FAQ

Is Torrenta free and open source?

Yes. It is free and released under the MIT License. The source is on GitHub.

Does it collect data or phone home?

No accounts, no telemetry, no analytics. The one request Torrenta makes on its own is the update check: after startup, at most once a day, it asks GitHub whether a newer release exists, and sends nothing about you or the machine beyond the request itself. Untick Settings → General → Updates → Check for updates, or set updates.check=false in the settings file, to turn it off.

Everything else that reaches the network is something you set up: the torrents themselves, your search providers, your RSS feeds, a blocklist URL, a Transmission daemon, and settings sync to a Git repository you own.

Why is there no Intel Mac or ARM Linux build?

The engine is libtorrent through libtorrent4j, whose native library exists for macOS on Apple Silicon, Linux x64 and Windows x64 only. Those are the three builds. On another platform the engine fails to start with a message that says so, and the window stays up.

The installers bundle their own Java runtime, so you do not need Java installed.

The installer is unsigned. How do I open it?

The builds are not signed yet. On macOS, the first launch is refused; allow it once under System Settings → Privacy & Security → Open Anyway. On Windows, SmartScreen may warn on the first run; let it continue. Signed installers are one of the criteria for 1.0. Each release lists its files’ checksums in checksums_sha256.txt.

Can it replace qBittorrent or Transmission?

That is the goal for 1.0. The roadmap has a parity matrix comparing Transmission 4.1, qBittorrent 5 and Torrenta feature by feature. Torrenta uses the same engine as qBittorrent, so most of the work is exposing what libtorrent already does. A few things are deliberately left for after 1.0, such as a port test, email notifications and a headless mode.

Does it have a web UI?

No. A web UI or RPC server of Torrenta’s own is planned for after 1.0. Torrenta is a desktop window; it can, however, be the window for a remote daemon (next question).

Can it control a seedbox?

Yes, if the seedbox runs transmission-daemon 4.0 or later. Add a profile in Settings → Engine with the daemon’s URL, user and password, and switch to it. What the daemon cannot do is hidden rather than faked. See Remote: a Transmission daemon.

Where are my settings and torrents stored?

In ~/.torrenta on every platform. settings.properties holds the settings and can be edited by hand; torrents/ holds one resume file per torrent with the torrent’s info inside, so a torrent comes back after a restart, seeding without a recheck if it was complete. Downloads themselves go to ~/Downloads unless you change the folder. The full list of files is in Settings, themes and sync.

How do I move the config folder?

Start Torrenta with --config-dir DIR, or set the TORRENTA_CONFIG_DIR environment variable. Each config folder is its own Torrenta: one instance runs per folder, with its own torrents and settings.

What is the difference between Paused and Queued?

“Paused” means paused by a person: you pressed Space or Pause, and the row says “Paused by you”. The queue never resumes a torrent you paused. “Queued” means the queue limits on Settings → Queue and share limits are holding it back; the row says its place and that it starts when a slot frees. Force Resume (Ctrl+Shift+U) starts a queued torrent now.

Why does the port say “checking”?

Torrenta calls the port open only once a peer from outside your network has connected to it, and that needs a running torrent. Until then it reads “checking reachability”. After five minutes of running torrents with no such peer it reads blocked, which usually means a firewall or the router. Downloads still work either way, with fewer peers. See Connection.

Does it support v2 torrents?

Yes. It adds v1, v2 and hybrid torrents (the Add dialog’s header says which), and the New Torrent dialog makes all three, hybrid by default, showing both info-hashes.

How do I report a bug?

Open an issue at github.com/adriandeleon/torrenta/issues. Include what you did and what happened, the details from Help → About (Copy details gives the build, engine, Java, JavaFX, OS and config folder), and the log: View → Debug Log (also Settings → General → Diagnostics) shows this session’s warnings, errors and uncaught exceptions with Copy. The same lines are in torrenta-session.log in the config folder, which a crash leaves behind.

Is it legal to use?

BitTorrent is a way of moving files, and Torrenta is a tool for it, like any other client. What matters is what you download and share: share what you have the right to share. The search examples Torrenta ships point at public, non-infringing indexes such as the Internet Archive.

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