How can I archive torrent files?

[kelchm]

Hey guys.

Transmission is basically the only useable torrenting software around on OS X. For the longest time I've been running uTorrent in a VM.

My biggest complaint with Transmission is the that there is no good way to hold on to torrent files. I have hundreds and hundreds of torrents in my client at any given time and should something happen I need access to the torrent files so I can get everything up and running again. The way Transmission handles things it is far to easy for torrent files to get lost along the way should I forget to archive them, etc.

Anyone have a solution?

[Debu]

No offense intended, but I don't think you've described your problem with enough detail for anyone to give you adequate answers or suggestions.

[kelchm]

Okay. I guess I was assuming everyone is familiar with some other clients... This is how I had uTorrent setup to work:

When I add a torrent file, the torrent file itself gets placed in a folder of 'Current' torrents. This say, at any given time, I have a folder of torrents that I am downloading.

Now, once a download finished the torrent file should be moved from 'Current' to 'Completed'. ( Volumes/External/[Source Files]/Current/ )

If I remove the torrent from the client it is removed from the 'Completed' folder. ( Volumes/External/[Source Files]/Completed/ )

And again... Why would I want this?

With working with hundreds of torrents at a time (and sometimes seeding from multiple places, I need a way to to get to the current torrent files easily. With the way Transmision works now I find that I often loose track of a torrent file. IE, I add it from the download folder and when I clean out my downloads folder I loose the torrent file.

[Debu]

I think I understand.

Personally, I keep my .torrent file in the same folder as the related downloaded file; I move the .torrent file to the location I want the downloaded file to reside - before I even load the .torrent into Transmission. I have Transmission's preferences set so that the "Default Download Location" is "Same as torrent file" and have "Trash original torrent files" disabled. That way, if I've deleted the torrent file (as opposed to Remove -- which I understand is like trashing) from Transmission's main window and later want to seed it, I can locate the .torrent file so long as I can locate the downloaded file. In addition, if I thereafter move the location of the files, Transmission can still "find" the downloaded file if I want to seed it. But then, I don't work with "hundreds and hundreds" of .torrent files at once. (Although I AM curious as to why anyone would want or need to work with so many files at once...or how it could even be done without having mega-bandwidth...)

As I understand it, you want to be able to keep all your completed .torrent files in one place so you can easily find them when necessary. If so, instead of removing completed .torrent files from Transmission's main window, can't you just assign completed .torrent files to a group, leaving in-process .torrent files unassigned? If you assign completed torrents to group "red", for example, you can work normally in the "none" view -- which would show all incomplete (and unassigned) torrents -- then switch to "red" when you want to look for a completed torrent. If you want to seed a "red" torrent, switch it's group to "none" until you're done, then re-assign it to "red" again. (BTW, you can assign groups in batches using conventional shift-click or command-click methods.)

The other way, might be the following (taken from Transmission's Help file):

By default, Transmission deletes the original torrent file upon opening. If you remove a transfer, in order to resume it you will need to reopen the original torrent file in Transmission. Simply choose 'Save a Torrent Copy as' from the File menu before deletion to avoid having to download the torrent file again.

I haven't tried this - as noted above I have preferences set so that the original .torrent file is not deleted -- but that might work better for you.

If you're asking whether there is a way to auto-magically move the .torrent file to a "completed" folder (as utorrent apparently does...) -- I'm not aware of any. (I'm sure others know more than I do, though...)

[metaclam]

Just piping in here... I would also like to see an option to archive the .torrent file to a specific folder instead of trashing original.

FYI, they are kept in ~/Library/Application Support/Transmission/Torrents/

so in a sense that's good enough. still i would like the option of moving the original file to a specified archive folder as well.

[KariNeko]

Hello, I know this is a old thread, but is there a way to request this feature to be implemented?

Thanks,
Karina

[cbrevard]

I also understand what the original poster is getting at and would like to see functionality akin to what's in uTorrent. As it stands, the hook that's available to us in Transmission 2.50 ("Call script when download completes") is inadequate given that people often don't download an entire multi-file torrent (for example, a torrent of hundreds of books might be partially downloaded one week, then a few more files downloaded the next, etc).

The torrent file is removed (to where, I haven't tried to ascertain) from ~/Library/Application Support/Transmission/Torrents when the user removes a torrent from the main list in the UI. So, this directory cannot be relied upon to serve as a repository.

[MrAsker]

I'm also interested in this.

I also have a similar but slightly different request that I'd like to have implemented:
viewtopic.php?f=3&t=12628

[SoMoney]

+1 Keep it Alive!

Just turned Transmission on in my QNAP NAS to test it out.

I'm also bummed that torrent files are kept in the same directory as the downloads.

In other torrent servers Its sometimes referenced as:
[x]Save .torrent files.
+Save Directory_________________________

If you brows your downloads with a media client such as PCH,MD8,ROKU, etc its looks messy to scroll through .torrent files.

[saxicek]

+1 for the request. I think the best approach for me is to save the torrent files relatively to the download directory. Since I am seeding similar torrent to different trackers (each tracker has separate torrent file) names of torrent file can be the same, but content different. My approach is to have directory structure:

Code: Select all

torrent_data
 |-tracker1
 |  |-stuff1_dir
 |-tracker2
 |  |-stuff1_dir

That avoids data overwrite if content of stuff1_dir differs a bit. And if I could also store torrent files under torren_data/tracker1 or torrent_data/tracker2 it would be ideal.