Torrenting used to be all the rage in the early 2000s. Although there are plenty of substitutes, a significant fraction of people still rely on Torrenting for their digital downloads. There are numerous open-source software, movies, music, and e-books that need torrent-based tools to download. uTorrent is one of the most famous and widely used BitTorrent clients. It allows you to share and download large files easily and quickly.
Torrent is always under scrutiny, but still, its popularity remains the same. It downloads quite fast and that is what attracts many users. Usually, most of the time, it works pretty well. But if you encounter any issues with the download then don't worry because it is one of the major issues faced by many users. There may be problems with downloading files or connections, or it doesn't work at all.
There may be reasons that can lead to all these problems. Through this article, we will get to know all the possible reasons that could cause Torrent not to work. And after knowing the reasons, we can learn to fix all these problems.
What are the important causes of the torrent download problem?
Before jumping into how to fix torrent issues, it's essential to understand how they arise. The most common way to detect the problem is that you can see that the download has not progressed for a long time and is blocked. Or suddenly, your speed drops to zero.
There can be many reasons. Let's see them one by one.
1. Dead torrent
It is one of the most common reasons why torrent files fail to download. What happens, particularly when trying to download an old torrent file, most BitTorrent users find that the transfer becomes abrupt because the swarm is unseeded. There may not be enough pairs to complete the full version, so not all torrents can download successfully.
Some of the old files are not sufficiently available; that is, the swarm did not have all the necessary files. It usually happens when users hit and run the swarm without allowing the seed to complete the torrent. This is what is known as a 'Dead Torrent'.
2. Under Client Encryption Settings
The encryption strategy in the torrent client encrypts every connection based on the peer. It suggests that the torrent client rules numerous weak encrypted connections at the same time. A virtual private network encrypts the traffic not only of the Torrent but of the whole.
Many of torrent clients use this built-in encryption. It helps to reduce or eliminate the limitation that is the slow speed of downloads. Now what happens is that your configuration may be too restricted and doesn't allow enough number of pairs that are required. Due to which your downloads become prone to slowdowns.
3. Firewall rules
A firewall is a security system that governs and regulates all incoming and outgoing web traffic based on security restrictions. Creates a separation between a trusted and an untrusted network. On the first attempt to download via torrent, it is possible that the Firewall will block it.
Therefore, one of the reasons why torrents fail to download is because a network-based firewall is preventing it. The purpose of the Firewall is to keep bots and malware out of your system. And when you download unknown files, they activate and try to stop the download. Therefore, the firewall blocking download connections becomes one of the main reasons why your Torrent might be showing problems.
4. Port Forwarding
Often the torrent client can be configured to operate on a listening port that is blocked or used by some other program. When it comes to BitTorrent, it uses UDP and TCP ports to regulate peer-to-peer connections. The most important is the 'Listening Port', which handles incoming peer connections.
Traffic on the listening port must be sent to the device that is running the torrent client. But most of the time it has been found that our router is lagging or has no idea which computer to direct the traffic to.
5. Incorrect proxy settings
It is generally recommended to use a VPN for encryption instead of a proxy. But many users are still committed to the SOCKS proxy to give themselves additional privacy and security. At the same time, some prefer the one-time setup that does not require any additional software.
The whole setup process is too complicated and causes torrents to fail to download. It is one of the fundamental reasons why torrenting fails.
6. Outdated tracker
When you turn on your computer, sometimes you may find that the uTorrent application is not responding. The first step you can take is to reboot your system. But even after that, the torrent gets stuck or crashes frequently. So what can be the reason behind this? The main cause of this problem can be your outdated torrent tracker.
A torrent tracker is a server that regulates the seeds and peers in the swarm. You are responsible for keeping the list of peers who share the file up to date. When your tracker becomes outdated, it can cause the torrent app to get stuck and not download files. Therefore, it is vital that your torrent client update the tracker frequently.
7. ISP slowing down download speed
Sharing files over the Internet is too delicate. There can always be chances of viruses and other malware. The ISP (Internet Service Provider) receives a warning at the moment of downloading torrents and starts throttling your connection.
Some ISPs even allow throttling of downloads because they require a large amount of data. For larger files, the limitation will be higher. So one of the reasons why your files are not downloading via Torrent is that your ISP slows down the download speed.
8. Torrent connection problems
Download failure is not always due to download limits placed on you. In most cases, torrent speed is greatly affected by the number of peers that stream the torrent file to you.
Usually, when you search for any torrent file online, it shows at that particular time how many people are seeding it. If the initialization is much less at the time of the download, you can start the download after pausing it. You can try deleting your torrent file and repeat the whole process. In many cases, the problem arises due to the torrent client itself. All this slows down the download of the files.
9. The file does not work
For example, if you search for any movie in a torrent, the result will show many different files. Therefore, it is crucial which file to choose. Most of the time, what happens is that you may download some wrong file and it may not download or work properly.
Therefore, even if all connections and networks are stable, you may encounter torrenting issues. The reason is simply that your file may not work. Therefore, it is essential to choose the correct file to download.
10. Anti-virus
Antivirus is important to keep your system safe and secure. It does not allow any external virus or defect to enter your computer. Whenever any unwanted files try to affect your system, the antivirus kicks in and removes the virus.
When you download any file via torrent app, the antivirus gets activated and tries to oppose the download and thus fails. So if you are facing the issue with the download and you have checked all the other causes then there is a high chance that your antivirus is not allowing the download to complete.