My experience with qBittorrent so far (just started using it a few days ago)

[eNdEmiOn]

Hello everyone,
First of as alternatives go for uTorrent this is the best option I've come across and I tried most of the better known bittorrent clients but usually had to revert back to uTorrent (2.2).

I went with the portable version found on portableapps.com, I wish all programs were "portable", I really don't get why you would want to spread elements over a multitude of different HD locations. Would be nice if the installer simply came with an option to install it as a portable app instead of having to jump trough hoops or rely on third parties like portableapps. Sadly though the portable version on portableapps isn't up to date and qBittorrent kept telling me that every time I changed a setting and applied it.

I like everything about it that is similar to uTorrent but there are some things I don't like, most minor issues tough.

- The button for removing torrents is a red minus, why not go with the standard red cross for this function? For a wile I thought I had to go trough the right-click menu for deleting stuff where this function does have a standard red cross btw.
- I could do without a removal confirmation dialog all together most of the time but if you once in a while want to have it behave differently and you have confirmation disabled there is no other way than to first re-enable the dialog to get the choice for also removing the downloaded/pre-allocated files!
- The sorting feature on the left I could do without as I have it set to "all" all the time anyway so I dragged the border all the way to the left but there is no reminder that it is actually still there like one of those borderline buttons or being able to dis- / enable it trough the View settings.
- Seeding could be better. The past few hours it wasn't seeding at all or just a few KB/s while there are plenty of peers around and even connected to but not actively for some reason. A few moments ago seeding suddenly took off as it should but the one torrent that hasn't yet reached a 1+ ratio is just sitting there. Something I've noticed quite a few times perfectly good seedable torrents just sitting there not being shared (number of connections isn't set very limiting either 8 upload slots per torrent). Maybe that uTorrent setting "use additional upload slots if upload speed is below 90%" could be helpful here?
- When the qBittorrent window is minimized and you add a torrent the focus jumps to qBittorrent which is quite annoying, well at least putting it in the tray works as a workaround.
- Earlier today when I added new torrents by using open with in pale moon it opened a second instance of qBittorrent instead of adding the torrents to the already running process. Aren't multiple instances disallowed? No setting for it either as far as I can tell.
- Last but not least qBittorrent lacks an option to automatically change rate limits while downloading. This is important especially for ADSL type connections. The limited upload bandwidth can get saturated by connection overhead hurting download speeds and possibly even bringing regular internet traffic to a near standstill. I opened a [Wishlist] thread on github about this.

[eNdEmiOn]

Now instead of opening multiple instances it gives me an error: already running when I try to open a torrent file. Again a workaround is needed as it turns out this behavior only happens if it is set to start with windows so instead of having it start with windows via Options I manually added a shortcut to the startup directory.

[eNdEmiOn]

Enabling always announce seems to have a positive effect on the seeding issue. After enabling it 4 out of 5 greyed out torrents who were supposed to be seeding sprung into action. The one that didn't has very few peers so it's somewhat understandable that it didn't also spring into action. But time will tell it it wasn't just because a new setting was applied.

Nope after a wile things are back to being stagnated as usual only a few torrents are being seeded.

[ciaobaby]

This because the installation path and the path for the shell command  in the registry hives are different.

Open qbittorrent as Administrator, then go Tools -> Options -> Behaviour -> set both check boxes in the File Association panel and apply that,  shut down qBT and restart normally.

[Qartanza]

[quote="eNdEmiOn"]
First of as alternatives go for uTorrent this is the best option I've come across and I tried most of the better known bittorrent clients but usually had to revert back to uTorrent (2.2).

I like everything about it that is similar to uTorrent but there are some things I don't like, most minor issues tough.

- The button for removing torrents is a red minus, why not go with the standard red cross for this function? For a wile I thought I had to go trough the right-click menu for deleting stuff where this function does have a standard red cross btw.[/quote]
Hehe, I mistook the red minus symbol for moving torrents down in the queue list back when I first started using qBittorrent, so I'll agree that a red X makes more sense. I wonder how many other folks do that in the beginning lol.

I've been using qBittorrent for a little over a year now and I agree that it's the best alternative there is for those whom are familiar with uTorrent. I stuck with 2.2.1 for as long as I dared and eventually felt it was time to switch when I found myself worrying about its security as it got older and older. Of all the ones I tested, qBittorrent is easily the closest. The others were either too feature rich or not feature rich enough. I've seen complaints elsewhere about qBittorrent being unstable, but personally I've never had a single problem with it over this past year and recommend it whenever the chance to do so arises.

I really only miss three things from uTorrent. One is the ability to seed based on an arbitrary amount of time that has elapsed since hitting 100%. Expanding on this rather simple idea, it would also be nice if we could set a point at which it would stop seeding once a certain number of seeders has been reached and optionally start up again if the number of seeders falls below this amount, the overall idea being to minimize ones public exposure with certain torrents (legality isn't always the sole concern fwiw).

The second thing I miss from uTorrent is the ability to "force start" a torrent. This is the ability to tell ones bittorrent client to, for a specific torrent, ignore all rules regarding queueing and seed ratio limiting. Once such a torrent is started, it will download to 100% completion if it hasn't already and then seed forever until the user pauses it manually.

The third and final thing I miss from uTorrent is the ability to truly stop torrents and know they'll stay that way until you get around to them. qBittorrent can only pause and resume currently and this causes some problems depending on whether the "Do not start the download automatically" option is enabled or not. If it's not enabled and queue-wise you have potentially active torrents paused, restarting qBittorrent will cause these paused torrents to resume (i.e. unpause), while the opposite happens if that option is enabled (i.e. all torrents that were unpaused and active queue-wise become paused after qBittorrent restarts).

All in all my desires are not that big of a deal though. Everyones needs are different and I'm sure if they added everything people asked for, qBittorrent would be a bloated, unusable mess like uTorrent is slowly becoming lol. qBittorrent may not be 100% perfect, but IMHO it's still the best choice anyone could ask for when it comes to the basics, which in all honesty is all that really matters. So thank you, devs, for going to the trouble of not only making a great client, but keeping it lean, up to date and as bug free as possible!

[sledgehammer_999]

- When the qBittorrent window is minimized and you add a torrent the focus jumps to qBittorrent which is quite annoying, well at least putting it in the tray works as a workaround.

Tools->options->downloads->bring torrent dialog to the front

The second thing I miss from uTorrent is the ability to "force start" a torrent. This is the ability to tell ones bittorrent client to, for a specific torrent, ignore all rules regarding queueing and seed ratio limiting. Once such a torrent is started, it will download to 100% completion if it hasn't already and then seed forever until the user pauses it manually.

The third and final thing I miss from uTorrent is the ability to truly stop torrents and know they'll stay that way until you get around to them. qBittorrent can only pause and resume currently and this causes some problems depending on whether the "Do not start the download automatically" option is enabled or not. If it's not enabled and queue-wise you have potentially active torrents paused, restarting qBittorrent will cause these paused torrents to resume (i.e. unpause), while the opposite happens if that option is enabled (i.e. all torrents that were unpaused and active queue-wise become paused after qBittorrent restarts).

Switch to v3.2.0

[Zaoshi]

[quote="eNdEmiOn"]
- Seeding could be better. The past few hours it wasn't seeding at all or just a few KB/s while there are plenty of peers around and even connected to but not actively for some reason. A few moments ago seeding suddenly took off as it should but the one torrent that hasn't yet reached a 1+ ratio is just sitting there. Something I've noticed quite a few times perfectly good seedable torrents just sitting there not being shared (number of connections isn't set very limiting either 8 upload slots per torrent). Maybe that uTorrent setting "use additional upload slots if upload speed is below 90%" could be helpful here?
[/quote]

From my personal experience 3.2.0 version is terribad at seeding. 3.1.12 can upload more in an hour than 3.2.0 does in a whole day (it's so bad even my HDD turns off due to inactivity).
So switch to older version. Link: http://sourceforge.net/projects/qbittor ... nt-3.1.12/

[eNdEmiOn]

[quote="ciaobaby"]
This because the installation path and the path for the shell command  in the registry hives are different.

Open qbittorrent as Administrator, then go Tools -> Options -> Behaviour -> set both check boxes in the File Association panel and apply that,  shut down qBT and restart normally.
[/quote]
Sorry for responding so late, as is often the case no automatic email notification for new posts (by default anyway). Anyway I'm on the hidden admin account of win 7 so I'm always executing programs as admin. The checkboxes are checked. Maybe something elsewhere is messed up as well can't seem to associate anything else to torrent files right now (or at least not in palemoon).

[eNdEmiOn]

@Qartanza
Indeed most issues are minor and something one can get used to quite easily.

- When the qBittorrent window is minimized and you add a torrent the focus jumps to qBittorrent which is quite annoying, well at least putting it in the tray works as a workaround.

Tools->options->downloads->bring torrent dialog to the front

The second thing I miss from uTorrent is the ability to "force start" a torrent. This is the ability to tell ones bittorrent client to, for a specific torrent, ignore all rules regarding queueing and seed ratio limiting. Once such a torrent is started, it will download to 100% completion if it hasn't already and then seed forever until the user pauses it manually.

The third and final thing I miss from uTorrent is the ability to truly stop torrents and know they'll stay that way until you get around to them. qBittorrent can only pause and resume currently and this causes some problems depending on whether the "Do not start the download automatically" option is enabled or not. If it's not enabled and queue-wise you have potentially active torrents paused, restarting qBittorrent will cause these paused torrents to resume (i.e. unpause), while the opposite happens if that option is enabled (i.e. all torrents that were unpaused and active queue-wise become paused after qBittorrent restarts).

Switch to v3.2.0

I don't have "bring torrent dialog to the front" enabled. Things are set to start automatically no secondary interaction is necessary after torrent download, except for the focus switch if not minimized to tray

I see there is also a portable 3.2.0 version available, I'll give it a try one of these days but have also read some pretty serious issues with that version so I am a bit hesitant.

[eNdEmiOn]

[quote="Zaoshi"]
[quote="eNdEmiOn"]
- Seeding could be better. The past few hours it wasn't seeding at all or just a few KB/s while there are plenty of peers around and even connected to but not actively for some reason. A few moments ago seeding suddenly took off as it should but the one torrent that hasn't yet reached a 1+ ratio is just sitting there. Something I've noticed quite a few times perfectly good seedable torrents just sitting there not being shared (number of connections isn't set very limiting either 8 upload slots per torrent). Maybe that uTorrent setting "use additional upload slots if upload speed is below 90%" could be helpful here?
[/quote]

From my personal experience 3.2.0 version is terribad at seeding. 3.1.12 can upload more in an hour than 3.2.0 does in a whole day (it's so bad even my HDD turns off due to inactivity).
So switch to older version. Link: http://sourceforge.net/projects/qbittor ... nt-3.1.12/
[/quote]
I am at that older version. Seeding goes well now. But the thing is upnp just doesn't work it seems, after I opened a port manually seeding got a lot better. To bad though this inhibits the randomize port option at each start.

[eNdEmiOn]

Trying 3.2.0 now the switching focus thing is fixed, upnp seems also to be working right.
Still have to try if the startup thing is fixed too.

BTW is there a way to change the programs icon? It's so similar to that of Pale Moon, it requires quite a bit more focus to distinguish the two next to each other on the taskbar.

[eNdEmiOn]

Well the start-up issue persists.

[ciaobaby]

Well the start-up issue persists.

Have you turned off and on the options that might be causing it?

[eNdEmiOn]

Yes I did, I even had to otherwise I would get this already running message adding a torrent and every restart of windows. But I'm not sure what options you are referring to as there is only one either start with windows or not. Or are you referring to the file associations as as a relation to this issue? I most likely did but I'll try again to be absolutely sure.

....
I figured out what is happening. The portable package has 2 qbittorrent .exe's in it. If you use the start with windows option inside the program even though you are using the portable .exe, with the next win login it'll use the second regular .exe causing the problems described. I'll stick with the workaround otherwise it defeats the purpose of using a portable version.

[ciaobaby]

The portable version is NOT supported at this forum.