Why is every new torrent dowload in its own folder

[monkey314357]

I recently had to reinstall BitComet after some nasty computer "issues" and I decided to download the newest version (1.23), but there is something annoying that I can't seem to solve.

With the old version (1.07), if I downloaded an episode of CSI, for example, the .bc! file would be alone in my download folder. However, if I downloaded something containing several files a dedicated folder within my download folder would be created. Now, a new folder is created for everything I download. How can I change this? I honestly can't remember if this was a setting that I used to be able to modify or not.

[kluelos]

Bitcomet is a delivery truck.

It's up to the sender to decide how to package your order. It might all come in one box, or it might come in several.

What you get is what the torrent's creator decided to include. If there are multiple files, then they are in a folder so that's what you get.

If someone doesn't want to do multiple files, they can pack them up into an archive -- a zip or rar file. Then you will get a single file, but you have to extract the files from that archive file once you've downloaded it.

Trouble with this is that you can't see what's inside the archive before you download it, so malware can be slipped into it. This is how most downloaded malware gets onto your system. That being so, people are strongly preferring not to have archives.

Archives also compress some kinds of files so that they're smaller, during transfer. This doesn't apply to modern audio and video formats, which are already as compressed as they can practically get, so trying to compress them is a waste of both the uploader's time, and every downloader's time as they unarchive the files. That being so, if a movie or album IS archived, there's a heightened suspicion factor -- why did the uploader do that if not to include malware?

You should be aware of what you are downloading. If you don't like a certain format, then look for the same material in a different format, you will probably find it.

[monkey314357]

Kluelos,

Thank you for the reply, but you misunderstand me. These aren't zip or rar files I'm downloading. They are mostly just avi files of TV shows, movies etc. The folders I'm talking about are what BitComet creates in my download folder. I understand when there are multiple files in a torrent (e.g. a movie with an srt file, or something split into two 700 MB files) a dedicated folder should be created so that the files are easily accessible in one place. However, when there is only one file - like a TV episode - a folder is being created unnecessarily. The frustrating thing is that this never used to happen. I used to be able to see all my single file downloads in my download folder with the only subfolders belonging to something that I knew contained multiple files.

[kluelos]

Yes, I understood you.

If the torrent itself only contains one file, then BitComet doesnt' create a folder for it.

If the torrent contains multiple files, then BitComet creates a folder for it, whether you're actually downloading those multiple files or just one of them.

There's no setting to control this.

This behavior hasn't changed in any version of BitComet, and isn't creating unnecessary folders for me.

You should check the files list of the torrent in question to assure that it really does contain only the one file. Torrents with a single non-archive file are actually pretty rare anymore: there's usually at least an .nfo or ID file included with most torrents. So you might want to see if you can demonstrate an actual bug or not.

[greywizard]

Actually, this is not particular to BitComet but to the BitTorrent protocol specs. AFAIK all BitTorrent clients are compelled to act this way by the .torrent file format specifications.

In the INFO dictionary of the .torrent file the entries differ a bit if you create a single-file torrent from those of a multi-file torrent. When you try to create a multi-file torrent with any torrent maker I've used it will ask you for a FOLDER not for a set of files. That's because of the specific format of the .torrent file in case of a multi-file torrent.

For single-file torrents the name info sub-key contains the file name.

For multi-file torrents the name key has to contain the name of the top-most directory of the folder structure.

So there's no way around that, for what I know.

Check this topic if you want to know more about .torrent file format.

[monkey314357]

Thank you. It is nice to get confirmation that this is how it is supposed to work (i.e. multiple file torrents in their own folder and single file torrents without). I realized this was the case just after I replied last time. Perhaps the torrents I've been using recently have contained unnecessary files that I normally ignore. I did find some single file torrents that didn't create their own folder and I'm much happier now.

I wasn't quite sure if it was possible for someone creating a torrent to purposely put a single file into a folder, but even if they did it wouldn't be something I could change in BitComet anyway.

I will take this as a further reason to stick to those torrents uploaded by people I trust - or at least those who haven't steered me wrong so far.

Thanks again.

[moniker00]

I realize this is a very old topic but I am new to BC and am wondering if I am missing something in settings or is it still this way? The reason I ask is, if any of you are familiar with uTorrent then you are aware that in there, there is a check box to select/deselect the subfolder. The fact that in BC, you have the option to deselect the .nfo, samples, etc. and just DL to main file, it stands to reason there would be a way to just get the file without it being in a subfolder.

[The UnUsual Suspect]

I realize this is a very old topic but I am new to BC and am wondering if I am missing something in settings or is it still this way? The reason I ask is, if any of you are familiar with uTorrent then you are aware that in there, there is a check box to select/deselect the subfolder. The fact that in BC, you have the option to deselect the .nfo, samples, etc. and just DL to main file, it stands to reason there would be a way to just get the file without it being in a subfolder.

Before I address your question I'd like to explain why it's a very bad idea to deselect these files you mentioned. If you deselect them you can never be a seeder, you'll instead be a peer with approx 99% and if you ever have had a torrent stuck at 99% and were frustrated, here is one reason why that can happen.

Also in many cases you are still downloading these files, they are just deleted after the piece of data that contains them was downloaded. In most cases the last (or first) piece of data will contain part of your video and those files that you find annoying and the entire piece has to be downloaded, hash checked to confirm it's intact down to the level of the last bit and nothing has changed or become infected, then it's separated into the files and those that aren't selected are deleted.

Now that you understand that you cannot be a contributing member of the swarm without offering 100% of the torrent I hope you would stop deselecting these files. The option to select files within a torrent isn't part of bittorrent protocol, it was added because of the few times when you may not want all the files in a torrent, like if you were downloading a set of discs and only needed one, in this case you could download only the one you need and remain an active peer to share that single disc, but you could never be a seeder. Some people may not be willing to download large amounts of data they don't need and this is ok if you do it seldomly, but do disable small tiny files for no reason other than you don't want to look at them is an unfriendly thing to do and if they really bother you they can be deleted after you're done seeding and have deleted the task.

The reason for having the subfolder is in case your default download folder has any file with an identical name, this would cause it to be replaced and if two torrents each had a file called "sample.avi" (for example), the first torrent would become corrupted when you downloaded the second so it's necessary they are in the same folder. If this is possible to do in uTorrent I'd hope the developers put some type of warning in place before you started a download that would replace an existing (different) file with the same name.

In my opinion it would cause too many problems if this was possible and since all those problems would likely end up here in the forum, I'm glad the files are kept in the torrent authors subfolder.

If the torrent author only uses one file in his torrent there won't be a subfolder.