Automatically load .torrents from network drive - doesn't work

[V@no]

Hello!

When I select in "Automatically load .torrents from" a folder on a mapped network drive (or simple network share), uT doesn't do anything when new torrent files added into that folder. Both local and network computers are running Windows XP Pro SP3.

When I open that folder on network drive on local computer and then add new files from the network computer, the files will show up in the folder on local computer without need in folder refresh, which proofs that both OS configured properly and send/receive "file changed" signals.

Is there a way fix this issue?

Thank you.

P.S.

using uT v1.8.1 b12639

[Firon]

Go to the logger tab and turn on Error Logging -> Misc errors

See if anything pops up when you add torrents to the autoload folder.

[V@no]

Nope, nothing.

However, when I restart uT the add new torrent window pops up, after that adding new torrents to autoload folder does nothing.

[EDIT]

Would be nice hear at least something like:

"can't reproduce, need more info"

or

"confirmed, sent to developers team"

From what I've read on this forum, uT and local network is a nightmare...why is that?

[t123]

Hi,

i had the same problem. The reason was torrent files were being copied with read-only attribute, and utorrent seems to ignore them. I removed the read-only attribute manually, and utorrent instantly started downloading.

Hope it helps.

[V@no]

Nope, doesn't help.

In my tests .torrent files don't have read-only attribute set, but even after changing it back and forth, uT still ignores them.

[gastric]

V@no - did you ever get a successful conclusion to this problem? I'm experience the same thing.

* Windows Home Server

* Virtual Server 2005

* WinXP Pro as a VM in Virtual Server running uTorrent 1.8.2

* uTorrent uses shares on the server to store .torrents and the completed files, uses "local" drive to cache currently downloading torrents

It simply does not auto-load .torrents from network shares using UNC or mapped drives. It can manually load the very same torrents. There's no permissions errors or attribute issues as far as I can see. It seems to be specific to monitoring a network directory. I cannot come up with a solution that allows me to use a network share to monitor for auto-loading .torrent files.

[hermanm]

This is a known issue for network drives (Samba). If you refresh the network folder in Windows (F5), µTorrent will be able to load them. If use you Filemon.exe, you'll notice the way .torrents on local disks are handled is different from network drives. The issue is that there is no intelligent way to be notified that a folder contents has changed on a network. The workstation has to the poll the network drive. Its not an issue if its just one computer accessing a network drive, but imagine if thousands of computers accessed a network drive every 6 seconds by design.

[gastric]

Thanks for the detailed response.

Is there some advanced setting available to force polling the network drive? I only have one machine running uTorrent now and I wouldn't care if it polled it every 6 seconds, every 60 seconds, or once an hour for that matter. But it'd be great if it could poll it automatically as doing it manually is complicating my ability to fully automate uTorrent on a headless system.

I suppose an alternative is to try to find some script or tool that can run and poll for me, or copy new .torrents to a local folder, while still maintaining all of the downloads and other data to the network shares.

[rthawkcom]

This has always been a bug with uT since day one. I'm having the same issue here in an all windows shop.

I have found that if you restart uT, the problem will go away for a while before starting again. So it's obviously not an issue with file attributes. It's also not a networking issue, because once you restart it, the torrents pop in just fine.

[DreadWingKnight]

The problem is with the refresh/change notification on network shares. They just aren't there the way they are with local drives.

[rthawkcom]

I'll buy that!! Anyway we convince Mr. Strigeus to just have it poll via timer?

[hermanm]

> It's also not a networking issue

Actually, it is a networking issue. You can go search online and you'll find old web discussions stating the same about SAMBA shares. It is a well documented issue on various distributions of Linux.

[gastric]

I've finally solved this extremely annoying issue by creating some .BAT files to simply copy torrents from the network share to a local drive that my VM running uTorrent can successfully and reliably auto-load from. You can download the scripts here: http://www.mininova.org/tor/2610050

[hermanm]

Why not just put the autoload directory on a local disk your VM can access? That would remove the requirement to have a .BAT file that is constantly running.

[gastric]

Because the autoload directory is on the central server, where it has been, and where all the users are familiar with it being. Everything is nice and tidy on a single server, accessible via a single UNC path.

But I'm always open to suggestions on how to do things better. Better for me would be if uTorrent could simply monitor network locations successfully instead of me having to use a 1980's era DOS script to do the work.

[jewelisheaven]

Hey, I say thanks for sharing this, though a torrent for a set of text files may seem weird at first. Funnily enough, the TORRENT is larger than the actual data Actually it's not when you download it, but I used Ultima's BFE to add in your post information into the COMMENT for the torrent for my own pleasure. (2508 Bytes ZIP 3128 Bytes TORRENT )

[gastric]

Sharing via torrent is odd, but I didn't feel like finding some direct host.

Actually the BEST solution would still be on the developers end. Making a fully usable uTorrent Service that I can run on the server as a service (read: I don't have to have a user account auto-login with each server start), still use (edit/add/remove) RSS feeds, and still have full web or network based control. The current web control lacks RSS features. Which is the only reason I'm even running a separate VM and having all this cant-auto-from-the-network fun anyway.

[hermanm]

The batch file is very clever. I never thought to use a ping 127.0.0.1 as a wait timer. I'll post your torrent_monitor.bat here:

@ECHO OFF

REM AUTHORED BY GASTRIC - PLEASE SHARE FREELY

REM UTORRENT CANNOT SUCCESSFULLY MONITOR TORRENTS FROM A NETWORK SHARE

REM THIS SCRIPT MONITORS A NETWORK DIRECTORY FOR NEW TORRENTS AND MOVES THEM TO A LOCAL DIRECTORY SO UTORRENT CAN SUCCESSFULLY AUTO-LOAD THEM

REM TO USE THIS SCRIPT DO THE FOLLOWING

REM 1. Open uTorrent directories preferences, check 'automatically load .torrents from' and choose a local directory such as C:\torrents

REM 2. Place this .BAT file on your local hard drive, such as C:\torrents

REM 3. Place a shortcut to this .BAT file in your Startup folder so it automatically runs at Windows startup

REM 4. Configure the shortcut properties to 'Run minimized' if you desire

REM 5. Modify the VARIABLES in the SET section below to match your directories

REM THE NETWORK DIRECTORY YOU NEED TO MONITOR, CAN BE UNC OR MAPPED DRIVE LETTER, MAKE SURE TO LEAVE THE *.TORRENT ON THE END

SET NETWORK_DIRECTORY="\\server\auto LOAD TORRENTs\*.TORRENT"

REM THE LOCAL DIRECTORY YOU WANT TO MOVE THE TORRENTS TO

SET LOCAL_DIRECTORY="C:\TORRENT"

REM THE LENGTH OF TIME BETWEEN EACH CYCLE OF CHECKING THE NETWORK DIRECTORY, DEFAULT IS 15 SECONDS

SET PAUSE_TIME=15

:MONITOR_DIRECTORY

ECHO MONITORING FOR NEW TORRENTS... PLEASE WAIT...

IF EXIST %NETWORK_DIRECTORY% GOTO PROCESS_FILES

IF NOT EXIST %NETWORK_DIRECTORY% GOTO DONT_PROCESS_FILES

:PROCESS_FILES

ECHO FOUND NEW TORRENTS! MOVING FROM NETWORK TO LOCAL DRIVE FOR PROCESSING

move %NETWORK_DIRECTORY% %LOCAL_DIRECTORY%

@ping 127.0.0.1 -n %PAUSE_TIME% -w 1000> nul

GOTO MONITOR_DIRECTORY

:DONT_PROCESS_FILES

@ping 127.0.0.1 -n %PAUSE_TIME% -w 1000> nul

GOTO MONITOR_DIRECTORY

[steppedup]

It's a solution that costs money, but watchDirectory works gangbusters with my VM HTPC-backend box.

[trucido]

I know this is an old thread but I felt my solution may be able to help others out there who use a central server to to all their torrenting...

My solution was to set my utorrent to monitor my dropbox folder on my server and on any other computer I use to download torrents I either manually transfer the .torrent files to my folder or have a script that does it automatically. If you check the box in utorrent that deletes the .torrent file after loading, dropbox will notify you that the file has been loaded into utorrent by issuing a popup message that says the file has been deleted from your dropbox folder.

Hope this helps someone.

[humb23]

I've reported this before and haven't seen my post (unless I'm looking in the wrong place). A month or so ago when I downloaded a .torrent file to the specified directory, µTorrent would promply pick it up and start the download. Now it's not doing that -- I have to press ^O or click the first icon and highlight the file, then it works normally. In "preferences" - "directories" I have it set to "Automatically load torrents from <specified directory>. The only way I don't have to go through this is to use the site's magnet link. Any ideas, or better yet, any reason it was working before and not now? In both instances I was using "µTorrent Turbo Accelerator" - I don't think the problem is there.

[gastric]

Bumping this.

I'm still using this ancient BAT script I created way back in 2009 to poll-and-move my .torrent files. Does the latest builds of uTorrent provide some new functionality that makes this unnecessary?