and so μTorrent assumes you would like to download everything to that
directory. If you want μTorrent to always show the dialog when you manually open a .torrent
file, then make μTorrent always show the dialog on manual add.
Why does μTorrent show less DHT nodes in the status bar than BitComet or Azureus?
μTorrent counts only the number of DHT nodes you are directly connected to. BitComet
counts nodes that are one hop away from you (connected to nodes you're connected to),
which inflates nubmers. Azureus attempts to estimate the complete size of its DHT network.
Why does μTorrent still calculate an ETA when it is seeding?
When a torrent job is in seeding mode, the ETA column estimates the amount of time it
will take for μTorrent to reach the seeding goal.
Why does μTorrent still download a little bit when it is seeding, or even when no torrent
jobs are started?
This behavior is absolutely normal, and occurs because μTorrent includes the
communication overhead when calculating speeds. When you are uploading data to a peer,
you continue to download a little bit of information from the peer to keep track of the peer's
progress. Additionally, if the peer requests information or data from you, you also have to
download that request (which gets figured into the download speed).
While it is normal to see a non-zero download rate while μTorrent is seeding, the
behavior can be aggrevated by improper settings. When you have too many connections
established simultaneously, μTorrent has to communicate with more peers, and so there will
be more downloading of requests and such. To optimize the situation, make sure you've
selected the proper setting in the Setup Guide.
Another possible cause for this behavior is the use of the DHT network. Because DHT
is always active as long as it is enabled, it will continue to download a little bit of data to pass
around as a node participating in the DHT network. This continues to occur even if no torrent
jobs are started, or even if none of the torrent jobs in the list use DHT.
Why does my Internet connection slow down or stop working while μTorrent is running?
Make sure you've checked your computer for incompatible software known to cause
Internet disconnection. Additionally, check if your router is a "bad" router. If you don't have
any incompatible software installed, there are some suggestions you may want to try. Note
that between any of the suggestions, you should restart your computer and check if μTorrent
continues to cause Internet disconnections.
Make sure you've followed the setup guide carefully
Try disabling DHT
Try disabling UPnP and NAT-PMP
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Try disabling IP resolving
Try disabling peer.resolve_country
Try lowering net.max_halfopen to 4 or 2
Try lowering bt.connect_speed to 10 or 5
Try lowering the global maximum number of connections to 100 or 50
Try setting bt.transp_disposition to 5
Try patching your TCPIP.sys file to a value greater than your net.max_halfopen limit
(only if you are using Windows XP with SP2 or SP3, Windows 2003 with SP1 or SP2)
Try connecting your computer directly to see if the problem persists
Why doesn't μTorrent obey the rate limits I selected?
Try enabling Limit local peer bandwidth.
If you have limited your download rate, but μTorrent isn't obeying it, then take note the
fact that μTorrent cannot control how fast peers send data to it. As a result, download rate
limiting is often inaccurate. In addition, setting download rate limits may cause your upload
rates to suffer because of the way download rate limiting had to be implemented.
Why doesn't μTorrent open .torrent or .btsearch files even though it is associated with
them?
If μTorrent doesn't automatically open .torrent or .btsearch files when you double-click
them, try pressing the relevant button(s) in the Windows Integration preferences. If that
doesn't help, you may have to remove the .torrent file type from Windows. In Windows
Explorer, check the "Folder Options " > "File Types" list for the TORRENT entry and delete it,
then press the associate button again from the preferences.
Why doesn't μTorrent open my web browser wherever it is needed?
This problem is generally caused by a misconfiguration in Windows with regards to
which browser is default. Visit "Start" > "Control Panel " > "Add or Remove Programs " > "Set
Program Access and Defaults" > "Custom." Where it asks you to select a default web
browser, make sure you have your preferred browser selected, and if possible, make sure
"Enable access to this program" is checked as well.
Why doesn't μTorrent report me as a seeder when selectively downloading?
By definition, a seeder is a peer with all of the files fully completed. If you are missing
any bit of data (which would occur if you skip any file), it would be incorrect for μTorrent to
report you as a seeder. You are not a seeder unless you have 100% of the data.
Why don't the move up or down buttons not move the torrent jobs?
These buttons change the queue order for the selected torrent jobs, not the actual order
in which they appear in the list. If you would like these buttons to visually change the torrent
job's order in the list, then you should sort the list by the # column.
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Why is there a large amount of wasted data being downloaded?
In many cases, this is an indication that the swarm you are connected to is fake or
poisoned and set up by some anti-P2P organization. You might want to consider finding
another source for the data you are trying to download. If this occurs with many torrent jobs,
the problem could be an indication that your hardware is bad. Bad RAM, hard drive, or hard
drive cables have been known to cause hashfails in μTorrent. Another source of hashfails
may be your router. Some routers (like D-Link's) have been known to corrupt data when the
router has DMZ (game) mode enabled, thus preventing users from completing downloads.
Why is μTorrent crashing?
Make sure you've checked your computer for incompatible software known to cause
crashes in μTorrent.
Why is μTorrent now downloading when I was previously seeding?
This occurs if any of the files you're uploading are modified between the time you began
seeding and the next time μTorrent re-checks the data. If a file changes, it causes the
piece(s) containing it to fail the hash check, and accordingly, μTorrent will throw the piece out
(thus causing the switch to downloading mode). Make sure you do not edit any files you are
seeding. If you find yourself forgetting this, then consider setting the files you download to
read-only mode once you are in seeding mode. If you did not manually edit any files, then
there are some common causes for this problem:
thumbs.db: On some systems, Windows automatically creates and updates a database
of thumbnails for the media files in each folder called thumbs.db. If a thumbs.db file
is a part of the torrent contents, any updates to it will cause hashfails in μTorrent. In
Windows Explorer, check the "Folder Options " > "View" > "Do not cache thumbnails"
option to prevent this from happening.
Media file tags: Some media players are known to automatically edit tags on media
files they play without user intervention. This may cause pieces to change (and
consequently, hashfails to occur in μTorrent).
Why is μTorrent using so much CPU?
Make sure you've checked your computer for incompatible software known to cause
high CPU usage in μTorrent.
If you don't have any incompatible software installed, get Process Explorer and run it. If
you see the DPCs are using significant amounts of CPU, then you may have some other
buggy software installed, or perhaps buggy drivers and/or hardware. You can try running
RATTV3 to find the source of the DPCs. The RATTV3 output can be found in
%SystemRoot%\system32\LogFiles\RATTV3.
Another possible source for high CPU usage may be the transfer mode that your hard
drive controller may be using for your hard drives. Check the "System" applet in the Windows
Control Panel for the Device Manager. In the Device Manager, look for the IDE ATA/ATAPI
controllers and check the properties for each of your primary and secondary IDE channels to
see if any of their current transfer modes are in PIO. If so, this may be the cause of your
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problems. To fix it, try uninstalling the affected IDE channel and restarting your computer.
Why is μTorrent using so much memory?
Make sure you've checked your computer for incompatible software known to cause
high memory usage in μTorrent.
If you don't have any incompatible software installed, try tweaking the disk cache
settings. Of special note, if you are transferring data very quickly, try disabling the Windows
cache for disk writes and disk reads.
Why is my firewall reporting connections being made by μTorrent on a port besides the
one I chose?
Only incoming connections use the port you specify in the preferences. Outgoing
connections use a random local port (called an ephemeral port); this is simply how TCP/IP
functions, and is not a bug.
Why is my firewall reporting that μTorrent is attempting to send e-mails or access the
web?
In almost every case, this is a false positive generated by your firewall. Occasionally,
peers use common service ports like 25 (SMTP), 80 (HTTP), or 110 (POP3) in order to
bypass restrictions their ISPs may impose on them. Because your firewall incorrectly
assumes that any traffic with a destination port being a service port is traffic of the
corresponding service, it (improperly) flags μTorrent's traffic accordingly. The one exception
to this is when μTorrent checks for updates, in which case it really is attempting to access the
web.
Assuming your computer itself is clean of malware, and you have obtained μTorrent from
a known legetimate source (like μTorrent's own download page), then it is safe to ignore
these warnings and allow μTorrent to perform the action. If you do not want μTorrent to
access these ports, you can set bt.no_connect_to_services and
bt.no_connect_to_services_list accordingly.
Why is the list-view I'm looking at blank?
There should still be a bar at the top of the list-view. Right-click the bar and select
"Reset" in the context menu, and the apparently-missing details should be visible again.
Why is there a .dat file in my download folder when the torrent contents don't contain
such files?
This occurs when you perform selective file downloading and have diskio.use_partfile
enabled. You can safely ignore the file, as it will be deleted after the torrent job is removed
from the torrent jobs list.
I've tried all kinds of suggestions, but still haven't been able to solve my problem. How
should I proceed?
Feel free to stop by the forums or IRC channel to ask for help with your problems. When
you ask for help, make sure you have the following pieces of information on hand and ready
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to be provided upon request:
Everything you've tried so far in attempting to fix your problem
The ISP you're using (preferably in addition to the type of connection you're using, like
DSL, cable, satellite, etc.)
The color of your network status light
What the Setup Guide shows your current settings to be, along with the results of the
port checker and speed test
What you've set net.max_halfopen to, and what your TCPIP.sys half-open connection
limit is set to
The operating system you're using
A log from HijackThis and/or Process Explorer
The exact router and modem models you're using
Some basic computer hardware specifications (motherboard and/or chipset, CPU, RAM,
drive type, etc.)
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μTorrent User Manual > FAQ: Frequently Asked Questions
Error Messages
In a popup dialog, I get "Error: The device is not ready"
This error occurs if a drive μTorrent is trying to access does not exist, or is missing. This
most frequently occurs if a drive letter has changed, or if the data μTorrent was looking for
was located in a removable drive that is no longer in the computer. To resolve the issue,
make sure the paths μTorrent is trying to use are all existent. This means that all torrent jobs
should not have their Save As field set to a directory on some non-existent drive letter. The
same thing applies to the Directories preferences.
If a torrent job is using a drive letter that no longer exists, make sure you set the
download location for the job.
In the Logger tab, I get "Error opening Windows Firewall"
This means that μTorrent was unable to add itself as an exception to the Windows
Firewall using the standard Windows Firewall API. This occurs when Windows Firewall is
disabled or not present, or that you are using an operating system that does not support the
API (operating systems older than Windows XP SP2). The error is non-fatal, and can be
safely ignored. If you want μTorrent to stop trying to add itself to the firewall exceptions list
every time it starts, then you can disable the Add μTorrent to Windows Firewall exceptions
option in the Preferences. If another firewall is present, you will still need to configure it
properly to allow μTorrent to access the Internet.
In the Logger tab, I get "NAT-PMP: Unable to map port with NAT-PMP"
This means that μTorrent was unable to map (forward) the port with NAT-PMP. If you
have a green status light in the status bar, or the Setup Guide's port checker verifies that the
port is open, then you can safely ignore this error. If otherwise, you'll need to manually
forward the port in your router. If you want μTorrent to stop trying to map its listening port via
NAT-PMP every time it starts, then you can disable the Enable NAT-PMP port mapping
option in the Preferences.
In the Logger tab, I get "UPnP: Unable to map UPnP port"
This means that μTorrent was unable to map (forward) the port with UPnP. If you have a
green status light in the status bar, or the Setup Guide's port checker verifies that the port is
open, then you can safely ignore this error. If otherwise, you'll need to manually forward the
port in your router. If you want μTorrent to stop trying to map its listening port via UPnP every
time it starts, then you can disable the Enable UPnP port mapping option in the Preferences.
In the status bar, I get "Disk Overloaded"
This means that the disk was not able to keep up with the read/write speeds. To fix this,
you should try tweaking your Disk Cache settings in the Preferences. Note that disk
overloads may also occur if the device you are writing to or reading from is inherently slow
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by design (USB hard drives, for example). In such cases, tweaking the cache settings may
help, but it isn't guaranteed to work.
If you get this error message when you add a new torrent job, consider it normal due to
a design limitation in μTorrent (which should be fixed in the future). You can ignore the
message, as it does not actually indicate any real disk overload. The message will disappear
after a short amount of time.
In the torrent job status, I get "Error:"
This means that an error occurred the last time μTorrent was run. Since μTorrent does
not remember error messages, no error is specified. Try resuming the torrent job, or forcing a
re-check to see if any error occurs again.
In the torrent job status, I get "Error: Access Denied" and μTorrent halts the torrent job
Make sure you are not using a misconfigured incompatible software that can cause file
access issues. If you are not, then make sure you have the right credentials to be using the
target file and/or (containing) directory.
On some systems, Windows Explorer may attempt to preview media files when you are
browsing the containing directory for the files. If this happens while μTorrent is attempting to
write to the file, then μTorrent won't be able to access the file, and accordingly, it will throw
this error message. To prevent this from happening, make sure you don't view the folder in
"Thumbnail" or "Filmstrip" mode. Additionally, you may want to consider unregistering the
shell media file property extractor in Windows by visiting "Start" > "Run" (or by pressing
Windows + R on the keyboard), typing regsvr32 /u shmedia.dll into the "Open" field,
and pressing "OK."
In the torrent job status, I get "Error: Data Error (cyclic redundancy check)" and μTorrent
halts the torrent job
This error is not an error generated by μTorrent, but rather, an error it receives from the
hard drive. The error indicates that the hard drive was unable to read or write the data
because the sectors are faulty, or are about to die. Cyclic redundancy check (CRC) errors
are often signs of possible future disk corruption. Running chkdsk might help fix the
problem, but stronger recovery tools (such as SpinRite) may be required (assuming the disk
is at all repairable).
In the torrent job status, I get "Error: Element not found" and μTorrent halts the torrent job
This error may occur when you remove or rename files from a torrent job. If this is the
case, try to re-add or rename the files back, or force a re-check on the torrent job.
In the torrent job status, I get "Error: The requested operation could not be completed due
to a file system limitation" and μTorrent halts the torrent job
This error occurs because of a problem with the way Windows Vista handles sparse
files and NTFS compressed. When a sparse or compressed file reaches this (currently
unspecified) limitation, all writes to the file will fail. The only way around this is to make a
copy of the file, delete the existing (sparse/compressed) file, and replace the deleted file with
the copy. It is recommended that you disable diskio.sparse_files if you are running Windows
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Vista. If you would like μTorrent to not fully allocate a file upon write while using Windows
Vista, use bt.compact_allocation instead.
In the torrent job status, I get "Error: Not enough free space on disk" when I have more
than enough free space
This error occurs only on drives or partitions formatted to FAT32 because files greater
than 4 GiB cannot be created on FAT32 partitions. The only fix is to convert the drive or
partition to NTFS, or use another drive or partition that is already using NTFS.
To convert a drive to NTFS, read Microsoft's knowledge base article KB307881.
In the torrent job status, I get "Error: Parameter is incorrect" when selectively
downloading
The cause of the error message is currently unknown, though it is being looked into.
There is no workaround apart from not using selective file downloading on these operating
systems if you receive the error. The error should not happen again if you simply resume the
torrent job.
In the torrent job status, I get "Error: The process cannot access the file because it is
being used by another process" and μTorrent halts the torrent job
See the question regarding Error: Access Denied.
In the torrent job status, I get "Error: The requested operation cannot be performed on a
file with a user-mapped section open" and μTorrent halts the torrent job
Make sure you are not using a misconfigured incompatible software that can cause file
access issues.
In the torrent job status, I get "Error: The system cannot find the path specified" and
μTorrent halts the torrent job
This problem may be caused by a limitation in Windows with path lengths. Windows
limits the maximum path length (including filenames) to 255 characters. Try saving the torrent
contents to a location closer to the drive's root, such as C:\Downloads\.
In the torrent job status, I get "Error: Unable to save the resume file"
See the question regarding Error: Access Denied. If that isn't relevant or doesn't help,
make sure the directory μTorrent is using as its settings directory exists.
In the tracker status, I get "A socket operation encountered a dead network"
Check to make sure you don't have an incompatible software installed. Previous reports
on this error message indicate that BitDefender Firewall can cause such issues. There is no
known way to fix the issue other than to uninstall the firewall (and replace it with another one
if necessary).
If you are not using any software firewall, make sure you have the latest drivers installed
for your network card, since this problem may well be caused by buggy drivers. It may also
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occur if your network gets physically disconnected (like if the network cable is disconnected,
or if your modem or router shuts off).
In the tracker status, I get "An operation on a socket could not be performed because the
system lacked sufficient buffer space or because a queue was full" and μTorrent halts
Check to make sure you don't have an incompatible software installed. Previous reports
on this error message indicate that Norton GoBack can cause such issues. Updating the
application or uninstalling it entirely should solve the problem.
There is a Windows Registry entry in Windows 2000/XP/2003 that can cause this error.
Read Microsoft's knowledge base article KB196271 for further details.
This error can also be a symptom of improper configuration. Check this FAQ entry
regarding interrupted connections, as the suggestions may solve this problem.
In the tracker status, I get "Connection closed by peer"
In general, this error has manifested itself in cases where the user's ISP is interfering
with BitTorrent tracker communication. Consult the Bad ISPs list on AzureusWiki to check if
your ISP is known to interfere with BitTorrent traffic.
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μTorrent User Manual > FAQ: Frequently Asked Questions
Incompatibilities
What programs have been known to cause problems with μTorrent?
PROGRAM KNOWN PROBLEM(S)
Anti-malware
avast! crashes or freezes, high CPU usage
ESET NOD32 Antivirus crashes or freezes, Internet disconnection, tracker
connectivity issue
McAfee VirusScan missing interface text
Norman Antivirus crashes or freezes
Norton AntiVirus missing interface text
PC Tools Spyware Doctor crashes or freezes, high CPU usage
PC Tools ThreatFire file access issues
VCOM System Suite crashes or freezes
Firewall
BitDefender Firewall crashes or freezes, tracker connectivity issue
FRITZ!DSL Protect crashes or freezes
iolo System Mechanic Personal
Firewall crashes or freezes, unresponsiveness
Kerio Personal Firewall high CPU usage, Internet disconnection
McAfee Personal Firewall crashes or freezes, high CPU usage
NetPeeker Internet disconnection
Norman Personal Firewall crashes or freezes, high CPU usage
NVIDIA Firewall crashes or freezes, high memory usage
Sunbelt Personal Firewall high CPU usage, Internet disconnection
Indexing
Google Desktop Search file access issues
Nero Scout file access issues
Roxio Media Indexer file access issues
Windows Desktop Search file access issues
WinZip QuickFind file access issues
Miscellaneous
CYBERsitter high CPU usage
Microsoft Firewall Client for ISA
Server unresponsiveness
MouseImp crashes or freezes
Norton GoBack tracker connectivity issue
SpamPal high CPU usage
Ultra Network Sniffer (Analyzer) unresponsiveness
VCOM Fix-It Utilities crashes or freezes
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I have an incompatible software installed, and am getting disconnected from the Internet
If you are using ESET NOD32 Antivirus, see this bit of information.
If you are using Kerio Personal Firewall or Sunbelt Personal Firewall, then the
problem may be another manifestation of the high CPU usage problem.
If you are using NetPeeker, make sure you upgrade to a newer version, as a bug was
fixed in NetPeeker v2.72 that would cause an accumulation of connections stuck in
FIN_WAIT_2 state, eventually stopping all Internet connection.
I have an incompatible software installed, and μTorrent becomes unresponsive
If you are using any software known to cause unresponsiveness, then try updating it to
the latest version. If that doesn't help, then currently, the only option is for you to uninstall
that application (and maybe use a compatible alternative) if you wish to use μTorrent. You
may also want to try searching the forums for any workarounds that may not have yet been
added here.
I have an incompatible software installed, and μTorrent crashes or freezes
If you are using ESET NOD32 Antivirus v2.7.x, you should either disable NOD32's
IMON component, or add μTorrent to the exclusions list in the IMON setup's
"Miscellaneous" tab. If you are using ESET NOD32 Antivirus v3.x, you can add
μTorrent to the HTTP web browsers exclusions list in the "Web Access Protect" section
of the antivirus and antispyware setup.
If you are using Norman Antivirus, you should disable the Internet Protection
component.
If you are using NVIDIA Firewall, and you experience crashing on a multi-core CPU,
then you should try upgrading your NVIDIA nForce drivers to a version that includes
v73.12 or newer of the Network Management Tools. If that is impossible, then you must
either uninstall NVIDIA Firewall (ForceWare Network Access Manager in the Windows
Add or Remove Programs applet), or you must set μTorrent's processor affinity to a
single core from the Task Manager's processes list context menu (make sure only one
core is checked).
If you are using any other software known to cause crashes, then try updating it to the
latest version. If that doesn't help, then currently, the only option is for you to uninstall
that application (and maybe use a compatible alternative) if you wish to use μTorrent.
You may also want to try searching the forums for any workarounds that may not have
yet been added here.
I have an incompatible software installed, and μTorrent has missing text in various places
in the interface
Norton AntiVirus and McAfee VirusScan each have a buffer overrun protection
feature that causes this to happen. To fix the problem, disable the feature in the application.
I have an incompatible software installed, and μTorrent has trouble accessing files
If you are using PC Tools ThreatFire, then the problem may occur because of the
software's proactively defensive nature against zero-day threats based on application
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software's proactively defensive nature against zero-day threats based on application
behavior. To prevent any problems, add μTorrent to ThreatFire's trusted applications
list:
1. Open the ThreatFire GUI
2. Select "Advanced Tools" on the sidebar
3. Click "Custom Rule Settings..." in the "Advanced Rule Settings" tab
4. Add a new item to the "Trusted Process" list in the "Process Lists" tab
5. Select μTorrent from the list, or manually find it in the lower section of the dialog
6. Make sure the newly-added μTorrent process in the list is checked
7. Press "OK" in the dialog
If you are using any desktop search or indexing software (whether or not it is known to
cause file access issues), then you should either configure the application's indexing
service to exclude any directory μTorrent is using from being indexed. Such directories
include any directory μTorrent is downloading to or uploading from, and μTorrent's
settings directory. If excluding the directories doesn't help, then currently, the only option
is for you to uninstall that application (and maybe use a compatible alternative) if you
wish to use μTorrent. You may also want to try searching the forums for any
workarounds that may not have yet been added here.
Although indexing services are the most common source of file access issues in
μTorrent, other real-time scanning softwares (like anti-malware packages) have also
been known to sometimes cause access problems for users.
I have an incompatible software installed, and μTorrent has trouble connecting to trackers
If you are using ESET NOD32 Antivirus, see this bit of information. Tracker
connectivity issues may manifest themselves in the form of a HTTP 400 error.
If you are using BitDefender Firewall, then the only solution is for you to uninstall the
software and find an alternative security software.
If you are using Norton GoBack, try updating the software, as the issue is supposed to
have been fixed in Norton GoBack v4.1. If it doesn't help, try exiting the system tray icon
for Norton GoBack before you run μTorrent, as it has been known to cause problems in
older versions of Norton GoBack.
If you have are using any other software firewall, try uninstalling (not disabling) it. If the
problem is fixed, please inform us on the forums about your discovery.
I have an incompatible software installed, and μTorrent uses a lot of CPU
If you are using avast!, then the problem may manifest itself because of the software's
P2P shield, which scans all P2P activity. To disable the feature, perform the following:
1. Open the "On-Access Scanner " for avast!
2. Press the "Details" button for more options
3. Select the P2P shield on the window to the left of the "On-Access Scanner "
window
4. Press the "Terminate" button
5. Confirm the changes
Alternatively, avast! has a "Customize" option besides the sensitivity slider through
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which programs can be excluded from the P2P shield. Using this to exclude μTorrent's
executable may solve the problem.
If you are using Kerio Personal Firewall or Sunbelt Personal Firewall, then the
problem may manifest itself because the firewall is constantly resolving IP addresses.
Since BitTorrent clients tend to use a large amount of connections, the firewall has to
spend a lot of resources trying to resolve that many IPs. To disable the IP resolving,
perform the following:
1. Stop all torrent jobs in μTorrent
2. Open up the firewall GUI
3. Select the "Overview" tab
4. Look in the "Connections" section
5. Right-click in the window where all of the programs currently using a network
connection are listed and uncheck the "Resolve Address" option
If you are using SpamPal, then try switching to SpamPal v1.594, which is the last
version reported to have been working fine with μTorrent. Otherwise, the only option left
is to uninstall SpamPal, as it is known to cause the same issue with other applications
(it isn't limited to μTorrent only).
If you are using Spyware Doctor, then try switching to Spyware Doctor 4, which is the
last version reported to have been working fine with μTorrent. Otherwise, the only
option left is to uninstall Spyware Doctor.
If you are using any other incompatible software, then currently, the only option is for
you to uninstall that application (and maybe use a compatible alternative) if you wish to
use μTorrent. You may also want to try searching the forums for any workarounds that
may not have yet been added here.
I have an incompatible software installed, and μTorrent uses a lot of memory
If you are using NVIDIA Firewall, then you should try upgrading your NVIDIA nForce
drivers to a version that includes v73.12 or newer of the Network Management Tools. If
upgrading the firewall doesn't help, then you must uninstall NVIDIA Firewall (ForceWare
Network Access Manager in the Windows Add or Remove Programs applet) if you wish
to use μTorrent.
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μTorrent User Manual > FAQ: Frequently Asked Questions
Miscellaneous
How can μTorrent be so fast and small?
μTorrent is programmed in C++ using custom-coded libraries, with the GUI being written
using the Win32 API. It is compressed with UPX to bring the size down by approximately 50%
from its normal compiled size. A serious effort is made to keep the program as resourceefficient
as possible.
How do you pronounce μTorrent?
Although there is no official way to pronounce μTorrent, Ludvig Strigeus wrote, "I usually
say 'you torrent' because [the μ] looks like a u." He also offered "microtorrent" and "mytorrent"
as alternative pronounciations.
How do you write μ on the keyboard?
If you are using an international IME as your keyboard input language, press AltGr + M ,
or Ctrl + Alt + M . Alternatively, you can press Alt + 0181 (with the numbers pressed serially
on the number pad), which works on all IMEs and regional settings.
Is μTorrent open source?
No, it is not open source, and it is very unlikely that it will ever become open source.
Is there a Linux or Mac OS X version of μTorrent?
A port for Mac OS X is currently in development, while the Linux port is on hold (though it
will benefit directly from the Mac OS X port development). For those of you wishing to run
μTorrent on a non-Windows operating system, the Wine project offers a solution.
What is %AppData%?
%AppData% is a Windows environment variable that contains the path to the standard
user application data directory. To access it, you can press "Start" button on the Windows
taskbar, select "Run," type %AppData% into the "Open" field, and press "OK."
Where can I get the latest μTorrent beta?
Occasionally, public beta testing builds are posted on the download page, in the forum,
or in the IRC channel. If there is no public posting... well, if you have to ask for the beta
builds, then you can't get them :)
Who makes μTorrent?
Ludvig Strigeus (ludde) is the original author and maintainer of μTorrent
BitTorrent Inc.'s developers are the current maintainers of μTorrent. The developers
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include:
Jan Brittenson (CodeRed)
Richard Choi (rchoi)
Greg Hazel (alus)
Arvid Norberg (arvid)
Ryan Norton (RyanNorton)
Giancarlo Martínez (Firon) maintains the μTorrent website and community
Timothy Su (ignorantcow) is the website designer
I have a bug report, feature request, or unanswered question. What should I do?
If you think you've found a bug, please make sure it is not caused by any incompatible
software. If the bug is reproducible, please visit the "Found Bugs" forum in the μTorrent
forums and make sure your bug has not already been reported. If not, then register and post
instructions on how to reproduce the problem.
If you have a feature you'd like to request, visit the forum and search to make sure it was
not previously requested. If you post a request without first looking, then chances are fairly
high that you will be told to search, and the thread will be locked.
If you have an unanswered question, visit the forum or IRC channel and ask. Searching
the forum and reading the forum stickies are important things to do while at the forum.
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μTorrent User Manual
Glossary
Especially if you're new to BitTorrent in general, there are probably many new and
unfamiliar terms used throughout this manual (and in many other BitTorrent-related places).
To help "clue" you in on the new vocabulary, this glossary can be of great help.
A
announce
The act of connecting to a tracker to update it on your status, and to obtain
information from it as well, including (but not limited to) an updated peer list.
availability
The number of complete copies of the torrent contents there are distributed in the
part of the swarm you're connected to. The amount of the torrent contents you
currently have is included in the availability count. A swarm with no seed and with
an availability below 1.0 will likely be unable to finish transferring the complete
torrent contents.
B
block
The units of data that comprise a piece. Because blocks do not directly affect
whether torrent contents are considered to be finished transferring, it is not seen as
an appreciable unit of data with regards to BitTorrent like the piece is.
byte
A unit used for measuring the size of data on a computer storage device. Many
people confuse "byte" for "bit" when referring to speeds. A byte is composed of 8
bits, so there is a clear distinction, and terminology should not be confused when
referring to bytes.
broadcatching
The act of downloading content from an RSS feed.
C
choked
This word describes the state of a BitTorrent connection. When a connection is
choked, it means the person who is supposed to be doing the uploading on the
connection does not want to send anything. This generally happens when the
uploader's upload slots are full.
clientT
he application a user is using when connected to a swarm. In this case, the
application being used to connect to swarms is μTorrent, so it is the client.
D
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DHCP (Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol)
A protocol that allows networked devices to be assigned an unique IP address
automatically from a pool of unused IP addresses.
DHT (Distributed Hash Table)
A distributed tracker that works similarly to a regular tracker in that you announce to
it and get back a list of peers that are transferring the same .torrent file as you.
Because DHT is distributed, there is no single point of failure, so even if a single
node disconnects from DHT, the tracker will continue to work (unlike with normal
trackers, where if the server goes down, it becomes unusable). DHT can be
thought of as a backup tracker.
disk cache
A feature that makes use of available memory to stores data for quicker access as
well as ease disk thrashing. The use of a disk cache will cause an increase in
memory usage in return for improved performance.
disk thrashing
When a storage disk gets accessed very frequently. Extended disk thrashing may
lead to hard drive wear and tear, shortening a drive's life.
double NAT
A situation where the network device is behind more than one NAT devices
(generally routers). In this situation, forwarding ports from just one of those NAT
devices is generally insufficient, and more actions need to be taken as described in
the advanced port forwarding guide.
download
The act of transferring data from another computer onto your own.
E
encryption
The obfuscation (concealing) of data behind seemingly random data in order to
hide its true identity.
endgame mode
A change in the piece requesting strategy that occurs when a download is near
completion during which the client requests pieces from all connected peers rather
than requesting a piece from one peer at a time in the normal operating mode.
Endgame mode is used because download rates often slow down considerably as
a torrent job nears completion due to the tendency for the remaining pieces to be
downloaded from peers with saturated connections. By requesting data from all
peers rather than waiting for a single peer, such a bottleneck can be bypassed.
This mode is not used during normal operating modes because of the large amount
of overhead it potentially generates in sending requests to all peers.
ephemeral port range
A range of port numbers automatically allocated by the operating system for use by
any application on the system with network access. Ports in the ephemeral port
range are typically used to make temporary outgoing connections. The default
ephemeral port range is configurable via the Windows Registry, and may vary from
(operating) system to (operating) system. More about the ephemeral port range can
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be learned on Wikipedia's Ephemeral Ports article and its external links.
F
firewall
A barrier (hardware and/or software) that prevents communication to and/or from
certain computers, depending on the rules set in the firewall.
G
GiB (gibibyte)
A gibibyte is equal to 1024 MiB. Most people are referring to "gibibyte" when they
say "gigabyte," although that is technically an incorrect usage of terms.
H
half-open connection
A connection that is not fully established on both ends. Half-open connections
occur when you attempt to connect to an IP address, but the IP address hasn't yet
responded.
hash
A "fingerprint" of data assumed to be unique to the data. Because of the assumed
uniqueness of the data, it is used to verify that a piece of data is indeed
uncorrupted (since the corrupted data's hash would not match its expected hash).
hash check
The comparing of a piece of data's hash with a reference hash in order to verify the
integrity of the piece of data.
hashfail
When a piece fails the hash check used to verify data integrity.
I
index
A site that lists .torrent files available for download.
Initial Seeding (Super Seeding)
A method of seeding that attempts to decrease the bandwidth load for the initial
seeder. With normal seeding methods, the initial seeder typically has to upload
150% to 200%, or even more, of the original data in before a full copy of the data
has been distributed into the swarm. With initial seeding, the initial seed attempts to
get the rarest pieces out instead of uploading identical pieces repeatedly, often
lowering the initial upload requirement to 105%. Initial seeding does not
necessarily improve upload speeds or decrease seeding time. It should be used
only if you are the sole seeder on the swarm, and if there are at least 2 peers
connected. Generally, initial seeding should not be used by people with high upload
speeds.
interested
This word describes the state of a BitTorrent connection. When a peer is
interested, it means the peer is interested in the data that the peer on the other end
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of the connection has, and is willing to accept data from the other peer.
IP address
A number used to uniquely identify devices on a network.
ISP (Internet Service Provider)
The company providing for your Internet service.
ISP throttling
A term used to refer to the throttling of BitTorrent traffic by ISPs.
K
KiB (kibibyte)
A kibibyte is equal to 1024 bytes. Most people are referring to kibibyte when they
say "kilobyte," although that is technically an incorrect usage of terms.
L
LAN (Local Area Network)
A network of computers in a local area, such as a home.
LAN IP address
The private, internal IP address that locates a computer on a LAN. A LAN IP
address is not visible to users outside of the LAN. As described by RFC 1918, the
following ranges are designated as reserved IP addresses for private LANs:
10.0.0.0 - 10.255.255.255
172.16.0.0 - 172.31.255.255
192.168.0.0 - 192.168.255.255
LPD (Local Peer Discovery)
A method by which μTorrent attempts to discover new peers local relative to your
computer's network. Local Peer Discovery makes use of IP multicast.
leecher
A person who downloads, but fails to reciprocate the generosity of others by not
sharing back. The word "leecher" carrys a strong negative connotation. Some
people use the words "leecher" and "peer" interchangeably, though this practice is
not recommended (as it may lead to word confusion).
M
magnet URI
A link that tells the client what files to find and download over DHT.
MiB (mebibyte)
A mebibyte is equal to 1024 KiB. Most people are referring to "mebibyte" when
they say "megabyte," although that is technically an incorrect usage of terms.
Micro Transport Protocol (uTP)
A UDP-based reliable transport protocol designed to minimize latency, but maximize
bandwidth when latency is not excessive. This alleviates the bandwidth saturation
that often occurs to BitTorrent users while they are transferring data and using the
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Internet for other purposes.
N
NAT (Network Address Translation)
The changing of the source or destination IP address for a data packet. This
usually occurs when one is behind a firewall or router, where it translates IP
addresses so that multiple computers can exist on a LAN with while using the same
WAN IP address.
NAT-PMP (NAT Port Mapping Protocol)
An alternative to UPnP created by Apple, Inc. NAT-PMP is not as widely supported
as UPnP is, and uptake of the protocol has been limited to Apple, Inc. products only
thus far.
NAT Traversal
Techniques of establishing connections that traverse (pass through) NAT
gateways. When it works, NAT traversal can help bypass port forwarding issues.
O
optimistic unchoke
When a client tries to start a transfer on a previously choked connection in hopes
that the connection becomes unchoked.
overhead
Additional data used and required for communication and coordination between
sender and receiver that is not part of the payload data actually being transferred.
P
P2P (peer-to-peer)
The use of bandwidth of users using the same peer-to-peer service to perform the
functions of the peer-to-peer service or software. Centralized servers are not what
keeps P2P networks alive, but rather, the peers themselves.
payload
The actual data being transferred from sender to receiver, not counting overhead.
PE (Protocol Encryption)
An specification designed jointly by Azureus and μTorrent developers, created as
an attempt to bypass throttling and/or blocking of BitTorrent traffic by ISPs by
encryption of the data. There are different methods of encryption, ranging from full
encryption of all of the data, to partial encryption of the data (header encryption
only, not unlike with PHE, although it's still not as easily detected as PHE).
peer
A user/client connected to the swarm. People sometimes refer to peers as
"leechers," though they also use the same word to refer to its more negative
connotation. It's recommended that you use the word "leecher" to strictly refer to
people who don't share so to keep the distinction clear and confusion to a
minimum.
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peer list
A list containing the IPs and ports of other peers.
PEX (Peer Exchange)
A feature to exchange peer lists with other peers that support the same PEX
implementation (generally limited to peers using the same BitTorrent client). By
exchanging peer lists, it's possible to find peers not included in the peer list
supplied by the tracker.
PHE (Protocol Header Encryption)
An old method of encryption created by the BitComet developer that encrypted only
a part of the data (the header) in an attempt to bypass ISP throttling and/or
blocking of BitTorrent traffic. Because its specification was designed in a relatively
poor manner, ISPs were able to detect it with little trouble, rendering it useless.
piece
The smallest appreciable unit of data in BitTorrent. The size of pieces can be
different depending on the .torrent file in question.
piece distribution
The general distribution of the pieces across the swarm. BitTorrent is generally
most efficient when piece distribution is random, with minimal "clumping" of pieces
available in the swarm.
poisoning
The act of intentionally feeding invalid data into the swarm, resulting in hashfails for
peers receiving the invalid data. Outfits with (or hired by other entiries with) anti-
P2P agendas are the most common sources of swarm poisoning.
port forwarding
The act of passing data on the forwarded port from one network device to another.
In most cases regarding BitTorrent, port forwarding refers to the forwarding of
connections from a router to a specific computer attempting to listen on that port.
'private' flag
A piece of information stored in a .torrent file that tells any BitTorrent client that
recognizes the flag to disable DHT, LPD, and PEX for that specific .torrent. The
'private' flag is typically used in .torrent files served by private trackers as a method
of keeping a swarm isolated from people who aren't members of the private tracker.
private tracker
A tracker that requires users to log in to use it. Private trackers typically enforce
ratio requirements (by banning users whose ratios are too low) in order to prevent
or minimize the leeching that is prevalent on many public trackers.
protocol
A set of rules and description of how to do things. In the case of the BitTorrent
protocol, it is a set of rules describing how BitTorrent clients should communicate
and transfer data with each other.
proxy
A computer that is told to make a connection to another computer, and relay the
data transferred between the two computers to the original computer that
connected to the proxy. Essentially, using a proxy is a way to make an indirect
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connection to another computer by way of the proxy computer.
public tracker
A tracker that is open for anyone to use (as opposed to private trackers, where only
people who hold accounts can use the tracker).
R
ratio
A number derived from the division of two other numbers. In the context of
BitTorrent, people are normally referring to share ratio when they speak of a ratio.
reseed
The act of rejoining a swarm with no seeds as a seed.
RSS feed
A file that is updated so that it delivers information and content in such a way that
allows one to track updates quickly and easily.
S
scrape
The grabbing of statistics (number of seeds and peers) from a tracker regarding a
specific swarm.
seed
A peer with 100% of the data in the torrent contents.
seeding
The act of being connected to a swarm as a seed.
share ratio
The ratio of the amount of data you've uploaded to the amount of data you've
downloaded.
snubbed
This word describes the state of a BitTorrent connection. A connection is marked
as snubbed when the client has not received anything over the connection for an
extended period of time.
static IP address
An IP address that does not change (remains static) across multiple sessions. A
static IP address is necessary in port forwarding, as ports are usually forwarded to
a specific IP address, where the rule does not change even if the computer's IP
address does.
swarm
The collective group of peers (which includes seeds) that are connected by a
common .torrent file.
T
throttle
A term used to refer to the intentional slowing down of transfer rates (download
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and/or upload), typically used in the context of ISP throttling.
torrent
A small file containing metadata from the files it is describing. In other contexts, it is
sometimes used to refer to the swarm connected around that small file.
tracker
Something that a client connects to in order to share its IP and port, as well as
obtain information, including peer lists.
U
upload
The act of transferring data from your computer onto another.
UPnP (Universal Plug and Play)
A protocol that allows devices on a network to communicate with each other
seamlessly. In the case of μTorrent, UPnP is used to forward a port on a router
without the need to open the port manually.
W
WAN (Wide Area Network)
A computer network that covers a large geographical area. A WAN connects
multiple LANs together. The Internet is an example of a WAN.
WAN IP address
The public, external IP address that users outside of your own network see your
network to be located at on the WAN. WAN IP addresses reveal nothing about
internal IP address allocation on a LAN located at the WAN IP address.
wasted
Data that is tossed out either because it hashfailed, or because it was redundant
data that the client had already downloaded.
web interface (Web UI)
An interface for a supported web browser that allows one to control an application
remotely.
web seed
A seed that is basically a regular web server hosting the requested file. BitTorrent
clients that support web seeds use them like any other seed, and can request data
segments from the server much like requesting pieces from an ordinary seed. The
use of web seeds ensures that a torrent swarm will never die as long as the file
being seeded is left intact on the server and the server does not go down.
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μTorrent User Manual
External Links
Here's a list of external webpages mentioned in the help manual:
μTorrent
Webpage
Skins Page
Download Page
Forums
flags.conf/flags.bmp
IRC Channel
AzureusWiki
Advanced Network Settings
Bad routers
Bad ISPs
Depthstrike.com Resources
Mirrors for Open-Source/Freeware Projects
Multitracker Specifications
Microsoft
KB196271: When you try to connect from TCP ports greater than 5000 you receive
the error 'WSAENOBUFS (10055)'
KB307881: How to convert a FAT16 volume or a FAT32 volume to an NTFS file
system in Windows XP
KB894564: How to change the binding order of network adapters in Windows XP
and in Windows 2000
RATTV3
Miscellaneous
Ephemeral Ports
HijackThis
Process Explorer
TCPIP.sys patcher (LvlLord's EventID 4226 Patcher)
Why is Being Firewalled Bad?
PortForward
How to Set Up a Static IP Address
Router List for PortForwarding Guides
Motorola SurfBoard Issues
Running on Alternative Operating Systems
Apple XCode
Darwine
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WineHQ.org
Speed Test Torrents
OpenOffice.org
Slackware Linux
Ubuntu Linux
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μTorrent is a BitTorrent client originally created by Ludvig Strigeus (ludde), and is
currently maintained by a team of developers at BitTorrent, Inc. A client is a computer
program that follows the rules of a protocol. For example, HTTP (HyperText Transfer
Protocol) is the protocol used for transferring web pages and other content, and your HTTP
client (or web browser) is the program you use to get those web pages. Some popular
browsers include Microsoft Internet Explorer, Mozilla Firefox, Opera, and Apple Safari. To an
extent, they all work in the same way because they follow the same set of rules. Just as
there are multiple HTTP clients, there are multiple BitTorrent clients that observe and
conform to guidelines set in the BitTorrent protocol definition, and μTorrent is one such
BitTorrent client.
So what sets μTorrent apart from other BitTorrent clients?
Micro-Sized Yet Feature Filled: Most of the features present in other BitTorrent
clients are present in μTorrent, including bandwidth prioritization, scheduling, RSS autodownloading
and Mainline DHT (compatible with BitComet). Additionally, μTorrent
supports the Protocol Encryption joint specification and peer exchange.
Resource-Friendly: μTorrent was written with efficiency in mind. Unlike many other
BitTorrent clients, it does not hog valuable system resources, allowing you to use the
computer as if it weren't there at all. Additionally, the program itself is very portable,
being contained within a single executable small in file size.
Skinnable and Localized: Various icon, toolbar graphic and status icon replacements
are available, and creating your own is very simple. μTorrent also has support for
localization, and with a language file present, will automatically switch to your system
language. If your language isn't available, you can easily add your own, or edit other
existing translations to improve them!
Actively Developed and Improved: The developers put in a lot of time working on
features and making things more user-friendly. Releases only come out when they're
ready, with no schedule pressures, so the few bugs that appear are quickly addressed
and fixed.
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μTorrent User Manual > Chapter 01: Introduction to μTorrent
Features List
Although compact and resource-friendly, μTorrent does not skimp on features, with a
feature set that rivals those of larger clients, such as Azureus, BitComet, and BitTornado.
μTorrent's more notable features include:
Bandwidth limiter
Data transfer quota limiter
Disk Cache system
Distributed Hash Table (DHT) support
Download bar
Download scheduler
Embedded tracker
HTTPS tracker support
Initial Seeding (Super Seeding)
IP Blocklist support
IPv6/Teredo support
Local Peer Discovery (LPD)
Local Tracker Discovery
Localization
Magnet URI support
Micro Transport Protocol (uTP) support
Multi-scrape support
Multi-torrent interface with queueing support
NAT Port Mapping Protocol (NAT-PMP) support
NAT Traversal through UDP hole punching (uTP only)
Peer Exchange
Protocol Encryption
Proxy support
RSS "Broadcatching"
Search bar
Selective file downloading
UDP tracker support
Unicode support
Universal Plug and Play (UPnP) support
Web Interface
Web Seeding support
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μTorrent User Manual > Chapter 01: Introduction to μTorrent
System Requirements
μTorrent was designed with relatively basic system requirements in mind. Machines
running any Microsoft Windows operating system from Windows 2000 and newer are able to
run μTorrent as well. Support for operating systems older than Windows 2000 has been
dropped since μTorrent v2.0.
Users of non-Windows operating systems may be able to use μTorrent on their
computers with the use of a special piece of software that allows the operating system to run
Windows applications. Note that there are no guarantees of any kind that everything will
work properly when μTorrent is used on alternative operating systems.
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μTorrent User Manual
Chapter 02: Basic Guides
This chapter provides basic guides for μTorrent. Be sure to read this chapter, especially
if you are new to BitTorrent in general.
The Basics of BitTorrent
Setup Guide
Port Forwarding
Downloading With μTorrent
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μTorrent User Manual > Chapter 02: Basic Guides
The Basics of BitTorrent
BitTorrent (often abbreviated as BT) is a peer-to-peer (P2P) protocol (a description and
set of rules on how to do things) created by Bram Cohen, designed to distribute data in such
a way that the original distributor would be able to decrease bandwidth usage while still
being able to reach at least the same amount of people. Cohen's idea was to "break" the file
being transferred into smaller segments called pieces. To save bandwidth, each person
downloading (more commonly referred to as peers in the BitTorrent community) would have
the pieces that they acquired available for upload to other peers in the swarm (the entire
network of people connected to a single torrent). In this way, much of the load of sharing the
file to every peer interested in it is offloaded to the peers. Note that a seed is basically a
peer with every piece, so when a peer successfully attains all data in the torrent contents,
that peer becomes a seed as well.
While on the surface, it appears that the only way to maintain a swarm's health is for
there to always be a seed connected to the swarm, that is not the case. The most important
factor to determining whether a swarm can continue to allow peers to complete a torrent is
the availability. The availability of a torrent is the number of complete copies of the torrent
contents there are distributed in the part of the swarm you're connected to, including the data
you have. In most cases, if there is an availability of 1.0 or greater, then even if one single
person does not have all the pieces, they are all still distributed across the entire swarm and
can be acquired to form the complete file.
In order for everyone to be able to locate one another, there needs to be some
centralized location that peers could connect to in order to obtain the other peers' IP
addresses. BitTorrent trackers serve as this centralized location. In the most basic
explanation, for each given swarm, a tracker only needs to collect a peer's IP address and
port number to share with other peers connecting to that same swarm.
Because of the very nature of BitTorrent, speeds are not guaranteed for any given
torrent swarm. While you may get great speeds in one swarm, you might not in another. This
is due to the fact that BitTorrent is a P2P protocol, so it depends on the upload speeds of the
other peers you are connected to to generate your download speeds. A common
misconception held by many people is that torrent swarms that contain more seeds and
peers are faster than those with less. This is not always the case. There can be a swarm
with only a few seeds and/or peers on fast Internet connections, and you'll be able to get
great speeds from them, while a swarm with many more seeds and/or peers might contain
mostly people with slow, dial-up Internet connections, will get you terrible speeds from them.
In the same vein, connecting to more seeds and/or peers does not equate to greater speeds,
and seeds don't necessarily give better speeds than normal peers.
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μTorrent User Manual > Chapter 02: Basic Guides
Setup Guide
The focus of this section is to help you configure μTorrent to be able to obtain the
optimal speeds for your Internet connection. While configuring it properly does not guarantee
that you will hit your maximum upload and/or download speeds, it guarantees that μTorrent is
doing the best it can to get good speeds. Be sure to read this entire section if you are
unfamiliar with configuring μTorrent, because you will be expected to have read it already
when asking for help elsewhere.
The Setup Guide
When you open μTorrent for the first time, you are presented with the μTorrent Setup
Guide. As stated in the wizard, following the simple directions will help you select the optimal
settings for your Internet connection.
In the first part, you are asked to select your upload speed from the dropdown menu. If
you do not know this information, you can test your Internet connection speed by selecting a
location closest to where you are situated, and click the "Run tests" button at the bottom of
the dialog. When you are running the speed test, make sure you are not using your Internet
connection for anything besides the test. If you have any other computer on your network,
disconnect them or shut them off before running the test. Run the test several times, and
take the average of your upload speed given in the tests. After the speed test, μTorrent will
automatically attempt to configure the settings based on the results of the test. If you wish,
you can manually select your connection's upload rate from the dropdown menu, but do note
the fact that there is a distinction between bits and bytes, and speed results are generally
given in kbps (kilobits per second), which should not be confused with KiB/s (kibibits per
second). Additionally, the tests may not be 100% accurate due to factors outside of your
control, so if the closest option is only a little bit higher than what you received on the tests
(perhaps by 10%), it's generally safe to select that. If the difference is greater than that, it's
best to select the lower option and manually set the correct upload speed. Do not be tempted
to select an option much higher than indicated on the speed tests in hopes that it will help
you download faster, as it will not, and might end being detrimental to your speeds instead.
In the second part, a port is randomly selected for you the first time the Setup Guide is
displayed, though you are free to change the port used. Alternatively, setting the port to 0
indicates to μTorrent that you would like for it to select a random port after the changes are
confirmed. After you select your port, left-click "Run tests" to check that the port is open. It is
essential that a port is open for μTorrent to listen for incoming connections on. If you are
having trouble opening a port, continue reading onto the port forwarding guide.
When you finish configuring everything, left-click "Save & Close" and you're done! If, for
whatever reason, you need to return to this wizard to make a change, you'll find it accessible
by selecting "Options" then "Setup Guide..." (or press Ctrl + G ) in μTorrent. Alternatively, you
can left-click on the network status icon in the status bar.
Correcting Some Settings
If you manually chose a connection upload rate and found that you had to round down
when selecting your connection type in the Setup Guide, you should adjust your upload
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speed limit to take advantage of the extra upload speed you actually have. Take the average
upload speed you received when taking the test and divide it by 10, then round it to the
closest whole number. Now use this calculated number as your global maximum upload rate.
Testing Your Configuration
Because torrents don't necessarily guarantee speeds, you can't just pick any random
torrent and expect to be able to test the speeds properly. Luckily, there are many torrents out
there that are seeded perpetually by computers sitting on fast broadband connections. Try a
test torrent to test your configuration!
When properly configured, μTorrent should be able to attain the maximum speed
possible for most common consumer Internet connections with these test torrents without
much difficulty. Because these torrents are simply used for testing your connection speeds, it
is safe to delete them whenever you are finished testing. Remember that these speeds are
not indicative of how fast every torrent you come across will download.
ISP Interference
Some Internet Service Providers (ISP) block or throttle BitTorrent connections because
of the high bandwidth it generates due to the sheer number of people using BitTorrent.
Protocol Encryption combats this attack vector by hiding the fact that connections are
BitTorrent connections. Some ISPs cannot distinguish an encrypted connection from any
other random data connection, so they are unable to label it as a BitTorrent connection, and
consequently, cannot block or throttle it for being a BitTorrent connection. In general, there is
no harm in enabling Protocol Encryption, other than a marginal increase in peer
communication overhead.
Take note that some ISPs are starting to identify even encrypted BitTorrent connections
with upgraded hardware, so even Protocol Encryption might not help users getting throttled
by their ISPs. For a list of ISPs known to throttle, check the Bad ISPs list on AzureusWiki. If
your ISP is known to throttle or block BitTorrent traffic, then you may want to consider setting
the encryption to "Forced" and disable legacy incoming connections. If that fails, then the
solution would probably be to switch to an ISP that does not throttle or block.
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μTorrent User Manual > Chapter 02: Basic Guides
Port Forwarding
A large portion of the time, users complain that they are not getting great speeds with
μTorrent. While it's possible that there is no issue because of the very nature of BitTorrent, it
is equally possible the user is not allowing incoming connections to reach his computer, and
thus, is not making optimal use of μTorrent's ability to connect to peers with that torrent.
Being unable to accept incoming connections means your computer is in a firewalled state.
In μTorrent, if you are unable to get a green network status icon after a long period of
transferring different torrents, it is an indication that you might be in a firewalled state.
Why Being Firewalled is Bad
Many firewalled users find themselves thinking "Hey, I'm firewalled, but I can still transfer
the files, so it must mean I'm okay!" What they fail to realize is that being firewalled does not
necessarily mean you cannot download at all, as firewalled users can still make outgoing
connections, connecting to peers to transfer data in that way. While this is true, that's all you
are limited to. That means that if someone else tries to initiate a connection with you, the
attempt is blocked by your firewall.
You must then realize that you might not be the only firewalled user in the swarm. Since
firewalled users can only make outgoing connections, and cannot accept incoming
connections, it is natural that they (the firewalled users) cannot connect to each other. Being
in a firewalled state not only cuts into the potential speed you could be attaining when not
firewalled, but also means you are of very limited use to other peers in the swarm. Because
there are less people available for firewalled users to connect to, they are open to less
sources for data. Additionally, because they cannot accept incoming connections, other peers
do not connect to them, so they lose even more attention. Essentially, peers who are not in a
firewalled state have the potential to connect to many more sources of data.
Removing yourself from being in a firewalled state does not mean you have to get rid of
your firewall entirely. The only requirement is that you allow the application you wish to be
unfirewalled in to listen to the port they want to through the firewall, also known as port
forwarding. In the case of μTorrent, you need to set your firewall to allow μTorrent to listen
to the port set in the connection preferences.
Although it may sound like a security risk to "poke" a hole in your firewall, it is not the
case. If no application is listening on the port that is opened in your firewall, any incoming
connections on that port will be ignored. If an application is listening, security is up to that
application. Unless there is a known, fully-remote exploit for the current version of μTorrent
that would break your computer's security setup, there is no risk in opening a port on your
firewall for μTorrent.
Forwarding Ports in Your Software Personal Firewall
Nowadays, it is not uncommon for people to have a software personal firewall installed
on their computers. While many people simply allow applications they recognize to access
the Internet, oftentimes, it is not enough, as the firewall may continue to block the port that
the allowed application is trying to listen on. As such, specific firewall rules may need to be
created in order for μTorrent to work on a computer with a software personal firewall
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installed. The general rule of thumb you should follow is that you have to allow incoming
TCP and UDP connections through the listening port set in the connection preferences.
Because you are forwarding a specific port in your firewall, it is imperative that you do not
have μTorrent randomize the listening port each time it starts.
Because of the wide variety of software personal firewalls available today, there is no
way to include specific instructions for every product. Though this is the case, there is one
specific firewall that μTorrent can create a firewall rule for automatically, and that is the
Windows Firewall. The relevant option assumes you are running Windows XP with at least
Service Pack 2 (SP2) installed or newer, and have the firewall enabled.
Forwarding Ports in Your Router
With broadband becoming the prevalent way by which people access the Internet, and
multiple computers in each home becoming a common sight, routers are often used to share
the broadband connection across the computer network in the home. Even if multiple
computers are not being used on the broadband connection, ISPs often supply routers for
their customers to use. What many people don't realize is that routers themselves act like a
firewall that, when left unconfigured, will generally leave your computer firewalled, even if
you have your software firewall configured properly.
Universal Plug and Play and NAT Port Mapping Protocol
As with software personal firewalls, there are a wide variety of routers available, and
because of the sheer number, it is impossible to include port forwarding instructions for each
router model in this user manual. Fortunately many routers support Universal Plug and
Play (UPnP) or the NAT Port Mapping Protocol (NAT-PMP), which allow μTorrent to open
a port on the router automatically without user intervention, then close the port when the port
is done being used. The problem with these zero-configuration protocols for automatically
telling routers to forward ports is that they may not be supported by all routers, and
different/incompatible implementations of the protocols may be included in many routers. By
default, UPnP and NAT-PMP are enabled in μTorrent. If you find that you are still in a
firewalled state, then it likely means your router does not support either protocol, or includes
an implementation incompatible with the implementation used by μTorrent. If this is the case,
then it is recommended that you disable these features in μTorrent, set up a static IP, and
forward your ports manually.
Setting Up a Static IP
On most routers, a connected computer's IP address on the network is picked from a
pool of IP addresses available for the router to choose from through Dynamic Host
Configuration Protocol (DHCP). The keyword here is "dynamic," as this indicates that each
computer's IP address is assigned on-the-fly based on what IP addresses are still available in
the router's pool of usable IP addresses. While some people get lucky and keep their LAN IP
addresses for a long period of time, that is not a guarantee under DHCP. As such, port
forwarding rules might work one day in forwarding traffic through a specific port to a specific
computer at its LAN IP address at the time that the rule was made, but it may cease to work
on another day because that specific computer's LAN IP address may have changed along
the way. Some routers (notably, Linksys routers) don't even bother to forward ports to
computers whose LAN IP addresses are within the DHCP IP range. Because of these
reasons, it is necessary that you set up a static IP address for your computer (preferrably,
outside of the DHCP range) before you continue with forwarding your ports manually on the
router.
Note that static IP refers to static LAN IP, which is different and unrelated to WAN IP.
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Your LAN IP address is the location of your computer within your network, but is not public
for anyone to see besides the other computers within your network. Your WAN IP address is
the IP address that people outside of your network see your network at, but it does not
reveal the internal IP address allocation on your LAN, which may contain multiple computers,
each (naturally) having their own LAN IPs. In the context of setting up a static IP for port
forwarding, your WAN IP is irrelevant, and is normally not used in any step along the way.
The directions for setting up a static IP can be found on PortForward.com.
Manual Port Forwarding
Assuming you have a static IP set up properly, the final step would be to do the actual
port forwarding on your router. To get to the router configuration, you can normally visit the
Default Gateway IP address in your web browser (you may have to append http:// before
the IP address in some web browsers for this to work). From there, you look for some method
of forwarding ports or allowing/hosting "applications" through the firewall, whereby you
forward incoming connections on the listening port selected in μTorrent over both TCP and
UDP to your computer's IP address, which should be the IP you selected when setting up the
static IP. A list of many routers and port forwarding instructions for them can be found on
PortForward.com. Be sure you know your router's exact brand and model. If your router is
not listed there, you should consult with your router's documentation, or search the Internet
for more detailed instructions.
Testing Your Configuration
After you forward your ports, use the port checker from step 2 of the Setup Guide to test
whether the port was opened correctly. If it confirms that the port is open, then you're done! If
otherwise, then go over the previous instructions and make sure you did not skip a step or
make any mistakes. If you're absolutely sure you configured everything properly, then there
might be other problems at hand. In that case, you should read the advanced guide on port
forwarding.
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μTorrent User Manual > Chapter 02: Basic Guides
Downloading With μTorrent
Similar to needing a URL, like http://www.utorrent.com, to go to a website and
download content, a .torrent file is required to download content available through
BitTorrent. Most of the time, you can download this file from a website, though you can also
get it from a friend or some other form of transfer. Many websites offer .torrent files as one
method of downloading files available through that website. Sites that contain .torrent files
are generally repositories of only the .torrent files, and usually don't create or directly make
available any of the content being shared. These sites are either index sites or trackers.
While torrent index sites list .torrent files for download, torrent trackers merely coordinate
the swarm. Many torrent trackers function as a torrent index as well, listing the torrents that it
tracks (and sometimes, torrents from external trackers as well).
So where do you go about looking for these .torrent files? Searching with your favorite
search engine, and attaching the word torrent to the query generally works wonders in
finding you decent results, but μTorrent also includes a built-in search bar to some of the
more popular .torrent file search engines.
Adding a Torrent
Once you obtain the .torrent file you wish to download, you simply import it into μTorrent.
There are several ways of achieving this in μTorrent:
Double-click the .torrent file (only if .torrent files are associated with μTorrent)
Drag-and-drop the .torrent file into μTorrent
Select "File" then "Add Torrent" (or press Ctrl + O ) in μTorrent and open the .torrent file
If you know the direct URL to the .torrent file, but don't have it on your hard drive, you
can select "File" then "Add Torrent from URL" (or press Ctrl + U ) in μTorrent and enter
the URL of the .torrent file
After opening the .torrent file, tell μTorrent where you'd like the torrent contents to be
saved. If μTorrent doesn't automatically start downloading, you can start the torrent job
manually by selecting the torrent job in the list and pressing the "Start" button on the μTorrent
toolbar, or by right-click ing the torrent and selecting "Start".
What to do After the Torrent Job Finishes Downloading
After a torrent job finishes downloading, you may view the files that you have
downloaded. While you can also remove the torrent job from the torrent jobs list if you so
wish, you are highly encouraged to leave the torrent job seeding (uploading after you have
obtained every piece). Although the length of time that you should leave the it seeding is not
defined in particular, it is recommended that you share until the amount of data you upload
reaches at least the same as the amount of data that you have download, also known as
reaching a 1.0 ratio. This ratio is calculated by dividing the amount of data you have
uploaded by the amount that you have downloaded. Granted, it is technically impossible for
every person in any given swarm to reach a 1.0 ratio, but people who leave the swarm
before even getting close to that ratio are abhorred in the BitTorrent community, and are
labeled as leechers (which carries a strong negative connotation). Because leechers have a
detrimental effect on swarms, some people resort to vigilante tactics and block connections
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to leechers. Additionally, private trackers may ban leechers.
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μTorrent User Manual
Chapter 03: Advanced Guides
The intent for this chapter is to help users in more advanced situations that most typical
users of μTorrent won't find themselves having to deal with.
More Port Forwarding
Migrating to Another Location
Switching from Another Client
Alternative Operating Systems
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More Port Forwarding
Even after having carefully and laboriously followed all the port forwarding instructions
previously written, you've found that your port simply refuses to open up. So what exactly is
the problem? Possibilities include (but are not limited to):
Intentional ISP interference: Some ISPs are known to simply block connections to
unauthorized ports, in which case your entire network is essentially placed into a
firewalled state.
Internet connection type: One prominent example of this being the source of the
problem are Internet connections that are received wirelessly (though satellite or
something similar). Customers of wireless connections are very often not given WAN IP
addresses, and so are permanently in a firewalled state. In fact, any kind of connection
where you are not in control of the NAT will generally leave you in an unfirewalled state.
Such is the case with university-provided connections, where network administrators
generally block connections to unauthorized ports.
Proxy service: Some ISPs place their users behind a transparent proxy, whereby the
port checker might be unable to detect the forwarding state properly. In that case, try a
test torrent and let it run for a while. If the network status light turns green, then
everything's probably configured properly. Even then, though, being behind a proxy
essentially places one behind a firewall, so you might still suffer problems as if you were
behind a firewall.
Network hardware blocking: Some modems are known to cause issues with your
computer being in a firewalled state even though they technically aren't routers. One
notorious example is the Motorola SurfBoard brand of modems, which you can read up
about at the PortForward.com forums.
User error is also a very common problem when it comes to port forwarding issues, but
assuming that everything in the basic port forwarding guide was followed carefully, and none
of the above possibilities are applicable, then the problem very likely lies with another issue
called double NAT. Unlike any of the other issues listed above, double NAT problems can
often be taken care of, provided the user follows the necessary steps as described below.
Double NAT
Double NAT occurs when your computer is sitting behind two or more routers. In most
double NAT cases, it turns out that the user has a dedicated router, but was also
unknowingly provided with a modem by their ISP that came with router or firewall capabilities.
When that is the case, the user simply forwards ports from the router to the computer, leaving
the modem alone, and this is exactly where the problem lies. Because the modem acts as a
router as well, if it is not configured properly, it essentially means that the user remains in a
firewalled state, since the dedicated router that the user did configure is not actually
receiving incoming connections on the forwarded port due to everything being blocked by the
outermost router -- the modem. Be aware that this is a specific case of the issue at hand. In
more severe cases, users can have more than just two routing devices, and rectifying the
problem can become that much more difficult, depending on the solution taken.
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Removing or Disabling the Extraneous Router
In the simplest of cases, ridding yourself of the double NAT situation comes down to
simply removing the extra routers, or disabling their routing capabilities. Using this method
assumes that the extraneous routers being operated upon are absolutely unneeded on the
network. If that is not the case, then the only solution you have is to chain port forward. With
the method being described in this section, only one router should end up on the network,
that router being the one that your computers are actually connected to. Some examples are
as follows:
You have a modem that acts as a router, a dedicated router that is connected to the
modem, and then your computers that are connected to the router. In this case, you
should disable the routing capability in the modem, so that you're left with only the
dedicated router as the sole router on the network (which is the one connected to your
comptuers).
You have a modem that acts as a router, two routers, and all of the computers
connected to the same router. In this case, you should disable the routing capability on
the modem, and remove the router that no other computers are connected to.
As you can see, the general rule of thumb is that you remove all extraneous routers.
You'll notice, though, that the modem with routing capability never gets removed -- that's
because the modem function is important for allowing you to actually connect to the Internet.
In any case, to disable the router in the modem, you have to physically connect a computer
directly to the modem, then visit the configuration page for the modem. Before actually
disabling the routing capability, you must be sure to check whether your modem contains
login information for your ISP. If it does, then you are going to have to make sure you have a
copy of that information on hand. This is most often the case for people using a DSL modem
and router, where login information is usually stored where the PPPoA/PPPoE configuration
page is. That aside, setting the modem to bridge mode is what you should be combing
through its configuration page for. After you do this, everything should hopefully be fine. If
you find that your Internet connection no longer works, you should fill the login information
you copied into the appropriate location in the remaining active router on your network (if you
copied PPPoA/PPPoE settings from the modem, copy it into the PPPoA/PPPoE settings in
the router).
Chain Port Forwarding
This method can be very annoying, as it requires that you set static IPs for and forward
the desired port through each and every one of them. Basically, you need to follow the basic
port forwarding guide for each and every router, except that the IP you're forwarding to is the
IP of the next router in the chain of routers leading up to your computer. Each router must be
assigned a static IP address, which can normally be set in its configuration pages. While
specifics can't be delved into because of the sheer number of different routers available, the
following case example might be of use to illustrate the process more clearly:
You have a modem that acts as a router. A dedicated router (router A) is connected to it.
Another dedicated router (router B) is connected to router A. Your computer is
connected to router B.
The modem's routing subnet starts with 192.168.1.x. It forwards the port specified in
μTorrent to router A, which is at IP address 192.168.1.5 on the modem's subnet.
Router A has a static IP set to 192.168.1.5. Its own subnet starts with 172.16.1.x.
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It forwards the port specified in μTorrent to router B, which is at IP address
172.16.1.3 on router A's subnet.
Router B has a static IP address set to 172.16.1.3. Its own subnet starts with
10.0.0.x. It forwards the port specified in μTorrent to your computer, which is at IP
address 10.0.0.6 on router B's subnet.
Your computer has a static IP address set to 10.0.0.6, and because the port was
forwarded from the modem to router A, and from router A to router B, then from router B
to this computer, the port checker considers your client to be connectable.
Please be aware that that was just an example. Many conditions, including the IP
addresses, the number of devices on your network setup, or how everything is connected,
will most likely differ from the example. All you can do is adapt the example to your situation
and configure everything accordingly. Setting the static IP addresses up properly is extremely
important when chain port forwarding. Any mistakes (or failure to do so) means more
troubleshooting in trying to figure out which device's IP address changed if your port
suddenly becomes unforwarded.
More Troubles
If you do not see an answer or solution above, or you are unsure of what your problem
is, please join the IRC channel, or the forums to ask for more assistance. Do explain what
you've tried so far with some level of detail so that people know what you have attempted,
and what else you could try (if anything).
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μTorrent User Manual > Chapter 03: Advanced Guides
Migrating to Another Location
In some cases, you might find that you need to move your files, be it due to simple
reorganization, possibly to reinstall Windows, or maybe even to move μTorrent and all the
torrent jobs along with their contents to a new computer. In any case, the process is simple,
though it can turn out to be a lengthy one. Realize that along the way, you might lose your
accumulated statistics for each torrent job, but that does not mean you lose the statistics on
the associated trackers, so do not fret about that.
Reinstalling Your Operating System
In the simplest of cases, reinstalling your operating system only requires you to make a
backup of the data onto a new drive or partition if the torrent contents and μTorrent settings
directory are located on the same drive or partition as the operating system you are trying to
reinstall. After everything is completed, you simply have to move the files back to their
previous locations, and μTorrent will resume everything without issue. If you did not have an
encapsulated "installation" of μTorrent, then make sure you have the same username before
moving the settings directory back into %AppData%. If you are unable to perform any of the
above, you will have to take the long route of performing the migration as if you were really
moving the torrent contents.
Moving to a New Computer
Migrating μTorrent to a new computer simply requires that you copy your files to your
new hard drive, along with backing up the entire μTorrent settings directory. The most
difficult part of this process comes with the placement of the μTorrent directory and the
torrent contents. If you want to complete the process with minimal effort, it becomes a simple
matter of making sure the paths for all the files related to μTorrent and the torrent contents
on the new computer are identical to the respective paths on the old computer.
If you had an encapsulated "installation" of μTorrent, an identical username is not
necessary. Otherwise, if the μTorrent settings directory was located in
%AppData%\uTorrent, then you will have to create a user with the same exact
account name on the new computer as on the old computer, then move the μTorrent
settings directory into the proper location on disk.
If you plan on moving the drive over to the new computer, then as long as the drive
letter remains the same, you save yourself the headache of dealing with paths.
Otherwise, if you're going to copy the files from the old drive to the new drive, then you
should make sure the torrent contents' paths remain identical.
If any of those tips fail, and you are unable to keep paths identical for either the settings
directory or the torrent contents, then you're in for a very long ride, and will have to perform
everything as if you had moved the torrent contents.
Moving Torrent Contents
This process, if you haven't already figured it out, might require the most amount of time
out of any of the "migration" processes, as it might require that you allow μTorrent to verify
the data integrity of the torrent contents after the move. What's time consuming isn't really
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the procedure itself, but the fact that rechecking can take a lot of time, depending on the
torrent contents' sizes, and how many different torrent jobs you want to move. All that's
needed when you're moving torrent contents is that you stop the torrent job in μTorrent, move
the torrent contents to wherever you need them to be, set the download location for each
associated torrent job for the moved contents, and start the torrent job. If μTorrent doesn't
recognize the existing data, stop the torrent job and force re-check for each relevant torrent
job.
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μTorrent User Manual > Chapter 03: Advanced Guides
Switching from Another Client
Now that you've made the switch to μTorrent, you're probably wondering if or how you
could import all the torrent jobs you were running in your previous client. Rest assured that
the process is a relatively simple one, and only requires a bit of patience, depending on how
much data is being "imported" into μTorrent -- the larger and more numerous the torrent
contents being imported, the longer it will take, because it all means that the data integrity
checking will take longer as well.
Removing Extra Extensions
There is a simple matter to tend to first before proceeding with the import, and that has
to do with a specific feature in some other clients. Some other clients append a special
extension to incomplete files to indicate that they are incomplete, and μTorrent (if the relevant
option is enabled) is no exception. Because of this extension, μTorrent might have trouble
recognizing the torrent contents, and will ignore them instead. To fix it, all you have to do is
remove the special extension from any incomplete file. If there are many files, this can quickly
become a boring and tedious task. Luckily, a simple batch script can be used to rename all
files with the unwanted extension:
@for /r %%i in (*.XT!) do @move "%%~fi" "%%~dpni"
Copy and paste the above line of code to a new text file, then change the XT! to the
extension you wish to remove. BitComet, for example, appends a bc! extension to the end of
incomplete files, so you would replace the XT! in the script with bc!. Now, save the text as a
batch file (rename.bat, for example), and all you have to do is move the batch file to the
directory containing files you want to rename, and run the script, then repeat for any other
directory containing files you want to remove the specified extension for. Note that the above
script is recursive, so any files contained within any other directory in the same directory as
the batch file will be renamed as well if they have the specified extension.
Importing Torrent Jobs
With extra extensions out of the way, the rest of the process is smooth sailing in that
you'll likely get no errors. All you need to do is to open the .torrent file in μTorrent, and point it
to the location that the torrent contents were already saved to while you were using your
other BitTorrent client. μTorrent will automatically check the data integrity, and assuming
everything went well, will resume where you left off previously. Realize that you must do this
for each and every .torrent file you wish to import.
There is an alternative method for loading .torrent files that does not require manual
user intervention, but it's best left for people with many torrent jobs to import. Additionally,
there is one major prerequisite before this method can be used: all torrent contents you wish
to import must be located in a common directory, not organized in any fashion, but simply
located in that directory as if it were the directory you selected to download the torrent
contents to. That aside, you can start setting the process up as follows:
1. In the Directories preferences, tick the "Put new downloads in" checkbox, untick the
"Always show dialog on manual add " checkbox, and select the path to the directory
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that all your torrent contents are located in. Make sure the "Don't start the download
automatically" option is left unticked.
2. Now create a new directory somewhere, then go to the auto-load torrents option and
set it to point to that newly-created directory.
3. After confirming the changes, move all the .torrent files you wish to load into the
directory you just told μTorrent to automatically load .torrent files from, and μTorrent
should do so, automatically starting and checking all the torrent contents.
If a torrent job is already completed, μTorrent will automatically place it in seeding mode.
After everything is imported, feel free to revert the changes made to the μTorrent settings.
Changing .torrent Associations
Another thing you might want to do when switching to μTorrent is to unassociate .torrent
files with your previous client, and have them open with μTorrent by default. If you plan on
keeping the other client, and want μTorrent to open .torrent files by default, you should look
in your previous client's options and find a way to have it not associate itself with .torrent files
automatically, if it does so. In any case, all you have to do in μTorrent is associate it with
.torrent files in the Preferences.
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μTorrent User Manual > Chapter 03: Advanced Guides
Alternative Operating Systems
In a world where most end users only know about or are familiar with Microsoft
Windows, it's easy to forget that there are alternative operating systems out there, right? For
those of you who aren't using Windows, it's still possible to run μTorrent in your operating
system, it just takes a bit more fussing around to get it running more nicely (though there
might still be residual problems in functionality due to operating system limitations).
Running on Wine (*BSD, GNU/Linux)
Wine is an open source project that aims to implement the Windows API on Unix-like
operating systems. In simpler terms, it is an attempt to allow users running a Unix-like
operating system (such as *BSD or GNU/Linux) to execute applications that normally run
only on Windows. The first step in running μTorrent on Wine would, naturally, be to download
and install the latest version of Wine from WineHQ.org if you haven't already done so.
When Wine is installed, the only thing you need to do is run μTorrent by using the wine
command in a terminal window. Wherever you have your μTorrent executable located at on
your filesystem, you simply run μTorrent with the command wine FULL_PATH (where
FULL_PATH is the full path to the μTorrent executable) in in the terminal window. Naturally,
there are many different (and easier) ways to execute μTorrent through Wine, but because
there are infinitely many combinations of softwares available for use on the Unix-like
operating systems, the most generic way will have to suffice.
So where exactly is the hard part in using μTorrent on Wine? It's in the limitations that
come with using Wine and its incomplete implementation of the Windows API. Because of
this, and the fact that Wine is unable to integrate too deeply with its host operating system,
there are several known issues you should be aware of:
Problem workarounds: Some known issues with Wine have been worked around in
μTorrent with a set of "hacks" enabled through sys.enable_wine_hacks.
Boss-Key: Boss-keys do not work under Wine.
Graphical oddities: There are several oddities in the interface running μTorrent under
Wine...
By default, the interface sticks out like a sore thumb, with the gray Windows
application window background in all its glory. Users can modify the theme colors in
the "Desktop Integration" tab of winecfg to better integrate Wine-run applications
with surrounding applications.
If the list-view has a black background, then make sure the Windows version is set
to Windows XP in winecfg.
Open Containing Folder: Because Open Containing Folder attempts to open a
Windows Explorer process, and the native Windows Explorer is not present on
alternative operating systems, it will open the Wine implementation, which looks
unimpressive, and does not work very well. Unless you can tolerate it, don't bother
using this feature under Wine.
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Open File: "Open" in the torrent jobs list context menu or on the Files tab will not work,
as they attempt to run a Windows application associated with the file type, but since
there are none, they fail.
Settings directory: Because Windows environment variables do not apply in
alternative operating systems, it naturally follows that %AppData% does not either. You'll
find that the μTorrent settings directory is actually located at
~/.wine/drive_c/windows/profiles/USERNAME/Application
Data/uTorrent, where USERNAME is your username on the operating system.
Start on system startup: Because alternative operating systems have different
methods of booting applications at startup, the usual methods of adding a startup entry
in Windows (be it in the Registry, or in the Start menu) won't work. Start μTorrent on
system startup should be disabled.
System tray: The system tray feature has been reported to be flaky under Wine, so if
you have issues using it, you should disable all relevant options.
.torrent file association: Due to the inability of Wine to map file associations to
applications run through Wine, the feature is rendered useless. Check association on
startup should be disabled. An alternative method of "emulating" file association would
be to use the auto-load torrents feature to tell μTorrent to automatically load files from a
directory on your filesystem. In that way, you can simply drag or download .torrent files
into that directory, and if μTorrent is running, it will automatically load the new files.
Running on Darwine (Mac OS X)
Darwine is a port of Wine for use on Darwin and Darwin-based operating systems, such
as Apple's Mac OS X. Darwine requires an X server to work, so if you don't already have it
installed, you can find the installer in the Apple Restore DVD, or by downloading it along with
Apple's XCode.
Installing Darwine should be a cinch. Just as with Wine, it's generally best to download
and install the latest version of Darwine. After installed, you should be able to simply doubleclick
μTorrent's executable file, and Darwine should automatically run the application. If not,
then run WineHelper.app (which should be located in the installed Darwine directory) then
open μTorrent's executable file. That's all!
Not unlike Wine, there are several known issues in using μTorrent with Darwine that you
should be aware of:
Shared bugs: Due to its heritage, Darwine exhibits all of the same issues that Wine
does.
Drag-and-drop: Drag-and-drop doesn't work under Darwine.
Secondary-click: Option + left-click doesn't send a secondary-click event to μTorrent
because it has not been implemented in Wine.
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μTorrent User Manual
Appendix A: The μTorrent Interface
This appendix provides detailed descriptions of most of the interface elements in
μTorrent.
Main Window
Main Menus
Toolbar
Category List
Torrent Jobs List
Detailed Info Pane
General
Trackers
Peers
Pieces
Files
Speed
Logger
Status Bar
Preferences
General
UI Settings
Directories
Connection
Bandwidth
BitTorrent
Transfer Cap
Queueing
Scheduler
Web UI
Playback
Advanced
UI Extras
Disk Cache
RSS Downloader
Favorites
History
Miscellaneous
Add New Torrent
Add/Edit RSS Feed
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Create New Torrent
Torrent Properties
General
Advanced
Tray Icon
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μTorrent User Manual > Appendix A: The μTorrent Interface
Main Window
The main window is the part of the μTorrent interface that you'll likely be interacting with
the most, so it's good to get familiar with it by reading this section of the help.
Several sections of the main window have column-based, tabular information. Note that
left-click ing on a column will sort the items in the list by that column, alternating between
ascending and descending sort for each additional left-click . You can select what columns
you wish to see by right-click ing the column headers. If you wish to reset all changes you've
made to the columns, you can select "Reset" in that context menu.
Main Menus
Toolbar
Category List
Torrent Jobs List
Detailed Info Pane
General
Trackers
Peers
Pieces
Files
Speed
Logger
Status Bar
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μTorrent User Manual > Appendix A: The μTorrent Interface > Main Window
Main Menus
The main menus are where you'll find many of the other facilities included in μTorrent,
such as the Preferences, or the RSS Downloader.
File
Add Torrent... Ctrl + O prompts you for the location of the .torrent file that you are
trying to open on disk. If you set a default download location, the torrent job will
automatically be added to the torrent jobs list and started (if you did not set μTorrent to
start torrent jobs in stopped mode). If you did not set a default download location, you
will be prompted where you would like to save the torrent contents, with the Add New
Torrent dialog being shown by default.
Add Torrent (no default save)... Ctrl + D does the same thing as Add Torrent, but will
always ask you where you'd like to save the torrent contents, regardless of whether you
have a default download location set or not.
Add Torrent from URL... Ctrl + U allows you to open a .torrent file directly from URL
without having saved the it to your hard disk. Depending on the method used by the
website for authenticating users (if any), the URL may have to be entered in a specific
format. Magnet URIs may be used here, and μTorrent will attempt to download the info
dictionary from the corresponding .torrent file from any other client that also supports
the URI scheme.
Add RSS Feed... opens up the Add RSS Feed dialog, where you can add RSS feeds
for μTorrent to monitor.
Create New Torrent... Ctrl + N lets you create .torrent files that you can use to share
your data with other people.
Exit does just that -- it exits μTorrent. Note that exiting μTorrent automatically sends a
stop signal to trackers, so you do not have to stop all torrent jobs before exiting. Torrent
jobs that are not stopped will automatically be started when μTorrent is next opened.
Even after exiting, the μTorrent process might continue to run for a while longer. This
happens because μTorrent is trying to finish transferring pieces and write remaining
pieces to disk from memory. The process should disappear after a few seconds.
Options
Preferences Ctrl + P opens up the Preferences dialog, where you can configure most
of μTorrent's options.
RSS Downloader Ctrl + R opens up the RSS Downloader dialog, where you can
configure μTorrent's RSS settings.
Setup Guide Ctrl + G opens up the Setup Guide dialog, where you can tell μTorrent to
configure some basic settings that can affect your speeds.
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Show Toolbar F4 toggles the display of the toolbar at the top of the main window.
Show Detailed Info F5 toggles the display of the information pane near the bottom of
the main window.
Show Status Bar F6 toggles the display of the status bar at the bottom of the main
window.
Show Category List F7 toggles the display of the category list at the left of the main
window.
Show Find Pane F8 toggles the display of the Find Pane at the left of the main
window.
Show Apps Pane F9 toggles the display of the Apps at the left of the main window.
Narrow Toolbar F11 toggles the width of the Toolbar at the top of the main window.
This also hides the Add RSS Feed icon when enabled.
Compact Category List F12 toggles the display of dividers between sections at the
left of the main window.
Icons on Tabs toggles the display of the graphic icons on the tabs at the top of the
information pane.
Auto Shutdown
Disabled tells μTorrent not to perform any of the following actions. Note that
besides this option, all options in this submenu get disabled after they have
occurred.
Qu it when Downloads Complete exits μTorrent when all currently downloading
torrent jobs reach 100% download completion.
Quit when Everything Completes exits μTorrent when all currently active torrent
jobs are completed.
Hi bernate when Downloads Complete puts the computer into hibernation mode
when all currently downloading torrent jobs reach 100% download completion.
Hibernate when Everything Completes puts the computer into hibernation
mode when all currently active torrent jobs are completed.
St andby when Downloads Complete puts the computer into standby mode
when all currently downloading torrent jobs reach 100% download completion.
Standby when Everything Completes puts the computer into standby mode
when all currently active torrent jobs are completed.
Re boot when Downloads Complete restarts the computer when all currently
downloading torrent jobs reach 100% download completion.
Reboot when Everything Completes restarts the computer when all currently
active torrent jobs are completed.
Sh utdown when Downloads Complete shuts the computer down when all
currently downloading torrent jobs reach 100% download completion.
Shutdown when Everything Completes shuts the computer down when all
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currently active torrent jobs are completed.
Help
μTorrent Help F1 opens the user manual.
μTorrent FAQ opens the FAQ.
μTorrent Webpage opens the μTorrent webpage in your default web browser.
μTorrent Forums opens the μTorrent forums in your default web browser.
Check for Updates manually tells μTorrent to check for a newer stable build from the
μTorrent servers. μTorrent will continue to check for newer versions once every 24
hours after this is selected if you have enabled the option to check for updates
automatically.
Download Translation tells μTorrent to download the latest translation file and place it
in the settings directory.
Show Statistics opens a dialog displaying basic statistics that μTorrent has collected.
About μTorrent opens the About dialog, which displays the credits, version, and build
number, among other things...
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μTorrent User Manual > Appendix A: The μTorrent Interface > Main Window
Toolbar
The buttons on the toolbar at the top of the μTorrent interface allows you perform some
basic functions, most of which apply to the currently selected torrent(s). The order of the list
here reflects the order of the buttons in the toolbar. If you are unsure, you can place your
mouse cursor over a button, and a tooltip should pop up providing the description of the
button. The toolbar's visibility can be toggled by selecting "Options" then "Show Toolbar " in
the main menus, or by pressing F4 on the keyboard.
Add Torrent prompts you for the location of the .torrent file that you are trying to
open on disk. If you set a default download location, the torrent job will automatically be
added to the torrent jobs list and started (if you did not set μTorrent to start torrent jobs
in stopped mode). If you did not set a default download location, you will be prompted
where you would like to save the torrent contents, with the Add New Torrent dialog
being shown by default.
Add Torrent from URL allows you to open a .torrent file directly from URL without
having saved the it to your hard disk. Depending on the method used by the website for
authenticating users (if any), the URL may have to be entered in a specific format.
Magnet URIs may be used here, and μTorrent will attempt to download the info
dictionary from the corresponding .torrent file from any other client that also supports
the URI scheme.
Add RSS Feed opens up the Add RSS Feed dialog, where you can add RSS feeds
for μTorrent to monitor. This is hidden by default in the torrent view, but is shown while
viewing Feeds. To show the icon, disable Narrow Toolbar in the main menu.
Create New Torrent lets you create .torrent files that you can use to share your
data with other people.
Remove will remove the selected torrent job(s) using the default action when leftclick
ed. This default action can be set by right-click ing the button, holding Shift on the
keyboard, and left-click ing one of the four possible options. The default remove action
can also be performed by pressing Delete on the keyboard. By holding Shift while
pressing Delete , μTorrent will also remove the torrent contents in addition to performing
the default remove action.
Remove removes the selected torrent job(s) from the list, but all related files are
left intact on the disk.
Remove and delete .torrent removes the selected torrent job(s) from the list and
the corresponding .torrent file(s) from the .torrent file storage location.
Remove and delete .torrent + Data removes the selected torrent job(s) from the
list, the corresponding .torrent file(s) from the .torrent file storage location, and all
content downloaded from the torrent job(s).
Remove and delete Data removes the selected torrent job(s) from the list and all
content downloaded from the torrent job(s).
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Mo ve to trash if possible tells μTorrent to attempt to move any deleted file to the
Recycle Bin first rather than deleting it immediately off the disk. This works only if
the Recycle Bin has enough space allocated.
Start will start the selected torrent job(s), or add it onto the queue if the number of
active torrent jobs has reached the maximum set in the Preferences.
Pause will pause the selected torrent job(s), but won't actually stop it. This tells
μTorrent to attempt to retain connections to peers without having to re-establish them
like starting stopped torrent jobs would require. It is useful for when you need quick
access to bandwidth. Realize that while μTorrent won't drop the connections on its own
accord, the connection can still get dropped by the client on the other end of the
connection.
Stop will stop the selected torrent job(s). All connections with peers are dropped.
Move Up Queue will decrease the selected torrent's queue number, thus bringing it
closer to the top of the queue (meaning it will become active sooner than those with
higher queue numbers). Holding Shift while pressing this button will move the selected
torrent job to the top of the queue. Note that this button will not visually move the torrent
job up the list unless you sort the list by the "#" column. Pressing Ctrl + Alt + Up on the
keyboard is equivalent to pressing this button when a torrent job is selected in the
torrent jobs list.
Move Down Queue will increase the selected torrent's queue number, thus
bringing it further from the top of the queue (meaning it will become active later than
those with lower queue numbers). Holding Shift while pressing this button will move the
selected torrent job to the bottom of the queue. Note that this button will not visually
move the torrent job down the list unless you sort the list by the "#" column. Pressing
Ctrl + Alt + Down on the keyboard is equivalent to pressing this button when a torrent
job is selected in the torrent jobs list.
Preferences opens up the Preferences dialog, where you can configure most of
μTorrent's options.
The Search field allows you to enter a query to be searched on the selected search
engine. To perform the search, press the button next to the input field, or press Enter
on the keyboard. This will open the search results in your default web browser. To
change search engines, click on the dropdown arrow next to the search button. If you
are using an operating system older than Windows XP, you will need to right-click the
button to see the search engine selection menu. Note that the search button and search
field will be hidden if the search engines list is empty.
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μTorrent User Manual > Appendix A: The μTorrent Interface > Main Window
Category List
The category list contains various features in the μTorrent client, including the list of
torrent jobs, labels and apps. The category list's visibility can be toggled by selecting
"Options" then "Show Category List " in the main menus, or by pressing F7 on the keyboard.
The last selected category before μTorrent is exited will be automatically selected on the next
start. Numbers in the parentheses next to the category name indicate the number of torrent
jobs there are listed under the respective category. The treeview is composed of the
following default categories:
Find Content is a page that shows on first run with a search box and a few default
search providers, directing users to find content for their client.
Torrents applies no filters and displays all torrent jobs in your client.
Downloading only shows torrent jobs that are not finished or completed.
Completed displays all torrent jobs that have finished downloading.
Active only shows torrent jobs that are actively being transferred, whether it is
downloading or seeding. Torrent jobs must be downloading at rates above the value
specified by queue.slow_dl_threshold or uploading at rates above the value specified
by queue.slow_ul_threshold to be considered active.
Inactive only shows torrent jobs that are not being actively transferred. This includes
all torrent jobs that are stopped, waiting in the queue, or are started, but downloading at
rates below the value specified by queue.slow_dl_threshold and uploading at rates
below the value specified by queue.slow_ul_threshold.
Labels applies no filters and displays all torrent jobs in your client. Underneath this
item is the list of all labels on your client.
No Label will display all torrent jobs that have no labels set.
Feeds will display the RSS items from all RSS feeds. Underneath this item is the list
of all feeds on your client.
Apps will display the list of featured apps from the BitTorrent app store. Underneath
this item is the list of all apps installed on your client.
User-added labels will appear in the category list immediately below "No Label". Torrent
jobs with labels will be displayed under their corresponding label. Standard labels are
removed from the category list as soon as there are no torrent jobs using them.
Not all categories are mutually exclusive, so if you have a torrent job that has no labels,
and is inactive, it will show up in both the "Inactive" category, and the "No Label" category.
Multiple categories can be selected by holding Shift or Ctrl while left-click ing on a
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category. Holding Shift will select all categories in between the first selected category and
the last selected one. Holding Ctrl allows you to select (or deselect) specific categories that
aren't necessarily adjacent to each other.
RSS feeds are displayed at the bottom of the category list (below the labels). When an
RSS feed is selected, the torrent jobs list is filled with torrents as listed in the RSS feed.
Torrent jobs added from a feed are also listed in their respective source feeds.
Context Menu
If you right-click on an item in the category list, you'll see a context menu. They are
described in the following list:
Add Torrent... prompts you for the location of the .torrent file that you are trying to open
on disk. If you set a default download location, the torrent job will automatically be
added to the torrent jobs list and started (if you did not set μTorrent to start torrent jobs
in stopped mode). If you did not set a default download location, you will be prompted
where you would like to save the torrent contents, with the Add New Torrent dialog
being shown by default.
Add RSS Feed... opens up the Add RSS Feed dialog, where you can add RSS feeds
for μTorrent to monitor.
Torrent Options displays select menu items from the torrent jobs list context menu, and
behave identically to their torrent jobs list context menu counterparts. These menu items
show up only if there are torrent jobs selected in the torrent jobs list.
RSS Feed Options displays options for the RSS feed, and show up only if RSS items
are selected in the torrent jobs list. If "All Feeds" item is right-clicked, the selected
action is applied on every feed.
RSS Downloader opens up the RSS Downloader dialog.
Up date Feed allows you to perform a manual reload of the selected RSS feed(s).
Refrain from using this repeatedly in rapid succession, as hammering the RSS
feed's server won't make the feed be updated with new items any more quickly, and
you run the chance of causing the server to fail. In short, do not abuse this feature.
Toggle Feed enables or disables the RSS feed updating for the selected feed(s).
Edit Feed... opens up the Edit RSS Feed dialog, where you can edit the properties
of the selected RSS feed(s). If multiple feeds are selected, μTorrent will open an
edit dialog for each feed one at a time, opening another dialog for the next feed
only after the current feed's edit dialog is closed.
Delete Feed removes the RSS feed from the list.
Clear Feed History removes all entries in the RSS Downloader's History tab that
came from the selected feed(s).
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μTorrent User Manual > Appendix A: The μTorrent Interface > Main Window
Torrent Jobs List
The torrent jobs list is the main interface item in μTorrent. It is where your torrent jobs
are displayed, along with plenty of information for each of them. Sorting by more than one
column is possible in this list. You can do so by sorting by one column, then hold Shift on
your keyboard while selecting the secondary column by which μTorrent should sort the list
by. If an RSS item is double-click ed, it gets added to the download queue. The following is a
description of each column:
Name displays the name of the torrent job. The initial name used for each torrent job is
the name of the file being transferred (if the torrent contents consist of a single file), or
the directory being transferred (if the torrent contents consist of multiple files). A torrent
job can be renamed in the list by slow double-click ing on the torrent job, or by pressing
F2 on the keyboard while the torrent job is selected. To cancel the renaming, you
should press Esc on the keyboard. To confirm the change, you should press Enter on
the keyboard, or use the mouse to click anywhere else on the torrent jobs list.
Renaming the torrent job will not rename the file or directory being transferred.
means the torrent job is downloading without issue
means the torrent job is a queued download
means the torrent job is downloading, but there is a tracker error
means the torrent job is seeding without issue
means the torrent job is a queued seed
means the torrent job is seeding, but there is a tracker error
means the torrent job is paused
means the torrent job is stopped, but hasn't finished downloading
means the torrent job is stopped, and has finished downloading
means the torrent job has a critical error (check the Status column)
means the item is an RSS feed item that has not beed added to the torrent jobs
queue
means the release is less than 24 hours old
means the torrent job has already been added and moved to the history for the
RSS item
# displays the torrent job's place in the download queue. When a torrent job stops or
finishes, the next lowest numbered torrent job that is queued for download will start
automatically. Torrent jobs that have not reached the seeding goal will have a *
(asterisk) instead of an integer. Torrent jobs that have reached the seeding goal will
have a blank in this column. Forced torrent jobs do not follow the queue order, although
they will be assigned queue numbers like regular torrent jobs. Note that if you want the
arrow buttons to move the torrent jobs up and down in the list visually, you must sort the
torrent jobs list by this column.
Added On displays the date and time that the torrent job was added to the torrent jobs
list.
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Availability displays the number of copies of the torrent contents that are distributed in
the swarm.
Bandwidth Allocation displays the bandwidth allocation given to the torrent job (High,
Normal, or Low) . Right-click ing a torrent job on this column will bring up the
Bandwidth Allocation context sub-menu.
Codec displays the codec that the video was encoded in assuming it is a video and is
an RSS item.
Completed displays the total amount of data you have in the torrent contents that
passed the hash checks, as well as any incomplete pieces currently in progress.
Completed On displays the date and time that the torrent job finished downloading. If
the torrent job has yet to be completed, this column will be blank.
Debug displays information that might be useful in debugging problems.
Done displays the approximate percent of the torrent job that μTorrent has completed.
Its value is calculated by dividing the number under the Completed column by the
number under the Selected Size column. If gui.graphic_progress is enabled, μTorrent
will draw a progress bar behind the percentage. If gui.piecebar_progress is enabled,
μTorrent will draw a piece progress bar instead.
Down Limit displays the maximum download rate limit set on the individual torrent job.
If no limit is set, this column will be blank. Right-click ing a torrent job on this column will
bring up the Set Download Limit context sub-menu.
Down Speed displays the current speed at which data is being downloaded for the
individual torrent job. If the download rate is negligible, this column will be blank.
Downloaded displays the total amount of data you have downloaded, including those
that were wasted or failed the hash checks.
Elapsed displays the total amount of time that μTorrent has had the torrent job started
for since it was added.
Episode displays the episode number of the torrent job, if applicable.
ETA displays the estimated amount of time needed for μTorrent to finish downloading
the torrent job. If the torrent job is in seeding mode, then this column displays the
estimated time it will take for μTorrent to reach the seeding goal. If the torrent job is
stopped or has reached its seeding goal, this column will be blank. If the torrent job is
transferring too slowly, this column will display the ∞ symbol. Note that this column takes
selective file downloading into account, so only the data you select to be downloaded
will be counted in the time calculation.
Format displays the video quality of the torrent job, assuming it is a video and is an
RSS item.
Label displays the label set for the torrent job. Right-click ing a torrent job on this
column will bring up the Label context sub-menu.
Last Active displays the amount of time that has elapsed since μTorrent last finished
transferring a chunk of data for the torrent job. When the torrent job is downloading, this
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time will be reset only upon the download completion of a piece. When the torrent job is
seeding, this time will be reset only upon the upload completion of a 16 KiB block of
data. This number is updated only when the torrent job is started. It should be
understood that for stopped torrent jobs, the number is relative to the time at which the
torrent job was actually stopped.
Peers displays the number of peers you are connected to, and the number of peers in
the swarm within the parentheses. The number of peers in the swarm is an estimate
based on the maximum number of peers found either between the amounts reported by
any tracker, or the number of peers μTorrent has encountered within its peer cache. If
the torrent job is stopped, and bt.scrape_stopped is enabled, μTorrent will show the
maximum number of peers in the swarm as reported by the tracker scrapes.
Ratio displays the ratio of uploaded data to downloaded data. Its value is calculated by
dividing the number under the Uploaded column by the number under the Downloaded
column. If the torrent job was added when the file was already complete (seeding the
file upon adding), then the ratio will start from 0, and will be calculated based on the
ratio of the uploaded data to the torrent content size.
Remaining displays the amount of data left for μTorrent to download before it finishes
downloading the torrent job. Note that this column takes selective file downloading into
account, so only the data you select to be downloaded will be counted. If no data is left
to be downloaded, this column will be blank.
Seeds displays the number of seeds you are connected to, and the number of seeds in
the swarm within the parentheses. The number of seeds in the swarm is an estimate
based on the maximum number of seeds found either between the amounts reported by
any tracker, or the number of seeds μTorrent has encountered within its peer cache. If
the torrent job is stopped, and bt.scrape_stopped is enabled, μTorrent will show the
maximum number of seeds in the swarm as reported by the tracker scrapes.
Seeds/Peers displays the ratio of seeds to peers. Its value is by dividing the number in
the parentheses under the Seeds column by the number in the parentheses under the
Peers column.
Selected Size shows only the size of the torrent contents you have selected for
μTorrent to download. The size of all pieces belonging to skipped files that also pass
the checks will also be taken into account and added in this column.
Size shows the complete size of the torrent contents, regardless of whether you are
using selective file downloading on that torrent job or not.
Source URL displays the URL that the source .torrent file is located at. The source
URL is only applicable for RSS items and torrent jobs added from URL.
Status displays the current status of the torrent job. If an error occurs on this torrent
job, depending on the error, it might be displayed on this column. Otherwise, the
following are normally displayed:
Downloading means the torrent job is currently downloading.
Finished means the torrent job has been stopped after it reached seeding mode. If
the torrent job reaches this without user intervention, then it means it reached the
seeding goal.
Initial-Seeding means the torrent job is being seeded in Initial Seeding mode.
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Paused means the torrent job is paused, but not stopped (still connected to peers).
Queued means the torrent job is waiting for another torrent job to finish
downloading before starting.
Queued Seed means the torrent job is waiting for another torrent job to finish
seeding before starting.
Seeding means the torrent job is finished downloading, and is currently in seeding
mode.
Stopped means the torrent job is stopped (not transferring, and not connected to
any peers).
[F] Downloading means the torrent job is forced started and downloading, so it is
outside of the queue order.
[F] Initial-Seeding means the torrent job is forced started and seeding in Initial
Seeding mode, so it is outside of the queue order. Forced initial-seeding torrent
jobs do not obey the seeding goal.
[F] Seeding means the torrent job is forced started and seeding, so it is outside of
the queue order. Forced seeding torrent jobs do not obey the seeding goal.
Previously Downloaded means the item is a part of an RSS feed, and was
previously added to the torrent jobs list (it is listed in the RSS History tab).
RSS means the item is a part of an RSS feed, and not yet added to the torrent
queue.
Tracker displays the first working tracker's base URL.
Tracker Status displays the tracker's status.
Up Limit displays the maximum upload rate limit set on the individual torrent job. If no
limit is set, this column will be blank. Right-click ing a torrent job on this column will
bring up the Set Upload Limit context sub-menu.
Up Speed displays the current speed at which data is being uploaded for the individual
torrent job. If the upload rate is negligible, this column will be blank.
Uploaded displays the total amount of data you have uploaded.
Context Menu
If you right-click on a torrent job, you'll see a context menu. They are described in the
following list:
Torrent Options
Open will attempt to open the torrent contents for the selected torrent job(s) with
the associated application for the file type. This will only work for single-file torrent
jobs.
Open Containing Folder opens the directory containing the torrent contents in an
Explorer window. If the torrent job contents consist of a single file, that file will be
highlighted. Otherwise, the torrent job's directory will be displayed instead.
Co py Magnet URI... copies a magnet URI link to the Windows clipboard for the
selected torrent job(s), multiple URIs separated by newlines.
Open URL in Browser will open the linked URL(s) in your default web browser.
Fo rce Start takes the selected torrent job(s) out of queue order (makes it ignore
queueing) and forces it to start immediately, even if the maximum number of active
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queueing) and forces it to start immediately, even if the maximum number of active
torrent jobs and/or downloads has been reached. Forced torrent jobs will not stop
even if they reach the seeding goal. The scheduler is unable to stop forced torrent
jobs.
Start will start the selected torrent job(s), or add it onto the queue if the number of
active torrent jobs has reached the maximum set in the Preferences.
Pause will pause the selected torrent job(s), but won't actually stop it. This tells
μTorrent to attempt to retain connections to peers without having to re-establish
them like starting stopped torrent jobs would require. It is useful for when you need
quick access to bandwidth. Realize that while μTorrent won't drop the connections
on its own accord, the connection can still get dropped by the client on the other
end of the connection.
Stop will stop the selected torrent job(s). All connections with peers are dropped.
Mo ve Up Queue will decrease the selected torrent's queue number, thus bringing
it closer to the top of the queue (meaning it will become active sooner than those
with higher queue numbers). Holding Shift while pressing this button will move the
selected torrent job to the top of the queue. Note that this button will not visually
move the torrent job up the list unless you sort the list by the "#" column. Pressing
Ctrl + Alt + Up on the keyboard is equivalent to selecting this item when the torrent
job is selected.
Move Down Queue will increase the selected torrent's queue number, thus
bringing it further from the top of the queue (meaning it will become active later
than those with lower queue numbers). Holding Shift while pressing this button will
move the selected torrent job to the bottom of the queue. Note that this button will
not visually move the torrent job down the list unless you sort the list by the "#"
column. Pressing Ctrl + Alt + Down on the keyboard is equivalent to selecting this
item when the torrent job is selected.
Label allows you to set the label for any selected torrent job. All persistent labels
will be listed at the top of this submenu, and any temporary label will be displayed
below the persistent label(s).
New Label... will display a dialog asking you to enter the name of a new
(temporary) label.
Remove Label will unset the label currently placed on the selected torrent
job(s).
Ba ndwidth Allocation is an option that makes μTorrent allocate upload bandwidth
to the selected torrent job(s) based on the option selected. This option works only if
a global maximum upload rate is set, or the selected torrent job(s) each have an
individual maximum upload rate set.
High will give the selected torrent job(s) more upload bandwidth relative to
other torrent jobs of lower bandwidth allocation levels (Low or Normal).
Normal is the default bandwidth allocation given.
Low will give the selected torrent job(s) less upload bandwidth relative to other
torrent jobs of higher bandwidth allocation levels (Normal or High).
Se t Download Limit allows you to control the maximum download rate for the
selected torrent job(s). The values displayed depend on the speed popup list
settings in the Preferences. If the speed popup list is not manually overridden,
then the maximum value available for selection will depend on the global
maximum download rate limit.
Set Upload Limit allows you to control the maximum upload rate for the
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selected torrent job(s). The values displayed depend on the speed popup list
settings in the Preferences. If the speed popup list is not manually overridden,
then the maximum value available for selection will depend on the global
maximum upload rate limit.
Re move removes the selected torrent job(s) from the list, but all related files are
left intact on the disk.
Remove And
Delete .torrent removes the selected torrent job(s) from the list and the
corresponding .torrent file(s) from the .torrent file storage location.
Delete .torrent + Data removes the selected torrent job(s) from the list, the
corresponding .torrent file(s) from the .torrent file storage location, and all
content downloaded from the torrent job(s). This action can also be performed
by pressing Shift + Delete on the keyboard.
Delete Data removes the selected torrent job(s) from the list and all content
downloaded from the torrent job(s).
Fo rce Re-Check tells μTorrent to check the torrent contents of the selected torrent
job(s) for missing files and pieces that fail the hash check. Even if multiple torrent
jobs are selected to be re-checked, μTorrent will check them sequentially, one at a
time (known as a round-robin method). Pausing a torrent job while it is being rechecked
will pause the re-checking process for that torrent job, and will move onto
the next torrent job to re-check if multiple torrent jobs are selected. Any incomplete
pieces in the torrent contents will be removed during the re-checking process, so a
drop in progress percentage would not be an unlikely occurrence.
Advanced
Reset Bans allows you to clear any bans μTorrent has placed on peers in the
selected torrent job(s) for sending too many hashfailed pieces.
Clear Peer List allows you to clear all peers from the peer list for the selected
torrent job(s).
Set Download Location... lets you set the location of the contents for the
particular torrent if they are ever moved after the torrent job is added. The next
time the torrent job is started, it will be hash checked to verify the data integrity.
Show Download Bar toggles the display of a floating download bar that
shows quick statistics for the selected torrent job(s). The download bars are
separate from the μTorrent interface, so they can be displayed while the main
window is minimized or closed to tray.
Up date Tracker allows you to perform a manual announce on the selected torrent
jobs' trackers. Only trackers whose minimum intervals have elapsed since the last
manual update will be updated. This option is disabled if 60 seconds have not yet
passed since the last time it was used, or if the elapsed time since the last update
is less than the minimum interval for every selected torrent job's tracker(s). If the
condition to be enabled has been satisfied by at least one of the selected torrent
jobs, the option will be enabled, but when used, will be invoked only on those
torrent jobs that have met the conditions for option to be enabled.
Pr operties opens up the Torrent Properties dialog, where you can modify several
of the torrent job's settings.
RSS Item Options
Open will attempt to open the .torrent file(s) associated with the selected item(s) to
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be added to the torrent jobs list. Double-click ing on the selected item achieves the
same result.
Open URL in Browser will open the linked URL(s) in your default web browser.
This is useful for RSS feeds that do not link directly to .torrent files, but instead, to
a page that links to them.
Clear Feed History removes all entries in the RSS Downloader's History tab that
came from the selected feed(s).
Ad d to Favorites adds the selected items to the Favorites, attempting to create
suitable rules for the selected items.
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μTorrent User Manual > Appendix A: The μTorrent Interface > Main Window
Detailed Info Pane
The detailed info pane allows you to view detailed information about the selected torrent
job that isn't available in the torrent job list itself. There are several tabs, each of which
contain different types of information. The detailed info pane's visibility can be toggled by
selecting "Options" then "Show Detailed Info" in the main menus, or by pressing F5 on the
keyboard. The last selected tab before μTorrent is exited will be automatically selected on
the next start.
General
Trackers
Peers
Pieces
Files
Speed
Logger
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μTorrent User Manual > Appendix A: The μTorrent Interface > Main Window > Detailed Info
Pane
General
The General tab is where you'll find most of the general statistics for the currently
selected torrent job available.
Graphical Progress Bars
T he upper Downloaded bar is the general progress bar useful for getting a quick
visual outlook of the percent completed. Selective file downloading is taken into
account, so only the data you select to be downloaded will be counted. The number to
the right of the Downloaded bar is the percentage of the torrent job that is completed,
taking selective file downloading into account as well.
White represents what has not yet been downloaded.
Blue represents what has been downloaded.
The lower Downloaded bar is equivalent to the upper bar, except that it does not take
selective file downloading into account, and it also displays the distribution of pieces
completed in your torrent job. If there are more pieces in the .torrent file than there are
horizontal pixels for your desktop resolution, μTorrent will take the average completion
of adjacent pieces to decide what colors should be shown.
White represents the pieces that have not yet been downloaded.
Blue represents the pieces that have been downloaded.
The Availability bar shows the spread of the pieces in the network of peers you are
connected to. If there are more pieces in the .torrent file than there are horizontal pixels
for your desktop resolution, μTorrent will take the average completion of adjacent
pieces to decide what colors should be shown. The number to the right is the actual
availability of the selected torrent job.
Dark blue means the piece is available and common.
Light blue means the piece is available, but rare.
Red means the piece is not available within the group of peers you are connected
to.
Along with graphical progress bars, textual statistics are provided below. Any of these
fields can be copied by right-click ing it and selecting "Copy". The following is a description
of the information displayed (note that most of the information displayed here can be found in
the torrent jobs list):
Transfer
Download Limit displays the maximum download rate limit set on the individual torrent
job. If no limit is set, or the limit is set to 0, this field will display the ∞ symbol.
Download Speed displays the current speed at which data is being downloaded for the
individual torrent job. The number in the parentheses is the average download speed
throughout the time that the torrent job was in Downloading mode.
Downloaded displays the total amount of data you have downloaded, including those
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that were wasted or failed the hash check.
Peers displays the number of peers you are connected to. The second number is the
number of known peers in the peer cache collected from the tracker, DHT, and PEX.
The number in the parentheses is the number of peers reported by the tracker scrape.
Remaining displays the estimated amount of time needed for μTorrent to finish
downloading the torrent job. If the torrent job is in seeding mode, then the ETA displays
the estimated time it will take for μTorrent to reach the seeding goal. If the torrent job is
stopped, this field will be blank. If the torrent job is transferring too slowly, or has
reached its seeding goal, this field will display the ∞ symbol. Note that this field takes
selective file downloading into account, so only the data you select to be downloaded
will be counted.
Seeds displays the number of seeds you are connected to. The second number is the
number of known seeds in the peer cache collected from the tracker, DHT, and PEX.
The number in the parentheses is the number of seeds reported by the tracker scrape.
Share Ratio displays the ratio of uploaded data to downloaded data. You can calculate
it by dividing the number beside the Uploaded field by the number beside the Download
field. If the torrent job was added when the file was already complete (seeding the file
upon adding), then the ratio will start from 0, and will be calculated based on the ratio of
the uploaded data to the torrent content size.
Status displays the status of the torrent job, and is a mirror of the data shown in the
Status column in the torrent jobs list.
Time Elapsed displays the total amount of time accumulated that the torrent job has
been started.
Upload Limit displays the maximum upload rate limit set on the individual torrent job. If
no limit is set, or the limit is set to 0, this field will display the ∞ symbol.
Upload Speed displays the current speed at which data is being uploaded for the
individual torrent job. The number in the parentheses is the average upload speed
throughout the time that the torrent job was started.
Uploaded displays the total amount of data you have uploaded since the torrent job
was added.
Wasted displays the amount of data that was downloaded and deleted, either from
hashfails, or from redundant data. The number in the parentheses is the count for the
number of hashfails that occurred.
General
Comment shows the comment placed in the .torrent file by the .torrent file's creator.
Created On shows the date and time that the .torrent file was created along with the
application that was used to create the .torrent file (if it can be determined).
Hash shows the .torrent file's info dictionary hash.
Pieces shows the number of pieces in the torrent job, and the size of each of these
pieces. The number in the parentheses indicates the number of pieces μTorrent has
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successfully acquired.
Save As shows the location that the torrent contents are saved to on the disk.
Total Size shows the total size of the torrent contents. The first number displays the
total amount of data in the torrent contents, taking selective file downloading into
account. The second number is the total amount of data you have downloaded that
passed the hash checks and have been written to disk. If there is a third number here,
then it's because you are using selective file downloading. That third number displays
the total size of the torrent contents, not taking selective file downloading into account.
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μTorrent User Manual > Appendix A: The μTorrent Interface > Main Window > Detailed Info
Pane
Trackers
The Trackers tab displays the trackers that μTorrent is currently using for the selected
torrent job. The following is a description of each column:
Name displays the tracker URL, or the name of the alternative sources for obtaining
peers.
Downloaded displays the number of times the torrent job was reported to be complete
by peers on the tracker.
Interval displays the amount of time the tracker recommended μTorrent to wait before
next automatic announce.
Min Interval displays the minimal amount of time the tracker requires μTorrent to wait
before next announce. This value is dictated by the tracker, and may be different from
tracker to tracker. If the tracker specifies a minimum announce interval of less than 30
seconds, μTorrent will use 30 seconds as the minimum interval instead.
Peers displays the number of peers returned by the tracker scrape.
Seeds displays the number of seeds returned by the tracker scrape.
Status shows the current status of the tracker. If an error occurs while attempting to use
the tracker, depending on the error, it might be displayed on this column. The following
are commonly displayed:
disabled means the source will not be used for the torrent job due to the options
selected in the torrent properties. This occurs only with DHT, Local Peer Discovery,
and Peer Exchange.
hostname not found means the tracker IP could not be resolved. This may occur
due to DNS issues, or because the domain or hostname specified is invalid or does
not exist.
invalid url means the tracker specified is not valid, and cannot be used with
μTorrent. This most often occurs if the specified tracker is not of the correct
protocol (μTorrent supports only HTTP, HTTPS, and UDP trackers).
not allowed means the source cannot be used with the torrent job. This status
occurs only with DHT, Local Peer Discovery, and Peer Exchange, and only when
the torrent job is private.
scrape ok means the tracker scrape successfully returned the seed and peer
counts for the torrent job.
scrape not supported means the tracker does not support scraping.
working means the tracker responded properly on the last tracker update.
Update In displays the amount of time (in minutes) until μTorrent next announces to the
tracker.
Context Menu
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Context Menu
Update Tracker allows you to perform a manual announce on the selected trackers,
assuming the minimum announce interval has passed for the trackers. This option is
disabled if 60 seconds have not yet passed since the last time it was used, or if the
elapsed time since the last update is less than the minimum interval for every selected
tracker. If the condition to be enabled has been satisfied by at least one of the selected
trackers, the option will be enabled, but when used, will be invoked only on those
trackers that have met the conditions for option to be enabled.
Remove Tracker removes the selected tracker(s) from the tracker list. This action can
also be performed by pressing Delete on the keyboard.
Add Tracker... opens the torrent properties dialog, where you can add trackers to the
tracker list.
Use DHT is a shortcut for the Enable DHT option in the torrent properties.
Use Local Peer Discovery is a shortcut for the Local Peer Discovery option in the
torrent properties.
Use Peer Exchange is a shortcut for the Peer Exchange option in the torrent
properties.
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μTorrent User Manual > Appendix A: The μTorrent Interface > Main Window > Detailed Info
Pane
Peers
The Peers tab is where you'll find information about all the peers you are currently
connected to on the selected torrent. The following is a description of each column:
IP displays the peer's IP address and the flag of the country they're from. If Resolve IPs
is enabled, the country flag and hostname will be displayed instead.
% displays the approximate percent of the torrent job the peer has completed.
Client displays the BitTorrent client that the peer reports it is using. If μTorrent suspects
the client of spoofing (faking) its client ID, it will note it as such.
Debug displays information that might be useful in debugging problems.
Down Speed is the averaged speed at which you are downloading data from the peer.
Downloaded is the amount of data you have downloaded from the peer since the
torrent job was added.
Flags displays various letters, each carrying a special meaning about the state of the
connection:
?: your client unchoked the peer but the peer is not interested
D: currently downloading from the peer (interested and not choked)
d: your client wants to download, but peer doesn't want to send (interested and
choked)
E: peer is using Protocol Encryption (all traffic)
e: peer is using Protocol Encryption (handshake)
F: peer was involved in a hashfailed piece (not necessarily a bad peer, just
involved)
H: peer was obtained through DHT
h: peer connection established via UDP hole-punching
I: peer established an incoming connection
K: peer unchoked your client, but your client is not interested
L: peer has been or discovered via Local Peer Discovery
O: optimistic unchoke
P: peer is communicating and transporting data over uTP
S: peer is snubbed
U: currently uploading to the peer (interested and not choked)
u: the peer wants your client to upload, but your client doesn't want to (interested
and choked)
X: peer was included in peer lists obtained through Peer Exchange (PEX)
Hasherr is the number of pieces this peer sent to you that failed the hash check.
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Inactive displays the number of seconds since the last non-keepalive message was
sent with this peer.
MaxDown is the peak, unaveraged speed at which you were downloading from the
peer.
MaxUp is the peak, unaveraged speed at which you were uploading to the peer.
Peer Download Rate is an estimated rate at which the peer is downloading based on
the peer's reported change in pieces obtained. This estimation is very crude and is most
likely inaccurate, so it should only be lightly relied upon.
Port displays the listening port that the peer is using.
Queued displays the number of bytes requested by a peer that was left unsent by your
client.
Relevance is the percent of the torrent contents that the peer has that you currently do
not have.
Reqs displays the number of 16 KiB block requests you've made to the peer on the left
side, and the number of 16 KiB requests they've made to you on the right side.
Up Speed is the averaged speed at which you are uploading data to the peer.
Uploaded is the amount of data you have uploaded to the peer since the torrent job
was added.
Waited displays the number of seconds since the last request was made to this peer.
Context Menu
Add Peer... allows you to add a peer manually if you know the peer's IP address and
port. μTorrent will attempt to connect to the newly-added peer as soon as possible. Only
one peer can be added at a time, in the following format: IP:port
IPv4 IPs must be inputted in standard dot-decimal notation, like so:
127.0.0.1:80.
IPv6 IPs must be inputted in colon-hexadecimal notation (enclosed between square
brakets), like so: [0000:0000:0000:0000:0000:0000:0000:0001]:80.
Zero-grouped IPv6 addresses are accepted.
Copy Peer List will copy the IP addresses and the ports of every peer it has in its peer
cache to the clipboard, one IP:port pair per line.
Copy Selected Hosts will copy the IP addresses and the ports of each selected peer,
one IP:port pair per line.
Log Traffic to Logger Tab tells μTorrent to log connection details from the torrent job to
the Logger tab.
Reload IPFilter forces μTorrent to reload ipfilter.dat. This option is disabled when
ipfilter.enable is disabled.
Resolve IPs tells μTorrent to convert the IP addresses into hostnames for display
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purposes. This option must be enabled in order for flags to be displayed next to the
peer.
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Pane
Pieces
The Pieces tab displays each piece currently being downloaded by μTorrent. If a piece
is selected, then holding Shift on the keyboard while right-click ing on the pieces list will
display a context menu with the option, "Log piece info...." When selected, debug information
is added to the Logger tab for the currently-highlighted piece. The following is a description
of each column:
# is the piece's number in the .torrent file.
# of Blocks is the number of 16 KiB blocks that compose that single piece.
Availability is the number of times this piece is seen completed within the group of
peers you are currently connected to.
Blocks is the graphical progress bar for the piece. You'll notice that there are different
colors displayed for different blocks. They are as follows:
Dark blue means the data has been downloaded and written to disk.
Medium blue means the data has been downloaded, but remains in the cache in
memory, unwritten to disk.
Light blue means the data has been requested from a single peer.
Green means the data has been requested from multiple peers. Blocks only turn
green during endgame mode.
White means the data is is available in the swarm, but has not yet been
downloaded.
Completed is the number of blocks completed in the piece.
Mode is the general evaluation of the speed at which the piece is being transferred by
the peer. A piece's mode can be either fast, medium, or slow. μTorrent uses this
evaluation to determine whether a piece should be taken from fast peers or slow seeds.
This is meant to try to prevent situations where a slow seed sends the same piece as a
fast peer. Instead of allowing that to happen, μTorrent attempts to have the slower seed
send another piece, possibly something that might be rarer in the swarm.
Priority shows the priority μTorrent has assigned the piece based on the priority of the
file(s) it belongs to. If the piece belongs to multiple files, then it is assigned the highest
priority of the files it belongs to. If a piece passes the criteria for being given higher
priority by bt.prio_first_last_piece (assuming the option is enabled), and the piece's
priority is not skipped, then piece's priority is elevated by one priority level.
Size is the size of the piece.
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μTorrent User Manual > Appendix A: The μTorrent Interface > Main Window > Detailed Info
Pane
Files
The Files tab allows you to view what files are included in the torrent, as well as provide
the ability to control what files are downloaded. Double-click ing on any file will open it as if it
were opened from Explorer (meaning that μTorrent will attempt to open the file in the
associated application for the file type).
Name is the file's original path as described in the .torrent file metadata.
Path is the file's save path on disk. If the path is not an absolute (full) path, it is the path
relative to the torrent job's Save As directory.
# Pieces is the number of pieces that comprise the file.
% is the approximate percent of the file that μTorrent has completed. Its value is
calculated by dividing the number under the Done column by the number under the Size
column. Because this number is calculated using the size of all completed pieces only, it
will not increase until another piece of the file has finished downloading.
Done displays the total amount of data you have downloaded for that file that passed
the hash checks.
First Piece is the number of the first piece in the .torrent file that contains data for the
file.
Mode displays how μTorrent is using the file.
Write mode means the file is being actively written to.
Read mode means the file is not being actively written to.
Pieces is the graphical progress bar for the file.
Blue means the data has been written to disk.
Green means the data is still unwritten to disk.
Red means the data is is not available in the swarm.
White means the data is is available in the swarm, but has not yet been
downloaded.
Priority displays the priority given to the file.
high means μTorrent will attempt to complete the file more aggressively relative to
other files of lower priorities (low or normal). If there is an opportunity for this file
to become more complete, μTorrent will take it. Note that this does not guarantee
the completion of the file, or that the file will complete before other files of lower
priorities.
normal is the default priority given.
low means μTorrent will attempt to complete the file less aggressively relative to
other files of higher priorities (normal or high). If there is an opportunity for
another file of higher priority to become more complete, μTorrent will take it over
downloading for this file. Note that this does not guarantee that the file will
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complete after other files of higher priorities.
skip means the file will not be downloaded. Do note that some files share pieces
with other files. As such, you might notice that a part of a skipped file (or possibly
an entire file, if it is smaller than the piece size) is downloaded. Understand that this
does not mean μTorrent has ignored your request to not download the file.
Size shows the size of the file.
Context Menu
Open will attempt to open the selected file as if it were opened from Explorer.
Open Containing Folder opens the file's directory containing in an Explorer window,
with the file highlighted.
High Priority will set the file's priority to high.
Normal Priority will set the file's priority to normal.
Low Priority will set the file's priority to low.
Don't Download will set the file's priority to skip.
Relocate... will set the file to be downloaded to a location other than the location
selected for the entire torrent job. This option is disabled if the torrent job is started.
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μTorrent User Manual > Appendix A: The μTorrent Interface > Main Window > Detailed Info
Pane
Speed
The Speed tab displays graphs of the the global upload and download speeds, as well
as some basic statistics about disk I/O and cache usage.
T he Show dropdown menu allows you to select the type of graph you'd like to be
displayed in the graph canvas below.
Upload & Download shows a combination of the Download and Upload graphs.
Do wnload shows a graph of the current global download speed.
The light green-colored line represents the global download rate limit. If no
limit is set for the global download rate, this line will not be shown.
T he solid green-colored line represents the current global download rate,
counting only payload data (as opposed to including overhead).
The long-dashed green-colored line represents the global download rate for
payload data downloaded from local peers.
T he short-dashed green-colored line represents the global download rate,
including download overhead. If gui.graph_overhead is disabled, this line will
not be shown.
Up load shows a graph of the current global upload speed.
The light red-colored line represents the global upload rate limit. If no limit is
set for the global upload rate, this line will not be shown.
The solid red-colored line represents the current global upload rate, counting
only payload data (as opposed to including overhead).
T h e long-dashed red-colored line represents the global upload rate for
payload data uploaded to local peers.
T h e short-dashed red-colored line represents the global upload rate,
including upload overhead. If gui.graph_overhead is disabled, this line will not
be shown.
T he solid yellow-colored line represents the current upload speed going
toward non-BitTorrent receivers, like media players streaming media from
μTorrent, or browsers requesting data from μTorrent's Web UI backend.
Ne twork Overhead shows a graph breakdown of network overhead for uploads
and downloads.
Tr ansfer Cap shows the cumulative amount of data transferred over the period of
time specified in the Transfer Cap settings.
T h e solid green-colored line represents the cumulative amount of data
downloaded.
T h e solid red-colored line represents the cumulative amount of data
uploaded.
The solid yellow-colored line represents the total cumulative amount of data
transferred (downloaded and uploaded).
The light red-colored line represents the transfer cap limit.
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Tr ansfer History shows the amount of data transferred for each day in the last 31
days.The solid green-colored line represents the amount of data downloaded.
The solid red-colored line represents the amount of data uploaded.
The solid yellow-colored line represents the total amount of data transferred
(downloaded and uploaded).
Di sk Statistics shows several graphs pertaining to disk and cache access. In each
of these graphs, the lighter lines represent the graphs for writes or reads
(depending on which graph you're looking at) to and from the cache. Their more
solid counterparts represent the writes and reads to and from the disk. Textual
statistics pertaining to disk and cache access collected for the current session are
shown to the left of the graphs. The "Reset" button below resets the collected
statistics.
The Resolution dropdown menu allows you to select the interval for the time unit used
for the X-axis of each graph. The Y-axis values are average over this time resolution.
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Pane
Logger
The Logger tab displays logged information regarding certain events in μTorrent.
Information displayed mostly serve debug purposes, and can be useful when trying to solve
problems. Information displayed can be selected, and selected lines can be copied by
pressing Ctrl + C on the keyboard. You can access some options for controlling the Logger
tab by right-click ing anywhere on the white area in the tab. You'll be presented with the
following items in the context menu:
Peer Traffic Logging contains a set of options that control what messages are
displayed in the Logger tab pertaining to peer traffic and communication.
Error Logging contains a set of options that control what messages are displayed in
the Logger tab pertaining to errors that occur during operation.
Verbose Logging contains a set of options that control what additional, non-critical
messages are displayed in the Logger tab.
Clear all logging flags disables all of the logging options.
Copy copies the selected Logger lines to the clipboard.
Log to file... allows you to save log information to a file on disk. A full path should be
specified, otherwise the log's location will be saved to the current working directory,
which can vary depending on how you opened μTorrent. In order to log to disk
successfully, you must first select this menu item and specify the filename for the log.
μTorrent will start the log on disk from that time forward. When you wish to stop logging,
select this menu item again and leave the field blank, and press "OK" (unless you wish
to save to start writing to a new file in serial). No logger information will be written to the
log file until the logging to disk is stopped.
Dump DHT Buckets, Dump DHT Tracked, and Dump Memory Info dump advanced
debug information into the Logger.
Clear Log does just that -- it clears the contents of the Logger tab.
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μTorrent User Manual > Appendix A: The μTorrent Interface > Main Window
Status Bar
The status bar shows general information and statistics about μTorrent. Its visibility can
can toggled by selecting "Options" then "Show Status Bar " in the main menus, or by
pressing F6 on the keyboard. The leftmost section of the status bar is an empty slot that
resizes along with the window's width, so the following descriptions start from the second
item from the left and moves rightward.
The Notification section displays messages in μTorrent about the status of the torrent
jobs. If there are no issues, this section will remain blank.
Disk Overloaded means that the disk was not able to keep up with the read/write
speed. If this happens when you first add a torrent job, it's normal, and will
disappear after several minutes. If otherwise, you may want to try tweaking your
Disk Cache settings in the Preferences
Limited by scheduler means the download and/or upload rates are following the
Scheduler rules for the hour.
Stopped by scheduler means all unforced torrent jobs are stopped to observe the
Scheduler rules for the hour.
Stopped by speed test means all started torrent jobs, forced or otherwise, are
stopped to allow the Setup Guide's speed tester to obtain as accurate a result as it
can achieve. All torrent jobs stopped by the speed test are resumed after the speed
test completes.
Stopped by transfer cap means all unforced torrent jobs are stopped to observe
the Transfer Cap rules.
Seeding only means any unforced torrent job that is not seeding are stopped to
observe the Scheduler rules for the hour.
The DHT Status section displays the current status of DHT.
DHT: Disabled means you have disabled DHT, so μTorrent isn't connected to the
DHT network.
DHT: X nodes (where X is an integer) means DHT is enabled, and μTorrent is
directly connected to X other clients on the DHT network. The keyword is "directly,"
as this number is not an indication of the number of users you are effectively
connected to on the DHT network -- that number is much greater.
The Network Status section displays an icon to signify your connectability to people
outside of your firewall (software and/or hardware). Left-click ing on the icon will open
the Setup Guide. Note that the network status light can be blank as well, in which case
it simply means that no torrent jobs are started, so μTorrent is unable to check the port
status.
means everything is fine, and you are receiving incoming connections.
means no incoming connections have been received yet. Seeing this icon
doesn't automatically mean something is wrong unless it remains yellow for an
extended period of time while there are actively transferring torrent jobs. If you're
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unsure about whether your port is forwarded properly, then the best course of
action is to use the port checker in the Setup Guide.
means μTorrent wasn't able to use the listening port. Generally, this means a
firewall is blocking the port (in which case you should attempt to fix it), but it's also
possible that another application is using this port, in which case μTorrent will
inform you that there is a listening error.
The Download section starts with a "D" and displays download speed related statistics
in the following order:
The global download rate limit (in square brackets, assuming such a limit is set,
and Show speed limits in the status bar is enabled)
The total data download speed
The total communication download overhead speed (with an "O" preceding the
speed)
The total local peer download speed (with an "L" preceding the speed, assuming
μTorrent is downloading at more than 1 KiB/s from local peers)
The total amount of data downloaded this session (with a "T" preceding the
amount)
The Upload section starts with a "U" and displays upload speed related statistics in the
following order:
The global upload rate limit (in square brackets, assuming such a limit is set, and
Show speed limits in the status bar is enabled)
The total data upload speed
The total communication upload overhead speed (with an "O" preceding the speed)
The total local peer upload speed (with an "L" preceding the speed, assuming
μTorrent is uploading at more than 1 KiB/s to local peers)
The total amount of data uploaded this session (with a "T" preceding the amount)
Context Menu
Depending on where you right-click the status bar, you will get different menus to
control μTorrent's behavior.
Right-click ing anywhere to the left of the Download section will show a context menu
with the following options:
Enable Scheduler allows you to enable or disable the scheduler from the without
having to toggle it manually in the Preferences.
Enable DHT allows you to enable or disable DHT from the without having to toggle
it manually in the Preferences.
Right-click ing on the Download section will show a context menu that allows you to
control the global maximum download limit. The values displayed depend on the speed
popup list settings in the Preferences.
Right-click ing on the Upload section will show a context menu that allows you to
control the global maximum upload limit. The values displayed depend on the speed
popup list settings in the Preferences.
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μTorrent User Manual > Appendix A: The μTorrent Interface
Preferences
This section provides descriptions of all options available in the μTorrent Preferences
dialog. Nearly all of μTorrent's internal settings can be configured here. To access the
Preferences, select "Options" then "Preferences..." in the main menus, or press Ctrl + P on
the keyboard. The last selected section before the Preferences dialog is closed will be
automatically selected the next time the user enters the Preferences.
General
UI Settings
Directories
Connection
Bandwidth
BitTorrent
Transfer Cap
Queueing
Scheduler
Web UI
Playback
Advanced
UI Extras
Disk Cache
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μTorrent User Manual > Appendix A: The μTorrent Interface > Preferences
General
Language
T h e Language dropdown menu allows you to select the language for the entire
μTorrent interface. In order for this to work, you must have installed the language pack
(utorrent.lng) into μTorrent's settings directory, or in the same directory as the μTorrent
executable itself.
The More... button opens the download page in your web browser, where you'll find the
language pack available for download.
Windows Integration
T h e Associate with .torrent files button tells Windows to open .torrent files in
μTorrent. If maindoc.ico is present in μTorrent's settings directory, it will be used as the
icon for .torrent files instead of making Windows attempt to generate an icon
automatically.
T he Associate with .btsearch files button tells Windows to open .btsearch files in
μTorrent.
T he Associate with magnet URIs button tells Windows to open magnet URIs with
μTorrent.
T he Install IPv6/Teredo button makes μTorrent install IPv6/Teredo support on the
computer. Note that this option works only on operating systems released after
Windows XP with at least Service Pack 2 (SP2) installed.
Check association on startup will tell μTorrent to check associations with anything it
is associated with each time it is run. If the association no longer belongs to μTorrent at
start, the user will be prompted for further action.
Start μTorrent on system startup will make μTorrent start when Windows starts up.
Privacy
Check for updates automatically tells μTorrent to connect to the μTorrent servers to
check for newer versions upon startup. Assuming μTorrent is open for long enough, it
will continue to check for updates periodically, waiting 24 hours between each update
check (automatic or manual).
Update to beta versions tells μTorrent to inform the user about beta releases when it
checks for updates. Otherwise, the user is only informed of newer stable builds.
Send detailed info when checking for updates allows μTorrent to send a randomly
generated ID and the μTorrent version and build numbers to the update server during
update checks in order to count the number of people there are using μTorrent.
Whether or not this option is enabled, all communication with the μTorrent servers are
always anonymous.
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The Boss-Key field allows you to select a keyboard combination that, when pressed,
will toggle the visibility of all traces μTorrent on the immediate desktop. The main
window and any open dialogs, the taskbar entry, and the system tray icon all disappear
when hidden, and appear again when unhidden (by pressing the keyboard combination
a second time). To set this field, you must press the keyboard combination you wish to
set the boss-key to. To do so, press your choice of modifier keys (any combination of
Ctrl , Alt , and Shift ) and the key (letters, numbers, function keys, and so on). Make
sure the key combination you select is not used by another application, as that can lead
to conflicts.
The Clear Private Data button clears previously used paths in various locations, such
as the Add New Torrent dialog and the Create New Torrent dialog.
When Downloading
Append .!ut to incomplete files tells μTorrent to append the .!ut extension to any
file in the torrent contents that still hasn't finished downloading. Once a file is completed,
the extension gets removed from it. Note that the state of this option takes effect
immediately after the preferences are saved, regardless of whether torrent jobs are
started, stopped, paused, or queued.
Pre-allocate all files tells μTorrent to create and fully allocate every file you select to
download immediately after starting the torrent job. Note that this option does not have
an impact on hard drive fragmentation (advantageous or otherwise), as μTorrent already
allocates each file upon writing to disk even without this option.
Prevent standby if there are active torrents is self-explanatory; if there are active
torrent jobs, μTorrent will attempt to keep the computer out of automatic standby mode.
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UI Settings
Display Options
Confirm when deleting torrents displays a dialog asking for confirmation when you
try to delete a torrent job from the torrent jobs list.
Confirm when deleting trackers displays a dialog asking for confirmation when you
try to delete a tracker from the Trackers list.
Show confirmation dialog on exit displays a dialog asking for confirmation when you
try to exit μTorrent.
Alternate list background color will make μTorrent alternate the background color for
each item in a list-view (be it the torrent jobs list, or one of the list-views in the detailed
info pane) between the default list-view background color and the column highlight
color. If disabled, μTorrent will simply display the default list-view background behind
every item in the list-view.
Show current speed in the title bar displays the total upload and download rates in
the title bar of the main window, before "μTorrent".
Show speed limits in the status bar displays the global rate limit (if set) next to its
corresponding value in the status bar.
System Tray
Close to tray will tell μTorrent to close the main window to system tray rather than exit
when the close button is used in the window title bar.
Minimize to tray will tell μTorrent to minimize the main window to system tray rather
than the taskbar.
Always show tray icon will display the tray icon regardless of μTorrent's main window
visibility (unless hidden with the boss-key). If disabled, μTorrent will only display the tray
icon when it is closed or minimized to system tray.
Single click on tray icon to open will make it so that it takes a single left-click on the
tray icon to display or hide the main window. If left unchecked, it would require a
double-click to achieve the same result.
Show balloon notifications in tray will display a bubble tooltip notification in the
system tray when certain events occur in μTorrent, such as the download completion of
a torrent job, an error, and so on.
Always activate when clicked will make it so that left-click ing (or double-click ing,
depending on whether the single click tray icon option is enabled or disabled) the tray
icon will only activate the main window. If left disabled, μTorrent would normally
alternate between activating and hiding the window for the same action.
When Adding Torrents
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Don't start the download automatically adds manually imported torrent jobs in
stopped mode. If this option is enabled, "Start torrent" in the Add New Torrent dialog will
be unchecked by default (but can still be enabled). If that dialog is not enabled, torrent
jobs will simply be added in stopped mode, and will have to be started manually.
Activate the program window will open the μTorrent main window (if hidden,
minimized to system tray, or minimized to taskbar). If unchecked, μTorrent will simply
display the Add New Torrent dialog.
Show a window that displays the files inside the torrent will tell μTorrent to display
the Add New Torrent dialog. If unchecked, μTorrent will simply ask where you'd like to
save the torrent contents, assuming a default download location is not set.
Actions for Double Click
For seeding torrents allows you to select the action that μTorrent takes when you
double-click a seeding torrent job on the torrent jobs list.
For downloading torrents allows you to select the action that μTorrent takes when
you double-click a downloading torrent job on the torrent jobs list.
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Directories
Location of Downloaded Files
Put new downloads in specifies the default location that the contents of newly added
torrent jobs will be downloaded to.
Always show dialog on manual add tells μTorrent to display the Add New
Torrent dialog even if a default download location is. If left unchecked, μTorrent
automatically sets the download location to the specified location and adds the
torrent job to the torrent jobs list accordingly, without user intervention.
Move completed downloads to specifies the location that torrent contents that have
finished downloading should be moved to. Files are moved immediately after the torrent
job finishes downloading and the files are written to disk.
Append the torrent's label will add the torrent job's label to the path that the
torrent contents are moved to after they finish downloading.
Only move from the default download directory tells μTorrent to move torrent
contents only if it was saved to the directory specified under "Put new downloads
in". If that option wasn't set, this option should be left disabled.
Location of .torrents
Store .torrents in sets the location that μTorrent should save .torrent files to. By
default, μTorrent will save these files to the settings directory.
Move .torrents for finished jobs to moves .torrent files to the specified location after it
is completed. By default, these files remain in the same location that they were first
copied to.
Automatically load .torrents in directory tells μTorrent to check the specified
directory every second for new new .torrent files, and automatically load them. Note that
the directory specified here must be different from the directories specified in the .torrent
storage settings, otherwise, you will run into problems with .torrent files looking like
they're missing to μTorrent.
Delete loaded .torrents tells μTorrent to delete the .torrent file when it is autoloaded.
Normally, if this option is not checked, μTorrent appends .loaded to the
extension to indicate that it has been loaded and to prevent μTorrent from trying to
load the .torrent file again.
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μTorrent User Manual > Appendix A: The μTorrent Interface > Preferences
Connection
Listening Port
The Port used for incoming connections field specifies the port that μTorrent should
use to listen for incoming connections. This port must be unfirewalled for optimal usage
of μTorrent. Setting the port to 0 indicates to μTorrent that you would like for it to select
a random port after the changes are confirmed.
The Random port button selects a random port between 10000 and 65000 as the
listening port.
Enable UPnP port mapping allows μTorrent to communicate with the router to forward
a port without your manual intervention. Some devices do not support Universal Plug
and Play (UPnP), so you might still have to forward your ports manually. Disable UPnP
if that is the case.
Enable NAT-PMP port mapping allows μTorrent to attempt to forward a port with
routers that support the NAT port mapping protocol (Apple products, for example).
Randomize port each start makes μTorrent select a random port between 1000 and
65000 to use at startup. Note that this option might conflict with your port forwarding
settings, so if you manually open ports in your router and firewall, it's best to leave this
option disabled.
Add Windows Firewall exception allows μTorrent to add an entry to the Windows
Firewall exceptions list that lets it bypass the firewall. This is useful only if you actually
have Windows Firewall enabled. Note that this option works only on operating systems
released after (and including) Windows XP with at least Service Pack 2 (SP2) installed.
Proxy Server
The Type dropdown menu specifies the type of proxy you are trying to use.
The Proxy field is where you enter the proxy's URL or IP address.
The Port field is where you enter the proxy's port.
Checking Authentication indicates that you need to log into the proxy server in order
for it to work.
The Username field is where you enter the username required to log into the proxy
server for authentication.
The Password field is where you enter the password required to log into the proxy
server for authentication.
Use proxy for hostname lookups forces μTorrent to perform hostname (DNS)
lookups through the proxy. Reverse DNS is not proxied.
Use proxy for peer-to-peer connections forces μTorrent to communicate and
transfer data with peers through the proxy. By default, this option is disabled, and
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μTorrent only uses the proxy to communicate with trackers. This option may not work
with some HTTP proxies (not all HTTP proxies support HTTP CONNECT).
Note: μTorrent can only proxy UDP-based communication through SOCKS5 proxies.
Proxying of IPv6 traffic is currently not supported. By default, connection types that your
proxy does not support will simply connect as normal.
Proxy Privacy
Disable all local DNS lookups will disable reverse DNS and prevent hostname
lookups from bypassing the proxy. This will not function properly without enabling "Use
proxy for hostname lookups." If your proxy is misconfigured or not working, then DNS
will simply fail. As a safeguard, μTorrent's autoupdates and crash reports will bypass
this option.
Disable features that leak identifying information will prevent μTorrent from sharing
your non-proxied IP through handshakes with other peers, as well as through DHT. It
will also prevent it from handing out your IPv6 address to IPv4 peers and vice versa.
Disable connections unsupported by the proxy will disable connection types that
your proxy type cannot handle. For HTTP, HTTPS and SOCKS4 proxies, this will
disable all UDP-based communication (DHT, uTP, UDP trackers, IPv6). For SOCKS5, it
will only disable IPv6, as IPv6 is currently not proxied. If your proxy is misconfigured or
not working, all traffic in the client will stop.
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Bandwidth
Global Upload Rate Limiting
The Maximum upload rate field limits the maximum rate at which μTorrent will upload.
Setting the value to 0 is equivalent to setting it to unlimited. This value is interpreted in
KiB/s, so please enter it as such.
T he Alternate upload rate when not downloading field allows you to define an
alternate upload rate when no torrent job is in downloading mode (only seeding). Other
than the context in which it is active, this upload rate limit behaves exactly like the
"Maximum upload rate" field. Unless you understand well the consequences of
enabling this option, refrain from using it, as it might give the impression that μTorrent is
not obeying the global maximum upload rate. This value is interpreted in KiB/s, so
please enter it as such.
Global Download Rate Limiting
T he Maximum download rate field limits the maximum rate at which μTorrent will
download. Setting the value to 0 is equivalent to setting it to unlimited. Note that
download rate limiting is very unreliable, so you might see greater fluctuations in
download speeds with this option set to anything other than 0, and μTorrent might not
be able to limit the speeds to the specified amount either. This value is interpreted in
KiB/s, so please enter it as such.
Number of Connections
The Global maximum number of connections field defines the maximum number of
connections that μTorrent can make at any given time in all active torrent jobs.
The Maximum number of connected peers per torrent field defines the maximum
number of peers that μTorrent can connect to at any given moment for each torrent job.
The Number of upload slots per torrent field defines the maximum number of peers
that μTorrent will upload to at any given moment for each torrent job.
Use additional upload slots if upload speed < 90% tells μTorrent to open more
upload slots if the current total upload speed is less than 90% of the global maximum
upload rate.
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μTorrent User Manual > Appendix A: The μTorrent Interface > Preferences
BitTorrent
Basic BitTorrent Features
Enable DHT Network enables the Distributed Hash Table (DHT) if checked. You can
also do this by right-click ing the DHT status in the main window status bar and
selecting the corresponding option.
Enable DHT for new torrents tells μTorrent to check for peers from the DHT network
on each newly added torrent job. This option only works if DHT is enabled, and if the
'private' flag is not set in the .torrent file.
Enable Local Peer Discovery allows μTorrent to attempt to discover local peers via
multicast. If a peer is considered local, transfer rates with the peer will not be limited
unless Limit local peer bandwidth is also enabled. Local Peer Discovery will not be used
for .torrent files with the 'private' flag set. This option serves as a default setting for
newly-added torrent jobs, and does not retroactively affect previously-added. This
option can be disabled on a per torrent job basis in the respective torrent job's
Properties dialog.
Enable bandwidth management allows μTorrent to use uTP to try and gain a better
sense of how much bandwidth it should be using while maintaining quality of Internet
service.
Enable UDP tracker support allows μTorrent to communicate with trackers using the
UDP-based tracker communication protocol. Such trackers have URLs that begin with
"udp://".
Ask tracker for scrape information tells μTorrent to scrape the tracker (ask for peer
and seed counts). By default, the tracker is scraped only when the torrent job is started,
but this can be changed.
Enable Peer Exchange enables Peer Exchange (PEX) for each newly added torrent
job, provided the 'private' flag is not set for that .torrent file. This option serves as a
default setting for newly-added torrent jobs, and does not retroactively affect previouslyadded.
This option can be disabled on a per torrent job basis in the respective torrent
job's Properties dialog.
Limit local peer bandwidth: This option decides whether μTorrent should apply the
rate limits to traffic between itself and peers on the local network. Peers are considered
local if they are discovered by Local Peer Discovery, or if they are on the same LAN as
the client.
T he IP/Hostname to report to tracker field allows you to specify your IP address
when reporting to the tracker. This is used in the case where your WAN (Internet) IP
address is not reported correctly to the tracker for whatever reason (might be that you
are behind a proxy server). Note that you can type a hostname in this field, so if you use
a dynamic DNS service, you can enter your domain into this field. Also, realize that not
all trackers pay attention to this information, and often ignore it.
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Protocol Encryption
The Outgoing dropdown menu allows you to select the mode of encryption that you
prefer μTorrent to establish. All modes will accept incoming encrypted connections, and
the encryption is 2-way.
Disabled will force μTorrent to attempt to establish only unencrypted outgoing
connections.
Enabled will allow μTorrent to establish encrypted and unencrypted outgoing
connections, depending on how the peer responds to the handshake. This option
provides μTorrent with the largest pool of peers to pick from for connecting to, but
incurs additional overhead that may often be unnecessary in most typical
situations.
Forced forces μTorrent to establish only encrypted outgoing connections. Any peer
that doesn't support encryption will not be connected to. It is recommended that you
not use this option unless your ISP actively searches for unencrypted outgoing
connections, as it can impair your ability to connect to peers.
Allow incoming legacy connections allows μTorrent to accept unencrypted incoming
connections. If disabled, any incoming connection that is unencrypted will be ignored. It
is recommended that you not disable this option unless your ISP actively searches for
unencrypted incoming connections, as it can significantly impair your ability to connect
to peers.
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Transfer Cap
The transfer cap is used to control the amount of data μTorrent will transfer over a
specified period of time.
Enable Transfer Cap will enable the transfer cap if checked.
Cap Settings
The Bandwidth Cap field sets the amount of data to use as the transfer cap for the
selected period.
The Time Period dropdown menu sets the number of days to use as the transfer cap
period.
The Limit Type option sets the transfer direction(s) to count as part of the transfer cap.
Usage History
This displays textual statistics pertaining to the amount of data transferred for the
selected time period. The "Reset History" button below resets the collected statistics.
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Queueing
Queue Settings
T he Maximum number of active torrents field defines the maximum number of
unforced torrent jobs that μTorrent will allow to be active before placing it on the queue.
Torrent jobs are counted regardless of whether they're seeding or downloading torrents,
as long as they are uploading at rates above the value specified by
queue.slow_ul_threshold or downloading at rates above the value specified by
queue.slow_dl_threshold.
The Maximum number of active downloads field defines the maximum number of
unforced torrent jobs that μTorrent will allow to be downloaded before making it wait on
the download queue. This option only applies to torrent jobs that are downloading or
are to be placed in downloading mode.
Seeding Goal
T he Minimum ratio field allows you to set the ratio that you wish to reach before
μTorrent throttles the speed for the torrent job (or stops it, if you set it to do so). Setting
the ratio to -1 is equivalent to setting it to unlimited. Setting this value to 0 tells μTorrent
to ignore this value and look only at the seeding time limit. This value is interpreted as a
percentage. μTorrent will throttle the seeding process only after both this and time limit
have been reached.
The Minimum seeding time field allows you to specify the minimum amount of time
you wish for the torrent job to continue seeding at normal speeds after it has finished
downloading. μTorrent will throttle the seeding process only after both this and the ratio
threshold have been reached. This value is interpreted in minutes.
Seeding tasks have higher priority than downloading tasks will give seeding tasks
higher priority than downloads, so if your maximum number of active torrents is
reached, and a torrent job reaches seeding state, the downloading tasks will not force it
into queued seeding state.
Note: These values only affect torrent jobs added after they are set. Existing torrent
jobs will retain their current seeding goals, even if these default settings are modified.
When μTorrent Reaches the Seeding Goal
The Limit the upload rate to field allows you to set the speed that μTorrent throttles
the upload speed for a torrent job to when it reaches the seeding goal set. Setting this
value to 0 is equivalent to telling μTorrent to stop the torrent job. A change to this value
affects only torrent jobs that have not yet reached their seeding goals. This value is
interpreted in KiB/s, so please enter it as such.
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μTorrent User Manual > Appendix A: The μTorrent Interface > Preferences
Scheduler
The scheduler is used to control μTorrent during certain times of the day on certain days
of the week. With the scheduler, it is possible to tell μTorrent to stop torrent jobs, use a
different bandwidth limit, or stop downloading entirely during specified times.
Enable Scheduler will enable the scheduler if checked.
Scheduler Table
Each square in this table represents each hour in each day of each week. You can
change the color by left-click ing on a box. It cycles through dark green, light green,
white, and light red. Left-click-drag ging will cause all time blocks that the mouse
passes over to change to the new color.
Full Speed occurs during the time periods where the scheduler table is colored dark
green. During these time slots, μTorrent will adhere to the normal global upload and
global download rate limits.
Limited occurs during the time periods where the scheduler table is colored light green.
During these time slots, μTorrent will adhere to the upload and download rate limits
specified in the Scheduler Settings. Because the settings affect global rate limits, forced
torrent jobs are affected during these time slots.
Turn off occurs during the time periods where the scheduler table is colored white.
During these time slots, μTorrent will stop any unforced torrent jobs.
Seeding only occurs during the time periods where the scheduler table is colored light
red. During these time slots, μTorrent will cause unforced torrent jobs to stop
downloading, though they will continue to upload data. Forced torrent jobs will continue
downloading during these time slots.
Scheduler Settings
The Limited upload rate field sets the global maximum upload rate that all torrent jobs
should follow when operating under Limited mode. Other than the context in which it
is active, this upload rate limit behaves exactly like the global maximum upload rate.
Leaving the field blank is equivalent to setting it to unlimited. This value is interpreted in
KiB/s, so please enter it as such.
T he Limited download rate field sets the global maximum download rate that all
torrent jobs should follow when operating under Limited mode. Other than the context
in which it is active, this download rate limit behaves exactly like the global maximum
download rate. Leaving the field blank is equivalent to setting it to unlimited. This value
is interpreted in KiB/s, so please enter it as such.
Disable DHT when turning off disables DHT when the scheduler is operating under
Turn off mode.
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μTorrent User Manual > Appendix A: The μTorrent Interface > Preferences
Web UI
The Web UI is used to allow external applications to control μTorrent remotely. The
default Web UI for μTorrent is accessible to modern browsers that support AJAX.
Enable Web UI will enable the web interface if checked. When enabled, μTorrent
should automatically download the required webui.zip file from the μTorrent server. If it
doesn't, you can still download it manually from the webpage and properly place it in the
μTorrent settings directory.
Authentication
The Username field allows you to specify a username to log into the web interface, and
is required in order to use the web interface.
The Password field sets the password for this username. It may be left blank if you do
not wish to password-protect the web interface.
Enable Guest account with username enables or disables the guest account, a user
that can view (but not edit) the torrent jobs currently in your torrent jobs list. If enabled,
a username for the guest account must be specified in order for it to work.
Connectivity
Alternative listening port, if enabled, tells μTorrent to use the specified port to listen
to Web UI requests (and the internal tracker if enabled). This option is especially useful
for those who randomize their ports each time μTorrent starts. If left disabled, μTorrent
will serve the web interface over the same port as its normal listening port. You must
forward this port manually, even if you use UPnP to forward the normal μTorrent
listening port.
Restrict access to the following IPs allows you to limit the IPs that are allowed to
connect to the web interface. Multiple IPs may be specified, but they must be separated
by commas. IP ranges may be specified using CIDR notation.
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Playback
Playback allows you to seamlessly play your audio/video files with your default player
based on file extension or specify a specific player to use for all files.
Playback Player Selection
Use default player uses the player associated with the extension of the file to be
played.
Player Selection allows you to specify which player to be used for all files for
playback. You can select one of the automatically setup players in the list or browse for
your own player. Use %1 to specify the filename parameter in the command line
(Required).
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Advanced
UI Extras
Disk Cache
WARNING: Unless you fully understand the consequences of changing an advanced
setting, you should not modify it without guidance.
allow_pairing: Similar in concept to BlueTooth pairing, this option allows any external
application programmatically request a unique login password so that the application
can more easily obtain access to Web UI with minimal user interaction. The user must
explicitly give μTorrent permission to generate a login password for each application
that requests it. For security reasons, pairing is allowed only for applications running on
the same machine as the instance of μTorrent it is attempting to pair up with. Pairing
does not work unless net.discoverable is enabled.
bt.allow_same_ip: Enabling this option allows multiple incoming connections from the
same IP address. This option affects a single torrent job at a time, so you can still have
the same IP address connect to you on different torrent swarms. It is recommended that
this option be left disabled, as it weakens the anti-leech protection.
bt.ban_ratio: The lowest acceptable ratio of good to bad pieces a peer can send
before it gets banned. The lower this option is set, the more forgiving μTorrent will be
toward bad pieces, meaning that it will be less likely to ban a peer. This takes effect
after bt.ban_threshold is exceeded and bt.use_ban_ratio is enabled.
bt.ban_threshold: This option specifies the maximum number of hashfailed pieces any
single peer can send before μTorrent takes action against it (either banning it outright,
or enforcing bt.ban_ratio if bt.use_ban_ratio is enabled).
bt.compact_allocation: Enabling this option allows μTorrent to create files in a manner
such that the data are incrementally written to disk without file pre-allocation. Because
writes are compact, enabling this option may potentially lead to an increased level of
disk fragmentation while the file remains incomplete. In addition, this option further
decreases the already-low probability that a file can be previewed before completion,
since it may write the data for in-progress files out of order. Here are some things to
take note of when using this option:
If you tell μTorrent to pre-allocate all disk space, this option is ignored, and μTorrent
will pre-allocate the file anyway.
If this option is enabled, files can't be skipped. If a torrent job has skipped files, it
will not use compact allocation.
bt.connect_speed: This option specifies the number of connections μTorrent should
allow to be attempted and/or established each second, whether the connections use
uTP or TCP.
bt.enable_tracker: Enabling this option enables the rudimentary tracker embedded in
μTorrent. If you wish to use this tracker, the URL is located at
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http://IP:port/announce, where IP is your WAN IP address, and port is the
port μTorrent is listening on (or the alternative listening port if set and enabled). If you
use a dynamic DNS service, your domain may be used instead of your IP address. The
embedded tracker allows tracking of external .torrent files, and provides no way to limit
them. There is no interface for viewing the .torrent files that are tracked. It is imperative
that μTorrent is able to listen for incoming connections for this feature to work properly,
so you have to make sure you have completely forwarded your ports in order to use the
embedded tracker.
bt.graceful_shutdown: If enabled, μTorrent will take as long as it needs to finish its
shutdown sequence (writing in-progress pieces to disk, deleting files in deletion queue,
and waiting for tracker replies to stop messages -- among other things). That means
that even if it takes several minutes to shutdown gracefully, it will wait for that long, and
the process will remain in memory until then. If disabled, μTorrent will limit how long it
waits to to 10 seconds, and regardless of the state of the shutdown sequence, μTorrent
will force itself to exit.
bt.multiscrape: Enabling this option allows μTorrent to send multiple hashes each time
it scrapes a tracker, which is more efficient than sending one hash at a time. In most
circumstances, this option should not need to be disabled, as μTorrent will fall back to
single scraping if it detects that the tracker does not support multi-scraping.
bt.no_connect_to_services: This option tells μTorrent not to connect to peers using
ports specified in bt.no_connect_to_services_list as their listening ports. This stops
firewalls from complaining about μTorrent trying to send an e-mail.
bt.no_connect_to_services_list: This option specifies which ports μTorrent should
not connect to when bt.no_connect_to_services is enabled.
bt.prio_first_last_piece: Enabling this option prioritizes the first and last pieces of
each file in a torrent job, increasing the chances that they can be previewed before
download completion. μTorrent will prioritize at least the first and last 1 MiB of data in a
file.
bt.ratelimit_tcp_only: Enabling this option tells μTorrent to limit the upload and
download rates for TCP connections based on information received over the uTP
transport rather than using static global rate limits. This option is ignored if
bt.tcp_rate_control is disabled.
bt.scrape_stopped: Enabling this option allows μTorrent to get seed and peer counts
for torrent jobs that are stopped.
bt.send_have_to_seed: Enabling this option tells μTorrent to send a message to other
seeds indicating how many pieces you currently have.
bt.set_sockbuf: This debugging option allows μTorrent to automatically detect the TCP
buffer size periodically (so_sndbuf) and adjust it based on your upload speed. It does
not adjust based on latency.
bt.shutdown_tracker_timeout: This option controls the maximum amount of time
μTorrent will wait, when exiting, for each tracker to respond to a stopped event before
it forces itself to terminate. This value is interpreted in seconds, so please enter it as
such. Setting this value to 0 tells μTorrent to wait for an indefinite amount of time until it
receives a response.
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bt.shutdown_upnp_timeout: This option controls the maximum amount of time
μTorrent will wait, when exiting, for routers to respond to a request to unmap the
listening ports before it forces itself to terminate. This value is interpreted in seconds, so
please enter it as such. Setting this value to 0 tells μTorrent to wait for an indefinite
amount of time until it receives a response.
bt.tcp_rate_control: Enabling this option tells μTorrent to use information from the uTP
transport as hints for limiting TCP transfer rates.
bt.transp_disposition: This option controls μTorrent's level of bias towards using TCP
or uTP for transporting data (assuming the peer at the other end of the connection
supports both transport protocols). The following is a list of the accepted values:
1 allows μTorrent to attempt outgoing TCP connections
2 allows μTorrent to attempt outgoing uTP connections
4 allows μTorrent to accept incoming TCP connections
8 allows μTorrent to accept incoming uTP connections
16 tells μTorrent to use the new uTP header. This is an improved communication
header, but is not backwards compatible with clients that do not understand it.
This option is interpreted as a bitfield, so values can be added together to obtain a
combination of behaviors. Setting this value to 255 guarantees that all behaviors are
enabled.
bt.use_ban_ratio: This option tells μTorrent to use bt.ban_ratio to decide when a peer
gets banned after it has exceeded bt.ban_threshold.
bt.use_rangeblock: When enabled, μTorrent will automatically attempt to determine
whether an entire range of IP addresses should be banned for sending hashfailed
pieces rather than banning individual IPs one at a time. When μTorrent bans 4 IPs from
the same /24 CIDR block, it will ban the entire /24 CIDR block. When μTorrent bans 4
CIDR blocks of size /24 from the same /16 CIDR block, it will ban the entire /16 CIDR
block. When μTorrent bans 4 CIDR blocks of size /16 from the same /8 CIDR block, it
will ban the entire /8 CIDR block.
dht.rate: This option specifies the amount of bandwidth that DHT will use. The default
value, -1, tells μTorrent to manage the bandwidth usage automatically based on your
maximum upload rate. The automatic value is obtained by dividing your maximum
upload rate by 16. This value is interpreted in bytes per second, so please enter it as
such.
diskio.coalesce_write_size: This option determines the size threshold for which
μTorrent should write data out coalesced, and is relevant only if diskio.coalesce_writes
is enabled. This value is interpreted in bytes per second, so please enter it as such.
diskio.coalesce_writes: This option tells μTorrent to try to minimize the number of
writes to disk by writing more data at once. It doesn't have any effect on download
speeds, but might increase memory and CPU usage to achieve less disk writes.
diskio.flush_files: Enabling this option causes μTorrent to close file handles every
minute. It helps to reduce the effect of Windows managing the system cache badly for
some people and causing apparent "memory leaks."
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diskio.no_zero: Enabling this option causes μTorrent to skip the zero-filling process for
file allocation. This option works only on Windows XP or newer, and requires
administrator privileges by default. However, it is possible to make this work on limited
accounts by setting the "Perform volume maintenance tasks" policy appropriately in the
Windows Group Policy Editor. Skipping zero-filling speeds up the file allocation process,
but because the allocated files have shared read access, there is a risk that any
sensitive data that may have once existed at that location in disk but isn't wiped will
potentially be exposed for other applications and users to read, including those without
volume maintenance privileges.
diskio.smart_hash: This option makes μTorrent hash data from memory (if in the write
queue) instead of flushing to disk, re-reading from disk, and then hashing. This should
help reduce hard disk reads, especially when transferring at high speeds.
diskio.smart_sparse_hash: This option is a workaround for a problem in some
versions of Windows that return incorrect data to μTorrent regarding sparse files and
the amount of data that has actually been completed on disk.
diskio.sparse_files: Enabling this option causes μTorrent to allocate only the data that
it writes, but will inform the filesystem of the file's size (so that it can attempt to reserve
enough contiguous space on the hard drive without having to physically zero all of the
space out for the file). Even though space is reserved for the file, no space will be taken
for the unwritten parts of the file. Enabling this option may potentially lead to increased
disk fragmentation in rare cases where the drive does not have enough free space
available to honor the space reservation for sparse files. Here are some things to take
note of when using this option:
Sparse files work only on partitions that are formatted as NTFS.
Hash checking sparse files tends to be quicker than hash checking pre-allocated
files, as μTorrent won't have to hash zeroed-out pre-allocated data.
On Windows Vista, sparse files can cause μTorrent to run into a file system
limitation.
If you are using a non-administrator account with a disk quota, sparse files won't
work, and the file will still get fully allocated. This is a limitation with Windows that
μTorrent can't do anything about.
This option cannot be used in conjunction with pre-allocate all files. If both options
are enabled simultaneously, pre-allocation will take precedence.
When used in conjunction with bt.compact_allocation, μTorrent will reserve space
for each file in the filesystem, but it will continue to use compact writes.
diskio.use_partfile: This option is used to store data that is downloaded from files that
you told μTorrent to skip. This is necessary to prevent the file from being allocated. It
separately stores the parts of the skipped files that come with a piece, since μTorrent
must download and save the entire piece in order to confirm that it is uncorrupted, and
each piece can contain data from multiple files. The partfile is removed when you
remove the torrent job from the torrent job list.
gui.auto_restart: This option configures crash recovery in μTorrent. When this option
is enabled, if μTorrent crashes while it is minimized and the user has been idle at the
computer for more than 1 minute, this option will cause μTorrent to automatically restart,
and a notification of the crash (without a crash dump or any personally identifiable
information) will be sent to the developers. If μTorrent crashes more than once within an
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hour, this option will not cause it to automatically restart again after the first crash, as
such frequency of crashes is indicative of some important underlying problem that
should not be ignored by the user. In this situation, μTorrent will fall back to the regular
behavior (as if this option were disabled), where it displays a crash dialog that allows
the user to choose how to proceed.
gui.bypass_search_redirect: Enabling this option tells μTorrent to search directly on
the selected search engine rather than being redirected through
http://search.utorrent.com.
gui.compat_diropen: If you experience abnormal behaviors while browsing directories
in μTorrent, such as a blank browsing dialog, try enabling this option.
gui.default_del_action: This option tells μTorrent how it should remove torrent jobs
when pressing the Remove button or Delete on your keyboard. Note that any value
above 3 will cause the "Remove" button and the Delete button on your keyboard to do
nothing in μTorrent. To be safer, you'd best be setting this option in the GUI through the
toolbar method.
0 means "Remove"
1 means "Remove and delete .torrent"
2 means "Remove and delete Data"
3 means "Remove and delete .torrent + Data"
gui.delete_to_trash: Enabling this option tells μTorrent to attempt to delete files to the
Recycle Bin rather than directly erasing them from the disk. It is easier to set this option
in the GUI through the toolbar method.
gui.graph_legend: This option tells μTorrent to draw a legend over the graphs
displayed in the Speed tab to describe each of the lines drawn on the graph.
gui.graph_overhead: If enabled, this option tells μTorrent to draw communication
overhead lines in the Speed tab's transfer rate graphs. Otherwise, only the "Network
Overhead" graph will display information about communication overhead.
gui.graphic_progress: This option tells μTorrent to draw a progress bar for each
torrent job in the torrent jobs list, behind the Done column.
gui.log_date: This option causes the date to be included in the timestamp shown in the
Logger tab.
gui.piecebar_progress: If enabled, this option tells μTorrent to draw the lower
Downloaded bar as the progress bar for each torrent job in the torrent jobs list, behind
the Done column. This option works only if gui.graphic_progress is enabled, and will
hide the percentage from the column.
gui.report_problems: If enabled, this option tells μTorrent to report hangs in the user
interface thread back to the μTorrent servers anonymously. The information sent is not
personally identifiable, but can assist the developers in fixing (or identifying the cause
of) the user interface hang. Whenever a report is sent to the server, a message is
added to the Logger tab.
gui.tall_category_list: This option toggles the Category List's height between short
and tall. When taller, the Category List displaces the Detailed Info Pane's left-hand side.
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When shorter, the Category List's lower section is displaced by the Detailed Info pane. A
taller list might be more optimal for users with many labels and RSS feeds
gui.transparent_graph_legend: If enabled, this option tells μTorrent to draw a
transparent background behind the legend (otherwise, the background is opaque).
gui.update_rate: This option controls the amount of time between each update of the
μTorrent main window. The higher it is, the less frequently μTorrent updates the main
window, meaning that if you select 1000, the information displayed on the main window
is at most 1000 milliseconds (1 second) old. For users of slower computers, you might
want to increase this number to decrease resource usage when the main window is
displayed. Any value below 500 will be ignored (and 500 will be used instead).
ipfilter.enable: This option, when enabled, tells μTorrent to load ipfilter.dat and apply
the rules on connections established after it is loaded. Note that disabling and reenabling
this option will force μTorrent to reload ipfilter.dat.
isp.bep22: This option enables Local Tracker Discovery, allowing μTorrent to attempt to
discover ISP-local trackers via a series of reverse DNS lookups. The ISP-local tracker
can return a list of peers and caches (most likely ISP-local). Note that if your ISP is
known to interfere with BitTorrent traffic, careful consideration should be taken in
deciding to enable this option. Announcing to a ISP-hosted tracker indicates to the ISP
that you are using BitTorrent, and as such, can make it easier for the ISP to interfere.
Private torrent jobs are not announced to local trackers.
net.bind_ip: If your computer setup requires that you use a specific LAN adapter for
incoming connections, you may specify that adapter's IP address here.
net.calc_overhead: If enabled, this option tells μTorrent to include communication
overhead in the transfer rate calculations.
net.disable_ipv6: If enabled, this option tells μTorrent to not use IPv6.
net.discoverable: If enabled, this option tells μTorrent to listen on one of a sequence
of well-known ports for incoming connections in addition to the standard and alternative
listening ports. Because the sequence of ports is well-known to applications attempting
to interface with μTorrent, it allows for such applications to connect to μTorrent with less
effort on the user's part.
net.limit_excludeslocal: This option decides whether μTorrent should apply the
Transfer Cap limits to traffic between itself and peers on the local network. Peers are
considered local if they are discovered by Local Peer Discovery, or if they are on the
same LAN as the client.
net.low_cpu: Enabling this option reduces CPU usage slightly. You may achieve faster
speeds with this option disabled. In general, this option is useless for most people
unless they have extremely fast connections.
net.max_halfopen: This option specifies how many connections μTorrent should
attempt to establish simultaneously at any given time. On systems running Windows XP
with Service Pack 2 (SP2) or newer, if your TCPIP.sys file is unpatched, you should
leave this option at its default value.
net.outgoing_ip: If your computer setup requires that you use a specific LAN adapter
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for outgoing connections, you may specify that adapter's IP address here. Note that
Windows will sometimes ignore this setting and use other adapters due to their binding
orders in Windows. To fix this, read Microsoft's knowledge base article KB894564.
net.outgoing_max_port: This sets the upper limit for the outgoing port range. If this
option is set to some invalid port number or some value less than net.outgoing_port, it
gets ignored, and only net.outgoing_port gets looked at (meaning the outgoing port
"range" will actually be a single outgoing port).
net.outgoing_port: This option specifies the port that μTorrent should use to make
outgoing connections. Normally, μTorrent selects a port from the ephemeral port range
at random. "This can be used with full cone NAT routers to reduce the number of NAT
table entries and thus prevent cashes on some router models. When the outgoing port
is bound to the same as the incoming port that might even solve NAT problems on full
cone NAT routers" (Advanced Network Settings on AzureusWiki). This option only works
on Windows 2000 and above. This option is ignored if it is not a valid port number.
net.upnp_tcp_only: This option disables automatic forwarding of the listening port for
UDP via UPnP, telling μTorrent to forward the port for TCP only. This fixes an issue with
some broken routers that overwrite the TCP forwarding with the UDP forwarding.
net.utp_dynamic_packet_size: If enabled, this option allows μTorrent to adjust the
uTP packet size in response to connection conditions detected through information
gathered by uTP, changing up to as often as net.utp_packet_size_interval allows. If
disabled, μTorrent uses the initial packet size for all uTP communication, as set by
net.utp_initial_packet_size.
net.utp_initial_packet_size: This controls the initial size of the uTP packets that
μTorrent uses when initiating a uTP connection. If net.utp_dynamic_packet_size is
enabled, packet sizes can change dynamically during the lifetime of the uTP
connection, depending on the connection conditions; this option only controls how
μTorrent starts off. This option is interpreted as a multiplier of 150 bytes, so please
enter it as such. Any value below 1 will be ignored (and 1 will be used instead), and any
value above 8 will be ignored (and 8 will be used instead). Effectively, that means that
the initial packet sizes selectable by the user are the multiples of 150 bytes between
(and including) 150 bytes and 1200 bytes.
net.utp_packet_size_interval: This controls how often uTP alters its packet size in
response to network conditions, assuming net.utp_dynamic_packet_size is enabled.
This value is interpreted in seconds, so please enter it as such.
net.utp_receive_target_delay: This controls the threshold detected connection
receive delay that, if surpassed, will cause μTorrent to throttle back on bandwidth
usage. The higher this option is set, the more forgiving μTorrent will be toward
connection delays, meaning that it will be less likely to throttle back on bandwidth
usage. Receive delay is detected by tracking the changes in the deltas between uTP
packet timestamps and packet receive times. This option is interpreted in milliseconds,
to please enter it as such.
net.utp_target_delay: This option controls the threshold detected connection send
delay that, if surpassed, will cause μTorrent to throttle back on bandwidth usage. The
higher this option is set, the more forgiving μTorrent will be toward connection delays,
meaning that it will be less likely to throttle back on bandwidth usage. Send delay is the
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receive delay as observed by recipient uTP peers, which is reported back to the client
by the recipient peers. This option is interpreted in milliseconds, so please enter it as
such.
net.wsaevents: This option is used for tweaking if you are experiencing odd firewall
issues. Decrease the value one by one to see if it helps.
peer.disconnect_inactive: Enabling this option tells μTorrent to disconnect from a
peer that is not transferring with you after peer.disconnect_inactive_interval seconds of
inactivity. A peer gets disconnected by this option only if the connection limit has been
reached.
peer.disconnect_inactive_interval: This option sets the amount of time μTorrent
should wait before breaking an inactive connection. This value is interpreted in
seconds, so please enter it as such. Any value below 300 will be ignored (and 300 will
be used instead).
peer.lazy_bitfield: Some ISPs block seeding by looking for the complete bitfield and
closing the connection. When enabled, μTorrent does not send the complete bitfield, but
a sample of it, so as to prevent blocking of seeding.
peer.resolve_country: Enabling this option tells μTorrent to use an Internet database
of IP addresses (a DNSBL) to determine a peer's country. Even if the settings directory
contains flags.conf and flags.bmp, this option will take precedence, and the internal flag
images will be used instead.
queue.dont_count_slow_dl: Enabling this option tells μTorrent to ignore slow
downloading torrent jobs as part of the queue. If a torrent job is downloading at less
than the value specified by queue.slow_dl_threshold, it will not prevent the next item in
the queue from starting.
queue.dont_count_slow_ul: Enabling this option tells μTorrent to ignore slow
uploading torrent jobs as part of the queue. If a torrent job is uploading at less than the
value specified by queue.slow_ul_threshold, it will not prevent the next item in the
queue from starting.
queue.prio_no_seeds: Enabling this option gives torrent jobs without seeds higher
priority when seeding than other torrent jobs.
queue.slow_dl_threshold: The rate below which μTorrent should consider a torrent
job to be downloading slowly. If μTorrent is downloading at a rate above this value, it is
considered to be actively downloading. This value is interpreted in bytes per second, so
please enter it as such.
queue.slow_ul_threshold: The rate below which μTorrent should consider a torrent
job to be uploading slowly. If μTorrent is uploading at a rate above this value, it is
considered to be actively uploading. This value is interpreted in bytes per second, so
please enter it as such.
queue.use_seed_peer_ratio: When this option is enabled, μTorrent will determine the
seeding queue order based on the ratio of the number of seeds to the number of peers
connected in the swarm. The lower the seed:peer ratio is for a torrent job, the higher
priority it will be given in the seeding queue. If a torrent job has 0 peers and
queue.dont_count_slow_ul is disabled, it will be given the lowest priority. Otherwise, if
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the aforementioned option is enabled, the torrent job is treated as if there is 1 peer in
the swarm.
rss.feed_as_default_label: When this option is enabled, μTorrent will use an RSS
feed's name as the default label for any torrent jobs added without a label from the RSS
feed.
rss.smart_repack_filter: This option tells μTorrent to select an RSS item designated
as REPACK over an item without the REPACK designation if both show up in the RSS
feed.
rss.update_interval: This option sets the length of time μTorrent should wait between
each RSS feed update check. This value is interpreted in minutes, so please enter it as
such. Any value below 5 will be ignored (and 5 will be used instead).
sys.enable_wine_hacks: This option enables several workarounds for bugs found in
Wine (like list-view flickering, or improper display of files list-view in Add New Torrent
dialog). This option has no effect on Windows. For changes to this option to take effect,
you must restart μTorrent.
webui.token_auth: This option enables the token authentication system for the Web
UI, which is a method for preventing cross-site request forgery attacks that use the
authenticated browser session to issue commands to μTorrent. This option breaks
backwards compatibility with applications that are unaware of the token system.
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μTorrent User Manual > Appendix A: The μTorrent Interface > Preferences > Advanced
UI Extras
Speed Popup List
Override automatic speed popup list allows you to define the lists of speeds that are
displayed when right-click ing the corresponding item in the status bar on the main
window. If left unchecked, μTorrent automatically generates the list in context, based on
the current limit.
Upload speed list defines the upload speed list. -1 adds a separator to the list. 0
means Unlimited. Any other positive value is interpreted normally (as that value).
Each value must be separated with a comma. The values are interpreted in KiB/s,
so please enter them as such.
Download speed list defines the download speed list. -1 adds a separator to the
list. 0 means Unlimited. Any other positive value is interpreted normally (as that
value). Each value must be separated with a comma. The values are interpreted in
KiB/s, so please enter them as such.
Persistent Labels
The field here allows you to specify permanent labels that remain regardless of the
number of torrent jobs there are actually using that label. Multiple persistent labels may
be entered, but must be separated with a | (vertical pipe). Note that persistent labels
are given higher priority than normal labels in the category list, and so, are displayed
above their normal counterparts.
Search Engines
This edit control allows you to edit the list of search engines that μTorrent can use when
using the built-in torrent search facility. One search engine may be entered per line, and
must be entered as follows (where ?search= is arbitrary and depends on the search
engine being used):
Name|http://domain/path?search=
If found in the URL, μTorrent will replace the following tokens as described:
%s is replaced with the entered search query. If this is not found in the search URL,
then the query will be appended to the end of the URL instead.
%v is replaced with the client user agent ID.
In order to add custom search engines to the list on your own, you should have some
basic understanding of HTML and how HTTP GET works. The topics themselves are
outside the scope of this manual. The alternative would be to check whether your
favorite search engine serves .btsearch files that μTorrent can use to automatically
add the search engine to the list.
Blank lines are displayed as separators in the search engine menu.
If you leave the entire field blank, the search widgets in the toolbar will be hidden from
view.
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μTorrent User Manual > Appendix A: The μTorrent Interface > Preferences > Advanced
Disk Cache
The disk cache is used to keep frequently accessed data in memory to reduce the
number of reads and writes to the hard drive. μTorrent normally manages the cache
automatically, but you may change its behavior by modifying these settings. Because of the
nature of the settings, caution should be exercised when modifying the settings, as bad
settings may be detrimental to performance. Disk cache behavior can be viewed in the
Speed tab.
Disk Cache
Override automatic cache size and specify the size manually allows you to set a
new maximum memory usage for the disk cache. Normally, μTorrent automatically
adjusts the cache size based on your current download speed. This value is interpreted
in MiB, so please enter it as such. Any value below 1 will be ignored, and 1 will be used
instead.
Reduce memory usage when cache is not needed flushes unused parts of the disk
cache when μTorrent is not transferring data.
Advanced Cache Settings
Enable caching of disk writes allows μTorrent to use the disk cache to store data in
memory before writing it to disk. This option has the effect of decreasing the frequency
of writes to disk.
Write out untouched blocks every 2 minutes makes μTorrent write to disk the
16 KiB blocks of data in memory that haven't been touched for 2 minutes or longer
and don't fill up a piece. This option has the effect of decreasing μTorrent's memory
usage while increasing the frequency of writes to disk.
Write out finished pieces immediately makes μTorrent write a piece to disk
once it is completed in memory. This option has the effect of decreasing μTorrent's
memory usage while increasing the frequency of writes to disk.
Enable caching of disk reads allows μTorrent to use the disk cache to store
frequently read data into memory from disk. This option has the effect of decreasing the
frequency of reads from disk.
Turn off caching if the upload speed is slow disables the read caching if
uploading is below 40 KiB/s. This option has the effect of decreasing μTorrent's
memory usage while increasing the frequency of reads from disk.
Remove old blocks from the cache removes chunks of read cache data from
memory if they haven't been accessed for 10 minutes in order to make room for
other data. This option has the effect of decreasing μTorrent's memory usage while
increasing the frequency of reads from disk.
Increase automatic cache size when cache thrashing increases the disk cache
size when reading from disk increases (most often due to increased upload
speeds). If you override the automatic cache size, this option is not needed.
Disable Windows Caching of disk writes disables Windows' native caching of writes
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to disk. This option helps when the Windows disk cache sometimes causes an
extremely large amount of physical system memory to seemingly "disappear" while
μTorrent is downloading quickly (because it is trying to cache μTorrent's increased disk
writing rate). When memory becomes fully used, page swapping occurs, which can
cause slowdowns. On the other hand, enabling this option may cause increased disk
seeks, which may decrease transfer rates when the μTorrent disk cache is full.
Disable Windows Caching of disk reads disables Windows' native caching of reads
from disk. This option helps when the Windows disk cache sometimes causes an
extremely large amount of physical system memory to seemingly "disappear" while
μTorrent is uploading quickly (because it is trying to cache μTorrent's increased disk
reading rate). When memory becomes fully used, page swapping occurs, which can
cause slowdowns. On the other hand, enabling this option may cause increased disk
seeks, which may decrease transfer rates when the μTorrent disk cache is full.
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μTorrent User Manual > Appendix A: The μTorrent Interface
RSS Downloader
RSS web feeds deliver information and content in such a way that allows one to track
updates using an aggregator. μTorrent can aggregate and parse an RSS feed, allowing one
to automatically download newly released .torrent files that match a specified filter. Such
feeds must give direct links to the .torrent files in at least one of either the <guid>, <link>,
or <enclosure> tags in order to be used correctly. To access the RSS Downloader, select
"Options" then "RSS..." in the main menus, or press Ctrl + R on the keyboard.
Favorites
History
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μTorrent User Manual > Appendix A: The μTorrent Interface > RSS Downloader
Favorites
T h e Favorites tab manages filters that allow μTorrent to automatically download
specific torrents from a RSS feed.
The listbox displays all filters that μTorrent will use when parsing the RSS feeds. If the
checkbox next to a filter is checked, it will be used by μTorrent to pick out a torrent to
download. Otherwise, the filter is ignored by μTorrent. Filters can be sorted using dragand-
drop .
The Add button allows you to enter a new filter for μTorrent to use when parsing RSS
feeds. After you press "Add", you must name the filter immediately. You can edit this
name later by selecting the filter from the listbox and pressing F2 on your keyboard. An
alternative is to slow double-click the filter and rename it directly.
The Delete button allows you to delete the filter that is currently selected.
The ? (question mark) button tests displays the last time the selected filter matched a
torrent. It also displays the last 4 torrents matched (if any) and any currently-matching
torrents from all applicable feeds. This can be used to double-check your filter.
The Filter field allows you to tell μTorrent what you want to match. Wildcards can be
used to generalize the filter. Note that you cannot specify the season or episode number
in this filter if it is decoded by μTorrent. You must use the episode number box, or
enable "Filter matches original name instead of decoded name ". This field is case
insensitive.
The Not field allows you to specify text that, if matched by a torrent, will cause μTorrent
to ignore it. Wildcards can be used to generalize the filter. Note that you cannot specify
the season or episode number in this filter if it is decoded by μTorrent. You must use the
episode number box, or enable "Filter matches original name instead of decoded
name". This field is case insensitive.
T he Save in field allows you to specify where you want μTorrent to download the
torrent contents to. If this field is specified, μTorrent will automatically start the torrent
job. Note that if you already have a default download location set, you do not have to
set a directory here.
The Feed dropdown menu allows you to select a particular feed that you want the filter
to apply to. If you want μTorrent to apply this filter to every feed, leave this dropdown
menu as (All).
The Quality menu allows you to select the quality of the torrents, if it is a video. If what
you want to filter is not a video, leave this option as ALL. Note that setting this option is
not an absolute necessity, even if you are trying to download a video.
The Episode Number field allows you to specify specific episodes to download. This
field supports ranges, so if you want to download episodes 1 through 26 of season 3 of
some series, you input 3x1-26 into this field. If you want to specify the ending season
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in addition to the starting season, you can enter something like 3x1-4x15 into the field.
If you want to specify the beginning of a range, but not the end (you would like μTorrent
to continue every subsequent episode, including in later seasons), something like 3x1-
would suffice. Notice the - (hyphen) after the 1. If you prefer, S3E1 can also be used to
specify episodes instead of the above-shown 3x1.
Filter matches original name instead of decoded name forces μTorrent to apply
the filter on the torrent name itself. Normally, μTorrent parses the torrent name and
applies the filter on the decoded name, which excludes certain things like quality and
episode number.
Don't start downloads automatically tells μTorrent to add torrent jobs matching the
favorite in stopped mode instead of starting them automatically.
Give download highest priority places a matching torrent at the top of the download
queue (#1). Because this is not a forced start, if you pass your maximum number of
active torrent jobs after this torrent job gets started, the started torrent closest to the end
of the queue will be stopped and will have to wait on the queue.
Smart ep. filter causes μTorrent to download the first version of each new episode that
matches your filter. Note that you should not enable this option if the episode number is
not parseable (when the Episode column is empty).
The Minimum interval dropdown menu sets the minimum interval between each time
the filter is matched. For example, if set to 2 days, μTorrent will not attempt to match
the filter again until at least 2 days have passed.
(match always) tells μTorrent to check the filter for matches every time it checks
the RSS feeds.
(match only once) tells μTorrent to use the filter only once. After a torrent job is
added to the torrent jobs list by the filter, μTorrent won't check the filter for any more
matches.
The Reset button forces μTorrent to forget when it last matched the filter.
The Label for new torrents combobox tells μTorrent to set any torrent that matches
this filter to the specified label.
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μTorrent User Manual > Appendix A: The μTorrent Interface > RSS Downloader
History
T h e History tab displays the last 500 torrents matched. Entries can be manually
deleted by use of the Delete button at the bottom, or by pressing Delete on the keyboard.
Note that left-click ing on a column will sort the items in the list by that column, alternating
between ascending and descending sort for each additional click. You can select what
columns you wish to see by right-click ing the column headers. If you wish to reset all
changes you've made to the columns, you can select "Reset" in that context menu. The
following is a description of each column:
Download Date is the date that the torrent job was matched.
Feed is the feed from which the added torrent job was matched.
Full Name is the unparsed name of the torrent (before any information is extracted or
decoded).
URL displays the URL that the source .torrent file is located at.
Context Menu
Delete will delete the selected entries from the RSS history.
Open URL in Browser will open the linked URL(s) in your default web browser.
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Miscellaneous
There are several other elements in the μTorrent interface that should be explained, but
do not fit into the previous sections of the manual.
Add New Torrent
Add/Edit RSS Feed
Create New Torrent
Torrent Properties
General
Advanced
Tray Icon
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Add New Torrent
The Add New Torrent dialog allows you to change several options for the torrent job
before it is added to your torrent jobs list. This dialog is displayed only if the relevant option
is enabled in the Preferences. Files selected/deselected in this dialog can be
deselected/reselected in the Files tab's context menu.
Save As
The combobox allows you to specify the location you wish to download the torrent
contents. Previously used locations are saved in the combobox and can be used again.
The Skip hash check checkbox tells μTorrent to not bother checking existing data for
corruption. It is strongly recommended that you do not use this option, as corruption can
sometimes happen unknowingly, outside of one's own control. Sharing corrupt pieces is
detrimental to the swarm.
The Start torrent checkbox tells μTorrent to start the torrent job after it is added to the
torrent jobs list. If unchecked, the torrent job will be added in Stopped mode.
The Label combobox allows you to set a label for the torrent job being added. Existing
labels are displayed in the combobox, but you are free to create a new label if you wish.
The Add to top of queue checkbox will give the torrent job a queue number of 1. If
combined with the Start torrent option, this will start the torrent job immediately.
Torrent Contents
Name displays the name of the torrent job, taken from the .torrent file.
Comment shows the comment placed on the .torrent file job by its creator.
Size displays the total amount of space required for the files being downloaded.
Selective file downloading is taken into account, so only the data you select to be
downloaded will be counted. When files are skipped, the total size of the torrent
contents (not taking selective file downloading into account) is displayed next to the
selected size. The last number in the parentheses displays the amount of space
available in the disk that the torrent contents are being downloaded to.
Date shows the day and time at which the .torrent file was created.
The Select All button will mark all files to be downloaded.
The Select None button will mark all files to be skipped.
The Files list-view is a list of all files in the .torrent file, and allows you to select which
files you want to download. The following is a description of each column:
Name column displays the filename. A checkmark to the left of the filename means
the file will be downloaded, while an empty checkbox means the file will not be
downloaded. Pressing Space on the keyboard toggles this for the selected file(s).
Path is the location that the file will be downloaded to on disk. If this column is
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blank, then the file will be downloaded into the torrent job's Save As location. If this
column displays a partial path (not a full path that includes a drive root), then that is
the subdirectory in the Save As directory that the file will be saved to.
Size column displays the size of the file.
right-click ing on the list will display the following items in a context menu:
Select will mark the selected file(s) to be downloaded.
Deselect will mark the selected file(s) to be skipped.
Se lect All will mark all files to be downloaded.
Deselect All will mark all files to be skipped.
The Advanced... button brings up the Torrent Properties dialog.
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Add/Edit RSS Feed
The Add/Edit RSS Feed dialog allows you to enter a new feed for μTorrent to monitor, or
edit an existing feed. Feeds must contain direct links to .torrent files in at least one of either
the <guid>, <link>, or <enclosure> tags in order to be used correctly.
Feed
The Feed URL field specifies the URL that the RSS feed is located at. Depending on
the method used by the website for authenticating users (if any), the URL may have to
be entered in a specific format.
The Custom Alias field allows you to give a custom name to the feed. If unchecked,
μTorrent will attempt to automatically detect the feed name based on the title specified
in the feed itself.
Subscription
Do not automatically download items tells μTorrent not to automatically create a
simple favorite for the RSS feed to download any torrent in the feed.
Automatically download items published in feed tells μTorrent to create a simple
favorite for the RSS feed that matches and downloads any item in the feed (uses * as
the filter).
Use smart episode filter applies the smart episode filter to the simple favorite.
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μTorrent User Manual > Appendix A: The μTorrent Interface > Miscellaneous
Create New Torrent
So you've finished setting everything up, downloaded some torrents, and are now
wondering how you can share your own files with other people? You'll find that the entire
process is very simple in μTorrent, and only consists of a few steps, and you're on your way
to contributing back to the community. Despite its outward appearance, the .torrent file
creation facility's simplicity does not mean it is lacking in functionality, and in most cases, it is
all people need in a .torrent file creation utility. The only required step in creating a .torrent
file is to select a valid source, though you should configure the rest of the settings
appropriately if needed.
After you create the .torrent file, you need to find a way to share it with whoever you
want. If you're only targeting a few people, it might be easier to send the file to them directly.
If you're targeting the general public, you should upload it to a website that allows .torrent file
uploads. Public .torrent index sites often allow for this. The .torrent file can also be uploaded
to private trackers, but you should be aware that some private trackers require that you
redownload the .torrent file from their tracker in order for it to work.
Select Source
The combobox displays the path of the file or directory that will be made into a .torrent
file. You can edit this path manually if you know the file or directory's location.
Previously used locations are saved in the combobox and can be used again.
The Add file button lets you select a specific file and automatically places its path in the
combobox above. Selecting a single file disables the "Skip Files" feature.
The Add directory button lets you select a specific directory and automatically places
its path in the combobox above. Only by using this button can you make use of the
"Skip Files" feature.
The Skip Files field allows you to skip files using specific filters. This field only gets
activated if you use the "Add directory" button. Wildcards can be used to specify
multiple files.
Torrent Properties
The Trackers edit control lists all of the trackers the .torrent file will use. Only HTTP,
HTTPS, and UDP trackers are supported. Trackers are separated by a newline. Those
that are not separated by blank lines will be used as backup trackers for adjacently
listed trackers. Backup trackers will not be used unless the previously listed tracker
fails. Note that having μTorrent use multiple trackers simultaneously does not
necessarily improve the .torrent itself, so don't be discouraged from selecting some
trackers to be backup trackers. If you're not sure what tracker to use, try checking your
favorite .torrent tracker for the tracker URL to use when creating new .torrents for it.
Alternatively, you can use the embedded tracker in μTorrent here. This edit control can
be left blank if you wish to use only DHT to track the .torrent file, just be sure that you
do not make the .torrent file private.
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The Web Seeds edit control lists all the web seeds the .torrent file will use. Only HTTP,
HTTPS, and FTP web seeds are supported. Web seeds are separated by a newline.
For single-file torrent contents, the target file can be linked to directly (even if the file
name differs from the name described in the .torrent file). This isn't necessary, though;
for both single and multiple file torrent contents, the directory containing the desired files
can be listed, and clients that support web seeds should automatically append the path
and filenames described in the .torrent file onto the listed directory to obtain the full URL
to the desired files.
The Comment field allows you to place whatever comment you want in the .torrent file.
T he Piece Size dropdown menu allows you to select the size of each piece in the
.torrent file. Selecting too small a piece size for large source files creates a needlessly
large .torrent file and extreme protocol communication overhead, while using too large a
piece size means more wasted bandwidth for people who often experience hashfails,
since they'd have to redownload entire pieces over for each hashfail that occurs. Unless
you are absolutely sure you understand what the option is used for, and the
consequences that come with using it, it is recommended that you let μTorrent
automatically detect the piece size for you.
Other
Start seeding tells μTorrent to automatically add the torrent job to the torrent jobs list
and start it. Note that if you plan on uploading the .torrent file to a private tracker, you
might have to redownload the file from their tracker before it works, so this option might
be useless to you if that is the case.
Preserve file order tells μTorrent to create the .torrent file with files and directories
sorted by name, in ascending order. By default, μTorrent sorts files in the .torrent file by
size, in descending order.
Private torrent tells μTorrent to set the 'private' flag in the .torrent file, which tells
clients that support this flag to not announce this torrent job over DHT, and disables
LPD and PEX as well. Accordingly, if you plan on leaving the Trackers edit control
blank in order to make the .torrent file use DHT, you should not enable this option.
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Torrent Properties
In some cases, you might want a torrent job to behave differently from the default
settings, maybe in terms of speed, or maybe how it obtains its peers. With the Torrent
Properties dialog, you can edit some of these settings.
General
Advanced
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Properties
General
Trackers
The edit control lists all the trackers the torrent job(s) will use, and is interpreted
identically to how the "Create New Torrent " dialog's "Trackers" edit control is
interpreted. If a private torrent job's trackers list is modified, all existing peer connections
for that torrent job will be dropped.
Bandwidth Settings
T he Maximum upload rate field will limit the maximum rate at which μTorrent will
upload for the selected torrent job(s). Setting the value to 0 is equivalent to setting it to
unlimited. Setting the value to anywhere between 1 and 3 will limit the download speed
for the torrent job to 12 times the set upload speed, and you will see a "[Limited]"
message in the Transfer tab. This value is interpreted in KiB/s, so please enter it as
such. This limit will not override the global maximum upload rate.
The Maximum download rate field will limit the maximum rate at which μTorrent will
download for the selected torrent job(s). Setting the value to 0 is equivalent to setting it
to unlimited. This value is interpreted in KiB/s, so please enter it as such. This limit will
not override the global maximum download rate.
The Number of upload slots field defines the maximum number of peers that μTorrent
will upload to at any given moment for the selected torrent job(s). This value will
override the default value. Leaving this blank tells μTorrent to use the default settings.
Seeding Goal
Override default settings tells μTorrent to override the default queueing settings for
the selected torrent job(s).
T he Minimum ratio field behaves identically to the respective option in the default
queueing preferences, but affects only the torrent job(s) whose properties are being
edited.
The Minimum seeding time field menu behaves identically to the respective option in
the default queueing preferences, but affects only the torrent job(s) whose properties
are being edited.
Other Settings
Initial Seeding enables a more bandwidth efficient method of seeding the torrent
job(s). This should be used only if you are the sole seeder in the swarm, and if there
are at least 2 peers connected. Generally, this option should not be used by people with
high upload speeds.
Enable DHT enables announcing the torrent over DHT. This option is automatically
disabled if DHT is turned off, or if the selected .torrent file has the 'private' flag set.
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Peer Exchange enables trading of peer lists with other peers that support μTorrent's
implementation of Peer Exchange. This option is disabled if the selected .torrent file has
the 'private' flag set.
Local Peer Discovery enables discovery of local peers via multicast. This option is
disabled if the selected .torrent file has the 'private' flag set.
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Properties
Advanced
Web Seeds
The edit control lists all the web seeds the selected torrent job(s) will use, and is
interpreted identically to how the "Create New Torrent " dialog's "Web Seeds" edit
control is interpreted.
Run Program
The given field allows you to run a program after the selected torrent job(s) finish
downloading. There are several variables you should be aware of if you wish to use this
feature to manipulate the files you downloaded:
%F is the placeholder for the name of the file in the torrent job. This variable
assumes the selected torrent job does not contain multiple files. If this is not the
case, it will be replaced with an empty string (nothing).
%D is equivalent to the path shown in the Save As field, assuming the torrent job
contains multiple files. If it is a single-file torrent job, the path to the directory
containing the file is returned.
%N is the same as what's listed under the Name column for the torrent job.
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Tray Icon
The μTorrent tray icon gives you a brief overview of your torrent jobs. Placing the
mouse cursor over the tray icon will show a tooltip where you can view the total number of
torrent jobs you have currently downloading, the total amount queued for download, the total
amount currently seeding, and the total amount queued for seeding. Also, the total upload
and download speeds are displayed in the tooltip. Left-click ing on the tray icon will toggle
the visiblity of the main window, depending your system tray settings. Right-click ing the tray
icon will display a context menu, through which you can make quick settings changes to
μTorrent:
Hide/Show μTorrent toggles the display of the μTorrent main window.
Pause all torrents sets all downloading or seeding torrent jobs to paused mode.
Resume all torrents will resume the transferring of paused torrent jobs.
Download Limit allows you to control the global maximum download limit. The values
displayed depend on the speed popup list settings in the Preferences.
Upload Limit allows you to control the global maximum upload limit. The values
displayed depend on the speed popup list settings in the Preferences.
Enable Scheduler allows you to enable or disable the scheduler from the without
having to open the Preferences.
μTorrent Webpage opens the μTorrent webpage in your default web browser.
μTorrent Forums opens the μTorrent forums in your default web browser.
Exit does just that -- it exits μTorrent. Note that exiting μTorrent automatically sends a
stop signal to trackers, so you do not have to stop all torrent jobs before exiting. Torrent
jobs that are not stopped will automatically be started when μTorrent is next opened.
Even after exiting, the μTorrent process might continue to run for a while longer. This
happens because μTorrent is trying to finish transferring pieces and write remaining
pieces to disk from memory. The process should disappear after a few seconds.
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μTorrent User Manual
Appendix B: Advanced Information
This appendix provides advanced information pertaining to operation of μTorrent.
Settings Directory
URL Formatting
Wildcards
Command Line Options
Keyboard Shortcuts
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Settings Directory
Although μTorrent is mostly self-contained, there has to be a location where it can store
its settings for later use after the first run. Because μTorrent does not use the Windows
Registry, it has to store its configuration in files on separate files on the disk. By default,
those files are located at %AppData%\uTorrent, which can be easily accessed by
pressing visiting "Start" > "Run" (or by pressing Windows + R on the keyboard), typing it into
the "Open" field, and pressing "OK." Typically, you'll find several .dat files in the settings
directory:
dht.dat contains information regarding DHT that μTorrent uses when connecting to the
DHT network.
resume.dat contains information regarding currently loaded torrent jobs.
rss.dat stores all RSS-related settings, and also holds the history of previously
downloaded torrent jobs. This file only gets created if you use the RSS Downloader.
settings.dat contains most of the settings in μTorrent, and also contains the information
listed in the statistics dialog.
Note that it is normal to find .dat.old and .dat.*.bad files in the same directory.
The former file type denotes good backup files for the case that the corresponding .dat file
becomes corrupted. The latter file type denotes backups of corrupted files, which may be
sent to the developer for analysis if necessary.
In addition to .dat, .dat.old, and .dat.*.bad files, μTorrent stores loaded .torrent
files in its settings directory unless a storage location is specified. These files need to be
stored in order for μTorrent to work properly, so do not delete them unless you are absolutely
sure μTorrent no longer has the associated torrent job loaded any longer. If you want
μTorrent to delete the stored .torrent files automatically upon removal of the torrent job, see
the description of the Remove button in the toolbar.
Encapsulated "Installation"
While %AppData%\uTorrent is the default directory for storing the settings, μTorrent
actually searches the directory that the executable file is located in first before looking in
%AppData%\uTorrent. As such, so long as the directory that the executable is located in
contains a settings.dat file (even a blank one), μTorrent will look no further, and use only
the files located in its current directory instead. With this behavior, it is possible to create
encapsulated μTorrent "installations" for use on portable flash drives, or just to have an
isolated copy for any other reason.
If you don't already have an encapsulated install, you can manually move the contents
o f %AppData%\uTorrent into the same directory as the μTorrent executable to create
such an install.
External Files
Besides the default .dat files, μTorrent can make use of several other files external
from the executable. Such files may modify several subtle behaviors in μTorrent, or allow you
to customize the graphical look and feel of μTorrent. What all external files have in common
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is the location at which they should be placed -- the settings directory.
Extended Functionality
ipfilter.dat is a simple text file that specifies IP ranges to block. Only blocks are
supported; any allows will be ignored. The format is as follows:
IPv4: xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx - yyy.yyy.yyy.yyy for each line, where each x
and each y corresponds to arbitrary decimal values between 0 and 9.
IPv6: [xxxx:xxxx:xxxx:xxxx:xxxx:xxxx:xxxx:xxxx] -
[yyyy:yyyy:yyyy:yyyy:yyyy:yyyy:yyyy:yyyy] for each line, where each
x and each y corresponds to arbitrary hexadecimal values between 0 and F. Zerogrouped
IPv6 addresses are accepted.
Single IPs can be specified on a line without having to write it in IP range notation. This
file can be reloaded via the context menu in the Peers tab. If you wish to make use of
this file, ipfilter.enable should be enabled. Note that only peer connections are blocked
by ipfilter.dat; tracker connections (including DHT) are not blocked, even if their IPs fall
within any ranges specified in ipfilter.dat.
utorrent.chm is the user manual. The manual can be accessed via the help entry in
the Help menu, or by pressing F1 on the keyboard.
utorrent.lng is the file that contains all available translations for μTorrent at the time of
download. When first added to the settings directory, μTorrent will automatically switch
to the system language if a translation is available. The language can be changed in
the Preferences.
webui.zip is a zip file containing data μTorrent will serve when the Web UI is enabled
and you access http://IP:port/gui/ in a web browser, where IP is your
computer's IP address, and port is the port μTorrent is listening on. Using Web UI, you
can control μTorrent from any other computer with an Internet connection and a
compatible browser installed.
Interface Customization
flags.conf & flags.bmp are files used to replace the internal μTorrent assignment of
flags to a peer's resolved IP's host domain. flags.conf is a text file that specifies the
flag order, and maps host domains to a country, whose flag is then obtained from
flags.bmp. flags.conf only works on hosts with a TLD of .net or .com, each
mapping in the format host domain|country code, where the country code is the
country's IANA-assigned two-letter code. flags.bmp is a Windows bitmap that
contains adjacently-conjoined bitmaps of dimensions 16x16 each (without any space in
between), each 16x16 square being a flag. A custom flags.conf and flags.bmp is
maintained as a community project in the μTorrent forums, compiled by eng. Pressing
Ctrl + Shift + R on your keyboard tells μTorrent to (re)load flags.conf. If
peer.resolve_country is enabled, these files will be ignored.
main.ico is the icon that will be displayed in the icon at the top-left of the μTorrent
window.
maindoc.ico is the icon that will be used as a file type icon for .torrent files upon
association. This is mainly used for older versions of Windows, which might have
problems generating file type icons automatically for .torrent files upon association.
tray.ico is the icon that will be displayed in the system tray if the relevant system tray
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settings are enabled.
tabs.bmp is a Windows bitmap of dimensions 224x16, consisting of 14 adjacentlyconjoined
bitmaps of dimensions 16x16 each (without any space in between), that
μTorrent uses when icons are displayed on detailed info pane tabs. Icons are arranged
in the following order:
General
Trackers
Peers
Pieces
Files
Speed
Logger
General (inactive)
Trackers (inactive)
Peers (inactive)
Pieces (inactive)
Files (inactive)
Speed (inactive)
Logger (inactive)
toolbar.bmp is a Windows bitmap of dimensions 288x24, consisting of 12 adjacentlyconjoined
bitmaps of dimensions 24x24 each (without any space in between), that
μTorrent uses for the images in the μTorrent toolbar. Icons are arranged in the following
order: Add Torrent
Add Torrent from URL
Create New Torrent
Remove
Start
Pause
Stop
Move Up Queue
Move Down Queue
Search
Add RSS Feed
Preferences
tstatus.bmp is a Windows bitmap of dimensions 304x16, consisting of 19 adjacentlyconjoined
bitmaps of dimensions 16x16 each (without any space in between), that
μTorrent uses for the images in torrent job status icons and the category list. Icons are
arranged in the following order:
Downloading
Seeding
Stopped
Paused
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Downloading (tracker error)
Seeding (tracker error)
Critical Error
Stopped and Finished
Queued Download
Queued Seed
Active (category icon)
All (category icon)
Inactive (category icon)
RSS Feed (icon 1)
RSS Feed (icon 2)
RSS Feed (icon 3)
RSS Feed (invalid feed)
RSS Item (new release, within 24 hours)
RSS Item (downloaded)
Multiple RSS Feed icons are needed because μTorrent treats the icons as separate
frames in an animation to indicate that there is RSS activity.
External files that change the μTorrent interface are numerous, but thankfully, there is a
central repository where you can find many of them. Check out the μTorrent Skins Page for
your skinning needs! If you ever decide to create your own interface files, feel free to submit
them on that page, and inform us about it in the forums!
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μTorrent User Manual > Appendix B: Advanced Information
URL Formatting
In most cases, when entering a URL into μTorrent, the usual http://domain/path
works just fine, but in certain special cases where the site is protected by some form of
authentication, modifications will have to be made to the URL in order for μTorrent to be able
to get to the contents.
Sites that require HTTP authentication will have to be entered as such:
http://username:password@domain/path
Sites that require cookies must be entered as such:
http://domain/path:COOKIE:uid=U;pass=P
Note that U and P must be obtained from the cookie file for the site. Also, realize that
some sites do not use uid and/or pass as the corresponding variables, and as such, you
must use the exact variable name and extra variables they do specify. For example, if the
site's cookies specify a, b, and c, with values A, B, and C respectively, you should enter the
URL as such: http://domain/path:COOKIE:a=A;b=B;c=C
Internet Explorer users can find their cookies in %UserProfile%\Cookies
Firefox users can find their cookies in "Tools" > "Options" > "Privacy" > "Cookies" >
"Show Cookies"
Opera users can find their cookies in "Tools" > "Preferences" > "Advanced" > "Cookies"
> "Manage cookies..."
Users of other web browsers will have to consult their respective documentation
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μTorrent User Manual > Appendix B: Advanced Information
Wildcards
In several places in μTorrent, wildcards can be used in place of normal characters in
order to specify a pattern of characters that μTorrent should use to match whatever it needs.
The following may be used in those situations:
* (asterisk) to match any text of any length
? (question mark) to match any single character
| (vertical pipe) is an "or" conditional
Example: *File?A*|File?B* matches any file that contains File?A anywhere in
the filename (where ? is any single character, such as a space or an underscore), or any file
that begins with File?B in its filename (again, where ? is any single character).
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μTorrent User Manual > Appendix B: Advanced Information
Command Line Options
There are several command line options you can use with μTorrent to make it behave
differently than normal. Do note that these options can only be used when μTorrent is
opened through a shortcut, by command line, or some other means that allows command line
options to be used. At any time, a space should be appended along with the wanted option at
the end of the target path for the shortcut, outside of any quotation marks that may exist in
the target path.
/ANSI starts μTorrent without Unicode support, in case anyone ever has trouble with
Unicode.
/AUTOUPDATE "FILE PATH" [/NORUN] replaces the file located at FILE PATH with
the currently-running executable and starts the executable from the specified path. If
/NORUN is used in conjunction with this option, then μTorrent won't run the executable
after the replacement occurs.
/BIGDUMP tells μTorrent to create a large memory dump instead of the minidumps it
normally creates when it crashes. This can be useful for the developer to debug
problems where minidumps provide insufficient information.
/BRINGTOFRONT forces the μTorrent window to be shown, regardless of whether it
was previously minimized on exit, or whether /HIDE or /MINIMIZED were also used as
command line options.
/DIRECTORY "SAVE PATH" ".TORRENT FILE TO OPEN" allows you to open a
.torrent file and specify where you'd like to save the torrent contents to from the
command line (without any GUI interaction), where "SAVE PATH" is the path to the
location you'd like to save the torrent contents, and ".TORRENT FILE TO OPEN" is
the location of the .torrent file. Note that the save path must not contain a trailing
backslash, otherwise μTorrent will fail to load the .torrent file. Only local .torrent files
may be used.
/HIDE starts μTorrent in boss-key mode, meaning the tray icon and the entire interface
is hidden until the boss-key is pressed. Note that you should set up a boss-key before
actually starting μTorrent with this switch, otherwise you might find yourself having a
difficult time seeing and using μTorrent.
/LAUNCHBUNDLEDURL "URL" opens URL in your default web browser.
/LOGFILE "SAVE PATH" will perform the initial file selection for the log to file feature
automatically on startup.
/MINIMIZED will start μTorrent minimized, and if minimize to tray is enabled, will start
μTorrent minimized to tray.
/NOINSTALL will tell μTorrent to bypass the installation dialog prompt.
/PERFORMINSTALL FLAGS is a bitfield that tells μTorrent what shortcuts to create,
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depending on the following possible values for FLAGS:
2 tells μTorrent to create a shortcut in the Start menu
4 tells μTorrent to create a shortcut on the Desktop
8 tells μTorrent to create a shortcut in the Quick Launch toolbar
Because the flags are interpreted as a bitfield, values can be added together to perform
each of the combined actions.
/RECOVER will allow you to open up a second instance of μTorrent instead of its
normal behavior where it simply activates the currently-running instance. In order to
prevent possible problems, it is recommended that you create an encapsulated copy of
μTorrent before opening it as a second instance, then create a shortcut for the
encapsulated copy of the executable with the /RECOVER option. Remember that two
applications cannot listen on the same port, so if you intend on having the second
instance actually be a properly-working instance, you should set the second instance to
listen on a different port, and forward that port as well.
/UNINSTALL [/S] will uninstall μTorrent after user confirmation, deleting even the
settings directory. If the install is broken enough that this switch doesn't work, running
this option in conjunction with the /S option should force an uninstall without asking for
confirmation.
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μTorrent User Manual > Appendix B: Advanced Information
Keyboard Shortcuts
Here is a consolidated list of the keyboard shortcuts in μTorrent:
COMMAND SHORTCUT
Add Torrent Ctrl + O
Add Torrent (no default save) Ctrl + D
Add Torrent from URL Ctrl + U
Create New Torrent Ctrl + N
Torrent Job Manipulation
Move Down Queue Ctrl + Alt + Down
Move Up Queue Ctrl + Alt + Up
Remove Delete
Remove and delete Data Shift + Delete
Rename F2
Dialogs
Preferences Ctrl + P
RSS Downloader Ctrl + R
Setup Guide Ctrl + G
Interface Layout
Show Category List F7
Show Detailed Info F5
Show Status Bar F6
Show Toolbar F4
RSS Downloader
Remove RSS History Entry Delete
Remove RSS Favorite Delete
Rename RSS Favorite F2
Miscellaneous
μTorrent Help F1
Copy Selected Logger Tab Text Ctrl + C
Copy Statistics Dialog Text Ctrl + C
Reload flags.bmp / flags.conf Ctrl + Shift + R
Remove Tracker (from Trackers list) Delete
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μTorrent User Manual
FAQ: Frequently Asked Questions
This section of the manual attempts to answer questions many people might ask about
μTorrent.
Installation
Features
Usage
Network
Troubleshooting
Error Messages
Incompatibilities
Miscellaneous
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μTorrent User Manual > FAQ: Frequently Asked Questions
Installation
Does μTorrent install itself?
μTorrent will install itself only if the user chooses to install it when prompted to the first
time it is run. Installation is not mandatory, and μTorrent can still run properly without the
need to be installed.
How do I backup my settings?
Simply make a copy of your settings directory.
How do I make μTorrent self-contained in one directory?
Create an encapsulated installation.
How do I reset the settings back to the defaults?
Simply delete settings.dat and settings.dat.old from your settings directory
while μTorrent is not running.
How do I share my torrents between multiple users?
Create an encapsulated installation of μTorrent and make sure you set the directory and
all of its contents to be readable and writable by other users.
How do I uninstall μTorrent?
If you allowed μTorrent to create an uninstall entry in the Windows Registry during the
initial installation dialog, then all you need to do is uninstall it from the "Add or Remove
Programs" applet in the Control Panel. Otherwise, you can simply delete the μTorrent
executable file from wherever it is stored. If you are concerned about the settings being left
behind on your computer, delete your entire settings directory as well.
How do I use μTorrent on a USB key or some other removable drive?
Create an encapsulated installation of μTorrent on the target device.
Where are the settings and .torrent files stored?
The files are stored in your settings directory.
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μTorrent User Manual > FAQ: Frequently Asked Questions
Features
Does μTorrent have an endgame mode?
Yes, μTorrent automatically enters endgame mode when the pieces remaining are all
being actively downloaded. During endgame mode, μTorrent requests each remaining piece
from multiple peers instead of requesting each piece from a single peer. This mode helps
make getting the last pieces of the torrent contents take much less time than it normally
would.
Does μTorrent have Unicode support?
Yes, μTorrent supports Unicode.
Does μTorrent support HTTPS or UDP trackers?
Yes, μTorrent supports HTTPS (SSL) for both trackers and RSS feeds. UDP trackers
are supported as well.
Does μTorrent support magnet URIs?
Yes, μTorrent can use and create magnet URIs compatible with the Azureus magnet URI
implementation. μTorrent can generate magnet URIs for any torrent job, and magnet URIs
can be opened from the Add Torrent from URL dialog. Metadata regarding the torrent
contents are obtained from other peers that support the feature.
Does μTorrent support multi-scrape?
Yes, μTorrent supports multi-scrape and uses it when bt.multiscrape is enabled. It
automatically detects trackers that do not support multi-scrape and falls back to singlescrape
mode for those trackers.
Does μTorrent support multi-tracker .torrent files?
Yes, μTorrent supports multi-tracker .torrent files. μTorrent announces to all tracker tiers
simultaneously, but only one tracker per tier. To see all the trackers in the .torernt file, simply
check the torrent job's Properties. To learn more about multi-tracker specification, check the
multitracker specifications at Depthstrike.com's wiki.
Does μTorrent support trackerless .torrent files?
Yes, μTorrent supports trackerless .torrent files. The built-in .torrent file creator can also
create trackerless .torrent files.
Does μTorrent support UNC-style paths or network drives?
Yes, μTorrent supports UNC-style paths (like \\192.168.1.2\C$\). Note that there
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may be increased disk fragmentation when saving to a network drive, since pre-allocation of
files is not possible across the network.
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μTorrent User Manual > FAQ: Frequently Asked Questions
Usage
How do I add additional columns to a list-view?
You can select what columns you wish to see in a list-view by right-click ing the column
headers. If you wish to reset all changes you've made to the columns, you can select "Reset"
in that context menu.
How do I block specific peers from connecting to me?
You can create an ipfilter.dat file and load it in μTorrent, and the specified peers will be
blocked.
How do I change the country flags shown in the Peers tab?
You can use flags.conf and flags.bmp to customize the country flags.
How do I change the icons in μTorrent?
You can change the icons by placing the respective interface customization file in the
μTorrent settings directory in order to customize the interface. A restart is required in order for
new interface icons to be loaded.
How do I change the interface language?
You can install utorrent.lng (by having μTorrent download the translation file, or by
getting a copy from the download page yourself). Afterwards, select the language you wish to
use from the general preferences.
How do I configure the disk cache?
The most important step is to understand how the disk cache options affect μTorrent.
Options that increase memory usage decrease disk access, while options that decrease
memory usage increase disk access.
How do I create my own .torrent file?
You can use the Create New Torrent feature in μTorrent to create your own .torrent file
to share with other people.
How do I enable DHT?
You can enable it from the BitTorrent settings. Although DHT is enabled, not all torrent
jobs might use it, as .torrent files with the 'private' flag set won't announce to the DHT
network. Additionally, any torrent job that does not have DHT enabled won't be announced
on DHT.
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How do I enable Initial Seeding (Super Seeding)?
You can enable it from the torrent job properties. If you are not the only seeder in the
swarm, you should not enable Initial Seeding.
How do I enable Local Peer Discovery?
Local Peer Discovery is enabled on a per torrent job basis. You can enable it from the
torrent job properties, assuming the .torrent file does not have the 'private' flag set. To
automatically enable Local Peer Discovery for any newly added torrent job, check the Enable
Local Peer Discovery option in the Preferences.
How do I enable Peer Exchange?
Peer Exchange is enabled on a per torrent job basis. You can enable it from the torrent
job properties, assuming the .torrent file does not have the 'private' flag set. To automatically
enable Peer Exchange for any newly added torrent job, check the Enable Peer Exchange
option in the Preferences.
How do I enable Protocol Encryption?
Enable Protocol Encryption in the Preferences. If your ISP is known to throttle or block
BitTorrent traffic, and you find that enabling Protocol Encryption is not helping, then you may
want to consider setting the encryption to "Forced" and disable legacy incoming connections.
How do I enable NAT Port Mapping Protocol (NAT-PMP)?
You can enable it from the connection preferences. Note that not all routers support
NAT-PMP, in which case you will have to forward your port manually.
How do I enable Universal Plug and Play (UPnP)?
You can enable it from the connection preferences. Note that not all routers support
UPnP, in which case you will have to forward your port manually.
How do I load a .torrent file from the command line?
Run the μTorrent executable with the /DIRECTORY command line option.
How do I make μTorrent allocate all the files when I start a torrent job?
Enable Pre-allocate all files in the general Preferences.
How do I make μTorrent append a !ut extension to incomplete files?
Enable Append !ut to incomplete files in the general Preferences. The option takes
effect immediately after the changes to the Preferences are saved.
How do I make μTorrent auto-load .torrent files from a specified directory?
Enable the auto-load option in the Preferences and select the directory you would like to
automatically load .torrent files from.
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How do I make μTorrent automatically ban peers after a certain number of hashfails?
bt.ban_threshold determines the number of hashfails μTorrent takes action against it. If
bt.use_ban_ratio is disabled, μTorrent will ban the peer immediately after it passes the ban
threshold. Otherwise, μTorrent will look at the ratio of good to bad pieces that the peer has
sent, and if it finds that the ratio is lower than bt.ban_ratio, it will then ban the peer. If enough
peers in the same range are banned, and bt.use_rangeblock is enabled, μTorrent will ban
the entire range, since there is a good probability that the entire range is poisoning BitTorrent
swarms.
How do I make μTorrent automatically move files when a torrent job finishes?
You can enable the Move completed downloads to option in the Preferences and specify
the directory you wish to move finished torrent jobs to. If you want to organize the selected
directory by torrent job label, enable the Append the torrents label option.
How do I make μTorrent automatically run a program after a download finishes?
In the torrent job's properties, there is a Run Program section in the advanced section.
When properly filled out, μTorrent will run the selected application immediately after the
torrent job finishes downloading.
How do I make μTorrent delete files to the Recycle Bin?
Enable the Move to trash if possible option in the Remove button's context menu in the
toolbar. Note that files larger than the Recycle Bin's capacity will be removed from the drive
immediately (bypassing the Recycle Bin entirely).
How do I make μTorrent download files from an RSS feed?
The first step is to find a RSS feed that links to .torrent files in at least one of either its
<guid>, <link>, or <enclosure> tags. After you add such a feed (making sure to provide
the authentication information if necessary), you can create a Favorites filter for the feed that
automatically downloads and loads the linked .torrent files from the feed that match the filter
you specify. Make sure you familiarize yourself with all of the filter options, as they can be
confusing. When the filter is set up properly and is enabled, μTorrent will take care of the
downloading for you.
How do I make μTorrent prioritize the first and last piece of each file?
Enable bt.prio_first_last_piece in the advanced Preferences.
How do I make μTorrent start in boss-key mode?
Run μTorrent with the /HIDE command line option.
How do I make μTorrent start minimized?
Run μTorrent with the /MINIMIZED command line option.
How do I make μTorrent stop downloading and only upload?
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To perform this on any and all torrent jobs, set the scheduler to seeding only mode
during the times you want it to upload only.
To perform this on a specific torrent job, stop the torrent job, select all of its files in the
Files tab, then select "Don't Download." μTorrent might continue to download pieces if there
are any left incomplete (you can check the Pieces tab), but afterwards, it won't request any
new pieces to download from other peers.
How do I make μTorrent stop seeding a torrent job at a specific share ratio?
Set the Limit the upload rate to option to 0. Now, whenever any torrent job reaches the
seeding goal, it will be stopped.
How do I make μTorrent use my proxy?
You can fill in the proxy information in the Connection preferences. Unless you are sure
your proxy server can handle the load, you should refrain from using the proxy server for
peer-to-peer connections.
How do I manually announce to trackers?
The Update Tracker feature in the torrent job context menu can be used to update all
trackers in the selected torrent job(s). Alternatively, specific trackers can be updated via the
Trackers tab context menu. Although an anti-hammer feature has been put in place to
prevent abuse of the feature, manual update of the tracker should still be avoided where not
absolutely necessary in order to minimize strain on trackers.
How do I move a torrent job to the top or bottom of the queue?
Hold Shift on your keyboard while pressing the Move Up Queue toolbar button to move
the selected torrent job(s) to the top of the queue. Hold Shift on your keyboard while
pressing the Move Down Queue toolbar button to move the selected torrent job(s) to the
bottom of the queue. The respective move up/down queue items from the torrent jobs list
context menu behave in the same way when Shift is held while the menu item is selected.
How do I quickly change the upload and download limits?
The global transfer rate limits can be quickly set from the status bar context menu. If
visible, the global transfer rate limits can also be quickly controlled from the system tray
context menu.
For to quickly change the transfer rate limits of specific torrent jobs, select the torrent
jobs you would like to modify, then right-click it and use the Bandwidth Allocation menu.
How do I rename a torrent job in the torrent jobs list?
A torrent job can be renamed in the list by slow double-click ing on the torrent job, or by
pressing F2 on the keyboard while the torrent job is selected. To cancel the renaming, you
should press Esc on the keyboard. To confirm the change, you should press Enter on the
keyboard, or use the mouse to click anywhere else on the torrent jobs list.
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How do I rename a torrent job's download directory?
In the Add Torrent Jobs dialog, you can edit the target directory before confirming the
save location. If you wish to rename or move an existing torrent job's current location on disk:
1. Stop the torrent job whose contents you wish to move.
2. Rename or move the torrent contents.
3. Use Set Download Location... from the torrent jobs list context menu to select the new
location.
4. If μTorrent doesn't automatically recheck the file, and you wish to confirm the integrity of
the files, force a re-check on the torrent job.
How do I run multiple instances of μTorrent simultaneously?
To run multiple instances of μTorrent, you can run each new instance with the
/RECOVER command line option. Because of the possibility of conflicts, you should perform
the following before running multiple instances:
1. Create a new folder containing an encapsulated installations of μTorrent (you should
copy the executable).
2. Create a shortcut for this copy of the executable.
3. Edit the shortcut's target by adding /RECOVER to the end of the "Target" path, outside
of any quotation marks, and separated from the executable path by a space.
4. Run the shortcut to open a new instance of μTorrent.
5. Configure this instance of μTorrent to use a different listening port (and different
alternative listening port if applicable).
6. If applicable, forward the port(s) for this instance in your router and firewall.
Because bandwidth must be split for each instance, you should probably run the Setup
Guide again for each instance, but select appropriate portions of your connection's maximum
upload rate for each instance you run.
How do I set a boss-key up?
A boss-key can be set from the privacy preferences. After setting it and confirming the
changes, μTorrent's visibility can be toggled by pressing the selected key combination.
How do I set the default torrent job Remove action?
The default Remove action can be set by right-click ing the Remove button in the
toolbar, holding Shift on the keyboard, then left-click ing one of the four possible options.
Alternatively, the default behavior can be configured by setting gui.default_del_action
appropriately.
How do I set the download location for torrent jobs added via magnet URI?
With magnet URIs, μTorrent does not have a copy of the info dictionary on hand, so it
does not know the name or the contents. Consequently, it must wait to find a source with the
dictionary, which may sometimes take a long time. Because of this, μTorrent uses the default
download location as the destination for the files (in case it happens to find the info
dictionary when the user is not available to set the download location manually). If no default
download location is set, μTorrent will use %UserProfile%\My Documents\Downloads
as the destination.
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How do I skip certain files in a torrent job?
Files can be skipped in the Files list in the Add New Torrent dialog. Alternatively, files
can be skipped via the Files tab context menu.
How do I sort by more than one column in a list-view?
You can sort by any column by left-click ing on its header. To sort on another column as
a secondary sort order, hold Shift on the keyboard while left-click ing on the column header
you wish to use as the secondary sort criterion.
How do I use the embedded tracker?
Enable bt.enable_tracker in the advanced preferences. Make sure you carefully read the
description of the option.
How do I use the scheduler to control transfer rates?
The most important step is to understand how the scheduler options affect μTorrent.
The rest is as simple as clicking on the time slot you wish to set up to the color
corresponding to the effect you want for the time slot.
How do I use the Web UI?
Enable the Web UI, and μTorrent should automatically install it for you. Afterwards, fill in
the username and password you would like to use to log into the web interface. If you wish to
use a different listening port from the normal listening port for the web interface, specify it in
the Alternative listening port field. Additionally, if you wish to allow only specific IP address to
access your web interface, fill in the restriction field accordingly.
What are labels and what can they be used for?
Labels are used as a powerful tool for torrent job organization in μTorrent. They can
make torrent job identification and sorting much easier for you.
To set a label for a torrent job, use the Label submenu in the torrent job's context menu.
A benefit of using labels is that they can also be used to organize torrent contents (not just
torrent jobs) with the Move completed downloads to option.
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μTorrent User Manual > FAQ: Frequently Asked Questions
Network
Does μTorrent work well on Windows XP SP2 or higher operating systems with an
unpatched TCPIP.sys?
Yes, by default, μTorrent will make at most 8 simultaneous connection attempts to work
within the 10 connection attempt (half-open connection) limit on these operating systems.
Patching TCPIP.sys to a higher limit may help if you are having problems with your
Internet connection, though increasing the limit may also cause some routers to freeze up
(due to the increased rate of simultaneous connection attempts). If you would still like to
patch the file, download the EventID 4226 Patcher from LvlLord.de.
Beware that in most cases, you should refrain from setting the TCPIP.sys limit to any
number greater than 50, as there are few (if any) benefits to be gained from higher numbers.
Also understand that net.max_halfopen should always be set to a number lower than the
TCPIP.sys limit set by the patcher (at most 80% of the TCPIP.sys limit only). For more
information on how (or whether) the half-open connection limit should be set, see this FAQ
entry.
Microsoft has made a habit of reverting the TCPIP.sys connection attempt limit through
Windows Update, which (for many users) occurs on a monthly basis. If you decide to patch
your TCPIP.sys file and raise the net.max_halfopen limit along with it, then remember to
repatch the file every time you perform a Windows Update (otherwise, you'll most likely run
into connection troubles).
How can I tell if a peer is an incoming or outgoing connection?
You can check the Flag column in the Peers tab for the peer.
How do I change the number of active torrents jobs or downloads allowed to run
simultaneously?
Change the queue settings. It is recommended that you not modify this setting unless
you understand very clearly what the consequences are behind changing this setting.
Starting too many torrent jobs simultaneously can be detrimental to bandwidth usage, so if
you are not certain about your changes, stick to the numbers recommended by the Setup
Guide.
How do I change the number of connections μTorrent uses?
Set the relevant options in the preferences. It is recommended that you not modify this
setting unless you understand very clearly what the consequences are behind changing this
setting. Starting too many torrent jobs simultaneously can be detrimental to bandwidth usage,
so if you are not certain about your changes, stick to the numbers recommended by the
Setup Guide.
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How do I change the port μTorrent uses?
The listening port for incoming connections can be set with the Port used for incoming
connections option in the Preferences. For outgoing conections, μTorrent uses the
ephemeral port range by default, but this can be changed by using the net.outgoing_port and
(optionally) net.outgoing_max_port options.
How do I forward ports?
Read the Port Forwarding guide.
How do I hide my IP address?
You don't. BitTorrent wasn't designed with anonymity in mind. Because it requires that
peers know each other's IP addresses to transfer with one another, spoofing or hiding your
IP address won't do you much good with regards to speed and/or connectivity.
VPN or proxy services may allow you to masquerade your IP address behind other IPs,
but because they act as middlemen, you are effectively firewalled behind such services,
which is a bad thing.
How do I make μTorrent report a different IP to the tracker? I'm behind a proxy and need
this function.
Set the IP/Hostname to report to tracker option in the Preferences.
How do I make μTorrent use a different upload speed when seeding?
Set the Alternate upload rate when not downloading option in the Preferences.
How do I make μTorrent use a specific network adapter?
Set the net.bind_ip option to the IP address of the adapter you wish to use for incoming
connections. Set the net.outgoing_ip option to the IP address of the adapter you wish to use
for outgoing connections.
What port should I use for μTorrent?
It is generally recommended that you not pick ports in the 6881-6889 range, as they are
commonly throttled by ISPs. Since no single port has inherent advantages over any other
port, you can simply let μTorrent pick a random port for you.
What should I set my half-open connection limit to?
To answer this question, a bit of background information may be required. The "halfopen"
(technically, "embryonic") connection limit controls how many connections μTorrent will
attempt to establish simultaneously at any given time. Half-open connections are just like
phone calls that haven't yet been picked up by the other end of the line. The half-open
connection limit controls the number of such "calls" you can attempt to make at any given
time, but does not limit how many fully-established connections (phone calls that are
successfully picked up from the other end) you can make in total.
An important point to note (that is commonly misunderstood and misrepresented) is the
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fact that the half-open connection limit does not affect the overall speed at which the you can
download or upload. At best, increasing the half-open limit may decrease the amount of time
it takes for μTorrent to attain decent speeds, but that only lasts for the first few minutes at
worst. After several minutes have passed, the connection limit will have already been
reached if there are enough peers anyhow, so at that point, there is no difference between a
low half-open connection limit and a high limit.
High half-open limits, on the other hand, cause connection problems for many users
because Microsoft limits the number of half-open connections able to be made globally in
certain versions of Windows (starting with Windows XP with SP2, up to Windows Vista with
SP1). It can be patched, but for little gain, as already explained previously (and Microsoft
resets the limit every so often with some Windows Update anyhow). Even if your half-open
connection count isn't limited by TCPIP.sys (either through patching, or you're using an OS
that doesn't impose such a limit), an increase in the half-open limit would fall into the exact
same limitations in efficacy as described above.
The rationale behind Microsoft's decision to limit half-open connections is that relatively
few legitimate and properly-designed applications can be expected to require many half-open
connections. On the flip side, if an application is attempting to establish a large amount of
connections in a very short period of time, it is usually a sign that the application is a piece of
malware attempting to communicate with other computers.
Why anyone would recommend that users increase their half-open limits as a general
speed tweak that everyone should apply is incomprehensible. It doesn't actually help with
speeds beyond the first few minutes at most, and comes with the detrimental effect of
potentially killing connections for many users. The only potential exception to the "you don't
need to increase your half-open connection limit" rule of thumb is if you have a connection
with a very fast upload rate (think "several megabits per second"), and have many torrent
jobs started simultaneously. In that situation, it may be beneficial to increase the half-open
connection limit in order for μTorrent to be able to communicate (within a reasonable amount
of time) with the large pool of peers and trackers associated with starting many torrent jobs
simultaneously.
In instances where raising the half-open connection limit is unavoidable or necessary,
the user should keep in mind that μTorrent's net.max_halfopen limit should never be set to a
value greater than approximately 80% of the TCPIP.sys half-open connection limit. So if the
TCPIP.sys limit is 100, the highest anyone should set μTorrent's net.max_halfopen should be
80. That doesn't mean it needs to be 80% either -- it can be less. That's just a safe limit
guideline to maintain quality of connection.
Why am I still receiving incoming connection attempts after I have already closed
μTorrent?
In BitTorrent, peers disconnect from the swarm without notifying every other peer in the
swarm because it would be inefficient to do so, and also because peers rarely have the IPs
of every other peer in the swarm (which would make it impossible to do in the first place).
Because most BitTorrent clients cache peer information, when they try to connect to a
particular peer in their cache, they may end up attempting to connect to a peer that has
already disconnected since they last received the peer's IP and port number.
This phenomenom is what you are observing when you see incoming connection
attempts after you've exited μTorrent. Depending on how many peers had a copy of your IP
and port number in their peer cache, this can take up to several weeks to subside. Having
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and port number in their peer cache, this can take up to several weeks to subside. Having
DHT enabled may magnify the effects, as there are many more peers using DHT than there
are connected to any one particular torrent swarm (so more users may have your IP and port
number by the time you disconnect). Although there is no way to prevent this from occurring,
disabling DHT may reduce the amount of time needed for this to taper off. Assuming your
network is properly protected, these connection attempts can be safely ignored.
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μTorrent User Manual > FAQ: Frequently Asked Questions
Troubleshooting
How should I get started in fixing my problems?
The first and most important action to take is to make sure you have everything in
μTorrent configured properly as prescribed by the setup guide and any associated guides
(like the port forwarding guide). As surprising as it may sound, many troubles that seem
unrelated to one another stem from a misconfiguration issue. Additionally, make sure you are
using the latest version of μTorrent available from the download page, since bugs get fixed
regularly from version to version (and the support staff does not provide support for older
versions). If this initial step doesn't help, try looking through these troubleshooting FAQs to
see if the problem has been addressed.
Why are my torrent jobs missing?
First, make sure you aren't looking at an improperly-configured list-view, and make sure
you've selected an appropriate category in the category list.
Assuming the torrent jobs list is truly empty, then the problem is caused by an improper
shutdown of μTorrent, either due to a crash or a forced exit. The first thing you will need to
do is reopen all of the .torrent files in the settings directory (or the .torrent file storage
location). Afterwards, you should try enabling bt.graceful_shutdown. By turning this option
on, you are allowing μTorrent the leisure of quitting cleanly, which generally solves the
problem.
If μTorrent is crashing, and this behavior is a result of the crashes, then you should try to
solve the crashes.
Why are my torrent jobs transferring so slowly? Can't I speed them up?
Make sure you've followed the setup guide carefully.
Why can't μTorrent connect to any DHT nodes?
The problem most likely occurs because something is blocking μTorrent from contacting
other nodes. Try the following suggestions to see if they help:
Make sure that when you forwarded your port, you forwarded it for UDP connections in
addition to TCP connections, since DHT makes heavy use of UDP.
If you are using PeerGuardian (or an equivalent IP blocker), you might need to stop
using it, or make an exception in the software for μTorrent's DHT bootstrap nodes at
router.utorrent.com and router.bittorrent.com, as μTorrent makes use of
DHT nodes at those addresses to get the IP addresses of other nodes in the DHT
network.
Try adding a .torrent file from Depthstrike.com's mirrors for open-source/freeware
projects to μTorrent's torrent jobs list. These .torrent files contain other DHT nodes that
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μTorrent can use to bootstrap onto the DHT network.
Try removing dht.dat and dht.dat.old from the settings directory, as these files
might have been corrupted.
Why can't I see anything in the directory browser dialog?
An incompatibility is causing the problem. To fix the issue, enable gui.compat_diropen.
Why do I get an "Invalid menu handle" error when I try opening a .torrent file from Firefox?
There may be some corruption in your Firefox preferences that causes this error to
occur. In Firefox, check the "Tools" > "Options" > "Content" > "Manage" list for the TORRENT
entry and remove it. Confirm the change in Firefox.
Why do my torrent jobs grind to a halt with "Disk Overloaded" whenever I add a new one?
The problem occurs because of a design limitation in μTorrent that should be fixed in the
future. There is nothing you can do except to wait for the problem to go away.
Why does μTorrent create or download parts of files I set to "Don't Download?"
This occurs because BitTorrent has no concept of files, only pieces. Because multiple
files can share the same piece, and μTorrent has to download an entire piece to check its
hash, it will effectively download data for another file (regardless of whether it was skipped).
There is nothing you can do about μTorrent downloading data for another file if the data is a
part of a piece that also belongs to another file that you do want downloaded. What you can
do is prevent the entire skipped file from being allocated by enabling diskio.use_partfile.
Why does μTorrent get stuck at a certain percentage for a torrent job?
Check the availability of the torrent job, the number of seeds there are in the swarm, the
the number of peers there are in the swarm, and the amount of wasted data that you've
downloaded.
If the availaiblity is below 1.0 and the number of seeds is high, then the torrent swarm
is most likely fake, and was created by anti-P2P organizations.
If the availability is below 1.0 and the number of seeds is low as well, then you will
have to be patient, as the torrent contents may simply not be well distributed.
If you are seeing a large amount of wasted data, check this FAQ.
Why does μTorrent keep downloading or uploading while a torrent job is paused?
Pausing a torrent job might not stop all traffic for it immediately because μTorrent
attempts to finish receiving and sending any queued pieces first. Because pausing a torrent
job keeps connections open, occasional bits of peer communication may show up in the
speed calculations.
Why does μTorrent not ask me where to download files, or which files I want to
download?
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If you would like μTorrent to let you select files to download before it actually adds the
torrent job to the list, make sure you enable the Add New Torrent dialog.
If μTorrent adds files without asking you anything, then that's because you set a default
download location, and so μTorrent assumes you would like to download everything to that
directory. If you want μTorrent to always show the dialog when you manually open a .torrent
file, then make μTorrent always show the dialog on manual add.
Why does μTorrent show less DHT nodes in the status bar than BitComet or Azureus?
μTorrent counts only the number of DHT nodes you are directly connected to. BitComet
counts nodes that are one hop away from you (connected to nodes you're connected to),
which inflates nubmers. Azureus attempts to estimate the complete size of its DHT network.
Why does μTorrent still calculate an ETA when it is seeding?
When a torrent job is in seeding mode, the ETA column estimates the amount of time it
will take for μTorrent to reach the seeding goal.
Why does μTorrent still download a little bit when it is seeding, or even when no torrent
jobs are started?
This behavior is absolutely normal, and occurs because μTorrent includes the
communication overhead when calculating speeds. When you are uploading data to a peer,
you continue to download a little bit of information from the peer to keep track of the peer's
progress. Additionally, if the peer requests information or data from you, you also have to
download that request (which gets figured into the download speed).
While it is normal to see a non-zero download rate while μTorrent is seeding, the
behavior can be aggrevated by improper settings. When you have too many connections
established simultaneously, μTorrent has to communicate with more peers, and so there will
be more downloading of requests and such. To optimize the situation, make sure you've
selected the proper setting in the Setup Guide.
Another possible cause for this behavior is the use of the DHT network. Because DHT
is always active as long as it is enabled, it will continue to download a little bit of data to pass
around as a node participating in the DHT network. This continues to occur even if no torrent
jobs are started, or even if none of the torrent jobs in the list use DHT.
Why does my Internet connection slow down or stop working while μTorrent is running?
Make sure you've checked your computer for incompatible software known to cause
Internet disconnection. Additionally, check if your router is a "bad" router. If you don't have
any incompatible software installed, there are some suggestions you may want to try. Note
that between any of the suggestions, you should restart your computer and check if μTorrent
continues to cause Internet disconnections.
Make sure you've followed the setup guide carefully
Try disabling DHT
Try disabling UPnP and NAT-PMP
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Try disabling IP resolving
Try disabling peer.resolve_country
Try lowering net.max_halfopen to 4 or 2
Try lowering bt.connect_speed to 10 or 5
Try lowering the global maximum number of connections to 100 or 50
Try setting bt.transp_disposition to 5
Try patching your TCPIP.sys file to a value greater than your net.max_halfopen limit
(only if you are using Windows XP with SP2 or SP3, Windows 2003 with SP1 or SP2)
Try connecting your computer directly to see if the problem persists
Why doesn't μTorrent obey the rate limits I selected?
Try enabling Limit local peer bandwidth.
If you have limited your download rate, but μTorrent isn't obeying it, then take note the
fact that μTorrent cannot control how fast peers send data to it. As a result, download rate
limiting is often inaccurate. In addition, setting download rate limits may cause your upload
rates to suffer because of the way download rate limiting had to be implemented.
Why doesn't μTorrent open .torrent or .btsearch files even though it is associated with
them?
If μTorrent doesn't automatically open .torrent or .btsearch files when you double-click
them, try pressing the relevant button(s) in the Windows Integration preferences. If that
doesn't help, you may have to remove the .torrent file type from Windows. In Windows
Explorer, check the "Folder Options " > "File Types" list for the TORRENT entry and delete it,
then press the associate button again from the preferences.
Why doesn't μTorrent open my web browser wherever it is needed?
This problem is generally caused by a misconfiguration in Windows with regards to
which browser is default. Visit "Start" > "Control Panel " > "Add or Remove Programs " > "Set
Program Access and Defaults" > "Custom." Where it asks you to select a default web
browser, make sure you have your preferred browser selected, and if possible, make sure
"Enable access to this program" is checked as well.
Why doesn't μTorrent report me as a seeder when selectively downloading?
By definition, a seeder is a peer with all of the files fully completed. If you are missing
any bit of data (which would occur if you skip any file), it would be incorrect for μTorrent to
report you as a seeder. You are not a seeder unless you have 100% of the data.
Why don't the move up or down buttons not move the torrent jobs?
These buttons change the queue order for the selected torrent jobs, not the actual order
in which they appear in the list. If you would like these buttons to visually change the torrent
job's order in the list, then you should sort the list by the # column.
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Why is there a large amount of wasted data being downloaded?
In many cases, this is an indication that the swarm you are connected to is fake or
poisoned and set up by some anti-P2P organization. You might want to consider finding
another source for the data you are trying to download. If this occurs with many torrent jobs,
the problem could be an indication that your hardware is bad. Bad RAM, hard drive, or hard
drive cables have been known to cause hashfails in μTorrent. Another source of hashfails
may be your router. Some routers (like D-Link's) have been known to corrupt data when the
router has DMZ (game) mode enabled, thus preventing users from completing downloads.
Why is μTorrent crashing?
Make sure you've checked your computer for incompatible software known to cause
crashes in μTorrent.
Why is μTorrent now downloading when I was previously seeding?
This occurs if any of the files you're uploading are modified between the time you began
seeding and the next time μTorrent re-checks the data. If a file changes, it causes the
piece(s) containing it to fail the hash check, and accordingly, μTorrent will throw the piece out
(thus causing the switch to downloading mode). Make sure you do not edit any files you are
seeding. If you find yourself forgetting this, then consider setting the files you download to
read-only mode once you are in seeding mode. If you did not manually edit any files, then
there are some common causes for this problem:
thumbs.db: On some systems, Windows automatically creates and updates a database
of thumbnails for the media files in each folder called thumbs.db. If a thumbs.db file
is a part of the torrent contents, any updates to it will cause hashfails in μTorrent. In
Windows Explorer, check the "Folder Options " > "View" > "Do not cache thumbnails"
option to prevent this from happening.
Media file tags: Some media players are known to automatically edit tags on media
files they play without user intervention. This may cause pieces to change (and
consequently, hashfails to occur in μTorrent).
Why is μTorrent using so much CPU?
Make sure you've checked your computer for incompatible software known to cause
high CPU usage in μTorrent.
If you don't have any incompatible software installed, get Process Explorer and run it. If
you see the DPCs are using significant amounts of CPU, then you may have some other
buggy software installed, or perhaps buggy drivers and/or hardware. You can try running
RATTV3 to find the source of the DPCs. The RATTV3 output can be found in
%SystemRoot%\system32\LogFiles\RATTV3.
Another possible source for high CPU usage may be the transfer mode that your hard
drive controller may be using for your hard drives. Check the "System" applet in the Windows
Control Panel for the Device Manager. In the Device Manager, look for the IDE ATA/ATAPI
controllers and check the properties for each of your primary and secondary IDE channels to
see if any of their current transfer modes are in PIO. If so, this may be the cause of your
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problems. To fix it, try uninstalling the affected IDE channel and restarting your computer.
Why is μTorrent using so much memory?
Make sure you've checked your computer for incompatible software known to cause
high memory usage in μTorrent.
If you don't have any incompatible software installed, try tweaking the disk cache
settings. Of special note, if you are transferring data very quickly, try disabling the Windows
cache for disk writes and disk reads.
Why is my firewall reporting connections being made by μTorrent on a port besides the
one I chose?
Only incoming connections use the port you specify in the preferences. Outgoing
connections use a random local port (called an ephemeral port); this is simply how TCP/IP
functions, and is not a bug.
Why is my firewall reporting that μTorrent is attempting to send e-mails or access the
web?
In almost every case, this is a false positive generated by your firewall. Occasionally,
peers use common service ports like 25 (SMTP), 80 (HTTP), or 110 (POP3) in order to
bypass restrictions their ISPs may impose on them. Because your firewall incorrectly
assumes that any traffic with a destination port being a service port is traffic of the
corresponding service, it (improperly) flags μTorrent's traffic accordingly. The one exception
to this is when μTorrent checks for updates, in which case it really is attempting to access the
web.
Assuming your computer itself is clean of malware, and you have obtained μTorrent from
a known legetimate source (like μTorrent's own download page), then it is safe to ignore
these warnings and allow μTorrent to perform the action. If you do not want μTorrent to
access these ports, you can set bt.no_connect_to_services and
bt.no_connect_to_services_list accordingly.
Why is the list-view I'm looking at blank?
There should still be a bar at the top of the list-view. Right-click the bar and select
"Reset" in the context menu, and the apparently-missing details should be visible again.
Why is there a .dat file in my download folder when the torrent contents don't contain
such files?
This occurs when you perform selective file downloading and have diskio.use_partfile
enabled. You can safely ignore the file, as it will be deleted after the torrent job is removed
from the torrent jobs list.
I've tried all kinds of suggestions, but still haven't been able to solve my problem. How
should I proceed?
Feel free to stop by the forums or IRC channel to ask for help with your problems. When
you ask for help, make sure you have the following pieces of information on hand and ready
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to be provided upon request:
Everything you've tried so far in attempting to fix your problem
The ISP you're using (preferably in addition to the type of connection you're using, like
DSL, cable, satellite, etc.)
The color of your network status light
What the Setup Guide shows your current settings to be, along with the results of the
port checker and speed test
What you've set net.max_halfopen to, and what your TCPIP.sys half-open connection
limit is set to
The operating system you're using
A log from HijackThis and/or Process Explorer
The exact router and modem models you're using
Some basic computer hardware specifications (motherboard and/or chipset, CPU, RAM,
drive type, etc.)
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μTorrent User Manual > FAQ: Frequently Asked Questions
Error Messages
In a popup dialog, I get "Error: The device is not ready"
This error occurs if a drive μTorrent is trying to access does not exist, or is missing. This
most frequently occurs if a drive letter has changed, or if the data μTorrent was looking for
was located in a removable drive that is no longer in the computer. To resolve the issue,
make sure the paths μTorrent is trying to use are all existent. This means that all torrent jobs
should not have their Save As field set to a directory on some non-existent drive letter. The
same thing applies to the Directories preferences.
If a torrent job is using a drive letter that no longer exists, make sure you set the
download location for the job.
In the Logger tab, I get "Error opening Windows Firewall"
This means that μTorrent was unable to add itself as an exception to the Windows
Firewall using the standard Windows Firewall API. This occurs when Windows Firewall is
disabled or not present, or that you are using an operating system that does not support the
API (operating systems older than Windows XP SP2). The error is non-fatal, and can be
safely ignored. If you want μTorrent to stop trying to add itself to the firewall exceptions list
every time it starts, then you can disable the Add μTorrent to Windows Firewall exceptions
option in the Preferences. If another firewall is present, you will still need to configure it
properly to allow μTorrent to access the Internet.
In the Logger tab, I get "NAT-PMP: Unable to map port with NAT-PMP"
This means that μTorrent was unable to map (forward) the port with NAT-PMP. If you
have a green status light in the status bar, or the Setup Guide's port checker verifies that the
port is open, then you can safely ignore this error. If otherwise, you'll need to manually
forward the port in your router. If you want μTorrent to stop trying to map its listening port via
NAT-PMP every time it starts, then you can disable the Enable NAT-PMP port mapping
option in the Preferences.
In the Logger tab, I get "UPnP: Unable to map UPnP port"
This means that μTorrent was unable to map (forward) the port with UPnP. If you have a
green status light in the status bar, or the Setup Guide's port checker verifies that the port is
open, then you can safely ignore this error. If otherwise, you'll need to manually forward the
port in your router. If you want μTorrent to stop trying to map its listening port via UPnP every
time it starts, then you can disable the Enable UPnP port mapping option in the Preferences.
In the status bar, I get "Disk Overloaded"
This means that the disk was not able to keep up with the read/write speeds. To fix this,
you should try tweaking your Disk Cache settings in the Preferences. Note that disk
overloads may also occur if the device you are writing to or reading from is inherently slow
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by design (USB hard drives, for example). In such cases, tweaking the cache settings may
help, but it isn't guaranteed to work.
If you get this error message when you add a new torrent job, consider it normal due to
a design limitation in μTorrent (which should be fixed in the future). You can ignore the
message, as it does not actually indicate any real disk overload. The message will disappear
after a short amount of time.
In the torrent job status, I get "Error:"
This means that an error occurred the last time μTorrent was run. Since μTorrent does
not remember error messages, no error is specified. Try resuming the torrent job, or forcing a
re-check to see if any error occurs again.
In the torrent job status, I get "Error: Access Denied" and μTorrent halts the torrent job
Make sure you are not using a misconfigured incompatible software that can cause file
access issues. If you are not, then make sure you have the right credentials to be using the
target file and/or (containing) directory.
On some systems, Windows Explorer may attempt to preview media files when you are
browsing the containing directory for the files. If this happens while μTorrent is attempting to
write to the file, then μTorrent won't be able to access the file, and accordingly, it will throw
this error message. To prevent this from happening, make sure you don't view the folder in
"Thumbnail" or "Filmstrip" mode. Additionally, you may want to consider unregistering the
shell media file property extractor in Windows by visiting "Start" > "Run" (or by pressing
Windows + R on the keyboard), typing regsvr32 /u shmedia.dll into the "Open" field,
and pressing "OK."
In the torrent job status, I get "Error: Data Error (cyclic redundancy check)" and μTorrent
halts the torrent job
This error is not an error generated by μTorrent, but rather, an error it receives from the
hard drive. The error indicates that the hard drive was unable to read or write the data
because the sectors are faulty, or are about to die. Cyclic redundancy check (CRC) errors
are often signs of possible future disk corruption. Running chkdsk might help fix the
problem, but stronger recovery tools (such as SpinRite) may be required (assuming the disk
is at all repairable).
In the torrent job status, I get "Error: Element not found" and μTorrent halts the torrent job
This error may occur when you remove or rename files from a torrent job. If this is the
case, try to re-add or rename the files back, or force a re-check on the torrent job.
In the torrent job status, I get "Error: The requested operation could not be completed due
to a file system limitation" and μTorrent halts the torrent job
This error occurs because of a problem with the way Windows Vista handles sparse
files and NTFS compressed. When a sparse or compressed file reaches this (currently
unspecified) limitation, all writes to the file will fail. The only way around this is to make a
copy of the file, delete the existing (sparse/compressed) file, and replace the deleted file with
the copy. It is recommended that you disable diskio.sparse_files if you are running Windows
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Vista. If you would like μTorrent to not fully allocate a file upon write while using Windows
Vista, use bt.compact_allocation instead.
In the torrent job status, I get "Error: Not enough free space on disk" when I have more
than enough free space
This error occurs only on drives or partitions formatted to FAT32 because files greater
than 4 GiB cannot be created on FAT32 partitions. The only fix is to convert the drive or
partition to NTFS, or use another drive or partition that is already using NTFS.
To convert a drive to NTFS, read Microsoft's knowledge base article KB307881.
In the torrent job status, I get "Error: Parameter is incorrect" when selectively
downloading
The cause of the error message is currently unknown, though it is being looked into.
There is no workaround apart from not using selective file downloading on these operating
systems if you receive the error. The error should not happen again if you simply resume the
torrent job.
In the torrent job status, I get "Error: The process cannot access the file because it is
being used by another process" and μTorrent halts the torrent job
See the question regarding Error: Access Denied.
In the torrent job status, I get "Error: The requested operation cannot be performed on a
file with a user-mapped section open" and μTorrent halts the torrent job
Make sure you are not using a misconfigured incompatible software that can cause file
access issues.
In the torrent job status, I get "Error: The system cannot find the path specified" and
μTorrent halts the torrent job
This problem may be caused by a limitation in Windows with path lengths. Windows
limits the maximum path length (including filenames) to 255 characters. Try saving the torrent
contents to a location closer to the drive's root, such as C:\Downloads\.
In the torrent job status, I get "Error: Unable to save the resume file"
See the question regarding Error: Access Denied. If that isn't relevant or doesn't help,
make sure the directory μTorrent is using as its settings directory exists.
In the tracker status, I get "A socket operation encountered a dead network"
Check to make sure you don't have an incompatible software installed. Previous reports
on this error message indicate that BitDefender Firewall can cause such issues. There is no
known way to fix the issue other than to uninstall the firewall (and replace it with another one
if necessary).
If you are not using any software firewall, make sure you have the latest drivers installed
for your network card, since this problem may well be caused by buggy drivers. It may also
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occur if your network gets physically disconnected (like if the network cable is disconnected,
or if your modem or router shuts off).
In the tracker status, I get "An operation on a socket could not be performed because the
system lacked sufficient buffer space or because a queue was full" and μTorrent halts
Check to make sure you don't have an incompatible software installed. Previous reports
on this error message indicate that Norton GoBack can cause such issues. Updating the
application or uninstalling it entirely should solve the problem.
There is a Windows Registry entry in Windows 2000/XP/2003 that can cause this error.
Read Microsoft's knowledge base article KB196271 for further details.
This error can also be a symptom of improper configuration. Check this FAQ entry
regarding interrupted connections, as the suggestions may solve this problem.
In the tracker status, I get "Connection closed by peer"
In general, this error has manifested itself in cases where the user's ISP is interfering
with BitTorrent tracker communication. Consult the Bad ISPs list on AzureusWiki to check if
your ISP is known to interfere with BitTorrent traffic.
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μTorrent User Manual > FAQ: Frequently Asked Questions
Incompatibilities
What programs have been known to cause problems with μTorrent?
PROGRAM KNOWN PROBLEM(S)
Anti-malware
avast! crashes or freezes, high CPU usage
ESET NOD32 Antivirus crashes or freezes, Internet disconnection, tracker
connectivity issue
McAfee VirusScan missing interface text
Norman Antivirus crashes or freezes
Norton AntiVirus missing interface text
PC Tools Spyware Doctor crashes or freezes, high CPU usage
PC Tools ThreatFire file access issues
VCOM System Suite crashes or freezes
Firewall
BitDefender Firewall crashes or freezes, tracker connectivity issue
FRITZ!DSL Protect crashes or freezes
iolo System Mechanic Personal
Firewall crashes or freezes, unresponsiveness
Kerio Personal Firewall high CPU usage, Internet disconnection
McAfee Personal Firewall crashes or freezes, high CPU usage
NetPeeker Internet disconnection
Norman Personal Firewall crashes or freezes, high CPU usage
NVIDIA Firewall crashes or freezes, high memory usage
Sunbelt Personal Firewall high CPU usage, Internet disconnection
Indexing
Google Desktop Search file access issues
Nero Scout file access issues
Roxio Media Indexer file access issues
Windows Desktop Search file access issues
WinZip QuickFind file access issues
Miscellaneous
CYBERsitter high CPU usage
Microsoft Firewall Client for ISA
Server unresponsiveness
MouseImp crashes or freezes
Norton GoBack tracker connectivity issue
SpamPal high CPU usage
Ultra Network Sniffer (Analyzer) unresponsiveness
VCOM Fix-It Utilities crashes or freezes
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I have an incompatible software installed, and am getting disconnected from the Internet
If you are using ESET NOD32 Antivirus, see this bit of information.
If you are using Kerio Personal Firewall or Sunbelt Personal Firewall, then the
problem may be another manifestation of the high CPU usage problem.
If you are using NetPeeker, make sure you upgrade to a newer version, as a bug was
fixed in NetPeeker v2.72 that would cause an accumulation of connections stuck in
FIN_WAIT_2 state, eventually stopping all Internet connection.
I have an incompatible software installed, and μTorrent becomes unresponsive
If you are using any software known to cause unresponsiveness, then try updating it to
the latest version. If that doesn't help, then currently, the only option is for you to uninstall
that application (and maybe use a compatible alternative) if you wish to use μTorrent. You
may also want to try searching the forums for any workarounds that may not have yet been
added here.
I have an incompatible software installed, and μTorrent crashes or freezes
If you are using ESET NOD32 Antivirus v2.7.x, you should either disable NOD32's
IMON component, or add μTorrent to the exclusions list in the IMON setup's
"Miscellaneous" tab. If you are using ESET NOD32 Antivirus v3.x, you can add
μTorrent to the HTTP web browsers exclusions list in the "Web Access Protect" section
of the antivirus and antispyware setup.
If you are using Norman Antivirus, you should disable the Internet Protection
component.
If you are using NVIDIA Firewall, and you experience crashing on a multi-core CPU,
then you should try upgrading your NVIDIA nForce drivers to a version that includes
v73.12 or newer of the Network Management Tools. If that is impossible, then you must
either uninstall NVIDIA Firewall (ForceWare Network Access Manager in the Windows
Add or Remove Programs applet), or you must set μTorrent's processor affinity to a
single core from the Task Manager's processes list context menu (make sure only one
core is checked).
If you are using any other software known to cause crashes, then try updating it to the
latest version. If that doesn't help, then currently, the only option is for you to uninstall
that application (and maybe use a compatible alternative) if you wish to use μTorrent.
You may also want to try searching the forums for any workarounds that may not have
yet been added here.
I have an incompatible software installed, and μTorrent has missing text in various places
in the interface
Norton AntiVirus and McAfee VirusScan each have a buffer overrun protection
feature that causes this to happen. To fix the problem, disable the feature in the application.
I have an incompatible software installed, and μTorrent has trouble accessing files
If you are using PC Tools ThreatFire, then the problem may occur because of the
software's proactively defensive nature against zero-day threats based on application
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software's proactively defensive nature against zero-day threats based on application
behavior. To prevent any problems, add μTorrent to ThreatFire's trusted applications
list:
1. Open the ThreatFire GUI
2. Select "Advanced Tools" on the sidebar
3. Click "Custom Rule Settings..." in the "Advanced Rule Settings" tab
4. Add a new item to the "Trusted Process" list in the "Process Lists" tab
5. Select μTorrent from the list, or manually find it in the lower section of the dialog
6. Make sure the newly-added μTorrent process in the list is checked
7. Press "OK" in the dialog
If you are using any desktop search or indexing software (whether or not it is known to
cause file access issues), then you should either configure the application's indexing
service to exclude any directory μTorrent is using from being indexed. Such directories
include any directory μTorrent is downloading to or uploading from, and μTorrent's
settings directory. If excluding the directories doesn't help, then currently, the only option
is for you to uninstall that application (and maybe use a compatible alternative) if you
wish to use μTorrent. You may also want to try searching the forums for any
workarounds that may not have yet been added here.
Although indexing services are the most common source of file access issues in
μTorrent, other real-time scanning softwares (like anti-malware packages) have also
been known to sometimes cause access problems for users.
I have an incompatible software installed, and μTorrent has trouble connecting to trackers
If you are using ESET NOD32 Antivirus, see this bit of information. Tracker
connectivity issues may manifest themselves in the form of a HTTP 400 error.
If you are using BitDefender Firewall, then the only solution is for you to uninstall the
software and find an alternative security software.
If you are using Norton GoBack, try updating the software, as the issue is supposed to
have been fixed in Norton GoBack v4.1. If it doesn't help, try exiting the system tray icon
for Norton GoBack before you run μTorrent, as it has been known to cause problems in
older versions of Norton GoBack.
If you have are using any other software firewall, try uninstalling (not disabling) it. If the
problem is fixed, please inform us on the forums about your discovery.
I have an incompatible software installed, and μTorrent uses a lot of CPU
If you are using avast!, then the problem may manifest itself because of the software's
P2P shield, which scans all P2P activity. To disable the feature, perform the following:
1. Open the "On-Access Scanner " for avast!
2. Press the "Details" button for more options
3. Select the P2P shield on the window to the left of the "On-Access Scanner "
window
4. Press the "Terminate" button
5. Confirm the changes
Alternatively, avast! has a "Customize" option besides the sensitivity slider through
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which programs can be excluded from the P2P shield. Using this to exclude μTorrent's
executable may solve the problem.
If you are using Kerio Personal Firewall or Sunbelt Personal Firewall, then the
problem may manifest itself because the firewall is constantly resolving IP addresses.
Since BitTorrent clients tend to use a large amount of connections, the firewall has to
spend a lot of resources trying to resolve that many IPs. To disable the IP resolving,
perform the following:
1. Stop all torrent jobs in μTorrent
2. Open up the firewall GUI
3. Select the "Overview" tab
4. Look in the "Connections" section
5. Right-click in the window where all of the programs currently using a network
connection are listed and uncheck the "Resolve Address" option
If you are using SpamPal, then try switching to SpamPal v1.594, which is the last
version reported to have been working fine with μTorrent. Otherwise, the only option left
is to uninstall SpamPal, as it is known to cause the same issue with other applications
(it isn't limited to μTorrent only).
If you are using Spyware Doctor, then try switching to Spyware Doctor 4, which is the
last version reported to have been working fine with μTorrent. Otherwise, the only
option left is to uninstall Spyware Doctor.
If you are using any other incompatible software, then currently, the only option is for
you to uninstall that application (and maybe use a compatible alternative) if you wish to
use μTorrent. You may also want to try searching the forums for any workarounds that
may not have yet been added here.
I have an incompatible software installed, and μTorrent uses a lot of memory
If you are using NVIDIA Firewall, then you should try upgrading your NVIDIA nForce
drivers to a version that includes v73.12 or newer of the Network Management Tools. If
upgrading the firewall doesn't help, then you must uninstall NVIDIA Firewall (ForceWare
Network Access Manager in the Windows Add or Remove Programs applet) if you wish
to use μTorrent.
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μTorrent User Manual > FAQ: Frequently Asked Questions
Miscellaneous
How can μTorrent be so fast and small?
μTorrent is programmed in C++ using custom-coded libraries, with the GUI being written
using the Win32 API. It is compressed with UPX to bring the size down by approximately 50%
from its normal compiled size. A serious effort is made to keep the program as resourceefficient
as possible.
How do you pronounce μTorrent?
Although there is no official way to pronounce μTorrent, Ludvig Strigeus wrote, "I usually
say 'you torrent' because [the μ] looks like a u." He also offered "microtorrent" and "mytorrent"
as alternative pronounciations.
How do you write μ on the keyboard?
If you are using an international IME as your keyboard input language, press AltGr + M ,
or Ctrl + Alt + M . Alternatively, you can press Alt + 0181 (with the numbers pressed serially
on the number pad), which works on all IMEs and regional settings.
Is μTorrent open source?
No, it is not open source, and it is very unlikely that it will ever become open source.
Is there a Linux or Mac OS X version of μTorrent?
A port for Mac OS X is currently in development, while the Linux port is on hold (though it
will benefit directly from the Mac OS X port development). For those of you wishing to run
μTorrent on a non-Windows operating system, the Wine project offers a solution.
What is %AppData%?
%AppData% is a Windows environment variable that contains the path to the standard
user application data directory. To access it, you can press "Start" button on the Windows
taskbar, select "Run," type %AppData% into the "Open" field, and press "OK."
Where can I get the latest μTorrent beta?
Occasionally, public beta testing builds are posted on the download page, in the forum,
or in the IRC channel. If there is no public posting... well, if you have to ask for the beta
builds, then you can't get them :)
Who makes μTorrent?
Ludvig Strigeus (ludde) is the original author and maintainer of μTorrent
BitTorrent Inc.'s developers are the current maintainers of μTorrent. The developers
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include:
Jan Brittenson (CodeRed)
Richard Choi (rchoi)
Greg Hazel (alus)
Arvid Norberg (arvid)
Ryan Norton (RyanNorton)
Giancarlo Martínez (Firon) maintains the μTorrent website and community
Timothy Su (ignorantcow) is the website designer
I have a bug report, feature request, or unanswered question. What should I do?
If you think you've found a bug, please make sure it is not caused by any incompatible
software. If the bug is reproducible, please visit the "Found Bugs" forum in the μTorrent
forums and make sure your bug has not already been reported. If not, then register and post
instructions on how to reproduce the problem.
If you have a feature you'd like to request, visit the forum and search to make sure it was
not previously requested. If you post a request without first looking, then chances are fairly
high that you will be told to search, and the thread will be locked.
If you have an unanswered question, visit the forum or IRC channel and ask. Searching
the forum and reading the forum stickies are important things to do while at the forum.
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μTorrent User Manual
Glossary
Especially if you're new to BitTorrent in general, there are probably many new and
unfamiliar terms used throughout this manual (and in many other BitTorrent-related places).
To help "clue" you in on the new vocabulary, this glossary can be of great help.
A
announce
The act of connecting to a tracker to update it on your status, and to obtain
information from it as well, including (but not limited to) an updated peer list.
availability
The number of complete copies of the torrent contents there are distributed in the
part of the swarm you're connected to. The amount of the torrent contents you
currently have is included in the availability count. A swarm with no seed and with
an availability below 1.0 will likely be unable to finish transferring the complete
torrent contents.
B
block
The units of data that comprise a piece. Because blocks do not directly affect
whether torrent contents are considered to be finished transferring, it is not seen as
an appreciable unit of data with regards to BitTorrent like the piece is.
byte
A unit used for measuring the size of data on a computer storage device. Many
people confuse "byte" for "bit" when referring to speeds. A byte is composed of 8
bits, so there is a clear distinction, and terminology should not be confused when
referring to bytes.
broadcatching
The act of downloading content from an RSS feed.
C
choked
This word describes the state of a BitTorrent connection. When a connection is
choked, it means the person who is supposed to be doing the uploading on the
connection does not want to send anything. This generally happens when the
uploader's upload slots are full.
clientT
he application a user is using when connected to a swarm. In this case, the
application being used to connect to swarms is μTorrent, so it is the client.
D
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DHCP (Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol)
A protocol that allows networked devices to be assigned an unique IP address
automatically from a pool of unused IP addresses.
DHT (Distributed Hash Table)
A distributed tracker that works similarly to a regular tracker in that you announce to
it and get back a list of peers that are transferring the same .torrent file as you.
Because DHT is distributed, there is no single point of failure, so even if a single
node disconnects from DHT, the tracker will continue to work (unlike with normal
trackers, where if the server goes down, it becomes unusable). DHT can be
thought of as a backup tracker.
disk cache
A feature that makes use of available memory to stores data for quicker access as
well as ease disk thrashing. The use of a disk cache will cause an increase in
memory usage in return for improved performance.
disk thrashing
When a storage disk gets accessed very frequently. Extended disk thrashing may
lead to hard drive wear and tear, shortening a drive's life.
double NAT
A situation where the network device is behind more than one NAT devices
(generally routers). In this situation, forwarding ports from just one of those NAT
devices is generally insufficient, and more actions need to be taken as described in
the advanced port forwarding guide.
download
The act of transferring data from another computer onto your own.
E
encryption
The obfuscation (concealing) of data behind seemingly random data in order to
hide its true identity.
endgame mode
A change in the piece requesting strategy that occurs when a download is near
completion during which the client requests pieces from all connected peers rather
than requesting a piece from one peer at a time in the normal operating mode.
Endgame mode is used because download rates often slow down considerably as
a torrent job nears completion due to the tendency for the remaining pieces to be
downloaded from peers with saturated connections. By requesting data from all
peers rather than waiting for a single peer, such a bottleneck can be bypassed.
This mode is not used during normal operating modes because of the large amount
of overhead it potentially generates in sending requests to all peers.
ephemeral port range
A range of port numbers automatically allocated by the operating system for use by
any application on the system with network access. Ports in the ephemeral port
range are typically used to make temporary outgoing connections. The default
ephemeral port range is configurable via the Windows Registry, and may vary from
(operating) system to (operating) system. More about the ephemeral port range can
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be learned on Wikipedia's Ephemeral Ports article and its external links.
F
firewall
A barrier (hardware and/or software) that prevents communication to and/or from
certain computers, depending on the rules set in the firewall.
G
GiB (gibibyte)
A gibibyte is equal to 1024 MiB. Most people are referring to "gibibyte" when they
say "gigabyte," although that is technically an incorrect usage of terms.
H
half-open connection
A connection that is not fully established on both ends. Half-open connections
occur when you attempt to connect to an IP address, but the IP address hasn't yet
responded.
hash
A "fingerprint" of data assumed to be unique to the data. Because of the assumed
uniqueness of the data, it is used to verify that a piece of data is indeed
uncorrupted (since the corrupted data's hash would not match its expected hash).
hash check
The comparing of a piece of data's hash with a reference hash in order to verify the
integrity of the piece of data.
hashfail
When a piece fails the hash check used to verify data integrity.
I
index
A site that lists .torrent files available for download.
Initial Seeding (Super Seeding)
A method of seeding that attempts to decrease the bandwidth load for the initial
seeder. With normal seeding methods, the initial seeder typically has to upload
150% to 200%, or even more, of the original data in before a full copy of the data
has been distributed into the swarm. With initial seeding, the initial seed attempts to
get the rarest pieces out instead of uploading identical pieces repeatedly, often
lowering the initial upload requirement to 105%. Initial seeding does not
necessarily improve upload speeds or decrease seeding time. It should be used
only if you are the sole seeder on the swarm, and if there are at least 2 peers
connected. Generally, initial seeding should not be used by people with high upload
speeds.
interested
This word describes the state of a BitTorrent connection. When a peer is
interested, it means the peer is interested in the data that the peer on the other end
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of the connection has, and is willing to accept data from the other peer.
IP address
A number used to uniquely identify devices on a network.
ISP (Internet Service Provider)
The company providing for your Internet service.
ISP throttling
A term used to refer to the throttling of BitTorrent traffic by ISPs.
K
KiB (kibibyte)
A kibibyte is equal to 1024 bytes. Most people are referring to kibibyte when they
say "kilobyte," although that is technically an incorrect usage of terms.
L
LAN (Local Area Network)
A network of computers in a local area, such as a home.
LAN IP address
The private, internal IP address that locates a computer on a LAN. A LAN IP
address is not visible to users outside of the LAN. As described by RFC 1918, the
following ranges are designated as reserved IP addresses for private LANs:
10.0.0.0 - 10.255.255.255
172.16.0.0 - 172.31.255.255
192.168.0.0 - 192.168.255.255
LPD (Local Peer Discovery)
A method by which μTorrent attempts to discover new peers local relative to your
computer's network. Local Peer Discovery makes use of IP multicast.
leecher
A person who downloads, but fails to reciprocate the generosity of others by not
sharing back. The word "leecher" carrys a strong negative connotation. Some
people use the words "leecher" and "peer" interchangeably, though this practice is
not recommended (as it may lead to word confusion).
M
magnet URI
A link that tells the client what files to find and download over DHT.
MiB (mebibyte)
A mebibyte is equal to 1024 KiB. Most people are referring to "mebibyte" when
they say "megabyte," although that is technically an incorrect usage of terms.
Micro Transport Protocol (uTP)
A UDP-based reliable transport protocol designed to minimize latency, but maximize
bandwidth when latency is not excessive. This alleviates the bandwidth saturation
that often occurs to BitTorrent users while they are transferring data and using the
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Internet for other purposes.
N
NAT (Network Address Translation)
The changing of the source or destination IP address for a data packet. This
usually occurs when one is behind a firewall or router, where it translates IP
addresses so that multiple computers can exist on a LAN with while using the same
WAN IP address.
NAT-PMP (NAT Port Mapping Protocol)
An alternative to UPnP created by Apple, Inc. NAT-PMP is not as widely supported
as UPnP is, and uptake of the protocol has been limited to Apple, Inc. products only
thus far.
NAT Traversal
Techniques of establishing connections that traverse (pass through) NAT
gateways. When it works, NAT traversal can help bypass port forwarding issues.
O
optimistic unchoke
When a client tries to start a transfer on a previously choked connection in hopes
that the connection becomes unchoked.
overhead
Additional data used and required for communication and coordination between
sender and receiver that is not part of the payload data actually being transferred.
P
P2P (peer-to-peer)
The use of bandwidth of users using the same peer-to-peer service to perform the
functions of the peer-to-peer service or software. Centralized servers are not what
keeps P2P networks alive, but rather, the peers themselves.
payload
The actual data being transferred from sender to receiver, not counting overhead.
PE (Protocol Encryption)
An specification designed jointly by Azureus and μTorrent developers, created as
an attempt to bypass throttling and/or blocking of BitTorrent traffic by ISPs by
encryption of the data. There are different methods of encryption, ranging from full
encryption of all of the data, to partial encryption of the data (header encryption
only, not unlike with PHE, although it's still not as easily detected as PHE).
peer
A user/client connected to the swarm. People sometimes refer to peers as
"leechers," though they also use the same word to refer to its more negative
connotation. It's recommended that you use the word "leecher" to strictly refer to
people who don't share so to keep the distinction clear and confusion to a
minimum.
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peer list
A list containing the IPs and ports of other peers.
PEX (Peer Exchange)
A feature to exchange peer lists with other peers that support the same PEX
implementation (generally limited to peers using the same BitTorrent client). By
exchanging peer lists, it's possible to find peers not included in the peer list
supplied by the tracker.
PHE (Protocol Header Encryption)
An old method of encryption created by the BitComet developer that encrypted only
a part of the data (the header) in an attempt to bypass ISP throttling and/or
blocking of BitTorrent traffic. Because its specification was designed in a relatively
poor manner, ISPs were able to detect it with little trouble, rendering it useless.
piece
The smallest appreciable unit of data in BitTorrent. The size of pieces can be
different depending on the .torrent file in question.
piece distribution
The general distribution of the pieces across the swarm. BitTorrent is generally
most efficient when piece distribution is random, with minimal "clumping" of pieces
available in the swarm.
poisoning
The act of intentionally feeding invalid data into the swarm, resulting in hashfails for
peers receiving the invalid data. Outfits with (or hired by other entiries with) anti-
P2P agendas are the most common sources of swarm poisoning.
port forwarding
The act of passing data on the forwarded port from one network device to another.
In most cases regarding BitTorrent, port forwarding refers to the forwarding of
connections from a router to a specific computer attempting to listen on that port.
'private' flag
A piece of information stored in a .torrent file that tells any BitTorrent client that
recognizes the flag to disable DHT, LPD, and PEX for that specific .torrent. The
'private' flag is typically used in .torrent files served by private trackers as a method
of keeping a swarm isolated from people who aren't members of the private tracker.
private tracker
A tracker that requires users to log in to use it. Private trackers typically enforce
ratio requirements (by banning users whose ratios are too low) in order to prevent
or minimize the leeching that is prevalent on many public trackers.
protocol
A set of rules and description of how to do things. In the case of the BitTorrent
protocol, it is a set of rules describing how BitTorrent clients should communicate
and transfer data with each other.
proxy
A computer that is told to make a connection to another computer, and relay the
data transferred between the two computers to the original computer that
connected to the proxy. Essentially, using a proxy is a way to make an indirect
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connection to another computer by way of the proxy computer.
public tracker
A tracker that is open for anyone to use (as opposed to private trackers, where only
people who hold accounts can use the tracker).
R
ratio
A number derived from the division of two other numbers. In the context of
BitTorrent, people are normally referring to share ratio when they speak of a ratio.
reseed
The act of rejoining a swarm with no seeds as a seed.
RSS feed
A file that is updated so that it delivers information and content in such a way that
allows one to track updates quickly and easily.
S
scrape
The grabbing of statistics (number of seeds and peers) from a tracker regarding a
specific swarm.
seed
A peer with 100% of the data in the torrent contents.
seeding
The act of being connected to a swarm as a seed.
share ratio
The ratio of the amount of data you've uploaded to the amount of data you've
downloaded.
snubbed
This word describes the state of a BitTorrent connection. A connection is marked
as snubbed when the client has not received anything over the connection for an
extended period of time.
static IP address
An IP address that does not change (remains static) across multiple sessions. A
static IP address is necessary in port forwarding, as ports are usually forwarded to
a specific IP address, where the rule does not change even if the computer's IP
address does.
swarm
The collective group of peers (which includes seeds) that are connected by a
common .torrent file.
T
throttle
A term used to refer to the intentional slowing down of transfer rates (download
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u
and/or upload), typically used in the context of ISP throttling.
torrent
A small file containing metadata from the files it is describing. In other contexts, it is
sometimes used to refer to the swarm connected around that small file.
tracker
Something that a client connects to in order to share its IP and port, as well as
obtain information, including peer lists.
U
upload
The act of transferring data from your computer onto another.
UPnP (Universal Plug and Play)
A protocol that allows devices on a network to communicate with each other
seamlessly. In the case of μTorrent, UPnP is used to forward a port on a router
without the need to open the port manually.
W
WAN (Wide Area Network)
A computer network that covers a large geographical area. A WAN connects
multiple LANs together. The Internet is an example of a WAN.
WAN IP address
The public, external IP address that users outside of your own network see your
network to be located at on the WAN. WAN IP addresses reveal nothing about
internal IP address allocation on a LAN located at the WAN IP address.
wasted
Data that is tossed out either because it hashfailed, or because it was redundant
data that the client had already downloaded.
web interface (Web UI)
An interface for a supported web browser that allows one to control an application
remotely.
web seed
A seed that is basically a regular web server hosting the requested file. BitTorrent
clients that support web seeds use them like any other seed, and can request data
segments from the server much like requesting pieces from an ordinary seed. The
use of web seeds ensures that a torrent swarm will never die as long as the file
being seeded is left intact on the server and the server does not go down.
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μTorrent User Manual
External Links
Here's a list of external webpages mentioned in the help manual:
μTorrent
Webpage
Skins Page
Download Page
Forums
flags.conf/flags.bmp
IRC Channel
AzureusWiki
Advanced Network Settings
Bad routers
Bad ISPs
Depthstrike.com Resources
Mirrors for Open-Source/Freeware Projects
Multitracker Specifications
Microsoft
KB196271: When you try to connect from TCP ports greater than 5000 you receive
the error 'WSAENOBUFS (10055)'
KB307881: How to convert a FAT16 volume or a FAT32 volume to an NTFS file
system in Windows XP
KB894564: How to change the binding order of network adapters in Windows XP
and in Windows 2000
RATTV3
Miscellaneous
Ephemeral Ports
HijackThis
Process Explorer
TCPIP.sys patcher (LvlLord's EventID 4226 Patcher)
Why is Being Firewalled Bad?
PortForward
How to Set Up a Static IP Address
Router List for PortForwarding Guides
Motorola SurfBoard Issues
Running on Alternative Operating Systems
Apple XCode
Darwine
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WineHQ.org
Speed Test Torrents
OpenOffice.org
Slackware Linux
Ubuntu Linux
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