Initial seed not uploading normally

[Jaylin]

This is one file I am having a problem with. Other files upload fine. I have it set to initial seed and have it forced started. I even set the bandwidth Allocation to "High" to, supposedly, give it priority, but 90% of the time there is no upload activity, and the time to completion has the infinity symbol, even though it will show 6-8 peers. Even when there is activity, the vast majority of the time it has a very slow upload of around 1-2 kbs. I figured there was always the unlikely possibility that all the peers had really bad internet connections, but that doesn't explain the complete lack of activity for so much of the time, even though it shows the peers.

What makes it more confusing is that there will be short bursts of activity where the upload speed will jump really high, like 70-80 kbs, and sometimes over 100, but it only lasts for a short time anywhere from 10 seconds to a minute, then it rapidly drops, and often stops all activity completely again. If it can burst that high, it doesn't seem like bad connections on the peers would be the problem.

The file is a little over 3 GB. It's the biggest file I have uploaded myself, but that shouldn't be a huge factor, other than taking a little longer to complete. It is ridiculous. I started it nearly 4 days ago and I am only showing 1.25 GB uploaded so far, so naturally, there are no other seeds yet. Meanwhile, another file I uploaded yesterday has nearly 100 seeds already.

Other files have very constant upload rates, some maintain very high upload rates even though they are set to "Normal" Bandwidth Allocation. Today I even tried pausing all the other uploads to give this one free reign to do as it pleased, but it is a dead fish. It had about a one minute burst over 100 kbs, then dropped to nothing, and has been there ever since, still showing peers. I have read all the tweak suggestions, and made the suggested changes, but this file is frustrating me. It just doesn't make sense to me, and I was hoping that someone might have a suggestion, or at least an explanation of this. Is there something that could be wrong that only affects one upload like this?

[Jaylin]

Well, it seems like it is uploading a little more consistently today, but only after pause most of the rest of my seeds. It did get several new peers, which may be the factor.

I did take a look at the "Peers" tab today, which I had never looked at before. It seems that the big spikes were due to one or two of the peers spiking, then dropping off. It was strange because they would spike over 100 kbps, then completely drop off, while one or two would remain constant at the extremely low upload rates. Many of the connected peers were showing no activity at all. Maybe they are just downloading so slow it isn't even registering. <shrugs>

I did notice that, despite being set to "High" bandwidth allocation, that seed would always give way to other seeds that were set to normal. As the other seeds would rise, this one would fall, which is why I disabled most of the other seeds I had going, and restricted the upload speed on a couple that I kept going. That has allowed it to keep a more consistent upload speed. I was at 1.25 GB uploaded after 4 days when I made my first post. I am now at nearly 5 GB uploaded. Unfortunately, none of the peers are even close to seeding. A few have a 200-300 MB, many have less than 100 MB. The highest is only a little over 700 MB. I found this strange because normally the seed goes to multiple clients at once and the seed totals are much higher than my actual upload, but that isn't the case here. It's like they all downloaded individually. Is this just some bad luck, or possibly a case of a setting needing to be changed?

Some of it makes more sense after watching the peer tab, though I still don't get why a few peers will spike high for a short period and then drop off completely. I also don't understand why I have to babysit this seed, while others can maintain consistent, nor why it gives up bandwidth to other seeds. I thought setting it to "high" gave it the priority over other seeds, but the opposite seems to be the case. Am I misunderstanding the Bandwidth Allocation setting?