BitTorrent Downloads
BitTorrent downloads work differently from regular ones: instead of one server, you download pieces of the file from other people (peers) and upload pieces back to them (seeding). That difference is why torrents have their own settings — and why a little tuning goes a long way.
Adding torrents and magnet links is covered in Adding tasks; this page is about what happens after.
From magnet link to files
A .torrent file already knows what’s inside. A magnet link doesn’t — Motrix first fetches the torrent’s metadata from other peers, which can take a moment. The task shows Fetching while this happens.
By default, once the metadata arrives Motrix opens the file picker so you can choose what to download. That behavior is the setting “Open file selection after magnet metadata loads” in Settings → BitTorrent.
You can change your file selection at any point: select the task, choose Select files, and tick or untick — even in the middle of the download.
Seeding
When a torrent finishes, Motrix keeps uploading to others for a while. That’s seeding — it’s what keeps torrents alive, and most communities expect you to give back at least what you took.
Motrix stops seeding automatically based on two limits in Settings → BitTorrent → Seeding:
| Setting | Default | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| Seed ratio limit | 1 | Stop after uploading as much as you downloaded (0 = unlimited) |
| Seed time limit (minutes) | 60 | Stop after this many minutes of seeding (0 = unlimited) |
Whichever limit is reached first wins. You can also set a per-torrent Seed Ratio when adding it, and stop or restart seeding manually with Stop seeding / Re-seed in the task list.
Watching your peers
Open a torrent’s detail panel and switch to the Peers tab to see who you’re trading pieces with: IP and port, client software, speeds, progress, and a Flags column (D = the peer is sending to us, U = we are sending to the peer, S = the peer is a seeder; an underscore means that state is inactive).
The Geo column can show each peer’s country flag. Turn it on under Settings → BitTorrent → GeoIP database with “Enable IP-to-country lookup” — Motrix downloads a small lookup database (from a community-maintained source or a custom URL of yours) and refreshes it about once a week when Update automatically is on.
Connectivity settings
The Listen and Peers sections of Settings → BitTorrent control how other peers reach you:
| Setting | Default | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| BT listen port | 6881 | The port for incoming peer connections |
| DHT listen port | — | The port used for DHT traffic |
| Enable DHT | on | The distributed hash table — finds peers without a tracker, and is what makes magnet links work well |
| Local peer discovery | — | Finds peers on your own network (handy on a LAN) |
| Max peers per torrent | 128 | Upper bound on simultaneous peer connections |
Important
Ports only help if other peers can actually reach them through your router. If your speeds are consistently poor and the Peers tab stays nearly empty, set up port mapping — it’s the single most effective BT connectivity fix.
Trackers — the servers that introduce peers to each other — have a whole page of their own: Trackers.
When a torrent is slow
Torrent speed depends on how many people are sharing the file, not just your connection. Before blaming Motrix, check the Peers tab (are you connected to anyone?) and the seeder count. The Troubleshooting page has a step-by-step checklist for slow torrents.