Simple Ways to Download Files with uTorrent

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Learn how to download stuff with uTorrent

Written by Darlene Antonelli, MA

Last Updated: December 27, 2023 Fact Checked

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With uTorrent Web

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With uTorrent Classic

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Q&A

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Tips

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Warnings

If you're new to the world of peer-to-peer file sharing, downloading uTorrent is a great way to get started. uTorrent is a free, beginner-friendly BitTorrent client you can use to download applications, movies, books, games, and more from other people on the internet. Downloading torrents can be risky, so make sure your computer has antimalware protection, VPN enabled, and the latest security updates. You'll also want to avoid downloading pirated movies, games, and other content, as doing so is illegal. This wikiHow article teaches you how to install uTorrent Classic and uTorrent Web on your PC or Mac, plus how to find and download torrents.

Things You Should Know

uTorrent Web is very beginner-friendly and the best option for those who aren't familiar with BitTorrent clients.
Use the built-in search tool to find a torrent.
Click "Download" next to a torrent to open it with uTorrent and begin downloading.

Method 1

Method 1 of 2:

With uTorrent Web

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1
Install uTorrent Web on your PC or Mac. uTorrent Web is the most beginner-friendly version of uTorrent. It runs in your web browser and allows you to play torrents (such as movies and music) while downloading. You can download it from https://www.utorrent.com/web/.
- When installing, pay close attention to each installation screen. You'll be prompted to install other apps like SpyHunter or WinZip, and it may not be super obvious at first. Remove any checkmarks next to apps uTorrent asks you to install, and/or click Decline when prompted.
- If you get an error that says "Operation Did Not Complete Successfully Because the File Contains a Virus" when installing on Windows, it's because Windows thinks uTorrent is malware. As long as you downloaded the installer straight from uTorrent.com, there's not actually a virus. To install uTorrent anyway, here's how you can allow the installer to run:
  - Press Windows key + i to open Settings.
  - Click Update & Security (Windows 10) or Privacy and security (Windows 11).
  - Click Virus & threat protection.
  - On the warning about uTorrent.exe or utweb_installer.exe, click the button at the bottom and select Allow on device.
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Open uTorrent Web. You'll find uTorrent Web in your Windows menu or Mac's Launchpad. Clicking it will open uTorrent in your web browser.
- If you want, you can use the tutorial to download a sample torrent—click Yes to try this out, or No if you already have a torrent in mind that you want to install.
- If prompted, follow the on-screen instructions to make uTorrent Web open torrent files by default.
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Search for a torrent. You can use the torrent search built right into uTorrent Web to find what you're looking for. Or, if you have a certain torrent site or search engine in mind, open it in another browser tab and start searching.
- Searching from uTorrent Web does a Google search for whatever you type plus the word "torrent." You may find better results if you put a period before the word "torrent" in the search. For example, if you were looking for a torrent of the application Gimp, you can try searching like this: gimp .torrent instead of gimp torrent.
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Go to the torrent site. When you find a website that has the file you're looking for, click the link to check it out.
- If you aren't already familiar with the site, do some research before starting a download. One thing you can try is searching Google for the site's address site and "reddit" to see if Redditors are talking about its legitimacy. Reddit is a great place to check for peoples' experiences with torrenting websites.
- Sites like The Pirate Bay, 1337x, and RARBG are all popular sites, but be careful—they all offer pirated (illegal) content for download in addition to legitimate apps, games, and movies.
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Evaluate the torrent. Before selecting a torrent, there are a few things you'll want to check:^{[1]
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Research source}
- Check the number of "seeds" available for the torrent. A seeder is a person who has 100% of the file available for download at that moment. The more seeds available, the better the chance that you'll get your files reasonably fast. If no seeds are available, the file will not begin to download until a seeder logs on.
- Many torrent websites have comment sections where people discuss their experience with a particular download. If there are viruses or malware in the torrent, you may see a comment indicating this, which will obviously be helpful before downloading.
Click the button that says Download, Get this torrent, Download torrent, or similar to download the file. Torrents end with the file extension .torrent and are small files that download quickly. This is because the .torrent file just contains instructions uTorrent will use to download the actual file.
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Double-click the downloaded .torrent file. This will display information about the file(s) you're downloading in uTorrent Web.
- You may have to select uTorrent Web as the default app the first time you open a .torrent file.
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Review the torrent's information and click Add. uTorrent Web will display a list of files you'll be downloading. If you don't want to download all of the files listed, remove the checkmarks from the files you don't want. You can also choose a location to which you want to download the file(s).
- Once you click Add, the file(s) will start downloading (as long as there are seeders available).
- You can monitor the progress of your download right in the uTorrent Web window. It may take a few minutes for the torrent to get up to full download speed. The download time will depend on the number of seeds, your connection speed, the connection speed of the seeders, and how many downloads you have going at once.
uTorrent Web allows you to start watching torrented videos or listen to torrented music before the download is complete. Once enough of the file has downloaded, you'll see a preview in the window. Click the preview to start watching or listening.
Once the torrent is downloaded, the completed file will be in the folder you selected (or your default download folder, which is usually called Downloads). The file you want is not the one that ends with .torrent—it'll usually be a movie file, set of audio files and folders, a disk image (ending with .iso or .dmg), or a compressed file (ending with extensions like .zip, .tar.gz, or .rar).
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Let the torrent seed after it finishes downloading. Torrents will seed automatically after the files have downloaded. Seeds allow people to download files, and it's considered common courtesy to seed for at least as long as you downloaded to give back to the community.
- To stop seeding a file, just click the toggle switch next to "Seeding" to turn it off.

Method 2

Method 2 of 2:

With uTorrent Classic

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1
Install uTorrent Classic. uTorrent Classic has more configuration options than uTorrent Web, including encryption options. If you're an advanced user or would just prefer not to use an app in your web browser, this is the choice for you. You can download uTorrent Classic from https://www.utorrent.com. During the installation, follow the on-screen instructions to allow uTorrent through your firewall when prompted.^{[2]
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Research source}
- When installing, pay close attention to each installation screen. You'll be prompted to install other apps like SpyHunter or WinZip, and it may not be super obvious at first. Remove any checkmarks next to apps uTorrent asks you to install, and/or click Decline when prompted.
- If you get an error that says "Operation Did Not Complete Successfully Because the File Contains a Virus" when installing on Windows, it's because Windows thinks uTorrent is malware. As long as you downloaded the installer straight from uTorrent.com, there's not actually a virus. To install uTorrent anyway, here's how you can allow the installer to run:
  - Press Windows key + i to open Settings.
  - Click Update & Security (Windows 10) or Privacy and security (Windows 11).
  - Click Virus & threat protection.
  - On the warning about uTorrent.exe or utweb_installer.exe, click the button at the bottom and select Allow on device.
You'll find it in your Windows menu or your Mac's Applications folder.
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Enable protocol encryption. Many ISPs slow down the connections of people who use apps like uTorrent to preserve bandwidth for their other customers.^{[3]
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Research source} By enabling protocol encryption in uTorrent, you can hide the fact that you're using uTorrent from your ISP, which should prevent them from slowing down your connection. Here's how:
- Click the Options menu at the top of uTorrent.
- Click Preferences.
- Click the BitTorrent tab on the left.
- Under "Protocol Encryption," select Enabled from the menu, and make sure the box next to "Allow incoming legacy connections" is checked.
  - If you notice that your downloads are still slow later, try switching to Forced instead—the only catch is that there may be fewer peers to connect to when you're trying to download files.
- Click OK.
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Search for a torrent. You can use the Smart Search field at the top of uTorrent to find what you're looking for. You can also search Google for the name or type of file you're looking for and .torrent, or just do a search for reputable torrent search sites.
- Searching from uTorrent does a Google search in your default web browser for whatever you type plus the word "torrent." You may find better results if you put a period before the word "torrent" in the search. For example, if you were looking for a torrent of the application OpenOffice, you can try searching openoffice .torrent instead of openoffice torrent.
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Go to the torrent site. When you find a torrent site that has files you want, click it to check it out. Just keep in mind that not all torrents and torrenting sites are legitimate, and it can be tough to determine which sites are safe. One way to investigate a site is to search Google for its address and "reddit" to see if Redditors are talking about it.^{[4]
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Research source}
- Sites like 1337x and RARBG are popular torrent sites, but be careful—they offer pirated (illegal) content for download in addition to legitimate apps, games, and movies.
- Because many torrenting sites host illegal files, they get shut down quite often.
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Evaluate the torrent. If you've found a file you want to download, there are a few things you'll want to check first:^{[5]
X
Research source}
- Look at the number of "seeds" available. A seeder is a person who has 100% of the file available for download at that moment. The more seeds available, the better the chance that you'll get your files reasonably fast. If no seeds are available, the file will not begin to download until a seeder logs on.
- Many torrent websites have comment sections where people discuss their experience with a particular download. If there are viruses or malware in the torrent, you may see a comment indicating this, which will obviously be helpful before downloading.
Click the button that says Download, Get this torrent, Download torrent, or similar to start the download. This first file you're downloading doesn't actually contain the song, video, or application you're trying to download—it's just a small file with instructions uTorrent will use to download the file from people sharing it online (seeders).
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Double-click the downloaded .torrent file. You'll find this in your default download folder. This displays the contents of the download in uTorrent, allows you to choose a download location, and gives you the option to start the download.
- You can also drag and drop the .torrent file right into uTorrent.
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Click OK to start the download. It's at the bottom of the options window. This adds the torrent file to your list of downloads.
- You can now search for and add other torrents if you'd like. Downloads will be prioritized in the order they were added
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Monitor the download. Once you see "Downloading 0.0%" on the torrent's name in the uTorrent window, the torrent's files are officially downloading.
- It may take a few minutes for the torrent to get up to full download speed. The download may take a while to finish depending on the number of seeds, your connection speed, the connection speed of the seeders, and how many downloads you have going at once.
Once the download is complete, the file(s) will be available in your download folder. The file you want to open not the one that ends with .torrent—instead, look for a video, folder, audio file, disk image (ending with .iso or .dmg), or a compressed file (ending with extensions like .zip, .tar.gz, or .rar).
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Let the torrent seed after it finishes downloading. Torrents will seed automatically after the files have downloaded—you'll know your torrent is seeding when you see "Seeding" on a green bar next to its name. It's common courtesy to seed for at least as long as you downloaded to give back to the community.^{[6]
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Research source}
- To stop seeding, right-click the finished torrent and select Stop.

Community Q&A

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Question

Can I download torrents through websites?

Community Answer

You can access torrents through websites, but you still need special software to download them. The websites would include special links that only torrent software can understand.

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Question

Why do I need to download UC browser?

Community Answer

You don't. If uTorrent is prompting you to install this browser and you don't want to, and you do not have the option to deselect this browser, install another torrent client.

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Question

I downloaded a torrent, but it is not opening. What am I doing wrong?

Community Answer

You may have downloaded the magnet link. You should be able to right-click on the torrent file and select "Open With", then pick uTorrent.

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Tips

uTorrent Classic is not available for macOS Catalina and later.

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If your download doesn't have enough seeds to complete, you can increase the seeds to attempt to speed up the download or help it finish.

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The ad-supported versions of uTorrent are free, but you have the option of upgrading to a paid version for ad removal and additional features. You don't need to pay to use uTorrent to download torrents.

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Works great on android.

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Warnings

Downloading movies, music, games, software, or any other digital item for which you would normally have to pay is generally as illegal as shoplifting that same item.

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Many torrent sites contain pornographic and sexually explicit ads. They may also contain links to malware and viruses.

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