Categories, queue and limits

Categories and tags

A torrent is filed under one category or none, and carries any number of tags.

• Set Category… (Ctrl+Shift+G) files the selection under an existing category, none, or New category…. The Torrent and right-click menus also list the categories as a submenu.
• Edit Tags… (Ctrl+T) shows a checkbox per existing tag and a field for new ones, comma-separated.
• The Add dialog offers both.

A category can have a save path. Choosing that category in the Add dialog fills the folder, so new torrents filed under it download there; with an incomplete folder, they are moved there when complete. Changing a category’s path later moves nothing already added.

Settings → Categories and tags (also Torrent → Manage Categories and Tags…) adds categories, sets their save paths, and adds and removes tags. Removing a category leaves its torrents filed under no category; removing a tag takes it off every torrent. Both ask first.

With settings sync on, the category names and tags travel: one added on one computer appears on the others, and one deleted is deleted everywhere (torrents filed under it there let go of it). Names only: each computer keeps its own folder for a category, and one that arrives downloads to the default folder until it is given one.

The sidebar has a section for each, with counts, and the omnibox takes cat: and tag: terms. See The transfer list.

The queue

The selected torrents move in the download queue, keeping their order among themselves:

They are also under Torrent → Queue and in the right-click menu. The Queue column (hidden by default) shows the positions and sorts by them.

Force Resume (Ctrl+Shift+U) starts a torrent now, ignoring the queue. A queued torrent reads “Queued #n” in the list; that is different from “Paused”, which only you do.

Queue limits

Settings → Queue and share limits → Queue sets how many torrents run at once (0 for no limit):

• Active downloads
• Active seeds
• Active torrents, in all
• Don’t count slow torrents: a slow torrent does not hold a slot.

Share limits

On the same page, Share limits apply to every finished torrent:

• Ratio limit
• Seeding time limit, in minutes
• When a limit is reached: Pause, Remove, Remove with data, or Super seed.

Whichever limit is reached first triggers the action, which the Event Log records (“Share limit reached: paused …”). Torrenta checks once a second; libtorrent itself pauses nothing by these limits. A torrent paused or removed this way raises the “seeding done” event that automation can act on.

Per-torrent limits

Torrent → Limits… (Ctrl+L, also in the right-click menu and the palette) sets, for the selection:

The caps and counts are kept in the torrent’s resume data; its own share limit is kept in the settings file and forgotten when the torrent is removed.

Speed limits

Settings → Speed holds:

• Limits: download and upload in KiB/s, 0 for none.
• Alternative limits: a second pair, switched on with Use alternative limits now, the status bar’s Alt speed pill, or View → Alternative Speed Limits (Ctrl+Shift+J), which is checked while they are in force.
• Schedule: Switch to the alternative limits on a schedule, with From, To and the days of the week. A window that runs past midnight belongs to the day it starts on. The schedule is checked every minute.
• Count protocol overhead in the limits.

Switching the alternative limits on or off by hand holds until the schedule, the battery or the network next changes, as in qBittorrent’s schedule override. The switch is this machine’s and does not travel with settings sync.

Battery and metered networks

Settings → Speed → Battery and network has two rows, each Nothing, Alternative speed limits or Pause the torrents:

• On battery: while the computer runs on its battery. Paused torrents are resumed when it is plugged in again.
• On a metered network: while the network is one the system marks as paid by the byte (a phone’s hotspot, a capped plan).

The status bar’s pill says why the alternative limits are on (“Alt speed: on battery”). A condition pauses what runs when it starts; a torrent you resume by hand meanwhile stays resumed.

Hidden with a Transmission daemon.

A peer on your local network is not held to the session’s rate limits; a torrent’s own limit still applies to it.