How Do I Download Torrents On My Mac

Written by Mårten Björk •

Using torrents, you can quickly download movies, films and other files to your Mac. A torrent is a file with the file extension .torrent. This article will explain how to download torrents on a Mac.

Our BitTorrent Web and Classic clients for Mac computers are available in one convenient location. Download the version that best suits you. Remember, when you download a torrent for Mac computers using Vuze, it not only plays on a MacBook or iMac, it runs on portable devices. Those of you who utilize Apple TV will also be able to share files and playback downloads with Vuze. Vuze is a great way to download torrents on a Mac, share files with friends or the bittorrent community,. You ever used the Mac App Store? Of course, you have. But you ever used the second.

Are torrent files legal?

Torrent files are not illegal, but downloading copyrighted material is. However, there are many torrent files out there containing non-copyrighted material which is why we choose to publish this article.

How torrent downloads work on the Mac

Without going all geeky, we’ll now try to explain how torrents work.

Someone downloads a .torrent file

The first thing that happens is that a user downloads a .torrent file. This file is very small and contains only a list of the files that are to be downloaded and some other stuff used by the user’s torrent application.

Opening the torrent

The next thing that happens is that the person that downloaded the file opens it with an application designed to handle this kind of file (more about these applications later). This application will try to find other people trying to download the same file. The torrent application will now grab pieces of the file from the other computers and put them together into one file. The user’s torrent application will in its turn start to share pieces that you have downloaded with other users. You get some and you give some.

Torrent applications for the Mac

There are various torrent applications available for Mac users. In this article, we’ll tell you about our favorite application, Transmission. It’s simple to use and free (we’re not paid to say this).

Transmission

Transmission is a great torrent application for Mac. It’s easy to understand, it works pretty flawlessly and it has most of the features that one wants. To download Transmission, click here (download will begin immediately).

Adding torrent files to Transmission

Create a new downloads folder

Okay, let’s assume that you have downloaded Transmission and want to start downloading files. The first thing you should do is create a folder where your downloads will be put. For instance, name it “Downloads” and place it on your desktop.

Tell Transmission that you want your downloads to be out into that folder

Now, open Transmission and go to the top menu. Click Transmission > Preferences. In the preferences window, click the second tab labeled “Transfers”. A drop-down menu is now available and from that menu, choose the folder where you want your downloads to be put (the folder you just created).

Get a torrent file

The next thing you do is download a .torrent file. You do this from your web browser. Find a web site that offers torrents and find a download button. When you click it, a .torrent file will be downloaded to your computer.

Open the .torrent file with Transmission

Now drag the torrent file into Transmission and it will be visible in the list. All the files that you want to download will now be created in the Downloads folder. These files are useless and broken until Transmission says that the files are 100% downloaded. You can throw the .torrent file away after adding it to Transmission.

Download problems that may occur

The torrent download won’t start

The problem with torrents is that they depend on someone seeding the file from his or her computer. Seeding means that you allow other users to download parts of the file from your computer. Sometimes no users are downloading or seeding the file and therefore it can’t be downloaded.

Try to find another file. Finding good torrents might be tricky, but have patience.

Bittorrent For Mac Free Download

Every computer user’s first roadblock (usually) is using Torrents. We’ve all heard of them, and are quite curious with what they have to offer. I can’t quite imagine what life would be like if I didn’t know how to use torrents, so I’ll teach you enough to get along and walk on your own two feet.

First, I want you to remember that what you download and do with your computer is your own responsibility! Unfortunately, we are not in the position to help you out if you “accidentally” pirate any software or seasons of Friends.

You’ll need a BitTorrent client for your computer. As a Mac user, I prefer Vuze, although I’ve heard great things about Transmission and uTorrent as well.

How to use Vuze

You can usually get by with any ol’ client, as long as you can interact with it. Make sure you’re familiar with the UI! You should be familiar with where the download progress bar is, where the expected time remaining is, and how to set upload/download max limits (can usually be done by right-clicking).

The torrent client isn’t exactly the most important part — the torrent is! Here, I’ll introduce you to two sites that aggregate torrents, meaning they gather torrents from around the Internet and index them, and thus allow you to sort from a greater variety.

There are tons of confusing things about torrents: trackers, specific files, and legality issues — but ultimately, the only thing you need to know is that the seed-to-leech ratio needs to be high. (Although brushing up on legality issues should be a priority as well. ;))

What is a seed-to-leech ratio?

A seed-to-leech ratio is the number of seeders to leechers. You want this number to be as high as possible! Basically, always pick the torrent with the highest number of seeds (hosts/uploaders) to leeches (downloaders). (In the picture, the green numbers represent the number of seeds and the blue zero is the number of leechers.)

If you’re given an option to go with 300 seeds and 500 leeches or 50 seeds and 30 leeches, go with the torrent with 50 seeds. You’ll notice that the speeds are dramatically faster and often quite capable of reaching breakneck speeds.

If/when a download ever appears to slow down or freeze, it never hurts to right-click a torrent and click Update Tracker. This prompts the client to refresh the list and hopefully find more peers on, which you can obtain the file from.

Where do Downloaded Files go?

Torrent For Mac Free Download

You can set a location for your files to get downloaded into. By default, Vuze creates a Vuze Downloads folder in your Downloads folder.

You can always change the location from within Vuze. Simply click the Vuze menu, and select Preferences. From there, select Downloads and you can change the location within the bar.

How can I Stop Seeding?

I usually don’t prefer for people to stop seeding (sharing is caring). If in some cases, your Internet is lagging though or if you’re not legally allowed to upload music but are allowed to download, then I can sympathize with you. Stopping uploading (seeding) is simple: simply select the torrent that’s complete, and select Stop at the top.

Start Getting Friendly with Torrents!

They’re only going to be more and more mainstream: HD trailers and documentaries are starting to be released via torrent. It’s useful to learn how to better use torrents, and how you can take advantage of this nice piece of technology.

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