A New Twist on -Error: Can't open .torrent file: NameOfTheFile.torrent

[SRhyse]

I'm a big uTorrent fan, so thanks to everyone that makes it so great and lightweight!

I've searched around the forums and the internet quite a bit, but can't find anything to help with an odd problem I'm having. If it turns out the answer is simple and has been given many times before, I'll be thankful to hear it and look like a dick!

For reference - I've currently got 13556 torrent listings in uTorrent, listing 1-2TB of files. I'm running uTorrent version 2.0.4 build 21431 (I tried the newer versions from there with the newer interface, but it slowed my machine down to a stall, so I downgraded)

Quick summary -

Have many, many torrents

Deleted uTorrent folder while running

Have multiple complete backups of that folder

Loading the backups back in don't do much to help

How do I get all my torrents reconnected when I can't do it one by one?

Story so far -

I accidentally deleted the main uTorrent folder and most all the files in it while it was running (save for the ones it said were being accessed). I thought it was a redundant backup I had main, and that nothing bad happening when I deleted it somehow confirmed that. Next time I started it up, I realized I was wrong.

All of my torrents now were red and had this error in the status - Error: Can't open .torrent file: NameOfTheFile.torrent

I managed to recover the deleted folder and it's contents with GetDataBack, save for the .old and .dat files, which didn't originally delete because they were in use at the time. I also have a backup of the entire folder with those files and all the torrent files that dates back about a month. None of the boxes in the Directories dialog of the preferences menu are checked, so all that is ever in my uTorrent folder is torrent files, the exe, and the .dat and .old files.

At first I tried deleting the .dat and .old files, then copying all the torrent files back into the directory, but that only brought up a blank uTorrent with none of my stuff. After copying the .dat and .old files back in, uTorrent opened with all my listings again, but random ones have the error status. The ones that don't tend to have the status of Stopped with 0% done, or remain at 100% complete either seeding or finished. I can't see rhyme or reason as to which files have what status and why.

I've tried forcing a recheck on them, but that only works on the ones that say they're stopped. The errored ones are a no go. I've tried reloading the original torrent file I downloaded from the web, but that gives me an error of 'Unable to load "NameOfTheFile.torrent": Invalid torrent file'. I've also tried running the torrent file currently sitting in the uTorrent folder, but those do the same thing.

The only thing I've done that gets the errored torrents back up is to delete the listing manually, reload the torrent, set it to download to the same location, then force a recheck. I can't do that for 13k+ torrents though, and can't easily automate it because some have different download locations.

All the files that were downloaded haven't been changed, though over the years I'm sure some have been moved (though not many). I'm mainly concerned that I can no longer seed select batches of files, and that I've lost the functionality of the labels in uTorrent, which I largely use as the index for all the files it downloads. For ones that have odd names that I can't find with search everything, that means they've been eaten by the abyss.

To sum up again-

Have many, many torrents

Deleted uTorrent folder while running

Have multiple complete backups of that folder

Loading the backups back in don't do much to help

How do I get all my torrents reconnected when I can't do it one by one?

Any help or insights would be much appreciated.

Thanks!

[DreadWingKnight]

I'm running uTorrent version 2.0.4 build 21431

Which isn't supported anymore. (Support for this version ended mid February)

Force re-checks can be done in groups (select all offending torrents with ctrl+clicks and then right-click and force a re-check) but that's it.

[Firon]

So, you've tested the latest 2.2.1 and it didn't work well for you?

Would you be willing to do some performance testing with us? With such a large number of torrents, there's a number of places where things could've slowed down in newer versions. I'd love to get uT sped up again so it works well with that many torrents. Send me an email if you're interested: firon at utorrent dot com

As for fixing your problem, the .torrent needs to exist with that exact name uT is looking for in %AppData%\uTorrent, or whever your .torrent storage folder is.

[SRhyse]

I'd love to help you speed up uTorrent if I could, so I sent you an email on that.

In regards to the data existing in the exact location uTorrent's looking for, I've placed the files back into the same directory, but it's current still not working. I did notice that when I do the remove, reload the torrent, and reconnect method to get them working again, a new file entry is created with a .1 or some number in the name. The ones I have from my recovery don't all seem to have that.

Is uTorrent looking for that file with a number appended specifically, and the ones I copied back over somehow might've stripped that from the file in the act of recovering and copying them?

[Firon]

Ok, change the .torrent storage folder option under Prefs -> Directories to some arbitrary folder. Close uT and dump all the .torrents in that folder. Start it, then try to start some of the torrents that you KNOW the .torrent exists for.

See if that works.

[SRhyse]

No change in the slightest, unfortunately. Set the top two options of where to store .torrent files in preferences to a new folder I made containing copies of all the .torrent files in the folder uTorrent is in, didn't do anything about the checkbox for automatically loading or deleting torrents from a certain folder, and it behaved the same way.