moving downloaded files

[jgf]

I have torrent downloads in about half a dozen different directories and want to consolidate them into one. Once done, how do I tell bitcomet where the files are located so downloads and seeds can continue?

Also, is it safe to rename a torrent file? ("Bob's Software V4.torrent" is comprehensible, "DF864bbr45KLp02.torrent" is gibberish)

[kluelos]

Use BitComet's menu to load a .torrent file, but do not start it yet.

You will see a dialogue that lists the download location. The download location is also the location to upload from when you are uploading.

Change that download directory to point to where the files are now. Don't start the torrent yet.

Click "OK" to dismiss the dialogue and return to the task list where this task is stopped. Now right-click on it and perform a manual hash-check. That will search the designated directory for the torrent's files and check their integrity. This should take a few minutes and the counter will change function: instead of showing the % downloaded, it changes to % checked. It will count to 100% (of what you have). Then it will revert to it's %-downloaded function.

If this happens very quickly and the counter shows 0% downloaded, then you probably pointed the download directory to the wrong place -- usually to a subfolder that's one above, or one below, the right place. You'll need to change that. You'll know you have it right when the hash check finishes and shows you have 100% of the torrent.

You can rename the .torrent file anything you like. You can't rename the contents -- what it downloads -- or the torrent task will try to re-download the original.

[greywizard]

The easiest way to move the files of one or several tasks at a time, is to select the task(s), right-click it/them and choose "Files move..." from the context menu. Then select your desired destination.

If you have already moved the files by Windows Explorer, you'll have to manually open the properties page of each task and change the save path to point at the folder where you moved the task's file(s). After hitting OK you'll get a dialog warning you that files already exist in that folder and prompting you to allow a hash-check for the task or to choose a different path.

The name of the torrent file bears no influence on how it will be treated by the BitTorrent client. However if you're speaking about the torrents found in the \Archive folder, changing the name of a file in that folder might render useless the link between the Torrent History category in Favorites and the actual torrent file.

Ditto for a torrent file from the \Torrents folder, which is already added as a task in BitComet.

They both use .xml files which link the file name to the task.

But I don't really see why you would want to bother renaming the file. Once you've added it into BitComet you'll be able to access it either by the Task List (if it's running) or by the Torrent History category (if you deleted the task). It's much easier and more convenient; you won't need to remember it's exact name.

[jgf]

"But I don't really see why you would want to bother renaming the file"

Frequently days or weeks pass between when I get the torrent file and when I actually start the download. Go to file>open and see about 30% of the torrents have those gibberish alphanumeric names (my solution so far is to double-click one of those and, in the next window, see what it is); since it doesn't matter what they're named (as long as, apparently, I haven't yet started the file download), I can rename the torrents as I download them.

[greywizard]

I'm not sure which method you use to "get" the .torrent files.

If you download them by HTTP, from torrent index sites, I must say I've never (so far) encountered a .torrent file which didn't get a proper, intelligible name in the Task List.

Torrent files, I get my hands on never have gibberish alpha-numeric names. By what method, exactly, do you come across this .torrent files?

Anyway, if you really need to rename them, do it before adding them into the Task List. That way, it won't bear any influence on the task you create from the .torrent file afterwards.

[kluelos]

I have had this happen quite a few times -- that the downloaded torrent filename was (I guess) the torrent's hash value, or part of it. My theory is that's how some trackers actually store and index the torrent, and maybe there was supposed to be a rename function in there, but it did not happen. Just a guess.

But I do occasionally, when not watching what I'm doing, end up with one of these. It can be easily renamed at any time. And it surely is frustrating when I cannot recall what this torrent was.

[greywizard]

I personally prefer adding the torrents to the Task List right away (in fact my browser is set to download and open immediately in BitComet the .torrent file, upon clicking on a link to a torrent) even if I don't intend to download them right away and deal with them later.

That way, I never have to worry about where my .torrent files are, or what they are called like. Nor do I ever have to open them manually through the menu.

I guess that's why I've never run into this issue.

But the bottom line is that it's safe to rename the torrent file to whatever suits you, as long as it's not yet added to the Task List.