All Torrent files contain "invalid Data"

Ask for help and report issues with the Mac OS X version of Transmission
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snick
Posts: 5
Joined: Mon Nov 05, 2012 7:14 pm

All Torrent files contain "invalid Data"

Post by snick »

Hi I just downloaded Transmission on my Mac OS X and it says "The torrent file cannot be opened because it contains invalid data." when i try to open the files with it. The files are shaded grey and cannot be opened in the application as well.
I've downloaded Utorrent and this has the same problem, I've downloaded multiple torrents from different places.
Looking into advice it says check your firewall, not sure what i would check, but I am on VirusBarrier X6

This problem doesnt seem to be in the FAQ's from what I can tell

thanks
snick
Posts: 5
Joined: Mon Nov 05, 2012 7:14 pm

Re: All Torrent files contain "invalid Data"

Post by snick »

tried lots of files. surely not that much on pirate bay doesnt even work?
snick
Posts: 5
Joined: Mon Nov 05, 2012 7:14 pm

Re: All Torrent files contain "invalid Data"

Post by snick »

also, i've tried downloaded the highest rating files - not sure how that all works though
snick
Posts: 5
Joined: Mon Nov 05, 2012 7:14 pm

Re: All Torrent files contain "invalid Data"

Post by snick »

having a look round other ways to download files. I've managed to get some torrents to come up in Utorrent (although I'd prefer to use Trasnmission, and it just says 0% downloaded, but say its connected. Perhaps this may help?
snick
Posts: 5
Joined: Mon Nov 05, 2012 7:14 pm

Re: All Torrent files contain "invalid Data"

Post by snick »

thank you so much the link about ports has helped me get started.
I've realised that my mac does not recognize privatize.com with tracker.example.com.se and tries to open it as a word document. The files that I have been able to download now have the little Utorrent symbol next to them. there are still some that I cannot select, confusing!
Whosawhatsis
Posts: 7
Joined: Wed Sep 13, 2006 10:21 pm

Re: All Torrent files contain "invalid Data"

Post by Whosawhatsis »

Found the cause of the error in my case. Apparently, some torrent creator(s) put an extra zero-length field in the data about each file. Check your torrent files for the string "pathl0:" to see if you're having the same problem. Removing the "0:" part allows the torrent file to load successfully, but (at least in the case of the private tracker where I got the files I found this in) it makes the tracker not recognize the torrent. So either Transmission needs to be fixed to accept these files with the zero-length field or the people making these files need to remove it (preferably both).
kaushalmalkan11
Posts: 1
Joined: Sun Nov 19, 2017 2:59 am

Re: All Torrent files contain "invalid Data"

Post by kaushalmalkan11 »

A simple method to get rid of “Torrent is not valid Bencoding” is downloading the same file from the different site or sources. To avoid the error you can try to download the same file from some other torrent website, and it will work. This corrupted file is from the torrent engine’s side, and hence there is no way to troubleshoot it. Therefore it is worthwhile to try downloading from a different source. For this purpose, you will get many sites like IDM or DAP that will let you download.


There are other methods too but I would suggest you to read more about them before deciding which one would be best for you.

Reference Links:

https://www.reddit.com/r/torrents/comme ... ing_error/

https://www.techwhoop.com/unable-to-loa ... bencoding/
john123
Posts: 1
Joined: Mon Oct 05, 2020 11:51 pm

Re: All Torrent files contain "invalid Data"

Post by john123 »

I had tried many files but not that much on pirate bay and that does not work? And also i had tried to download the highest rating files but they are not downloading
sandeepsign
Posts: 2
Joined: Mon Oct 12, 2020 4:25 am

Re: All Torrent files contain "invalid Data"

Post by sandeepsign »

Hello sir, I am having problems with downloading hindu documentary and music from Some Tracker and even rarbg too. many times invalid file. I try same file somewhere else and was lucky it worked.
youtube link
youtube
Last edited by sandeepsign on Tue Feb 13, 2024 5:08 pm, edited 19 times in total.
sandeepsign
Posts: 2
Joined: Mon Oct 12, 2020 4:25 am

Re: All Torrent files contain "invalid Data"

Post by sandeepsign »

Try to use magnet links instead of torrent files they have no encoding its just direct information to the torrent file. This helps too sometimes.

Do not download their broken torrent, just use magnet direct links.
dimag0g
Posts: 4
Joined: Wed Oct 27, 2021 12:23 pm

Re: All Torrent files contain "invalid Data"

Post by dimag0g »

I used to get this message with torrent files from my favorite tracker on v2.94, but I was still able to add the torrent once I closed the error message dialog.

Now with v3.00 it's getting worse: I get the error and the torrent appears to have no files inside. However, if I add the same torrent a second time, I get to see the files and the download starts. No error message appears the second time.

It would be great if this error message was more specific (e.g. "invalid character in field foo", "field bar has invalid length", etc.). Even if Transmission is not getting fixed to support broken torrents, I could at least report the issue to the tracker properly, instead of just saying their torrents are "invalid".
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