v1.8 .tor files now duplicate themselves as they are added to utorrent

[Claribel]

Not sure how this is happening, but it has started only since I moved from 1.7.7 to 1.8.

I save torrent (.tor) in a dedicated folder. As I load the torrent (.tor) file - which loads fine - another duplicate .tor file appears immediately - the only difference appears to be that underscores and + signs (which seem to separate words in the title) seem to be removed from the torrent name.

It is not really a problem, but I am not clear which of the unnecessary files to delete, or if there is a way I can stop this from happening.

It never happened with any version up to and including 1.7.7.

I'm running Vista x64

[Ultima]

Are you storing to µTorrent's settings directory or the µTorrent .torrent storage directory? If so, then you're seeing µTorrent make a copy for its own caching purposes, and this (caching) has been happening since the first versions of .

[Claribel]

I'm saving downloading .tors to same folder as in "location of .torrents" in directories panel. This path has always been the same - I have changed nothing, except updated to 1.8 - no duplication ever occurred previously.

This directory is not where any other stuff is stored - it is, in fact, on a completely separate drive from the utorrent files/folder.

[Ultima]

I'm honestly not sure how to explain the apparent behavior change here... Having been around since the beginning, and having written the µTorrent manual, I'm 100% sure µTorrent has always copied its .torrent files to one of two locations: its settings directory, or the storage directory explicitly selected in the setting that you mentioned.

If you'd like to manage your own torrent storage directory, you'll probably need to disable the option in µTorrent, or choose an independent storage directory.

[Claribel]

I see I have the "automatically load .torrents from" checkbox unticked - I have never checked it. I will try changing this settings.

But in the meantime, do you have any advice on which .tor file to delete - I assume the original with the pluses and underscores? Obviously I don't want to delete the wrong one - I just don't want two copies of the same file.

From what you are telling me, it appears that until I started using 1.8, the .tor files were not being cached (I have never deleted any .tor files, as it helps me to keep a check on what I have downloaded before). If I delete the original with the pluses and underscores, then I run the risk of redownloading accidentally it at some point.

[Ultima]

Autoload won't help you.

Regarding the _ and + symbiols, they're added because µTorrent caches the .torrent files using the name specified in the torrent, not the original .torrent file name. You should keep those files instead, as those are the files µTorrent actully use. It's not a hard-and-fast rule, though. Some files may not have underscores at all after µTorrent's rename. You can use BEncode Editor to load the resume.dat file in Start > Run > appdata%\uTorrent to find out exactly which .torrent files µTorrent is actually using.

[Claribel]

I'll check, thanks.

But when I download the files, they are saved as I download them with the pluses and underscores (I assumed this was the case with everyone). The new duplicates are appearing without the pluses and underscores, as I load them (this, at my end, seems the odd behaviour).

I always specify the download location when I download a tor. file, as Vista does not always remember the right directory for various downloads. It is just a habit I have gotten into.

[Ultima]

Hah, my explanation may have been slightly confusing

Basically, whatever name you have for your .torrent files isn't necessarily the name µTorrent will use when it makes its copy. µTorrent will only use the name specified inside the .torrent file -- the actual name for the torrent when it's first loaded in µTorrent. If the original file had +_ while the renamed one doesn't, then the internal name didn't contain those characters. The same goes vice versa.

"location of .torrents" doesn't control where µTorrent actually downloads the torrent contents to -- Preferences > Directories > "Put new downloads in" does that.

[Claribel]

I am a tad confused, for sure - not by your explanations, but why this has just started to happen.

When I download the torrents, they always go in the same directory. I never rename them.

I double-click the tor file from that directory, it then loads. Since 1.8, there is a new file in the same directory (the one I have also specified as .tor directory in utorrent), without the pluses and underscores of the original file. I must assume that it is the newer .tor file which utorrent is actually using.

Perhaps my explanation above is also a bit clearer.

[Ultima]

Correct, the new copy is the copy µTorrent uses. If you have "Store .torrents in" enabled, you can disable it. That'll cause µTorrent to store its .torrent cache wherever its settings directory is, and should make it behave like it used to.

[Claribel]

I think what you are saying is that a torrent has two copies of the torrent file running. The original wherever it is downloaded, and the actual running one in the utorrent folder.

I am puzzled as to how my machine has run perfectly happy with just one copy until I moved to 1.8.

I don't want two copies (albeit subtly renamed), so it seems that up until now, I have been performing some magic. I had better get used to the two files I suppose. I suppose all other people must have two copies of each .tor too!

It is interesting to know what utorrent does, thanks for explaining it.

[thelittlefire]

If you use "open with" in your browser there is only 1 copy usually. Even before you still had two copies... uTorrent still had to hold the torrents in a place it KNEW it could keep them to read the data from reliably across sessions (the uT APPDATA folder).

[inf0r]

Now, i have the exact same problem. Additionaly something annoying is happening when I try to delete a torrent. I'm using the option to also delete the .torrent file when i remove the torrent from the list in uTorrent. But with the new version uTorrent only deletes the newly created file and leaves the other one I downloaded untouched. So in the end i get more and more .torrents in my folder until I delete them myself.

Is there any way to fix it like it was before?

[thelittlefire]

Only the .torrent in the %APPDATA%\uTorrent (or wherever you relocate it) is removed when you delete .torrent +(etc)

[Firon]

This behavior has ALWAYS been the same. Don't save the torrent locally, just "open" it with your browser.

[inf0r]

Well I know it hasn't been like this one week before.

There was only one .torrent file which I saved in my folder, opened it with uTorrent and when I removed it uTorrent deleted exactly this .torrent file.

And no, I changed nothing in the settings.

So if this was intended to be like always, uTorrent was bugged before the update... and I would be happy to see it like this again.

[thelittlefire]

You are incorrect in your memory. uTorrent NEVER messed with .TORRENT files outside the storage location.

[Claribel]

Actually, it is useful to have the original torrent saved:

- in case I receive a request to reseed at some point;

- and as a way to know if I had previously downloaded it.

It was irritating me suddenly to have two copies of the same torrent without knowing which one to keep (I now know, thanks to help from people here).

However, I think I may have sorted the original problem - for me anyway. I temporarily changed the "store .torrents in" directory to a new location, exited, then changed it back to the original directory. Torrents are now saving and using just one copy, exactly as before I upgraded to 1.8 (which is excellent, by the way). So from where I am sitting, this was a minor migration issue.

And, Littlefire, the original problem I had was that utorrent was creating a second torrent (only after migrating to 1.8) in the same directory as my custom storage directory, which is where I have always saved them in the first place.

[thelittlefire]

The torrent storage location is %APPDATA%\uTorrent when you don't specify.

[inf0r]

thelittlefire, it won't help alot if you repeat yourself over and over again. We heared that already, maybe you could now try to help us fixing the issue?

Of course my memory is incorrect and the years I used uTorrent were only a dream...

So, Claribel unluckily to change the folder in the settings and back didn't fix the problem for me.

So, if the torrent has the same name as the .torrent file, uTorrent renames the copy as following (torrentname).1.torrent. Otherwise uTorrent places a copy with the name of the Torrent itself.

Maybe before 1.8 uTorrent placed the copied files in a cache folder?

[Claribel]

inf0r, no - I have never had torrents copying into a cache folder (i.e. the standard %appdata%\uTorrent folder) - all that is in there are the .exe file and the settings and other .dat files. Despite what anyone tells us, the torrents ran from the .tor files I downloaded and saved into the "store .torrents in" directory - as they are doing now.

I only sometimes got the 1 added before the extension - what happened with me, as i am sure you have read, is that a copy was made of the .tor with _ and + sign removed.

I hope you get it sorted - I know how irritating this is.

[thelittlefire]

Torrents you add and KEEP in the listview don't change themselves just because you change preferences. Preferences are set ON ADD.

There is only one torrent storage location directory. If you download torrents, why don't you setup the auto-load folder instead, and enable "move don't copy"... Of course your saved copy won't be used in uTorrent unless you utilize your browser's "open with" instead of "save as" functionality ><