I have a question about magnet links

BitComet BitComet General Discussion
1

Last year I was using an old version of BitComet. Everything was ok and I was able to download files by clicking on magnet links. On December 2022 suddenly a lot of the magnet links that I clicked gave a red X in BitComet and I wasn’t able to download files from magnet links. If I downloaded the torrent file for the file that I want to download and I ran the torrent file in BitComet then I was able to download the file that I want.

I removed the old version of BitComet and I put BitComet version 1.98 and then the magnet links that didn't work before and gave a red X in BitComet started working again.

I want to ask why the magnet links stopped working on the old version and gave a red X in BitComet? Do magnet links have a security feature which prevent them from being downloaded by old versions of BitComet?

I just did a test and I installed BitComet version 1.57 in Windows Sandbox and I ran it. There was no problem and I was able to able to download from magnet links. I think in December 2022 the reason a lot the magnet links failed was because my ISP changed some settings which messed things up for getting info from magnet links. Now I am living in a different country and I am getting internet from a different ISP. So then does that mean that magnet links don't have a security feature which prevent them from being downloaded by old versions of BitComet?
2

The work round (unfortunately the way magnet links are being handled by browsers are) is to right click on the link and ‘open in new tab’ (well in Firefox anyway - it may be worded differently in other browsers).

A bit of a pain but it does work
3

I don’t understand. Why did I get the red X? How will open in new tab fix the issue?

4

The X simply means that, for one reason or another, BC is unable to download and/or save the file.

 As for how opening it in a new tab will start the download: try it and see.

(I do go to a couple of sites where the link is only 'magnet' and that's how I get it to start, presuming that is there are trackers and seeds available - if they can't be found, then you're SOL)