Qbittorrent: v3.3.5 destination folder is created inside folders with random letters and numbers

[MuadDib69]

Happened since last version 335.
Destination folders are created inside a different folder named with random letters and numbers.
When download is finished, the destination folder is moved to correct path, but folder named with random letters and numbers is left behind, empty.

[Misiek304]

It happens when you have incomplete folder set.

[MuadDib69]

define "incomplete folder set", please
(thanks in advance)

[Misiek304]

There is an option to store incomplete torrents in given location. That's what I meant.

[alancsalt]

So how do you stop this happening? (The left behind folders.)

I've got to wonder why an update would change settings.

[beneficadoramocaba]

Check in _Settings > Downloads_. In my case, the "_Keep incomplete torrents in:_" option was enabled, and set to the same location as the "_Default Save Path:_". I disabled the checkbox, and several pending downloads were moved out of the subfolders (i.e. /a0335b25/torrentname) and back to where they belong. This may be affected by having pre-allocation enabled (just below the options for the save paths).

I haven't confirmed how the setting worked in previous versions but I believe Misiek304 has provided the necessary clue to work around this super-annoying bug, so thanks!

[alancsalt]

The previous version (which I reverted to) has this same setting enabled, but does not leave folder litter behind. While this might provide a cure, doesn't seem to be the cause.. Just sayin'.

[tekko]

https://github.com/qbittorrent/qBittorrent/issues/5154

It's new in 3.3.5 to fix the problem above.

[beneficadoramocaba]

Confirmed, disabling the above option resolves the issue.

If this is the intended behaviour (re: #5154) then might I suggest the option's label be changed to something like "Keep incomplete torrents in different folder:" and having it disabled by default.

[mochigithub]

I was writing to report this exact problem. It is very, very annoying if you are downloading a lot of small-filed torrents, as it's a pain to go through each folder and make sure there's nothing you're deleting by mistake.

I usually use D:\Downloads#Pending and then move them to Downloads when it's finished, so that setting above is actually useful. With that said, I turned it off.

I am really hoping for a permanent fix. qBittorrent is a very polished program, but this workaround feels extremely inelegant to say the least.

[alancsalt]

Tried this?

[mochigithub]

What version of qBittorrent is that? It looks nothing like man and I have the latest version.

[alancsalt]

That was 3.3.4, but if you want 3.3.7 - nearly the same Tools>Options>Downloads

It's the "Save Files to Location" and "Keep incomplete torrents in" settings that fixed it for me.

[mochigithub]

Hi there...
So this is the deal. If Keep incomplete torrents in is enabled, a randomly named folder is created, such as "133623d". When I deleted the torrent WITH the files, qBittorrent deletes the files in the folder, but NOT the folder itself.

If you let this go on for a while, this happens

133623d
293493a
2949vj3
2938i4d
29949e
05498d
39284g

It's a real PITA and I consider this a bug for sure. Unchecking Keep incomplete torrents in solves the issue as the original files are not placed in randomly named folders.

Any ideas?

[alancsalt]

Nope. Above is what I did. The incomplete folders vanish from Downloads/temp when complete. If that doesn't work for you, I don't know why.

[mochigithub]

Here's what I have
[http://i.imgur.com/lHmkJOS.png]

Checking "Keep incomplete torrents in" will show that behavior I described before. Otherwise I have mostly the same setting other than pre-allocate disk space and append !qb. I thought I read something about it being linked to !qb setting. Stand by... lemme check something.

[mochigithub]

Update - yep it's that setting for sure. I turned the other two off and it didn't make any difference.

The problem occurs and disappears when I turn on/off that one individual setting. Argh, I guess i'll leave it off for now. Wonder if I should report this as a bug?

[kangarooo]

I must sat that incomplete folder is very needed to organize easyer but this bug makes more bugs like cant follow up witch files arent deleted when finished downloading or removed from qbittorrent.

Here is exmplanation of another problem this random name bug makes.
When i donwload some media files i start listening or watching and they finish while im watching then they dont go to Downloads but stays in my selected incomplete folder, but after i watched and want to remove and delete at same time from qBittorent selecting Delete with checkbox in "also from computer" then it still stays in Incomplete folder witch would be another bug but this bug makes it impossible to find from all random incomplete files witch one i need to delete from computer manually since they still stayed in incomplete folder.

[cron410]

Any update on the random naming of torrent folders in the Incomplete directory? I am trying to replace Deluge with qBittorrent but I will not be able to resume some rather large torrents in my old Incomplete folder because of this. Some of these are 60GB+ so resuming them is ideal.

I can also confirm that it is leaving behind the empty randomly named folders along with the root folder of the torrent which is making a mess of my Incomplete directory.

Disabling !qb extensions does not disable the random letter folders.

[kangarooo]

Still exists. Jut did an update to 3.3.10

[Arcesilas]

This problem is really annoying. If I understand, to not have these randomly named folders, you have to unckeck "Keep incomplete torrents in" : what if I DO WANT to keep incomplete torrents in another folder ?
Don't know if it's related, but on my previous installation (Ubuntu 15.10 and Debian 7), which both certainly aren't the latest version, when starting playing a movie before it's finished downloading and when download ended, I could continue reading the movie and it was moved to the correct complete torrents folder (thanks to Linux filesystem). Now, on Manjaro 16.10 with bBT 3.3.10, the file is no longer moved to the appropriate folder when download is finished. This is very annoying too.

If it's considered a feature, I would say it's completely stupid : it worked fined before, there is no reason to change a behaviour that makes no problem. So, it must be a bug...

[mochigithub]

Don't bother writing about it Arcesilas,
The author really doesn't care. Bugs are considered features and demands money for simple function of native portability.

I left qBittorrent and went back to uTorrent 2.2.1 and never looked back. Can't stand the arrogance of this developer.

[Arcesilas]

Unfortunately, µTorrent is not available for Arch. I'm bored of debian based distributions and don't want to use Windows for obvious reasons.
I'll take a look at Deluge, which may be quite enough for my needs and may not create random f**ing folders. Oh! forgot to mention that I was not able to correctly resume a torrent from another client (which, ironically, was an older version of qBT). 169Mo out of 180 were downloaded and after verification, resumed at 10%... Sure, 169/180 is approximately 0.1... Modern maths...

Thanks anyway for your answer which confirm the impression I had while reading this thread : no repository owner did answer at any time, while new versions were realeased in the same time.

[mochigithub]

For what it's worth, I fixed the random folder naming issue on my end by modifying some of my settings in the downloads section:

Try this maybe?
http://i.imgur.com/dBjKqeo.png

[Arcesilas]

As I said : I DO WANT to keep incomplete torrents in a different folder, because it's how I manage my files/torrents. It's not an option for me to disable this feature.

[mochigithub]

Ya, I know. I love keeping incomplete torrents in a seperate #PENDING folder. That's partly why I went back to uTorrent.

Take care.

[Nerva72]

Somebody please fix this stupid bug/feature. I'm starting to ask myself just why it was that I ditched uTorrent -- every time I turn around it seems qBT has failed in some new fundamental way.

[Djinn1]

Still no fix? WTF. I really like qbittorent and starting to wonder why nobody fix this problem. I hate to go back to Utorrent.

[Misiek304]

You should know that qBittorrent is maintain by community and they may not consider this bug a high priority.

[Arcesilas]

You should know that qBittorrent is used by community and they may consider this bug a very fu**ing annoying.

However, I am aware that any one may fork the project and fix the bug. But it is required an owner to merge the push request if anyone wants there is a little chance the fix to be propagated to the packages on various distributions.

Yes we can also compile the software by hand, but not every user is a developper, not every user know how to compile, not every user is even using github to know what th hell this bug is about.

So maybe on day developpers will take care of their users community. Maybe.
No problem, there are alternatives to qBittorrent. Then nobody will finally use this shitty software because of a shitty ridiculous bug, and the developper will stop working on this project and the earth will not stand still for all that.

[Misiek304]

I understand your position very well. I am writing the same things you do here, but in Google Chrome - Chromium bug report forum. Google Chrome has a bug where task bar is showing itself on full screen. I vented my frustration on their forums many times. They've been unable to fix this issue for more then a year and they say it has the highest priority possible. It's not a critical bug but it's fucking annoying.

The difference between qBittorrent and Chrome is that, the first one is maintain by people who donate their own time and resources to the project for free and the latter is supported by multi billion dollar company and their employees are getting payed for fixing shit like that.

Because of this reason, qBittorrent developers have right to choose what they are going to fix, when and how (with exception to security issues), so if they don't won't to fix this issue it's their right to do so. I also agree that there is a point when developers can no longer hide behind "we are not getting paid for this" bullshit and they either have to work WITH the community or go fuck themselves and be honest with everyone.

I'm just not sure if this bug is crossing that point. This thread has only 30 comments and I don't see enough backlash from users to justify going after qBittorrent developers like that.

PS. I wasn't trying to insult any qBt developers in this post. I was speaking in general and I was expressing my right to have my own opinion.

[Arcesilas]

I understand very well what you say. I am completely aware that qBittorrent developpers are a few individuals who work voluntarily on this project.
I also understand that this bug is not really a bug, since it looks more like a weird feature: the temporary folders did not exist before a certain version (don't remember which, I think it's said in one comment above), whereas the functionnality which allows a user to save complete torrents in a different folder already existed before and worked VERY WELL before, without these fucking temporary folders which are anything but helpful and user-friendly.
That's why users are so disappointed: this bug did not come along with a new feature, even if it is linked to one (don't use different folders for complete and incomplete torrents and this bug does not appear).

[compassnet]

Also experiencing the same issue here: https://github.com/qbittorrent/qBittorrent/issues/6492

This fixed the problem for new torrents with qBittorrent 3.3.11: http://i.imgur.com/dBjKqeo.png
Compass.

[Gertbucket]

Another "me too" here.

These folders should be deleted in the same process of moving the file from the temporary folder to the finished folder.

Or not created at all, is the other option.

[MrRobot12]

+1

I started using qBt this week and immediately noticed random lettered folders being left in the incomplete folder. Googled for the issue and this is the top result.

Very annoying.

[Misiek304]

this is the top result

Sorry to disappoint you but no fix for this issue yet. If this really bothers you you can go back to the version of qBT before this function was broken.

[wooziwoozi]

+1

What version was this not broken on? I am so annoyed right now after having switched only to find this bug.

[Misiek304]

Can you try 3.3.4?
I think that the original bug report was from versions 3.3.5 so I assume that the version before that should work fine.

[Djinn1]

My brother uses 3.3.7 with no issue. But can´t find the link to 3.3.7

2017-03-30 17:46 GMT+02:00 Misiek304 [e-mail]:

Can you try 3.3.4?
I think that the original bug report was from versions 3.3.5 so I assume
that the version before that should work fine.

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[Arcesilas]

Link to source code of version 3.3.7 : https://github.com/qbittorrent/qBittorrent/tree/release-3.3.7
Link to Windows binary : https://sourceforge.net/projects/qbittorrent/files/qbittorrent-win32/qbittorrent-3.3.7/
If you need a Linux Package, you need to specify which distribution.

[Gertbucket]

What's 3.3.7 like with stalling? Seems to be a big problem with 3.3.11.

[Misiek304]

How exactly is that this bug is present in 3.3.5 but not in 3.3.7 even though everyone is saying that 3.3.8, 3.3.9, 3.3.10 and 3.3.11 are suffering from this bug.

I'm a bit confused here.

What's 3.3.7 like with stalling? Seems to be a big problem with 3.3.11.

If the stalling issue started with 3.3.11 then I thing 3.3.7 will be fine.

[MidWeekMusings]

I also can't wait for someone to fix this, it's very annoying to have to manually delete these empty "temp" folders. And the workaround of unchecking "Keep incomplete torrents in:" is not a very good one, because I like that option.

[thalieht]

Qbt stopped deleting the empty folders on torrent completion and upon disabling the use of an incomplete folder, in 3.3.8 with PR #6140 and specifically https://github.com/qbittorrent/qBittorrent/pull/6140/commits/a2bb947dcc12a405c1133050f3b8cf37ed0e0d4b but i don't think it was intended for this purpose?

If i'm not mistaken, when deleting a torrent (+files) it only deletes up to the root folder of the torrent but that's not enough anymore for the incomplete folder
https://github.com/qbittorrent/qBittorrent/blob/master/src/base/bittorrent/session.cpp#L1420

@glassez wanna take a look?

[Gertbucket]

Still a problem in 3.3.12, with clean install and default settings other than moving the completed downloads to my own specified folder.

[Nerva72]

Grrrrr...

[Djinn1]

Why there is no comment regarding this issue? Shouldn't they write
something or say they working on it?

Den 8 apr. 2017 20:02 skrev "Nerva72" [e-mail]:

Grrrrr...

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[Gertbucket]

The bug is buried very deep. Maybe it needs to be reopened with the current build to get attention.

[glassez]

The bug is buried very deep. Maybe it needs to be reopened with the current build to get attention.

Maybe this is good idea.
It is not clear what exactly the problem is now. "destination folder is created inside folders with random letters and numbers" (the title of this topic) is not really problem, it is misunderstood of application basics. qBittorrent doesn't create such folders in destination folder (i.e. save path), only in temporary folder (i.e. incomplete torrents path).
If the problem is "Qbt stopped deleting the empty folders on torrent completion" (I assume in temporary folder) it will be reviewed as soon as anyone of the developers will have time for this.

[Gertbucket]

"If the problem is "Qbt stopped deleting the empty folders on torrent completion" (I assume in temporary folder) it will be reviewed as soon as anyone of the developers will have time for this."

You are right. This is precisely the issue.

Would you log it as a current bug, please.

[Nerva72]

I would say it is worse than "Qbt stopped deleting the empty folders on torrent completion". I don't think it should be creating the folders in the first place -- older versions didn't do it, and uTorrent didn't do it, so why should we have to put up with the clutter?

[glassez]

I don't think it should be creating the folders in the first place

I don't understand what's the problem. Temp folders are usually not for user eyes. Look at other temp folders on your computer. There are many folders/files in it. Let's ask other software developers to not create this content!
Now qBittorrent works as expected since it treats folder for incomplete torrents as temp folder. If someone believes that it is incorrect or inconvenient behavior, let opens a new topic for this (with the appropriate name and the correct formulation of the problem).

[glassez]

With regard to the creation of the above-mentioned folders in a temporary folder, this action is due to the following preconditions:

1. saving files, any torrent may cause conflicts when in the target folder will be 3rd party files with the same names,
2. when a user adds a torrent, and specifies the save path that he should take care to avoid such conflicts,
3. because the temporary folder is set globally for all torrents (not during each torrent addition) and user has less control over it, there is a strong likelihood that there will be files with conflicting names.

The application creates additional subfolders for each torrent to avoid possible name conflicts.
This is current logic. Any well-defined offers any other logic are welcome.

[kangarooo]

When its renamed with random letters then when files stay in folder, for example when watching movie while file still downloading, so it cant move to destionation of finished files, so they dont remove when deleteing in some versions and maybe still. With random name cant know witch files to delete.

[Arcesilas]

for example when watching movie while file still downloading, so it cant move to destionation of finished files

I guess this is on Windows, since Linux uses inodes: when a file is moved, the inode is not moved, the player can still play the file which is moved. Anyway, the bug is present on Linux too, so it's really a bug.

Anyway, this is a ucking bug, discussion is sterile, developper's arguments are bullshit. Using Deluge which does not piss me off with random useless folders.
Quit following this endless ticket.

[glassez]

@qbittorrent/frequent-contributors, please review this issue.
Any ideas? Should we just stop creating these subfolders, and to return the responsibility for the possible file name conflicts to users?

[Chocobo1]

From what I read, there are 2 issues here:

1. The temporary/hash folders should be managed.
   For example, when removing a torrent job, users expect removing the temp/hash folder too.
   Users also expect the temp/hash folder is removed when download complete (and maybe other use case I didn't think of).

2. Users don't accept hash as folder name.
   It's unreadable, convoy no meaning to users, I guess they like torrent name as folder name more.
   Yet I think using hash is not a bad solution for avoiding name clashes and max path length limitation on windows.

I would advice resolving the 1st issue first, then the second if there are still complains.

EDIT: correct some terms.

[glassez]

For example, when removing a torrent job, users expect removing the temp/hash folder too.Users also expect the temp/hash folder is removed when download complete (and maybe other use case I didn't think of).

I missed some changes in the code during my long absence, but, as I recall, this was done earlier, but was spoiled by some commit. As I understand it, there were some changes that removed deleting save paths when you delete/move the torrent.

[glassez]

I guess they like torrent name as folder name more.

This will lead to paths like "torrent_name/torrent_name".

[Chocobo1]

I missed some changes in the code during my long absence, but, as I recall, this was done earlier, but was spoiled by some commit. As I understand it, there were some changes that removed deleting save paths when you delete/move the torrent.

Not really, there was one of my PR, IIRC it was about not removing the root folder specified by the option "keep incomplete torrents in", not directly related to this matter.

This will lead to paths like "torrent_name/torrent_name".

silly ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

[glassez]

Users don't accept hash as folder name.It's unreadable, convoy no meaning to users,

Please, re-read my comments above. qBittorrent treat incomplete folder as temp folder and it use it accordingly, not worried about names readability etc.

[glassez]

I say this to the fact that the only bug here is that these directories are not removed when they are no longer needed. Everything else is just features of the implementation. I agree that it might be poorly made. In this case, we must decide how to alter it: just stop caring about the possible conflicts, or to do it another way.

[LordNyriox]

@glassez, @Chocobo1:

In this case, we must decide how to alter it: just stop caring about the possible conflicts, or to do it another way.

I seem to recall a PR from some time ago that used something like a truncated-torrent-name/truncated-hash syntax for a temporary file naming convention.

I do not remember exactly where, though.

[Chocobo1]

Please, re-read my comments above. qBittorrent treat incomplete folder as temp folder and it use it accordingly, not worried about names readability etc.

I know, I was merely stating what users perceive.
And it's also why I propose resolving 1st issue first and observe the feedback.

[glassez]

And it's also why I propose resolving 1st issue first and observe the feedback.

Agree. Do you have time for it in near future?

[Chocobo1]

Do you have time for it in near future?

I got my hands full already. :(

[Seeker2]

For a torrent that has extremely complicated and long filenames and folder names, this risks issues with the temp folder plus the random sub-folders exceeding the path+filename limits.
Issue https://github.com/qbittorrent/qBittorrent/issues/6645

[milika]

Just another "me to" comment. Hope it gets fixed soon...

[k21689]

Couple solutions. One of them is open source code and write the following codes.

Open file_name, if error same file name exist
open filename YearDateHourMinuteSecondMicrosecond and store existed file name in YearDateHourMinuteSecondMicrosecond.file

Open folder_name, if error same folder_name exist
open foldername YearDateHourMinuteSecondMicrosecond and store existed folder name in YearDateHourMinuteSecondMicrosecond.folder

If even Microsecond file/folder name conflicts, just try it again in the next Microsecond.
Same does to file_name and folder_name do not comply with wandoz os.

[thalieht]

It's fixed mostly in current master.
Tested:

• On full torrent completion: Deleted
• On full torrent deletion (with files) while downloading: Deleted
• On unselected-files torrent deletion (with files) while downloading: Deleted
• On unselected-files torrent completed: Leaves behind the .<torrent_hash>.parts in the truncated hash folder (libtorrent 1.1.3). Same when deleting this torrent after its completion.

[kangarooo]

3.3.12
I just did test with 2 short trailers not in folders but just video files.
Both in temp folder makes xxxyyyy folder names. Ok. Dont care if removed after. File names are showing inside normal.
One watching with VLC while dowloading till end and them removing and 2nd downloading till end and then only completley deleting in qbittorent.
Before deleting them in qbittorent- In one stayed only empty folder. and in other while watching, reading it kept also still in temp and made copy in downloaded.
So what happened.
If watching while downloading- on finished download it makes file in downloads but also still stays in temp folder 111aaa. Then removing with checkmarking in qbittorent to delete then is deleted in Downloads folder, but in temp stayed file with folder 111aaa.
If download till end- from folder 222bbb file goes to Downloads, BUT EMPTY folder 222bbb stayed. Closing or opening qbittorrent didnt change anything before doing removal. Did 3 qbittorent closings on while downloading and after finished 2 times.
So i just now saw i have a lot empty folders and some has old files i have also in downloads and some witch i have finished using, removed and still are in temp folder. Now doing cleanup of 483GB of files in Temp.

[thalieht]

@kangarooo qbit can't delete an open file (movie in VLC) because windows won't allow it, and of course it doesn't know when the file will be closed. I'd suggest to not use an incomplete downloads folder if you're streaming.

[vlijmenfileer]

This is about the naming scheme for the temp folders. I think the chosen naming is not good as a solution, seeing the names are non-human readable while the files in the temp folders are probably regularly accessed by users: sets of files of which some have downloaded and thus are already usable, or even films that have downloaded partially and that somebody wants to preview like that.

I also think it is relatively simple to remedy. With "Keep incomplete torrents in:" being active, instead of adding a subfolder like :
%truncated hash%
add a subfolder like:
%truncatedtorrentname%.%truncated hash%
The latter leads to (almost) identical subfolder/subsubfolder names. I too consider that a bit "silly" as per Chocobo1, but not by far as silly as having non-human usable filenames.

Extra / other niceties would be:
Make that appending optional. And make clear it would be the user's risk having the havoc of torrents with identical names.
Make the folder fields in Options->Downloads->Saving Management understand the variable names under "Run external program on torrent completion" to give user freedom to define how uniqueness is achieved herself.

I was about to make a new bug / feature request to put this in, but saw this had related recent activity so putting it first here. Shall I still make a new feature request?

[k21689]

Since the problem was created after v335, the solution is pretty simple --> go back to use v334 and before.

[Misiek304]

Since the problem was created after v335, the solution is pretty simple --> go back to use v334 and before.

Except those versions are having a pretty nasty bug that causes qBt to crash up to 48h of run time.

What about the 3.3.13 version?
Does it contain the fix?

[Nerva72]

So, this was opened over a year ago, and still not fixed?

[vlijmenfileer]

I somehow get the idea that while many see it as a bug, the author sees it as intended functionality. In that situation the chances of something happening are slim. We've put our arguments on the table, and I think they're pretty solid. I guess it's a matter of waiting, and hoping.

[glassez]

The problem is that everyone sees (or wants) in this feature something different, and the behavior, which does not fit into his vision, he feels wrong. There are still issues with this feature (e.g. #7113, #7137). Each offers to fix it on his manner, without thinking about its overall logic. Lately I often think about how to change it. I propose to discuss "desired" implementation of "Temporary folder" feature in a separate topic.

P.S. In any case, I'm going to get rid of the creation of the intermediate folders (at least in those cases where the torrent has its own root folder, or it contains only one file).

[glassez]

I propose to discuss "desired" implementation of "Temporary folder" feature in a separate topic.

See #7164.

[Nerva72]

I completely agree with both steps and how they are prioritized -- FIRST, get rid of using temporary folders -- uTorrent didn't do it that way (so obviously it isn't essential to do it), and it creates problems -- THEN go back and try to build some consensus about how incomplete torrents should be handled, and implement that change.

THANK YOU! I can't wait for this problem to be fixed.

[glassez]

See #7176.

[XeonG]

is this still not fixed...

If I delete a folder, then start qbit.. the torrent will say missing files (thats fine I'm ok with that.. sure if I ever want to start/resume it .. THEN it can recreate the folder and download again) ...but right now the dumb thing will go recreating an empty freaking folder with zero option to prevent...

this is stupid.. if its missing files and the folder.. it doesn't mean I want a empty effing folders recreated everywhere on every drive that I've deleted or moved does it.