FAQ

Is Torrenta free and open source?

Yes. It is free and released under the MIT License. The source is on GitHub.

Does it collect data or phone home?

No accounts, no telemetry, no analytics. The one request Torrenta makes on its own is the update check: after startup, at most once a day, it asks GitHub whether a newer release exists, and sends nothing about you or the machine beyond the request itself. Untick Settings → General → Updates → Check for updates, or set updates.check=false in the settings file, to turn it off.

Everything else that reaches the network is something you set up: the torrents themselves, your search providers, your RSS feeds, a blocklist URL, a Transmission daemon, settings sync to a Git repository you own, and the leak check’s address-echo server, which is off until you turn it on.

Why is there no Intel Mac or ARM Linux build?

The engine is libtorrent through libtorrent4j, whose native library exists for macOS on Apple Silicon, Linux x64 and Windows x64 only. Those are the three builds. On another platform the engine fails to start with a message that says so, and the window stays up.

The installers bundle their own Java runtime, so you do not need Java installed.

The installer is unsigned. How do I open it?

The builds are not signed yet. On macOS, the first launch is refused; allow it once under System Settings → Privacy & Security → Open Anyway. On Windows, SmartScreen may warn on the first run; let it continue. Signed installers are one of the criteria for 1.0. Each release lists its files’ checksums in checksums_sha256.txt.

Can it replace qBittorrent or Transmission?

That is the goal for 1.0. The roadmap has a parity matrix comparing Transmission 4.1, qBittorrent 5 and Torrenta feature by feature. Torrenta uses the same engine as qBittorrent, so most of the work is exposing what libtorrent already does. It also speaks qBittorrent’s web API, so the tools built around qBittorrent work with it, and imports qBittorrent’s, Transmission’s and Deluge’s torrents without a check. A few things are deliberately left for later, such as a port test and email notifications.

Does it have a web UI?

Not one of its own, but it can serve one. Remote access speaks qBittorrent’s WebUI API, so a web interface written for qBittorrent, such as VueTorrent, runs against Torrenta from a phone’s browser, and Sonarr, Radarr and the phone apps made for qBittorrent connect to it. It is off until you switch it on, and always asks for a password.

Can it run on a server without a window?

Yes: torrenta --headless, or the torrenta-nox launcher packaged beside the app, runs everything but the window. See Headless, with a systemd unit.

Can it control a seedbox?

Yes, if the seedbox runs transmission-daemon 4.0 or later. Add a profile in Settings → Engine with the daemon’s URL, user and password, and switch to it. What the daemon cannot do is hidden rather than faked. See Remote: a Transmission daemon.

Where are my settings and torrents stored?

In ~/.torrenta on every platform. settings.properties holds the settings and can be edited by hand; torrents/ holds one resume file per torrent with the torrent’s info inside, so a torrent comes back after a restart, seeding without a recheck if it was complete. Downloads themselves go to ~/Downloads unless you change the folder. The full list of files is in Settings, themes and sync.

How do I move the config folder?

Start Torrenta with --config-dir DIR, or set the TORRENTA_CONFIG_DIR environment variable. Each config folder is its own Torrenta: one instance runs per folder, with its own torrents and settings.

What is the difference between Paused and Queued?

“Paused” means paused by a person: you pressed Space or Pause, and the row says “Paused by you”. The queue never resumes a torrent you paused. “Queued” means the queue limits on Settings → Queue and share limits are holding it back; the row says its place and that it starts when a slot frees. Force Resume (Ctrl+Shift+U) starts a queued torrent now.

Why does the port say “checking”?

Torrenta calls the port open only once a peer from outside your network has connected to it, and that needs a running torrent. Until then it reads “checking reachability”. After five minutes of running torrents with no such peer it reads blocked, which usually means a firewall or the router. Downloads still work either way, with fewer peers. See Connection.

Does it support v2 torrents?

Yes. It adds v1, v2 and hybrid torrents (the Add dialog’s header says which), and the New Torrent dialog makes all three, hybrid by default, showing both info-hashes.

How do I report a bug?

Help → Report a Problem… (also a button in the View → Debug Log window) writes the report for you: this session’s and the last session’s logs, with the version, engine, Java and OS. Home- folder paths, your user name, the torrents’ names, magnet links, info-hashes, tracker passkeys, public peer addresses, e-mail addresses and tokens are taken out first. Read and edit it, then Open GitHub Issue opens a new issue at github.com/adriandeleon/torrenta/issues with it filled in (when it is too long for the link, it is copied for you to paste). Copy and Save… are there too. Add what you did and what happened.

If Torrenta will not start, torrenta --report writes the same report to the current folder and opens the issue. Torrenta sends nothing itself: the issue is filed by you, in your browser.

After a restart, finished torrents started downloading again. Are my files gone?

No. With the .part suffix on, 0.3.0 and 0.4.0 could bring a finished torrent with a folder of its own back at 0 % after a restart and download it again into new .part files, beside the complete files, which were never touched. 0.4.1 fixes it: at its first start each torrent caught is found complete and checked, and View → Debug Log names the leftover .part files to delete.

Is it legal to use?

BitTorrent is a way of moving files, and Torrenta is a tool for it, like any other client. What matters is what you download and share: share what you have the right to share. The search examples Torrenta ships point at public, non-infringing indexes such as the Internet Archive.

Didn’t find your answer? Open an issue.