How to stop seeding in uTorrent
uTorrent has served thousands of people for years as one of the leading torrenting programs on Windows , Mac, and Android . This software allows you to download files that other people are seeding. You can also choose to seed the files to make it easier for others to download them. Once a side note, you should know that these files are often pirated.
How to Make uTorrent Stop Seeding After Downloading in 3 Easy Steps
uTorrent has served thousands of people for years as one of the leading torrenting programs on Windows , Mac, and Android . This software allows you to download files that other people are seeding. You can also choose to seed the files to make it easier for others to download them. Once a side note, you should know that these files are often pirated.
How to Make uTorrent Stop Seeding After Downloading
You can simply remove the torrent from uTorrent when it’s finished downloading to prevent it from seeding, but this method can be pretty arduous because you’ll need to constantly check your torrents and remove them one by one when it’s done. By simply tweaking a few settings, you can stop all seeding automatically so that you don’t need to monitor the program. Without further ado, let’s begin!
Step 1: Access preferences
Open your uTorrent and click on Options , then Preferences .
Step 2: Select Bandwidth
Now click on Bandwidth and set the number of upload slots per torrent to zero.
Step 3: Open Queueing
Now select Queueing from the list on the right-hand side and ensure that the bottom four options are all set to zero. You will need to check the box under When uTorrent Reaches the Seeding Goal to change that value to zero. When you’ve made all of the changes, select Apply, and your uTorrent won’t seed at all anymore.
Big Brother’s Watching
While these torrenting programs are fantastic in their own right, there are real consequences to downloading pirated files and spreading them on the internet. While preventing your uTorrent from seeding your downloaded files does mean that you aren’t assisting with the distribution of pirated files, you are still liable for anything that you download. With this in mind, it may be safer to simply subscribe to a streaming service or buy the movie or series you’re trying to download.
How to stop seeding in uTorrent?
Utorrent, stylized “uTorrent’ or now uTorrent Portable for the app, is one of the leading download clients on the Internet today. It offers a service known as “magnet link’ which is an easy and often anonymous way of downloading a file without signing up to a website. Like so many torrent download clients, uTorrent uses a file-sharing system that relies on its users to work together to make the data available to everyone in the community. uTorrent facilitates this by serving as a host on the network, linking various computers together over the net as the same file is continuously downloaded and uploaded by different users.
Seeding a file
Once a user has selected a file for download it will appear in Portable uTorrent main dashboard. Here it will display the speed at which it’s being downloaded, the size of the file and the estimated time it will take for the download to complete. Once this time has elapsed and the file is downloaded, it will then start the process of “seeding’. This is when the download client, for example, uTorrent itself, starts the process of re-uploading the file back to the file-sharing platform. This ensures that the next user will be able to download the file. Leaving the file to seed will see the file uploaded again and again. In the torrent community seeding is perceived as correct etiquette, the argument being the original uploader has gone to the trouble to acquire the file, therefore, every downloader has a duty to re-upload to keep the file active and available for all.
What is a leecher?
“Leecher’ is a deliberately derogatory term in the torrent community to describe someone who downloads a file then does not seed it. This is seen as a selfish act and considered damaging to the file-sharing world. If every user did this practice torrents would not be able to continue. However, there are reasons why someone would want to stop seeding a file.
uTorrent Portable itself is a completely legitimate platform intended for legal downloading and file sharing but is often employed as a host for illegal downloads from websites such as Pirate Bay and others. Whether illegal or legal the same seeding and leeching etiquette applies. In some countries interestingly, seeding is considered a bigger crime than leeching. Simply downloading a file illegally is frowned upon but seeding it makes you a facilitator. The one seeding is then seen as one of the people uploading the file, potentially profiting from it, breaching trading laws. Essentially it’s a bigger crime to upload a file illegally than it is to download it. Naturally, this is a deterrent to many people using torrent sites and they choose to not seed for this very reason.
Another reason why someone may choose to not seed a file is Internet speed. Not everyone can afford to do this, and going their data allowance can cost money. They may live in a rural area and uploaded a large file could completely cripple their Internet. The choice is also something to consider. While the torrent community may have etiquette that they observe that doesn’t mean everyone needs to subscribe to these views. uTorrent users are under no obligation to do so.
How to stop seeding?
uTorrent Portable is incredibly helpful and user-friendly in this regard. As mentioned above, once the timer on a file has completed it will be fully downloaded. uTorrent will ping loudly to inform the user the file is downloaded. It will also create a pop-up in the right-hand corner of the screen to confirm this. If one looks at the dashboard it will have changed to a bright light green colour. The timer will also be replaced with a column saying “seeding’. All the user needs to do here is to right-click on the file and select “stop’. This will sever the file’s connection to the network but leave the file intact and ready for use. To be completely sure the user can open the file and move it to a folder of their choice then delete the file in uTorrent. The completed file will then be safely on the user’s computer but no longer in uTorrent. This is the best way to make sure you don’t seed a file once it has completed downloading in uTorrent.