How to Seed Torrent Files – Respect the BitTorrent Etiquette

Torrenting is all about using files that people already have on their computers. Those who decide to share the files they downloaded are called seeders. In fact, seeders are the core aspect of the community of torrent users. Without them, torrents wouldn’t exist. The best thing is that seeding doesn’t require any extra effort on your part. Keep on reading and discover how to seed torrent files.

Disclaimer: TechNadu does not condone illegal file sharing or copyright infringement. Even though P2P file sharing technology is legal, many of the files exchanged via P2P are indeed copyrighted. Uploading these copyrighted files can put you at risk of a civil lawsuit. While these lawsuits are often class-action cases, some have been targeted at individual users in an attempt to make an example of them.

Use a VPN for Torrenting

Many of you will be surprised to know that your Internet browsing is fully visible by ISPs (Internet Service Providers). These companies have the power to collect your personal data and hand it over to third parties. Therefore, it’s imperative to keep your data protected and inaccessible to anyone who tries to collect it. This is especially important if you plan on downloading and sharing torrent files.

TechNadu strongly recommends using ExpressVPN to encrypt your Internet connection, change your IP, and make your device impenetrable to malware. This particular VPN software scored the highest in our tests, which can be seen in our ExpressVPN review. Use the provided link to read all you need to know about this easy to use and highly powerful application.

Make sure to sign-up for ExpressVPN and enjoy the Internet as it should be – open and without any privacy concerns.

Why is Seeding Required?

To help you to better understand how torrenting works, it’s best to let you know the differences between this file sharing method and the traditional downloading. This will help you to understand why is seeding required and why you should never delete the files as soon as you download them.

• Traditional Downloading: When you download something from the Web, you actually download a file from a remotely-located server. In other words, the file that’s located on the server is copied to your computer. Once you no longer need it, you are free to delete it.

• Torrenting: When it comes to downloading torrents, there’s no server involved. Instead, you tap into other people’s computers and take bits of data. Your torrent client collects all of these bits and creates a whole ‘picture’. If there are no seeders, there are no places for your torrent client to look for files.

How to Seed Torrent Files?

The first important thing to understand is that you can seed torrents only if you have the fully downloaded torrent on your computer. So, let’s start with the beginning;

• First, make sure to download a torrent and all of its files to your computer. Here’s our guide on how to download torrents. This is where you will learn how to select healthy torrents and fully download them using your torrent client of choice;

• Next, make sure that you’ve downloaded 100% of the torrent. Once that happens, you will automatically become a seeder. Torrent clients like uTorrent will let you know when that happens. The progress bar will turn green and it will say ‘Seeding’. To continue seeding, simply leave everything as it is;

• What’s important to understand is that you shouldn’t remove the torrent from your torrent client. In addition, do not move the downloaded files. They need to be in the exact same spot where you downloaded them. In case you really need to move the files, keep on reading this article.

How to Seed Moved Torrent Files?

Let’s say that you’ve decided to seed a torrent after you download it. You keep the files intact and you keep the torrent active in your torrent client. However, you have accidentally moved or renamed the files. All of the sudden, uTorrent displays an error and tells you that the torrent is now inactive. Here’s how to return to the right track.

• Open uTorrent and select the problematic torrent;
• Click on the ‘Stop’ button located in the top-placed toolbar;

• Now take a look at the bottom of the uTorrent’s window. You will see several tabs, and you need to select the ‘Files’ tab. If you don’t see it, go to Options > Show detailed info;

• Right-click on the file you moved and choose ‘Relocate’ from the menu;

• A new window will open. You need to navigate to the new location of the file(s) and then click on ‘Save’. This will force uTorrent to search the new location and you should be seeding once again.

Additional Resources: What's Next?

That is pretty much it when it comes to how to seed torrent files. However, there are numerous other interesting areas to explore. There, we'd like to provide a few helpful resources:

• If you want to improve your download speed and make sure you're downloading torrents the right way, here's how to speed up torrents;
• Next, you already know that security is imperative these days. Here's how to safely download torrent files from the Web;
• Finally, make sure to know your options. Here are the best torrent clients you can find today.

Final Thoughts

That’s it, folks! As you can see, seeding is quite simple. All you need to do is to leave everything as it is after you download a torrent. We hope you found our guide on how to seed torrent files to be helpful. If you have anything to add, post a comment below.

If you think other torrent users might benefit from reading this article, feel free to share it online. Thanks!