Torrent files become corrupt - but only ones I've created myself

[saltydog101]

Sorry for this dumb newb question (and yes, I've read the FAQ and used search but I'm not any clearer on what the problem is).

First, this problem ONLY occurs on torrents I've created myself, never on torrents I've downloaded.

Second, all these torrents are FLAC audio files plus associated .txt files, .cue files and cover art images.

I upload the torrent successfully, everything is going fine. People successfully complete the torrent (I've checked with users on the tracker.)

Then for no apparent reason the torrent is corrupted. It moves out of my uploading pane and into my download pane, it shows 99.8% complete; it gradually uploads then at 2 seconds to completion it stops downloading and it reverts to 99.8% complete. (This is weird - there are users with completed versions of the torrent who are seeding the completed torrent - why can't uTorrent complete my upload so my torrent is at 100% and no longer corrupt?)

When I check the actual torrent folders the files that are shown as incomplete (!UT) are mainly the .txt, .cue files, and the cover art images but sometimes one of the FLAC files also shows !UT.

I have no idea if this is a uTorrent problem or something to do with my system - please help!

For reference: I'm using uTorrent 2.2.1 (build 25203), and my OS is Windows 7 professional 64 bit.

(I was advised by a member on my tracker to make sure that when I create a new Torrent I should go to the properties of the torrent folder, double-click on the read only button so it showed a tick mark, hit apply, and then hit confirm that I wanted this to apply to folders, sub-folders and files by clicking OK. This doesn't work - it ought to stop any files being changed, but it doesn't. When I go back to the folder properties, read-only is no longer ticked, it just shows the normal blue square, and the files still become corrupted.)

[moogly]

Surely a media indexer (Winamp, WMP, music library etc) retagging the FLAC files, that's why only few 0.x % are missing.

Do you share your FLACs from a music folder shared through a media indexer too?

[saltydog101]

Surely a media indexer (Winamp, WMP, music library etc) retagging the FLAC files, that's why only few 0.x % are missing.

Do you share your FLACs from a music folder shared through a media indexer too?

Not so far as I know - they are just on a folder on my hard drive where I keep both downloaded and uploaded torrents. It's not indexed by Windows. It's not in my folder where I keep my iTunes music (it's on the same drive partition) but it's a completely separate folder.

Could VLC media player be doing this? If so, how do I stop it? And why is it only the torrents I've uploaded that get corrupted, not the downloaded ones? And why are all the .txt files, .cue files and images being corrupted?

I'm a total newb to torrents, and I'm not particularly computer-savvy in general (you've probably figured that out already LOL).

Thanks!

[moogly]

Imagine you're sharing a FLAC with 1-MB piece size.

.txt, images etc cover less than 1 MB, so the 1st piece of the torrent overlays these files and a small part at the start of the FLAC file. If a file indexer retags the FLAC (header is changed), the 1st piece is modified so the other files appear to be corrupt (and furthermore the FLAC too).

Can you check when the issue appears if the missing piece is located at the start or end of the FLAC file? (see Files tab, red pieces)

[saltydog101]

Yes, on the FLAC files the red missing bit is at the end of the file. All the .txt files etc it's all red. Or at least that's the case for the only one of the corrupt torrents I've currently got in uTorrent (I removed the other two).

So this means what? It's definitely an indexer problem?

[moogly]

With an edge missing piece for the FLAC, surely a media indexer trying to retag the file.

[saltydog101]

OK, so what do I do about it? I can't find anything about indexing by VLC which is the only media player I use apart from iTunes, and iTunes only Media Folder location is a completely separate folder. Doesn't that mean it should only be indexing that folder, not anything else on my computer? iTunes is never used by me to play any of the files that have become corrupted, although it IS used to play copies of the FLAC files which I've put in the iTunes Media folder. But playing a completely separate file in a completely separate folder surely can't be the problem, can it?

I've got VLC Media player set as my default media player for everything, both audio and video, so it has got to be VLC that is the problem, right? Yet I've gone through literally every setting option for VLC and there is not a mention of indexing anywhere, nor can I find anything about indexing on the VLC wiki.

Thanks very much for your help on this - I appreciate it.

[moogly]

Post Hijackthis log, maybe it's another software.

Anyway something is modifying the FLAC files, you need to find the culprit because µT isn't faulty.

There is a tool to check the processes accessing to files, it's Process Monitor from Sysinternals, maybe you can use it with a new torrent and see if the FLAC is modified.