Two different torrents are saved to same named folder causing error

[happyguy1]

using utorrent 1.8 beta, i d/l two torrents for the same file, thinking the second would identify itself as the same as the first (if it was) and simply ask to add trackers, which utorrent typically does and is sometimes helpful in adding trackers - and if not, it would d/l the second file as well and i could determine which version to keep based on d/l speed

instead, it began downloading the two files as two different files with two separate seed/peer numbers and d/l speeds, but it wound up saving both of the files (it was an identically named bunch of .rar file pieces) as the same set of files into the same named single folder in the temp directoy

this worked ok for a little bit, apparently until one d/l attempt interfered with another attempt to d/l to the same piece and then an error halted the d/ls saying the file was unexpectedly missing

i forced a re-check on both torrents which fixed the error and stopped each of them - i then only re-started one of them so that it could successfully complete - it is downloading more slowly now and i don't know if it will rar together correctly when it is finished, but i wondered if this is maybe a bug in utorrent that should be reported

i can provide more specifics as necessary and could also give links to such "representative torrent file examples" if helpful

thx

[hermanm]

The hash for each torrent is different so µTorrent thinks they are, in fact, different torrents. µTorrent doesn't know it has the same folder name and file names. Just download one torrent, or download the second torrent to different directory. In your case, stop the second torrent, right click on that torrent, and select Advanced, Set Download Location. Point your second torrent in a different folder. You can optionally wait for the first torrent to finish, copy the files to the second directory, force re-check, then seed the second torrent.

[happyguy1]

thanks hermann - that makes sense - the d/l did finally work for me last night

though i would think this is something that might want to be addressed by utorrent - if two files have the same name but different hashes, could utorrent be made to detect the previously loaded torrent that has the same file name and instead of pointing the new (different hashed) file to the same pre-existing named file or folder, know to create a second file or folder with maybe a (1), (2) etc added to the end of the name (as other downloaders such as flashget and emule do on different files with identical file names)?

just a thought to avoid this behavior and the need for a cumbersome workaround in utorrent when this circumstance arises

[hermanm]

> addressed by utorrent

Unfortunately, Bittorrent does not hash on the file level. It hashes based on pieces.

See post #4 to get a visual:

http://forum.utorrent.com/viewtopic.php?id=26446

For this reason, µTorrent does not know that your two torrents contain identical files. µTorrent would only know the files are identical if the torrent hash matched.

[happyguy1]

thanks hermann

> For this reason, µTorrent does not know that your two torrents contain identical files. µTorrent would only know the files are identical if the torrent hash matched.

but is there any way for utorrent to detect that it is attempting to save a DIFFERENT torrent that has the same name to a pre-existing SAME NAMED file or folder? it seems like that is behavior that can be addressed by the software to avoid these kinds of errors

i am sure that it can be coded - the question is really whether it is worth the developers' time and effort to instantiate that functionality at this time.

thx for your responses

[hermanm]

µTorrent already does this by making one of the torrents error out. At some point, when µTorrent tries to commit the file pieces to disk, it errors out. That's how you know a different torrent is trying to write to the same file(s).

[happyguy1]

aha - so that error (and the need to then manually force a re-check, if you happen to know or guess to do that) was designed in

what about simply having utorrent detect the existence of an identically named file or folder, and if the second torrent is a different hash (which utorrent already checks for, and if finding it is the same, announcing that and then offering to add the new torrent's trackers to the currently downloading torrent's trackers), have it open a new file or folder with a different name (by simply appending a 1,2,3 etc to the name), so as to AVOID the "error" altogether and to ALSO allow the second torrent its own download target

anyway, just a thought

best and thx