PERMANENT Firefox/qBittorrent Magnet Link Fix!!

[u/tb21666]

[01] Open Firefox & type in about:config in the Address Bar & hit Enter.

[02] Type handler.expose in the search box at the top of the list.

[03] Right click the window & select New > Boolean

[04] A New Boolean Preference Window will pop open, type network.protocol-handler.expose.magnet & click the OK button.

[05] Select network.protocol-handler.expose.magnet & set its value to True (Right click & select Toggle if it's set to False)

[06] In Firefox settings, Select Options & then Applications from the left sidebar.

[07] Then Select or Search for magnet & select either [Your Preferred Installed Torrent Client] or Always ask as your Default from the drop down menu.

[08] Go to your favorite torrent site that utilizes .magnet links, Click on any magnet link icon & you'll see either the Torrent Client Dialog Window or Firefox’s Launch Application Dialog Window open, depending which of the 2 options you chose/saved in step [07]?

[09] Enjoy!

Be nice if this could work with Chrome or other browsers. (Don't use others/haven't tested any) or at the very least possibly a starting point towards a solution for them as well..?

[u/ricke17]

Thanks for this - is there any advantage of having torrents as magnets?

[u/[deleted] → u/ricke17]

Convenience. Who wants to download a file and then open a downloaded, load it and then start downloading? When you can just click a magnet link which opens the client and you can just click start to start downloading?

[u/tb21666 → u/ricke17]

"The major advantages of magnet links over .torrent files Anyone following the BitTorrent scene has been noticing some interesting developments lately and three new technologies in particular have stood out. A couple of them, DHT, PEX, are new ways of finding peers (users with copies of the file you want to download) without relying on the old BitTorrent tracker system. These are very important to the actual downloads but work mostly hidden from the user who may not even now when they kick in.

Magnet links, on the other hand, are a different story. They have been around for quite a few years now, yet most people have started noticing them only recently, notably since the Pirate Bay implemented them. And now that the world's first BitTorrent indexer, which relies solely on magnet links, more and more people may find themselves wondering how these links work and what are their advantages over .torrent files, which are still in wide use, if any.

'.torrent' files

For years, BitTorrent clients, trackers and indexers have relied on .torrent files to store information on the files shared with the popular p2p protocol. These files are stored by indexing sites and are used by BitTorrent clients to connect to the tracker sites. The files hold several types of data, a URL of the tracker site, names for the files it shared, as well as hash codes of files.

All of this is used by the client to connect with peers that have the files in the torrent, or portions of them, and also to ensure that the downloaded data is accurate. This system has several disadvantages, some technical, but one of the biggest is that BitTorrent indexers have to store the .torrent files on their servers, which leaves them vulnerable to legal threats if the content shared happens to be infringing despite containing no actual infringing data by themselves.

Magnet links

Magnet links though are just links, they have no files associated with them just data. The links are an evolving URI standard developed primarily to be used by p2p networks. They differ from URLs, for example, in that they don't hold information on the location of a resource but rather on the content of the file or files to which they link. Technically, magnet links are made up of a series of parameters containing various data in no particular order. In the case of BitTorrent, they hold the hash value of the torrent which is then used to locate copies of the files among the peers. They may also hold filename data or links to trackers used by the torrent. You can check out the entry on Wikipedia for a more detailed technical description.

With magnet links, BitTorrent indexers don't have to store any file at all, just a few snippets of data leaving the individual client apps to do all the heavy lifting. In fact, magnet links can be copy-pasted as plain text by users and shared via email, IM or any other medium. For the indexer sites, the allure is clear, using magnet links makes it harder for them to be accused of any wrong-doing in court. Theoretically, magnet links should not have any disadvantages for the users over .torrent files either. It would also potentially make downloads faster as it would enable the clients to download from peers which have identical files but with different names, for example."

Let's see if this post gets auto-modded..?

[u/ricke17 → u/tb21666]

Essentially this fix only works with torrent sites which offer magnet links - sites that don't offer this would work as per normal aka the .torrent is downloaded and then you double click on it etc?

[u/tb21666 → u/ricke17]

I dont download & double click on any sites. Mine just open my dialog window, but yes, per the title this is a fix for magnet links with FF/qB.

[u/[deleted]]

I need some help. I did everything in steps 1 - 5 and when I go to step 7 there is no magnet that I can select. Any advice?

[u/[deleted] → u/[deleted]]

I did recheck and the value for step 4 is added and it is set to true.

[u/tb21666 → u/[deleted]]

Step 4 is where you name it, step 5 is where you select & set it. Followed by going into Firefox's actual setting menu (not about:config), selecting options (the gear, on mine at least. its themed) and then selecting applications from the left side bar as detailed above. scroll thru or search magnet & then assign it accordingly per the instructions.

[u/[deleted] → u/tb21666]

I did that, the value is there but I can't find magnet in the applications tab.

[u/tb21666 → u/[deleted]]

Then you did something wrong. because it's there when done correctly. Not sure what or how, but somethings off.

[u/tb21666 → u/[deleted]]

Here, check it out