Confused about .torrent file management

[ovonrein]

Need some simple guidance, please.

I would like to understand how one is supposed to manage one's .torrent files. To date, I simply download a .torrent file into some directory, add it to uTorrent and the torrent ends up downloading into the same directory where there is the .torrent file.

That's kind-of messy, but fine. Except...

I recently realized that there's also some ~/Application Data/uTorrent directory with various .dat and whatever config files AND TONS OF .torrent files, all exact copies, I assume, of the .torrent files mentioned in paragraph 1.

How can I avoid this duplication?

EDIT #1

I'm even more confused now. Moved all the old *.torrent files from ~/Application Data/uTorrent to their new home only to find uTorrent keel over. A bit of googling the planet reveals that this won't work unless I edit resume.dat with Ultima's BEncode. Downloaded that and looked at resume.dat - I cannot make out any mention of the old Application Data path, so I'm a little stumped as to what I'm supposed to change. Suggestions anyone?

[Ultima]

You don't mess with the cached .torrent files. µTorrent doesn't care where on the drive you opened the original .torrent file from: when you add it to µTorrent, it makes a copy in its torrent storage directory and uses that instead. Why? Because it doesn't want to have to deal with users screwing around with .torrent files that it needs to work properly. Few users actually organize their .torrent files -- most just open from desktop (or straight from the browser, or something) and simply delete the original .torrent file afterwards. If µTorrent were to simply reference the originally opened .torrent file, it would never work for a large majority of users.

Preferences > Directories if you want µTorrent to store the .torrent files elsewhere, but how µTorrent decides to name those .torrent files still won't be your call.

[ovonrein]

Gosh gully. Did I commit some cardinal sin by trying to organize my file system? I do care what my file system looks like, not least because I have to bear in mind the capture of my backup. uTorrent's naming inside its cache isn't much of a mystery either - it's the same names of the original .torrent files. WHAT WAS UNEXPECTED is that changing Preferences/Directories/Store DID NOT apply retrospectively to the catalogue of pre-existing torrents. I am now in the hugely undesirable position of having my catalogue spread over TWO locations Would it really be such an affront to politely enquire where uTorrent caches its notion of the .torrent file? The alternative is to wipe out all of uTorrent and start from scratch. Not great, but preferable to the mess I find myself in now...

[Ultima]

None of the directory options apply retroactively. They are simply defaults for torrents added after they are set.

If you have a ton of .torrent files that aren't actually loaded in µTorrent anymore, then isolate the existing ones and move them to the new location afterwards. While µTorrent is closed, open resume.dat in BEncode Editor (heed the warnings in BEE's thread), Find and Replace...

- using RegEx search

- searching on Keys only

- Value set to ^([^\\]*\.torrent)$

- Replace set to X:\\new\\path\\$1

Yeah, this isn't simple, it isn't automatic, and I have seen your feature request thread for automating this process. I doubt the request is something that will be implemented in µTorrent (or if considered, it'd probably be low priority), but here, you have your workaround for the time being.

[ovonrein]

Thank you!

[ovonrein]

I thought I add another post to this old thread, since finding it again today saved my butt. My trusty old XP server blew up a few days ago when a capacitor died. With a new mobo, it was now finally time to move on to Win7 (Win8 ain't quite for me). Rebuilding a big server is, of course, a job from hell. But it is not entirely devoid of moments of merriment. Such when reading the riotous help page on uTorrent as to how to migrate torrents between computers. "Hope springs eternal" is my only response to the many assumptions in those pages, none of which held true in my migration. So it was just as well I remembered this little thread. Playing with RegEx isn't my favourite past-time, but needs must. I ended up using this expression:

Find: ^(.*\\)*(.*\.torrent)$

Replace: C:\\Users\\admin\\Videos\\Torrents\\$2

to repoint torrents with and without file path. After that, I also needed to change the drive letter (from L to K) in front of the "path" variable, which I accomplished like so:

Find: ^L(:.*)$

Replace: K$1

While the process is cryptic and it requires some nous, I would recommend to add it to the help pages on migration.