Weird Problem with Task Completion/Manual Hash Check

BitComet BitComet General Discussion
1

Hi,

I am having problem with manual hash checking or just d/ling in general.

First found out this problem when I tried to preview my task, worked fine when the task was at 10%, then MPC said “cannot render file” when the task was at 20%.

I then tried to manual hash check my file, the progress reverted from 20% back to 0% for some reason. When I tried MHC for another task that I have completed and used, the same thing happened.

I was using 1.25 then updated to 1.26, but problem still persists. Just started happening today, so makes me wonder if it’s virus or something.

Just wondering if anyone has any idea what the problem is and solution…

thanks in advance.

2

First thing you should understand is that video files aren’t designed to play until fully downloaded, and the “preview” function was introduced to help users verify if a download was authentic, after many users downloaded very large videos, usually of newly released movies only to find they were fake. When you instruct bitcomet to download using a strategy to preview, it gets the beginning and end of the video first, then it is able to eventually find enough blocks of data to begin to play some video. However, this can be unstable and even a bit risky, so once you confirm it’s really what you wanted to download, you really shouldn’t attempt to do it again.

Now regarding your report, this could be a sign that your harddrive and/or file system is having errors. It’s also possible that you have some type of malware on your system too. The first thing I’d do would be to scan for anything harmful, then scan the drive for errors, followed with a defrag.

If this continues to happen, then you might have a serious problem, but if it’s just a one time thing, then attempting to play an incomplete file may have damaged it, and a damaged file will not pass hash check.

3

When I tried MHC for another task that I have completed and used, the same thing happened.

Have you actually checked the file in its current location? Is it still there? If yes can you open it directly?

What OS do you use?

What antivirus/security suite?

4

I’m actually experiencing the exact same problem as well. Still using BitComet 1.25.

The problems only started today, it was working just fine until yesterday.

Downloading a torrent with picture files and several big video files, the pictures and some of the vid files were completed since yesterday, torrent download progress was @around 90%.

I resumed the download, tried to check the pictures, but the window image preview couldn’t open the pics, wrong unsupported format (no problem looking at the pictures yesterday!).

The quick remedy was to uncheck the picture file from the file list, then re-check them, seemed to correct the problem (momentarily).

The biggest problem was with the video, somehow even the completely downloaded video became corrupted.

At first the vids would still be listed @100% in the file list, but after manual hash check.. they all went back down to 2% and such…

The funny thing is the previously completed vid files are still listed as (e.q.) episode1.avi, instead of the usuall episode1.avi.bc!.

When I load the vid, it will only have the first couple of second (consistent with the 2% file download progress).

The part that made me suspect that there’s something terribly wrong is the fact that I could no longer see the pictures that were completely downloaded.

The picture files are still listed as 100% in the torrent file list, yet I can’t see the thumbnails nor open them with anything.

Once I unchecked and rechecked the picture in the file list, then it’s accessible again… !?!

doing MHC seems to fix the picture file problem as well..

Using Windows 7 Ultimate 64bit, kaspersky Net security 2011

The only difference between yesterday and today..maybe the windows update? But that’s about it, didn’t install or download anything else besides that.

5

Hi Guys,

I’m having the same problem too. It started to happen today, exactly the same as kouse and setver explained.

only difference is, I didn’t get a windows update.

I’m using Bitcomet 1.26, Windows 7 64 bit with Panda Cloud Antivirus, and UT STARCOM 300R Router.

I’m going to reinstall Bitcomet to see if that could fix the problem…will let you know…

6

I then tried to manual hash check my file, the progress reverted from 20% back to 0% for some reason.

This is completely normal and expected behavior.

“% Completed” is a multi-use column, and its meaning depends on its operating context.

In normal transfer mode, it means what you think it means, “what portion of the file has been transferred?”.

In hash-check mode though, its meaning becomes “what portion of whatever you downloaded, has been successfully checked?” So that count starts at zero, of course, and then proceeds to 100% – again, that’s how much has been checked, of what you’ve downloaded so far. It shows you the progress of the check, which you must allow to complete and should not interrupt.

When the hash-check is complete, the column automatically reverts to normal transfer mode and again shows how much has been downloaded, which passed the hash check. This number can be smaller than it was when you started, if the check found any garbage. (That’s its purpose after all, to discard any data that fails the check.)

7

uncheck the picture file from the file list, then re-check them,

disabling download of a file in bitcomet will delete the pieces associated with that file, and can also effect the level of completion of neighboring files.

Because novice users misuse the ability to disable files in a torrent makes me wish the option was never added, but it can be a handy tool, but ONLY if you do NOT want the files downloaded. You should never disable a file if you want it. This does NOT “pause” the file, or change its order of download. It’s the same as deleting not only that file, but parts of other nearby files too.

Don’t do it!

8

TUUS, disabling the download of the file doesn’t delete the file (irrespective whether it’s finished downloading or it’s still a partially downloaded one).

At least, on my XP SP3 with BC v.1.26 it doesn’t.

I can’t say for other versions of Windows for sure, but as far as I can remember, it never deleted downloaded files which I unchecked, in any of the BC versions I’ve used.

I kind of like it that it doesn’t delete the file (in case I stupidly uncheck a file by mistake, I won’t loose it) but now you’ve got me wondering if it’s running by accident that way on my system or if that’s the way it’s supposed to be.

How about the rest of you guys?

9

Hi! I have the same problem:

I use version 1.25, Windows XP with SP3, AVG antivirus, saved on external HDD, played with external player, no changes in save path, no changes in the system.

Description:

  • have been doing download for 30 days now (7 seasons: 171 avi files in 7 directories). Total progres was at 90% (43 GB downloaded). For the past few days I have been watching already downloaded videos, no problems. But today, all videos became corrupted (even those that played fine yesterday). After manual hash check, videos became fine but only the first few seconds all the rest has been lost! All videos have been reported as 1-2% downloaded now (1,1% overall progress). PLEASE HELP!
10

Because novice users misuse the ability to disable files in a torrent makes me wish the option was never added, but it can be a handy tool, but ONLY if you do NOT want the files downloaded. You should never disable a file if you want it. This does NOT “pause” the file, or change its order of download. It’s the same as deleting not only that file, but parts of other nearby files too.

Hi Unusual Suspect, I know what the disable “banned” checkbox does, I’ve been using bit comet since .. a long time.

But please understand, given that the files I downloaded was listed as 100% in bitcomet, yet can not be accessed, checking the checkbox was an attempt to tell BitComet to redownload the file.

I believe that in http://www.cometforums.com/topic/12796089-file-prevu-mode-ok-but-not-after-download-has-been-completed/ thread, the user is having the same problems with us.

Like I mention above, the completed vids were fine, the 50+% vids worked in preview as well, but starting yesterday everything went wrong, the completed files kept re-downloading (start from scratch)

The problem seems to recreate itself every time the task is stopped and resumed.

11

I recall long-ago versions deleting some files when then were unchecked, but it hasn’t happened in any recent version. I end up doing this quite a bit, but it makes me nervous and I usually get the completed file out of there asap. Stlll, generall, Wiz is right, BitComet doesn’t seem to usually delete the files.

These are, for the most part, people who have been using BitComet quietly for a long time. Casual users and newbies aren’t even aware you can do this. It’s starting to look like there’s a real problem here. I do wish the people who report the problems spoke better English or weren’t so ambiguous about things. Exactly what does “can not be accessed” mean?

12

When you say, “can’t be accessed”, what, exactly do you mean? DO you mean you can’t copy the file? Do you mean you can’t open it with your usual player? What happens when you try these things? Do you get error messages? From what? What do those messages say?

Sudden re-downloading normally suggests that BitComet cannot find the previous partial download in the current download directory for that task. Now unless it was changed, that will be your default download directory. IF BitComet suddenly wants to start over, then it’s likely that 1) the file has been moved from the directory where it was downloaded, or 2) the download location has been changed (or lost and reverted to the default).

Now IF you have a substantial amount of the torrent downloaded, then hash-checking it should take quite a while – a few minutes. If the hash-check completes immediately, this means that BitComet is looking someplace else, someplace that the download isn’t. It’s not seeing the partial file, and there’s nothing to check, so it finishes immediately. In fact, this is how you assure that you’ve put a torrent in the right place for BitComet to continue it, namely that the hash check takes a while to complete. But if you interrupt the hash-check then you leave the task in an unknown state.

This, then, is something we need to rule out. Replies that don’t address this issue will just prolong the questioning, just as replies that did not address the hash-check completion have left that discussion in limbo. We don’t know whether you guys did the hash-checks properly, or whether you let them complete, or not.

Is BitComet trying to download into a different directory? For any task, you can use “Open Directory” from the right-click menu to find out where it’s actually saving the download.

13

Hi kluelos,

When I mention the file couldn’t be accessed, I meant that the file is there, in this case it was a jpg image file.

The download were completed days ago, and it worked just fine (thumbnail & window image preview), until yesterday.

When I check my torrent yesterday, the jpg were still listed as 100% downloaded in torrent file list. But when I open the directory, there is no thumbnail, windows image preview couldn’t load it either giving error “unsupported format”.

The file is still listed as a jpg file, just can’t be opened, even using graphic software.

Same case happened to the video files in the torrent(previously completed) as well, the player (any) can’t recognize the codec.

I did not change any of the torrent settings besides pausing and resuming the task

14

Dear all, the development team is aware of this problem and working on it right now, but we have not found the solution yet. We will try to fix this problem ASAP. Sorry for any inconvenience caused. It is much appreciated if you can provide more detailed information of this issue.

15

Sorry guys, I didn’t know the disable files in download function was changed. In the past, some users were disabling files in an attempt to pause the download, then complaining when they reverted back to 0% when enabled again. I guess it is nice if bitcomet can preserve a disabled file, but it does complicate the housekeeping aspect of it. Does it use some sort of recycle bin to store the data pieces in? in case you may change your mind, or does it simply leave them where they are so it’s necessary to manually delete them if you don’t want them anymore?

Think of downloading a complete television series, and after watching each episode, you disable that file, thinking it will gain you disc space, but if bitcomet preserves it, then your not going to gain any disc space at all.

Additionally, since this topic seems to be a verified and Major bug, perhaps we should make a global announcement about it?

Lucy, what info can you tell us?

16

Hi

I am having the same problem like the members above and it started also yesterday

the download was going fine and i could preview the video files but suddenly it started to show me that “cannot render file” message i thought it was maybe because the download didn’t finish yet so i waited but when the download reached 100% it also said the same thing and there was some txt files that came with the video that i finished downloading before the video and i was able to access them but now i can’t and all my other downloads that are still in progress started having the same problem looks like all of them were corrupted or something please help me.

17

Hi Lucy,

Thanks for acknowledging the new bug, at least now I’m sure it’s not my laptop turning crazy on me.

One of the weird things that I noticed was how by un-checking and re-checking the image file from the torrent file list seemed to remedy the problem for jpgs.

The corruption(?) seemed to effect any files listed in the torrent tasks.

Just now I tried previewing a jpg file in an inactive task, error unsupported format.

So I went ahead unchecking and rechecking the jpg file in the torrent file list, lo and behold, the jpg file became viewable again, thumbnail also visible again.

Which doesn’t makes sense at all, why would unchecking/rechecking the file from the torrent file list do the above?

In fact the jpg file should be corrupted/removed the moment I unchecked it from the list, and no redownloading the file shouldn’t happen until I start the task.

Unfortunately the same method doesn’t work on bigger/video files.

18

At this point we are going to try not to speculate on the cause, or the reasons for this behavior until we here something definite from development on this.

Many of the recent reports seem to involve preview of files, so it might be a good idea not to attempt this, or at least not from within bitcomet itself.

Regarding your .jpg issue, can you please check the files directly from windows and report if you can access them there.

19

Hi Guys,

Just to let you know, about 5 hours ago I exited bitcomet and logged back in and started to download.

Finally managed to complete a download without the preview getting corrupt. I kept checking the preview about every 10%, and there were no problems.

The file downladed successfully. Previously the file would get corrupt when the download reached about 25%.

I’ll download a few more torrents to make sure.(who knows, maybe I was lucky)

Anyway, Thanks to the Development Team and Tech Support for their hard work on bitcomet.

20

Well, so far this seems to have been reported to happen only on Win 7 (or Vista perhaps).

I’ve been trying to reproduce it on XP, several times, with no “success”.