Torrents Going Red In Utorrent

[MaiDong]

I use uTorrent, recently I started directing all of my downloaded data to this drive(allocating it as my completed downloads folder) and after about half a day it started turning all of my torrents red in uTorrent, what could be causing this? I've since changed my comp DL's folder back onto my internal storage and all the torrents have returned to green... Could it be because I haven't installed uTorrent onto that drive? Could it be because my external is FAT32 but my internal(where the application is installed) is NTFS?

Thanks in advance for any suggestions - I've already googled it and found nothing(with my search criteria anyway! )

[MKAsok]

Are they red with a cross or red with an arrow on the icon?

[MaiDong]

^ Just a red arrow, as if the tracker is having problems... In the past I've asked in the uTorrent forums but some of the users are really arsey and just keep telling people to read the FAQ's, hence me asking 'locally'

[MKAsok]

Does sound like a tracker problem to be honest, but I realise you've probably been down this road. Is utorrent telling you anything aobut the tracker timing out or whatever? If it was a result of moving them and utorrent not being able to locate them, or a problem with your external, they would be marked with a cross. You might want to try forcing a recheck on one of them in the new location and see if it solves the problem.

[JusMe]

I've sometimes found that if the torrent file and the downloading file aren't in the same location, the app will show a red line and not download. I've moved the torrent file into the same folder as the downloading file, restarted the torrent, and it's checked the data and then continued.

[MaiDong]

Thanks for your suggestions MKAsok, I haven't moved any files at all and the force re-check is greyed out

JusMe, that sounds reasonable but they are inconsistently going red, not all of the data on the external nor all of the data on the internal is going red...

I've moved everything back to it'sm original state now, completed dl's are now going onto my internal and there's not a problem any more, it's something to do with my external I'm sure, it's an Acer 1TB which is only a month or so old, never have any problems with it, it's on all the time, buzzing away nicely so I'm wondering if it's something I'll never be able to sort out, I'm downloading large amounts of data and wanted it stored on my external so my desktop machine is left as clear as possible, any ideas on what I can do now?

[TerraPosse]

I've never had much success getting uTorrent to work here in Thailand. Hence I use now Opera's build-in torrent client which works just fine. Point it to where you want your data and it will download in the background whilst you can surf and do what you need doing in your browser.

[meadish_sweetball]

FAT32 has a size limit of 4 GB, and for that reason is a mostly useless file system for storing video media (except for smaller clips or low quality). If you try to download files larger than 4GB, it will not work and may be the reason for at least some of your torrents going red.

Stick to NTFS for that purpose if you are running Windows.

[lomatopo]

#25. What do the red icons (Tracker Error (download)/Tracker Error (upload)) mean on the torrent status icons?

These red icons indicate that µTorrent was not able to reach the tracker. This could happen when the tracker goes offline, becomes overloaded, or when the domain simply doesn't exist anymore. Check Tracker Status on the General tab to see what the exact error message is.

In many cases, seeing this (especially if you see hostname not found in Tracker Status) and having DHT on but still having no peers to connect to may mean that you'll have to find another copy of the torrent on another tracker.

In some cases, this is normal because the tracker is overloaded or temporarily down. The torrent itself should keep seeding/downloading as long as you got some peers, and if the tracker comes back up or becomes responsive, you should have no lost ratio so long as you don't close µTorrent or stop the torrent.

Is it every torrent or just one out of several?

I have excellent performance using uTorrent but when things seem to stall I close the app, get a new IP address, re-set any port forwarding then re-start the app and things return to normal. I can maintain wire-speed throughout the day using CSLoxInfo on a TOT fixed line in Bangkok (Khlongtoei).

[MKAsok]

The weirdest thing is it's only happening when he moves the files to his external. The location of the files should have no bearing whatsoever on the tracker. Problems usually occur when the client can't find the source files of the torrent. The only thing I can suggest is:

Move all the folders across to a directory on your external

Stop all your torrents

Right-click each one and select advanced/set download location

Navigate to the appropriate folder and select it

Repeat for each torrent

[MaiDong]

FAT32 has a size limit of 4 GB, and for that reason is a mostly useless file system for storing video media (except for smaller clips or low quality). If you try to download files larger than 4GB, it will not work and may be the reason for at least some of your torrents going red.

Stick to NTFS for that purpose if you are running Windows.

All the files I DL are around 1.4GB - x264 quality and are large enough for my 22" display with a crystal clear picture, I've tried to transfer over files in ISO format which were over 4GB and you're right, they don't transfer over, this is not my problem, thanks for your suggestion though

[MaiDong]

I've never had much success getting uTorrent to work here in Thailand. Hence I use now Opera's build-in torrent client which works just fine. Point it to where you want your data and it will download in the background whilst you can surf and do what you need doing in your browser.

I have no problem with uTorrent normally, especially if I use a local directory for completed DL's, I had another thread running regarding my uTorrent problems - as soon as I used my old Thompson modem and SMC router I never had problems again, I have a 4MB connection and I constantly get 600 down and 50 up, I can freely browse with high page load speeds too...

Thanks for your suggestion anyhow

Edited January 21, 2010 by MaiDong

[MaiDong]

The weirdest thing is it's only happening when he moves the files to his external. The location of the files should have no bearing whatsoever on the tracker. Problems usually occur when the client can't find the source files of the torrent. The only thing I can suggest is:

Move all the folders across to a directory on your external

Stop all your torrents

Right-click each one and select advanced/set download location

Navigate to the appropriate folder and select it

Repeat for each torrent

I'm not doing that! There's hundreds of them!!

I didn't transfer my files in the first place, I just changed my completed DL directory to my external(for all new torrents added) and after doing so it was only randomly half of my torrents that were having - supposedly - tracker issues

Thanks for your suggestions too MKAsok, I do appreciate your time

[MaiDong]

#25. What do the red icons (Tracker Error (download)/Tracker Error (upload)) mean on the torrent status icons?

These red icons indicate that µTorrent was not able to reach the tracker. This could happen when the tracker goes offline, becomes overloaded, or when the domain simply doesn't exist anymore. Check Tracker Status on the General tab to see what the exact error message is.

In many cases, seeing this (especially if you see hostname not found in Tracker Status) and having DHT on but still having no peers to connect to may mean that you'll have to find another copy of the torrent on another tracker.

In some cases, this is normal because the tracker is overloaded or temporarily down. The torrent itself should keep seeding/downloading as long as you got some peers, and if the tracker comes back up or becomes responsive, you should have no lost ratio so long as you don't close µTorrent or stop the torrent.

Is it every torrent or just one out of several?

I have excellent performance using uTorrent but when things seem to stall I close the app, get a new IP address, re-set any port forwarding then re-start the app and things return to normal. I can maintain wire-speed throughout the day using CSLoxInfo on a TOT fixed line in Bangkok (Khlongtoei).

You're not one of those people who reply to me in the uTorrent threads directing me to the FAQ's are you??

I have excellent uTorrent performance too, my original problem was that I wanted to store my DL's on my external drive to free up space on my desktop and to attempt to keep my desktop a bit more tidy inside but when I start a new torrent and direct the DL to complete into my external it throws uTorrent into a bit of a panic.

[MaiDong]

#25. What do the red icons (Tracker Error (download)/Tracker Error (upload)) mean on the torrent status icons?

These red icons indicate that µTorrent was not able to reach the tracker. This could happen when the tracker goes offline, becomes overloaded, or when the domain simply doesn't exist anymore. Check Tracker Status on the General tab to see what the exact error message is.

One torrent can have a red arrow next to it for a minute or two, then it won't have a red arrow on it again, others have it for longer but are then fine, it's completely random.

My belief is that the problem is using the external drive whilst uTorrent is installed on my internal, or perhaps as another poster said - torrents should be stored on the same drive as the completed download..

It could also be the format of the external drive, if I wanted to format it and change it to NTFS would that jeopardise the drive? Not the contents, but would it corrupt or damage the drive?

[MKAsok]

My belief is that the problem is using the external drive whilst uTorrent is installed on my internal, or perhaps as another poster said - torrents should be stored on the same drive as the completed download..

Not an issue. I have utorrent installed on my internal and all my files on the external. As far as actual torrent files go, this is not an issue. You can even delete them after they're loaded into utorrent, since the app copies them into its own directory anyway.

It could also be the format of the external drive, if I wanted to format it and change it to NTFS would that jeapardise the drive? Not the contents, but would it corrupt or damage the drive?

It wouldn't jeopardise the drive in the least. I posted instructions on how to convert a drive to NTFS in another thread. Maybe search for it. Having said that, the chance of the format being the problem is pretty much zero, but you should convert anyway unless you need to keep the drive FAT32 to connect to a media player or something.

Edited January 21, 2010 by MKAsok

[Sunny Valentine]

Make sure the location settings in Preferences - Directories match the location you intend to use. It is not enough to cjust change the My Documents location, as Microtorrent keeps its own folder information.

The weirdest thing is it's only happening when he moves the files to his external. The location of the files should have no bearing whatsoever on the tracker. Problems usually occur when the client can't find the source files of the torrent. The only thing I can suggest is:

Move all the folders across to a directory on your external

Stop all your torrents

Right-click each one and select advanced/set download location

Navigate to the appropriate folder and select it

Repeat for each torrent

I'm not doing that! There's hundreds of them!!

I didn't transfer my files in the first place, I just changed my completed DL directory to my external(for all new torrents added) and after doing so it was only randomly half of my torrents that were having - supposedly - tracker issues

Thanks for your suggestions too MKAsok, I do appreciate your time

[MaiDong]

Make sure the location settings in Preferences - Directories match the location you intend to use. It is not enough to cjust change the My Documents location, as Microtorrent keeps its own folder information.

I don't understand, I'm not using Microtorrent, is that a uTorrent alternative?

And yes, the directories match the locations, I had around 30 torrents complete onto the external drive in the time that I had problems.

[MaiDong]

My belief is that the problem is using the external drive whilst uTorrent is installed on my internal, or perhaps as another poster said - torrents should be stored on the same drive as the completed download..

Not an issue. I have utorrent installed on my internal and all my files on the external. As far as actual torrent files go, this is not an issue. You can even delete them after they're loaded into utorrent, since the app copies them into its own directory anyway.

It could also be the format of the external drive, if I wanted to format it and change it to NTFS would that jeapardise the drive? Not the contents, but would it corrupt or damage the drive?

It wouldn't jeopardise the drive in the least. I posted instructions on how to convert a drive to NTFS in another thread. Maybe search for it. Having said that, the chance of the format being the problem is pretty much zero, but you should convert anyway unless you need to keep the drive FAT32 to connect to a media player or something.

I'll look for those instructions, thanks for the suggestion, I would be using the external to watch movies from, using VLC, is that the kind of media player you mean or do you mean a portable media player?

[lomatopo]

#25. What do the red icons (Tracker Error (download)/Tracker Error (upload)) mean on the torrent status icons?

These red icons indicate that µTorrent was not able to reach the tracker. This could happen when the tracker goes offline, becomes overloaded, or when the domain simply doesn't exist anymore. Check Tracker Status on the General tab to see what the exact error message is.

In many cases, seeing this (especially if you see hostname not found in Tracker Status) and having DHT on but still having no peers to connect to may mean that you'll have to find another copy of the torrent on another tracker.

In some cases, this is normal because the tracker is overloaded or temporarily down. The torrent itself should keep seeding/downloading as long as you got some peers, and if the tracker comes back up or becomes responsive, you should have no lost ratio so long as you don't close µTorrent or stop the torrent.

Is it every torrent or just one out of several?

I have excellent performance using uTorrent but when things seem to stall I close the app, get a new IP address, re-set any port forwarding then re-start the app and things return to normal. I can maintain wire-speed throughout the day using CSLoxInfo on a TOT fixed line in Bangkok (Khlongtoei).

You're not one of those people who reply to me in the uTorrent threads directing me to the FAQ's are you??

I have excellent uTorrent performance too, my original problem was that I wanted to store my DL's on my external drive to free up space on my desktop and to attempt to keep my desktop a bit more tidy inside but when I start a new torrent and direct the DL to complete into my external it throws uTorrent into a bit of a panic.

I too direct uTorrent downloads to an external NTFS drive without any issues.

What is the "Tracker Status" for those torrents which have a 'red arrow'? What do you mean when you say "...throws uTorrent into a bit of a panic."?

Typically when I have red arrows, up or down, the tracker status says something like "offline (timed out)", or "connection closed by peer".

If your concern remains the external drive then just download the files to your internal drive and then move them to the external drive. I think if it were a FAT32 limitation (4 gb) problem uTorrent would present an error message.

[MaiDong]

I too direct uTorrent downloads to an external NTFS drive without any issues.

What is the "Tracker Status" for those torrents which have a 'red arrow'? What do you mean when you say "...throws uTorrent into a bit of a panic."?

Typically when I have red arrows, up or down, the tracker status says something like "offline (timed out)", or "connection closed by peer".

If your concern remains the external drive then just download the files to your internal drive and then move them to the external drive. I think if it were a FAT32 limitation (4 gb) problem uTorrent would present an error message.

What do you mean when you say "...throws uTorrent into a bit of a panic."? - I mean that torrents randomly go red to green to red, none of them have any message, just randomly changing colour

If your concern remains the external drive then just download the files to your internal drive and then move them to the external drive. - Yes that's what I'm doing now, I just wanted to keep my drives a bit more tidy

[lomatopo]

For the last time, you need to determine the "Tracker Status" for those torrents which "...randomly go red to green to red...". In uTorrent (the u stands for micro, btw), choose Options, Show Detailed Info, click on the Trackers tab and observe the status.

I think you'll find the torrents with red arrows have a tracker issue.

[MaiDong]

For the last time, you need to determine the "Tracker Status" for those torrents which "...randomly go red to green to red...". In uTorrent (the u stands for micro, btw), choose Options, Show Detailed Info, click on the Trackers tab and observe the status.

I think you'll find the torrents with red arrows have a tracker issue.

Mate, I've already said on a few occasions that there is nothing stated as a problem with the trackers - each and every tracker that was flickering between red and green has a tracker status of 'working', however, it seems a bit odd that there are only these issues when I'm using my external drive - AS STATED IN MY PREVIOUS POSTS ABOVE leading me to believe that there is in fact NO PROBLEM WITH THE TRACKERS

Edited January 23, 2010 by MaiDong

[Lammbock]

Wake up People! Get a Rapidshare Premium Account! Torrent in Thailand is BS!

[MaiDong]

Thanks for that Lammbock

Anyhow, I've done a few test downloads onto my external again, as soon as they started they sent approx. 50% of the other torrents mental again, half red, half green, the tracker status shows 'offline: timed out' - this only appears when I'm using my external drive...

I've tried changing the max no. of connections, max up speed, max down speed, etc etc, all with the same results

Any more ideas ?

[bendejo]

I guess the important thing is whether the torrents are coming in or not. I have a huge torrent in the works (10Gb, it's a TV series consisting of about 15 episodes) that I know will take weeks, and the arrow is red, but the data keeps coming in, sometimes close to 100 kB/s. I've seen the red arrows before, lots of times, and learned not to sweat about them, so long as the files continue to come in.

The problem you describe is strange, providing there are no other factors. I'm wondering of it is something to do with hardware, somewhere between the net connection and the connection with the external drive. If both devices are USB, maybe it's taxing the bus and it can't handle all the activity. I have all my torrent stuff (save the executable itself, which is installed on C:) on a different partition.

[MaiDong]

I guess the important thing is whether the torrents are coming in or not. I have a huge torrent in the works (10Gb, it's a TV series consisting of about 15 episodes) that I know will take weeks, and the arrow is red, but the data keeps coming in, sometimes close to 100 kB/s. I've seen the red arrows before, lots of times, and learned not to sweat about them, so long as the files continue to come in.

The problem you describe is strange, providing there are no other factors. I'm wondering of it is something to do with hardware, somewhere between the net connection and the connection with the external drive. If both devices are USB, maybe it's taxing the bus and it can't handle all the activity. I have all my torrent stuff (save the executable itself, which is installed on C:) on a different partition.

You're right, the important thing is that they're coming in I suppose, only problem is that lots of the torrents are free leech and they are needed to build up my ratio, or at least keep my ratio healthy and when torrents are turning red I'm not sure if my ratio is still being beefed up or if it's running anonymously, do you know?

The external drive is AC powered so it's not a bus power supply issue, it might be something to do with the USB cable itself, although watching movies directly from the drive is not a problem...

Anyhow, I'll just have to do what a previous poster said and just DL onto my internal and transfer over to my external, just sems a silly thing to have to do!

Thanks for everybody's suggestions, always appreciate constructive help here on TV!

[meadish_sweetball]

Anyhow, I'll just have to do what a previous poster said and just DL onto my internal and transfer over to my external, just sems a silly thing to have to do!

Not necessarily. The drives you use for p2p will be under a heavier load and are probably at a greater risk of losing your data. Presumably you want your external to be a more long-lasting storage, so it makes sense to transfer entire files to it, reduces load on the drive and reduces fragmentation too.

[MKAsok]

You're right, the important thing is that they're coming in I suppose, only problem is that lots of the torrents are free leech and they are needed to build up my ratio, or at least keep my ratio healthy and when torrents are turning red I'm not sure if my ratio is still being beefed up or if it's running anonymously, do you know?

While the status is red, utorrent isn't announcing anything to the tracker, so no, neither download nor upload stats are being recorded. However, if it's an intermittent issue, it's no big deal as the client will update the tracker when it reconnects. Stats not updating like this are only a problem if you connect initially, then the tracker goes down and doesn't come back online until after you've completed. If you're using private trackers, I'd definitely get this sorted out though since it's the kind of behaviour a script might pick up and interpret as an attempt to cheat your stats. I'm sure you'll know what the consequences are of this on most private trackers.

Concerning the other point, no it's just some standalone media players that have an issue with NTFS formatted drives.

Edited January 24, 2010 by MKAsok

[bendejo]

If you're up to fiddling around how about putting all the configurable torrent stuff on the external and see how that goes?

The executable on the C: drive, and when you run the program it puts the user data under c:\users\_username_ etc.

Then in the utorrent Preferences have everything on the external. Maybe the program experiences some duress when it's torrent data is spread over multiple drives. This is what I do but my 'other drive' is a different partition on the same disk. If I wasn't weighed down with this 10Gb blob I'd try it myself.

Bear in mind that data transfer across the USB connector is a bottleneck. You can see this for yourself by copying a file (use a large one) between partitions on your internal drive, then copy the same file to the external.

I, too, got sick and tired of having to move my downloaded files in order to free up disk space. I solved it by giving the torrents their own, large partition. Generally I don't like working directly on an external disk, I use externals for archiving and keeping my movie library. Occasionally I'll watch a movie directly from the external.

USB has some finickiness I don't understand, and the very thought of researching it makes me want to take a nap. Eg, I had a USB cable plugged into my laptop with no device on the other end. When I took it out my system froze. Go figure. I've had similarly weird USB things happen on other systems.