If you are downloading a very large torrent using uTorrent, you might run into a
space issue halfway during the download. For example, I was once downloading
a 100 GB torrent, but didn’t realize that I only had about 75 GB of space left of
my C drive.
I started getting low disk space errors from Windows and realized that it was
because of the torrent. At this point, I didn’t want to delete the entire torrent
and start over again by downloading it to a new location, so I figured out how
to move all the downloaded files to a new location and then continue
downloading the rest.
Previously, if you were using an older version of uTorrent, you had to manually
move the files yourself, but in the newer version, it moves the files for you! In
this article, I’ll show you the steps for moving a torrent download before it
finishes.
Move Unfinished Torrents
Step 1: The first thing we have to do is stop the current download so that the
files are not being accessed or updated by uTorrent. To do this, just right-click
on the torrent and choose Stop. Do not Pause the download.
Step 2: Now that the torrent has stopped downloading, we can change the
download location for this torrent. To do this, right-click on the torrent again,
choose Advanced and then choose Set Download Location.
A new dialog will pop up asking you where to download your torrent file to.
Navigate to the new location and just click Select Folder.
uTorrent will automatically move the files for you to the new location. You may
have to wait a little bit if a large amount of data has to be transferred over to
the new location.
Step 3: Now that the files have been moved, you need to start up the download
again. Simply right-click on the torrent again and choose Start.
The download will continue from whatever percentage it had already completed
and download the rest. This can save a significant amount of bandwidth
compared to starting over again, especially for very large torrents.
The process is exactly the same for Mac users running OS X. Just stop the
download, then right-click on the torrent and set the new download location.
How do I migrate torrents from another client to this
one?
Last Updated: Jan 25, 2016 10:59PM PST
Migrating Your Files
Now that you've moved onto BitTorrent or uTorrent, you might have some torrents from
your previous clients that you want to resume in BitTorrent. Some of these files you just
want to seed, others have not finished downloading yet. While there is no automated
way to do this, the procedure is not as daunting as you might expect.
"But what about my share ratio?" Sorry, there is nothing we can do about that, you will
be starting back at zero. Share ratio with trackers however will not be affected.
VERY IMPORTANT NOTE: Unlike traditional file sharing programs, the BitTorrent
protocol uses a reference file known as the torrent (whatever_the_subject.torrent). The
torrent is what you originally download from the indexing site. The torrent is separate
from the content you will ultimately be using/viewing/listening to. From here on, "files"
will refer to the content while ".torrent" refers to the reference file.
Renaming appended files
Some clients will append partially downloaded files with an extra extension in order to
lock them and keep them from being accidentally accessed by other applications, which
might cause some problems with the downloading process (µTorrent also does this, if
requested, by appending the extension .!ut to its files).
For µTorrent or BitTorrent to resume those partially downloaded files these extra
extensions must be removed. This can be tedious but there is nothing to it. We can
however make a small batch file that will simplify the job.
1. Open Notepad and write this line into it (replace "bc!" with which ever file extension you need to
remove):
@for /r %i in (*.bc!) do @move "%~fi" "%~dpni"
2. In Notepad, File > Save As: RENAME.BAT
3. Open the location folder for the partially downloaded files you need to rename.
4. Drag and drop the RENAME.BAT file into this folder
5. Right click on RENAME.BAT > Open; a DOS window will briefly appear as it scrolls through all
the files in the folder as they are getting renamed.
Repeat from step 3 for each folder containing files that need renaming.
Loading torrents in BitTorrent/uTorrent
Loading a single torrent for seeding is simple enough provided you know the location of
the .torrent and the files.
1. In the client, click File > Add Torrent (no default save)
2. Browse your way to the .torrent file you wish to seed and select.
3. Browse your way to the folder where the files are located and select the folder.
The torrent should appear in the torrent window and load (you will see the % climb up
as your client checks the file).
Loading multiple torrents stored in a single folder.
Let's say in your previous client you had setup a "completed torrents" folders and you
wish to reload all the torrents from this location into µTorrent.
1. Create a folder called AUTOLOAD on your desktop
2. Create a folder called TORRENTS somewhere where you wish your finished torrents to be
relocated (for example c:\My Documents\My Torrents\).
3. Go to Options > Preferences > Downloads : location of downloaded files: check "Put new
downloads in:" and point the path to the folder you were using to save your completed torrents
in with your previous client.
4. Go to Options > Preferences > Others. Under Storage for torrent files: Check "Move .torrents for
finished jobs to: " and point the path to the TORRENTS folder (never mind the "Save the .torrent
files" option for now).
5. Under Auto-load Torrents, check "Automatically load torrents in directory" and point the path to
the AUTOLOAD folder on your desktop.
6. Find the .torrent for the files you wish to load (which match the files in your completed folder),
and move them (not copy) to the AUTOLOAD folder on your desktop.
uTorrent/BitTorrent automatically loads the .torrents from the AUTOLOAD folder into the
torrent list. It will find that the matching files are already in the download folder and will
check them to make sure they are complete.
Note: this procedure is also valid for partially downloaded files.
Moving files to another location after they have been
loaded in the client
For sorting reasons you may wish for your newly reloaded files to be saved to a different
location. This is easy enough but must be done a single torrent at a time.
1. Stop the torrent you wish to move in the torrent list.
2. Move the files to the location of your choice (for multiple files move the containing folder as a
whole)
3. In BitTorrent/uTorrent , right click > Advanced > Set Download Location ...
4. Browse to the location where you have moved the files.
5. Start the torrent again.
Note: if you wish to move several torrent to the same location you can select multiple
torrents and perform the same action.
The files will automatically be moved to the new location, just like in Windows.
Overall, it’s a pretty straight-forward process and works well. If you have any
questions, feel free to post a comment. Enjoy!
