Tracker shows several seeders, but torrent shows zero seeders? (lemmy.dbzer0.com)

submitted 1 day ago* (last edited 23 hours ago) by Yourname942@lemmy.dbzer0.com to c/piracy@lemmy.dbzer0.com

14 comments fedilink hide all child comments

Edit: I had to enable port forwarding. I didn't realize it was required.

Note: for some reason strikethrough isn't working (otherwise, I'd apply it to the original question. Also, not sure if I should delete this post now that it is working, or leave it up in case other people have the same issue.

Does anyone know why qbittorrent would be showing 0 seeders if a tracker shows that there are several?

I am using Proton VPN and qbittorrent. The torrent file is from teamos [dot] xyz.

ProtonVPN settings:

Split tunneling enabled > Include mode > added app: qbittorrent
Connected to the Netherlands (Wireguard UDP)

qbitttorrent settings:

Network Interface set to ProtonVPN

Thank you

top 14 comments

sorted by: hot top controversial new old

[-] iii@mander.xyz 18 points 1 day ago

My guess is tracker is outdated

[-] turkalino@lemmy.yachts 5 points 1 day ago

Also sometimes they juice up their numbers to appear more popular

[-] meldrik@lemmy.wtf 12 points 1 day ago

I guess the tracker can see the seeders, but your client can’t connect to them maybe?

[-] fuckwit_mcbumcrumble@lemmy.dbzer0.com 11 points 1 day ago

Yeah my first guess was lack of port forwarding. If neither you, nor the other people are port forwarded then you can't establish the connection.

I'm curious if the torrent protocol could be updated to allow a Tailscale style NAT traversal so port forwarding wouldn't even be needed. That would be a game changer, but would probably add wayyyyy too much overhead for the tracker to manage.

[-] Yourname942@lemmy.dbzer0.com 5 points 1 day ago* (last edited 23 hours ago)

I had to enable port fowarding, thank you.

[-] aramis87@fedia.io 6 points 1 day ago

On top of other comments, some trackers suck at clearing out ghost seeds.

[-] Mordikan@kbin.earth 5 points 1 day ago

Pretty sure that is just a discrepancy between when a site has last checked client announcements from the tracker and when what the tracker currently shows. As of 2025, TPB for example links to 3.2 million torrents. Assuming client announcements were set to an average 1hr interval, that would require TPB to make 76.8 million checks every day for announcement updates.

So, I could see sites not maintaining accurate seeder/leecher data.

[-] LodeMike@lemmy.today 4 points 1 day ago

Split tunneling for an app that wants to bind to the VPN interface? Are you sure that's right?

[-] Yourname942@lemmy.dbzer0.com 3 points 1 day ago

What do you mean? Is that not correct? Is it where I have to choose between one or the other?

[-] LodeMike@lemmy.today 3 points 1 day ago

What is split tunneling in proton VPN?

[-] Yourname942@lemmy.dbzer0.com 4 points 23 hours ago

you can tell the VPN what you want to include/exclude:

Exclude mode: Selected apps and IP addresses are excluded from VPN connection, Include mode: Only selected apps and IP addresses connect via VPN, all other traffic is unprotected.

[-] LodeMike@lemmy.today 3 points 23 hours ago

Ohhh I read it backwards.

Do you have port forwarding enabled? You might not be able to connect to the peers for the reason they don't have an incoming port. They could also be fake peers as some trackers do that.

[-] Yourname942@lemmy.dbzer0.com 5 points 23 hours ago

There we go! I had to enable port forwarding (didn't know that was required). Thank you.

[-] LodeMike@lemmy.today 2 points 18 hours ago

Yep :3

It took me a while to learn this but: peer to peer connections aren't magic. You either need at least one open port for each connection, or a relay. Some things use UPNP for the further, turnservers are compatible with the latter. Signal for examples use both, with an option to always relay calls (only the turnsurver)