ruTorrent may seem to encounter more errors than the other clients because of the vast functionality that it offers.
Although some of them appear to be technically overwhelming for an average user, here are the most common errors and their possible solutions:
Errors and Solutions
Problem getting response info – [Errno 2] No such file or directory: “C:\\Documents and Settings\…”
Internet Explorer sometimes doesn’t BitTorrent files (torrents) in the Temporary Internet Files directory properly.It seems to disproportionately affect files with brackets (‘]’ and ‘[‘ in the filename.
Right-click on the link and choose Save As…, and save the torrent file to disk, and then double-click the file to launch the client. Clearing the IE cache seems to help if this problem is recurring.
bad data from tracker or Bad Tracker Data
Another error message that typically means little. Usually,this is a problem when a tracker is overloaded. If the problem persists, you may want to look for another torrent, but typically patience and time will allow the problem to correct itself.
Problem connecting to tracker – timeout exceeded
Problem connecting to tracker – HTTP Error 503: Connect failed
Problem connecting to tracker – [Errno socket error] (10061, “Connection refused”
Problem connecting to tracker – (111, ‘Connection refused’
By the sheer demand of connections that a tracker gets, connection issues are unavoidable. The best solution for the above errors is to leave ruTorrent open. These type of errors get resolved by itself when connections stabilize.
If the issue persists, consider restarting the rTorrent service through your Seedbox service management page. Restarting the service can often help resolve such connection issues.
Problem connecting to tracker – HTTP Error 400: Not Authorized
Unavailable torrent, probably very old and already removed
Problem connecting to tracker – HTTP Error 404: Not Found
Indicates a dead torrent
Problem connecting to tracker – HTTP Error 407: Proxy Authentication Required
Configure and verify your logins for your proxy server in order to establish a connection with your tracker
Connecting to peers
Maybe there are no users to connect to. Leave your torrent open and maybe the bittorrent client will connect (it may take some time).
(IOError – [Errno13] Permission denied)
rTorrent is already running, but a new instance is also initiated(probably thru SSH). This will attempt to download the same set of torrent files which is prohibited by your trackers. Restart your seedbox in case this happens.
Problem connecting with tracker – (10054,’Connection reset by peer’)
This occurs when an established connection is shut down for some reason by the remote computer, just ignore it.
Rejected by tracker – Port xxxx is blacklisted
Your client is reporting to the tracker that it uses one of the default bittorrent ports (6881-6889) or any other common p2p port for incoming connections.
The tracker in question does not allow clients to use ports commonly associated with p2p protocols. The reason for this is that it is a common practice for ISPs to throttle those ports (that is, limit the bandwidth, hence the speed).
Contact your tracker and ask for the blocked and ideal ports they recommend.
Why does ruTorrent not download or connect despite having seeders, and what can I do?
If you find that ruTorrent is not downloading or connecting, even when torrents display multiple seeders and leechers, it can often indicate an issue with tracker communication or client configuration. Below is a detailed guide to identifying and resolving this problem.
Identifying the Problem
In ruTorrent, common symptoms of this issue include:
Torrents are stuck in a "checking" state.
No upload or download activity is visible.
Peers are not connecting despite apparent availability.
Root Causes
The described issues are often caused by:
Dead or Unreachable Trackers: Trackers, which are essential for finding peers, might be non-functional or offline.
Lack of Peer Discovery Protocols: Distributed mechanisms such as DHT (Distributed Hash Table) may be disabled, limiting your client’s ability to find peers without relying on trackers.
General Resolutions
1. Add Healthy Trackers
One of the simplest ways to restore connectivity is to add working trackers to your torrents. To do this:
Navigate to the torrent's tracker options within ruTorrent.
Add or replace the existing tracker URLs with healthy public trackers. These can be easily sourced online.
2. Enable DHT (Distributed Hash Table)
DHT enables peer discovery in the absence of functional trackers. To enable DHT:
Open ruTorrent settings and look for DHT-related options.
Turn on all available DHT features to improve connectivity.
Advanced Tips
For advanced users, connectivity testing can be performed via SSH if you are managing a server-based setup. However, this step is entirely optional and primarily for users with technical expertise.
Conclusion
Troubleshooting ruTorrent activity issues often revolves around mitigating tracker problems or altering peer discovery settings. By enabling DHT, adding functional trackers, or transitioning to an alternative torrent client, most users can effectively resolve these challenges. If the problem persists, check whether network or firewall configurations are blocking ruTorrent connections.
Another solution is to restart the rTorrent service. You can do this via your Seedbox service management page by locating the power control slider and toggling the rTorrent service off and back on again. This often rectifies common connectivity and stalling issues.
PHP module PCRE is not installed. ruTorrent will not work.
Obviously a php module is missing. In case you haven’t installed php modules yet, please submit a support ticket mentioning the error
Web server can’t access rTorrent’s session directory for read. ruTorrent will not work.
This is caused by permission errors on certain directories that the web server need to access. config files also need to be looked into.
If you are not familiar of rTorrent’s config files’ locations or are hesitant to make the changes, kindly open a support ticket and we will look into this for you.
rTorrent’s user can’t access settings directory for read/write/execute. ruTorrent will not work.
rTorrent’s user can’t access file ./test.sh for read/execute. ruTorrent will not work.
rTorrent’s user can’t access torrents directory for read/execute. You can’t add torrents through ruTorrent.
Web server can’t access settings directory for read/write/execute. ruTorrent can’t save own settings.
Web server can’t access torrents directory for read/write/execute. You can’t add torrents through ruTorrent.
This group of errors most likely relate to incorrect ruTorrent installation.
Say the archive has been unpacked not under a web server user account.
Bad link to rTorrent. Check if it is really running. Check $scgi_port and $scgi_host settings in config.php and scgi_port in rTorrent configuration file.
Ususally it means rTorrent is terminated or has not been started. If despite this error is shown you can see the list of torrents in ruTorrent – there is something wrong in ruTorrent configuration file, as it mentioned in the error message.
rTorrent is compiled with incorrect version of xmlrpc-c library, without i8 support. Version must be >= 1.11. Some functionality will be unavailable.
Old versions of xmlrpc-c do not support long integers. So numbers greater than 2G will be shown as negative. And dialog window @Settings@ will not work properly. Note – it is not enough to have just the library xmlrpc-c vesion >=1.11 in the system. It is necessary to have rTorrent compiled with it.
xxx plugin: Plugin will not work. Web-server can’t access to external program (program name)
The default user running your rTorrent is user because running it as root isn’t ideal. Because of this, some programs that are needed for other plugins to work will also need to be installed and accessible by user. Open up a support ticket so we can install those required programs.
plugin: rTorrent’s user can’t access php interpreter. Plug-in will not work.
This error is very similar to the previous error however this is related to php running on the system. Note – if PHP is working in the system, it does not always mean that the interpreter exists in the system too. The package php-cli is necessary. Web-server may use e. g. php-fcgi which does not contain an interpreter. Again if you are not familiar with this, please reach out to us by opening a support ticket so we resolve this for you.
I don't know what to do next...
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