Why are my torrents not downloading?

Question

I am using transmission-daemon and controlling it through the webgui.

Currently I have two torrents from separate trackers that are on 0B of OB status. I am using transmission. On one torrent at last announce it says "got 50 peers" the other "got 48 peers."

port 51413 is listed as open

I have changed the ownership of the download folder to debian-transmission

Any ideas? I'm fresh out of troubleshooting steps.

How many seeds does it say you have? – Seth Dec 17 '13 at 03:49 — Seth, Dec 17 '13 at 03:49

score 28 · Answer 1 · edited Nov 14 '16 at 15:55

28

In my case, it was also helpful to change the setting of the random port picking option to true. In transmission, you do it by following these instructions:

Edit → Preferences → Network Tab → Tick the first box

edited Nov 14 '16 at 15:55

TheOdd

3,012

answered Nov 14 '16 at 11:49

malewick

460

1

if the port is closed when you test it as above, just have transmission select a random port and exit from transmission. When you next run transmission it will probably just work. – Nicholas Saunders Jul 22 '21 at 23:26

score 6 · Answer 2 · answered Apr 03 '19 at 12:14

I had the problem. The cause was the client being unauthorized.

To solve the issue, I changed the settings:

Stop daemon: sudo service transmission-daemon stop
Edit the settings: sudo vim /etc/transmission-daemon/settings.json (replace vim with your favourite text editor)
Unrequire authentication: "rpc-authentication-required": false
Whitelist localhost: "rpc-whitelist": "127.0.0.1"
Restart daemon: sudo service transmission-daemon start

And now it works. If you suffered from this issue, it's possible that download-dir changed as well. so I suggest you check that option too and change it to your desire:

"download-dir": "/var/lib/transmission-daemon/Downloads"

Most useful for me. Thanks – Valentyn Hruzytskyi Sep 15 '20 at 19:36 — Valentyn Hruzytskyi, Sep 15 '20 at 19:36

score 4 · Answer 3 · answered Dec 17 '13 at 03:59

4

I switched to port 57558 and it now functions. I'm not sure if this is a long-term solution, but in any case shows that this is network issue and not something related to transmission. Thanks everyone for their help.

answered Dec 17 '13 at 03:59

curios

366

Perhaps my isp is blocking 51413? I understand that this is common port for torrenting? – curios Dec 17 '13 at 04:00
That is a very good possibility. Or perhaps you're in a NATed network where something else is using the external port, making you unreachable to the outside world? Many possibilities. – Jo-Erlend Schinstad Jun 01 '14 at 16:08

score 2 · Answer 4 · answered May 09 '17 at 18:20

2

I was facing the same issue. Changed the peer-port-random-on-start to true as suggested. Still was unable to download. Checked on some of the other forums & found a tool called "deluge". Installed it on my Ubuntu 16.10 machine & the downloads are working fine now. Wonder what was the issue with transmission.

Below is the link to install deluge on Ubuntu 16.10 :

https://www.linuxbabe.com/bittorrent/deluge-bittorrent-client-ubuntu-16-04

answered May 09 '17 at 18:20

Siddhesh Bakkar

21

4

Deluge is in the standard repositories with only a point release difference... – Fabby May 09 '17 at 22:34

score 1 · Answer 5 · answered Sep 30 '15 at 21:27

1

I've changed the setting peer-port-random-on-start from false to true. That did the trick for me(transmission-daemon).

answered Sep 30 '15 at 21:27

Timon de Groot

111

how did you do that can you explain ? – rohith Jul 28 '16 at 14:13
$ sudo vim /etc/transmission-daemon/settings.json – user3751385 Jul 01 '18 at 07:46
Oddly, this worked. And I had opened up the port with iptables and tested with nmap – user3751385 Jul 01 '18 at 07:46

score 0 · Answer 6 · answered Apr 11 '22 at 19:59

Adding port forwarding rules for the values in /etc/transmission-daemon/settings.json called peer-port-random-high and peer-port-random-low on your router (for me it was 65535 and 49152) and then again on your device with ufw allow low:high/tcp worked for me.

score 0 · Answer 7 · answered Jun 28 '17 at 23:21

I have AT&T at home and I was messing around with my router. I have always had the NetBIOS protocol turn off, but I had disabled the All Other Protocols option on my system. It appears that Transmission used one of the vague protocols with my router. As soon as I re-enabled it, I was able to get Transmission to work for me.

HTTP
HTTPS
FTP Telnet
SMTP
DNS
NetBIOS
POP3
IMAP
NNTP
IRC H323
All Other Protocols

Why are my torrents not downloading?

7 Answers7