Re-seed Tool for Windows users

[ianfontinell]

This tool is intended to easily start re-seeding files that you have in your storage and that are not currently being seeded.

What it does:
It uses a tool called Everything to instantly fetch a list of all existing files, and then performs a search for matching filenames and sizes present in the torrent file.

After adding the torrent file, you'll see a list of all its content, and a search button. Once you hit search, it will send the signal to Everything looking for matches.

When matching files are found but they fall outside of the expected torrent's folder structure, the app allows you to copy or move your existing files into a valid structure that will allow you to start seeding it.

If it finds files within the original torrent's folder structure, it will show you an option to copy the path so you can easily add it to your torrent client. If it identifies an installation of qbittorrent in your machine, it will also show a button to start re-seeding the file automatically.

Currently, it is possible to start re-seeding a torrent even if you don't have all files, but in this intial implementation, it will try to download those missing files. To get around this, it will require a more complex qbittorrent implementation that relies on the WebUI, which is something most users don't even have enabled by default.

Some important notes: this is a standalone app, you don't need to have Everything installed to use it. If you do have Everything installed, you can still use this app, but it will not make use of your existing instance or its database.

Everything is built exclusively for Windows, as it relies on the NTFS Master File Table, a massive index of all existing files. This allows for instant indexing, so even if you have dozens of Terabytes of files, it will take only a few seconds to load everything.

Since there is nothing similar to the MFT for Linux or Mac, this tool will stay being exclusive for Windows.

Download link: Windows x64 | Github page: TorrentFileFinder

If you choose to give it a try, please leave your impressions and suggestions in this topic, as well as any issues or errors.

[thedude99]

@ianfontinell said:
Currently, it is possible to start re-seeding a torrent even if you don't have all files, but in this intial implementation, it will try to download those missing files. To get around this, it will require a more complex qbittorrent implementation that relies on the WebUI, which is something most users don't even have enabled by default.

Can you explain how to get around it in WebUI or point me to a tutorial? I've experienced this missing files problem before; if I'm the only reseeder for a torrent and I have missing files it tries to download the missing files and changes my 100% completed file to 99.9% so now I'm stuck with an incomplete file. The file still plays fine but technically it's unfinished. I'd like to prevent this if I can.

[ianfontinell]

@thedude99 unfortunately the issue you're describing is not solvable, this is by design of the bittorrent protocol.

In the initial implementation of bittorrent, torrent pieces have a fixed size, multiple files can overlap in a same piece, and the most common outcome of this is that the beginning of a file will share the same piece as the end of the previous file.

You cannot partially seed a piece, you need the whole thing. If the filr you're trying to seed overlaps with another file, you need to have that part of the other file. Even if you never downloaded that file in the first place, the torrent client will still have downloaded it and stored it in a special folder or file.

After you remove that torrent from your client and getting rid of that special file, any attempt to seed this file will lead to the client trying to download the remaining bytes of that torrent piece.

There's nothing that I or you could do about this, sadly. The only solution to this is to stop using v1 protocol to create torrent files, but after the torrent file is created, we can't do a thing.

What that means for your particular case is that, if you're the only person reseeding, no one will ever be able to finish it, and the only solution is for you to create a brand new torrent with the files you have.

[thedude99]

@ianfontinell said:

@thedude99 unfortunately the issue you're describing is not solvable, this is by design of the bittorrent protocol.

In the initial implementation of bittorrent, torrent pieces have a fixed size, multiple files can overlap in a same piece, and the most common outcome of this is that the beginning of a file will share the same piece as the end of the previous file.

You cannot partially seed a piece, you need the whole thing. If the filr you're trying to seed overlaps with another file, you need to have that part of the other file. Even if you never downloaded that file in the first place, the torrent client will still have downloaded it and stored it in a special folder or file.

After you remove that torrent from your client and getting rid of that special file, any attempt to seed this file will lead to the client trying to download the remaining bytes of that torrent piece.

There's nothing that I or you could do about this, sadly. The only solution to this is to stop using v1 protocol to create torrent files, but after the torrent file is created, we can't do a thing.

What that means for your particular case is that, if you're the only person reseeding, no one will ever be able to finish it, and the only solution is for you to create a brand new torrent with the files you have.

That's unfortunate. This v1 protocol has been in use for like 25 years? I wish they would move on to v2 already.
Thanks for the explanation.