So, yeah: Do you save your torrent files or delete them after you've added them to your favorite torrent client? Why? Not the underlying data, just the torrent files themselves.

I'm undecided. I figure if I save them and back them up to an offline/offsite device, then I can (mostly/hopefully) recover from hardware failure by simply re-adding all the torrent files to my favorite client. The downside is deciding how to organize them.

I'd love to hear from the community on this.

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[–] cupcakezealot@piefed.blahaj.zone 1 points 2 hours ago

i save them cause ive had an issue where qbittorrent removes all my torrents on startup (with the flatpak version) so it's easier to just readd the torrent and keep seeding

[–] brygphilomena@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 points 3 hours ago

I've migrated servers a few times and it's come in handy to have qbitorrent save them to a single folder I can move.

I generally have a couple thousand torrents running keeping some very old stuff alive. I'd rather have them around for server migrations to keep that going, move the data, load the torrent, force recheck.

[–] cmnybo@discuss.tchncs.de 2 points 4 hours ago

That would only help if they are still seeded when you need them. Torrents for something like individual TV episodes usually won't have seeds for very long after the season pack gets released.

[–] infinitesunrise@slrpnk.net 13 points 10 hours ago (1 children)

I stay away from torrent files, preferring magnet links only. Seconding the other user's suggestion of backing up appdata to preserve your torrent library.

[–] bad_news@lemmy.billiam.net 5 points 7 hours ago (1 children)

I'm kind of surprised anyone isn't using magnets. I feel like I never see torrentfile only anymore.

[–] baconman1945@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 points 2 hours ago

Private trackers commonly use torrent files.

[–] rodneyck@lemmy.dbzer0.com 16 points 14 hours ago

I have it set in QBittorent to delete them automatically when added. I like to stay tidy. Actually, I probably use more magnet torrents than regular, no mess, no fuss.

[–] stupid_asshole69@hexbear.net 5 points 11 hours ago

The client saves them.

If you have a lot of crap in small files it might be time to stop depending on the directory structure to navigate and switch to a database.

[–] Chronographs@lemmy.zip 6 points 12 hours ago

Last time I did a fresh install I just transferred the appdata for qbittorrent

[–] brickfrog@lemmy.dbzer0.com 4 points 11 hours ago* (last edited 11 hours ago) (1 children)

All the loaded torrents in a torrent client already get stored somewhere in the torrent client's own settings folders. e.g. if you look in qBittorrent's settings folders you'll find a folder full of .torrent files representing every single torrent currently in the torrent client.

So if it's a torrent I'm going to leave loaded in the torrent client then no, there's no reason to save a second copy of the .torrent file. But I guess if it's a torrent I'm not going to load in the torrent client, or will remove it from there, then maybe it's worth saving depending how you do things.

I’m undecided. I figure if I save them and back them up to an offline/offsite device, then I can (mostly/hopefully) recover from hardware failure by simply re-adding all the torrent files to my favorite client.

It would be better just to back up your entire torrent client settings folders, you'll save all the .torrent files along with the save folders and other information you have in the torrent client.

[–] three@lemmy.zip 3 points 9 hours ago

Oh shoot didn't know qbit did that. Will have to change my backup structure.

[–] curbstickle@lemmy.dbzer0.com 8 points 15 hours ago

If its something I'm concerned about finding to redownload, I just back up the content itself.

Otherwise its just arr's doing their thing to my specs, so I just backup my arr's.