Invalid download state / Haunted torrent list??? :mad:

[quipstad]

I've done plenty of searching through the forums and none of the other problems seem to be quite like mine.

I had about a dozen torrents in my list, some downloading, some seeding, some stopped at 0%, various sizes between a few hundred MBs and a few GBs. In order to free up some bandwidth for online gaming, I chose to exit µTorrent. No problem here, in older versions I did this all the time with no problem.

This time, however, when I started µTorrent back up, all the incomplete torrents said "Error: Invalid download state, try resuming". I had no hard drive failure and never changed the download location. Clicking "start" told me files were missing and to re-check.

Weird, but again, no big deal. I force re-checked the torrents and they all finished downloading.

Now here's where it gets interesting. I kept µTorrent running to finish seeding the torrents, then deleted them from the list. Now I'm down to about 4 torrents still seeding.

Every single time I exit µTorrent for more than 1 minute (give the process time to close) and restart the program, the list reverts back to the same dozen torrents, some finished, some not, many with that same error state.

So, frustrated, I delete the ones I finished already, force re-check the 4 remaining, and keep the program open so they can finish seeding. Come back when they are done, no problems.

So I clear the list. No torrents whatsoever. All tasks complete, empty box. Nothing going on. Can't stress this enough.

Close the program, wait a minute, re-open and they are all back again!!! No matter what I do, I can't get this list of torrents (which are all completely complete) to disappear permanently.

If I add new torrents, they download fine, but if I close the program halfway through, and re-open it, my new torrent is nowhere to be found (so I have to start it all over again) and the same dozen torrents (some finished, some stopped, all others error'd) is back again.

Any ideas? My download location has never changed, no files were moved, and I don't have any problems with any data on my HDD. This never started happening until µTorrent 3 (may have been 3.1, but updating to 3.2 didn't help). Uninstalling µTorrent and re-installing also didn't help. Same list of torrents. Won't go away.

Running Windows 7 Ultimate, µTorrent 3.2.1 (but problems existed since 3.1.x or earlier).

[jsillup]

With uTorrent not running, try deleting "resume.dat" and "resume.dat.old" in %appdata%\utorrent.

[ciaobaby]

I chose to exit µTorrent. No problem here, in older versions I did this all the time with no problem.

How exactly did you exit the client?

[quipstad]

How exactly did you exit the client?

File --> Exit

[ciaobaby]

Ok

Sounds like resume.dat mat be samaged in some way.

Shut down the client, check in Task Manager -> processes to make sure the service has shutdown as well.

Rename resume.dat and resume.dat.old (both found in %appdata%/utorrent ).

The client should then start up with a clean, empty job list. If any jobs were added from magnets that data will be gone completely unless you want to start playing with BEncode.

[ciaobaby]

And it may be worth updating to 3.2.2 where the odd startup problem that occured with 3.2.1 seem to be resolved.

[quipstad]

Sounds like resume.dat mat be damaged in some way.

I already tried completely deleting all the .dat files after making sure the service was shut down so it started completely fresh. It still brought the list back up (which I didn't think was even possible).

may be worth updating to 3.2.2

I will try updating but I'm not too hopeful, since the problem existed prior to 3.2.1

Thanks for the ideas.

Why would renaming the resume.dat file to resume.dat.old work, if deleting it completely did not?

[quipstad]

Okay, all ideas given full trial and no luck. I've tried uninstalling and re-installing, tried updating to 3.2.2, tried deleting the files resume.dat and resume.dat.old, tried renaming them and nothing works.

There has to be someplace the program is pulling the job list from if not resume.dat or resume.dat.old

The only extra piece of information I can offer is that it takes a couple of minutes for this to happen. If I exit the program, verify that no µTorrent processes are running, and restart it, they are not coming back. But if the program is shut down for more than 5 minutes or so (as in almost every time I would logically close the program), the list is back. That screwey, annoying, obsolete list of errored and random other torrents.

And as this specific job list is all it remembers, it doesn't remember new torrents. So I have to keep µTorrent running during 100% of anything I want to do, because the program is infected with a serious case of Alzheimer's.

GAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHH :| :/ :mad:

[DreadWingKnight]

There has to be someplace the program is pulling the job list from if not resume.dat or resume.dat.old

There isn't.

[quipstad]

Well if there isn't, then how could anyone possibly explain the list coming back even when all data files are deleted? We're talking about a completely fresh install with no existing data on the computer, and it's still coming back.

It makes no sense whatsoever, and is literally impossible, but it doesn't change the fact that it's happening.

I'm not new to computer hardware or software and I know what I'm doing. I know this isn't possible. But it's happening anyway and that's why I'm here. There must be a bug in the program that is holding onto something - via my IP address maybe? I have no idea.

[DreadWingKnight]

Screenshot of preferences - directories please.

[quipstad]

Screenshot of preferences - directories please.

Can you clarify what you mean by screenshot of directories?

The folder I download my torrents to is empty because I move them after deleting them from µTorrent - so I can keep thing organized - videos in one place, music in another, etc.

[jsillup]

The assumption is that uTorrent is using the default location for resume.dat, but that might not be the case. I suggest searching the entire hard drive to try to find if there are any other instances of resume.dat.

[DreadWingKnight]

The assumption isn't that jsillup, the assumption is that the preferences are set wrong.

[ciaobaby]

And if you need an explanation:

The "auto load" directory being the same as the "store" or "completed" directory.

[quipstad]

Okay, well I got it fixed. Preferences were not wrong, and I don't see how that could affect the problem I was having. Sorry I didn't provide the screenshots as requested, but I felt like it wasn't worth the hassle if I got it fixed (unless you know an easy way to do this. I would have had to "alt+print screen" for each of the 10 or so different preference pages - and again wasn't sure what file directories you wanted a screencap of).

Deleting 100% of the .dat files did not work, but I wanted to also try deleting all the files from the dllimagecache folder. But even when µTorrent was not running, it said the files were in use and could not be deleted (there were about a dozen of these files). I feel like this may have been the problem, because if I couldn't delete them, there must have been some "hook" that was running even though it did not show up in the list of processes.

Steps taken to solution:

Deleted recurring "phantom" job list, and closed µTorrent.

Restarted computer along with rebooting modem and router, to completely reset internet connection.

When the computer booted back up (µTorrent set to NOT autostart), went into the appdata folder and deleted the .dat files again, along with all the dllimagecache

Started µTorrent.

Fixed! Empty job list! Set my preferences again and all is good. Even finished some new jobs and closed µTorrent for 5 minutes to see if they came back again. Nope!

If you still want screenshots, let me know.

[ciaobaby]

I would have had to "alt+print screen"

Or use the "Snipping Tool" that is a Windows standard program since Vista.

for each of the 10 or so different preference pages

Nope just the one labelled "Directories"

Which of course is now moot.