Azureua - same torrent, second download.

[Sid Elbow]

Some time ago I downloaded a torrent containing about 100 episodes of a
TV program. Recently, I noticed a few of the episodes were missing. I
could swear they were there at one time so I found the torrent file
again and planned to open it, check the listing and download the missing
items.

However, I was still seeding the original file, so when I tried to open
the torrent, Azureus gave me the message < Media has already been added
as '......' >. When I said OK to that, it bailed out of the torrent.

At that point I decided to <Remove> the data from the Azureus listing
hoping it would scratch them off its list so to speak. I didn't have it
<Delete> the data because I hadn't made a backup copy at that stage. I
did have it <Delete> the torrent file but that's pretty academic because
I don't have Azureus set to save torrent files in the first place :-)

However Azureus still gives me the <Media has already been added>
message and this continued even when I externally renamed the
directories that contained the data files. It seems that Azureus still
has them on its list for some reason and won't "do it again". (Note that
this is not the same situation as re running a torrent that Azureus
knows nothing about but for which you already have some of the files and
point Azureus to them when opening the torrent. I was hoping it would
work out that way when I <Removed> the files from Azureus but it didn't).

Any ideas.

(I did open the torrent in a text editor and confirmed that it contains
the missing files).

[Hop-Frog]

Post by Sid Elbow
Some time ago I downloaded a torrent containing about 100 episodes of
a TV program. Recently, I noticed a few of the episodes were missing.
I could swear they were there at one time so I found the torrent file
again and planned to open it, check the listing and download the
missing items.
However, I was still seeding the original file, so when I tried to
open the torrent, Azureus gave me the message < Media has already been
added as '......' >.

I'm a bit confused as to what you're trying to accomplish. You
didn't know whether the missing episodes were in the torrent, so you
tried to load it again. Why didn't you just look at the torrent that was
seeding? Besides, if the client says the torrent is 100% complete, and
the files aren't in the directory, they're not part of the torrent.
BitTorrent has checks built in so data doesn't go missing or get corrupt.

Post by Sid Elbow
(Note that
this is not the same situation as re running a torrent that Azureus
knows nothing about but for which you already have some of the files
and point Azureus to them when opening the torrent. I was hoping it
would work out that way when I <Removed> the files from Azureus but it
didn't).

That's how it should have worked. Once you remove the torrent from you
"My Torrents" list, Azureus shouldn't know that it ever had anything to
do with that file. Have you tried all the standard responses: close &
reopen Azureus, reboot the computer, reinstall Azureus &/or Java, etc.?

(Incidentally, Azureus will convert the torrent into a text-based XML
file. Just go File->Export XML Torrent and follow the wizard. Then you
can open the exported file in any text editor. There are a lot of
things in there other than a file listing, but filenames are part of the
package. If you just want to satisfy your curiosity, that may do it.)

[Sid Elbow]

Post by Hop-Frog
I'm a bit confused as to what you're trying to accomplish. You
didn't know whether the missing episodes were in the torrent, so you
tried to load it again. Why didn't you just look at the torrent that was
seeding? Besides, if the client says the torrent is 100% complete, and
the files aren't in the directory, they're not part of the torrent.
BitTorrent has checks built in so data doesn't go missing or get corrupt.

Long story but .......on further investigation, I believe the original
torrent (which I downloaded) had a few episodes missing. Therefore
Azureus said it was complete (as presented) and everything was rosy.
Later the originator added the missing episodes and re-issued the
torrent. I simply wanted to select the missing episodes from the file
listing in the torrent and add those to the previous download. To update
my download as it were. I not only can't do that, I can't even start
from scratch and download the whole lot again.

Post by Hop-Frog
Have you tried all the standard responses: close &
reopen Azureus, reboot the computer, reinstall Azureus &/or Java, etc.?

I've rebooted Azureus (to no avail) but not the machine. I'll try that.
I really don't want to get into a re-install if it's avoidable since I
have several hundred torrents on the seed list, scattered over at least
3 network drives, and I don't relish setting them all up again (even if
I still have the original .torrent files around which is certainly not
the case for all of them).

If it isn't easy to fix , I'll go to Plan-B and run another copy of
Azureus on another machine.

Post by Hop-Frog
If you just want to satisfy your curiosity, that may do it.)

No, it's not just curiosity - I actually want the additional files.

[Hop-Frog]

Post by Sid Elbow
Long story but .......on further investigation, I believe the original
torrent (which I downloaded) had a few episodes missing. Therefore
Azureus said it was complete (as presented) and everything was rosy.
Later the originator added the missing episodes and re-issued the
torrent. I simply wanted to select the missing episodes from the file
listing in the torrent and add those to the previous download. To
update my download as it were. I not only can't do that, I can't even
start from scratch and download the whole lot again.

If there really are two different torrents, there should never have been
a problem in the first place. Torrent clients identify the torrents by
their hash, not filenames. Changing even one bit should make the client
think there are two completely different torrents. Adding several whole
video files should certainly make a difference.

Post by Sid Elbow
I have several hundred torrents on the seed list, scattered over
at least 3 network drives,

My guess is that's the root of the problem right there. You're
overwhelming Azureus with too many torrents to keep track of, and somehow
it's gotten confused. A reboot of the machine should clear the memory,
and may well fix it. But it's possible that whichever files Azureus uses
to store information has gotten corrupt, in which case a
uninstall/reinstall may be necessary. I've also heard that using BT with
network drives can often be troublesome, too.

[Sid Elbow]

Post by Hop-Frog

Post by Sid Elbow
I have several hundred torrents on the seed list, scattered over
at least 3 network drives,

My guess is that's the root of the problem right there. You're
overwhelming Azureus with too many torrents to keep track of, and somehow
it's gotten confused. A reboot of the machine should clear the memory,
and may well fix it. But it's possible that whichever files Azureus uses
to store information has gotten corrupt, in which case a
uninstall/reinstall may be necessary. I've also heard that using BT with
network drives can often be troublesome, too.

Rebooting the machine didn't help. In the end I used Plan-B (ran it on
another machine).

You might be right about Azureus becoming a little flakey. The transfer
speeds seemed a bit off the last couple of weeks .... hard to be
definite since Bell Canada are using FROGthrottle boxes to slow down
torrents on the whole system (not just their own dsl customers) and I'd
put it down to that. I noticed today however,in poking around at this
problem, that my port forward settings had reverted to a port number
that I haven't used in at least a year and weren't matching those in the
router. I certainly haven't made changes there in ages so I don't know
how/when it happened. Unless a (buggy) Azureus update reset it. The
speed certainly improved when I changed it to match the router!

My experience with using the network to store torrent data is that it
occasionally be problematic. It seems to be that if Azureus can't access
a file immediately (say a network delay), it times out very quickly with
no or few retries and simply gives up and marks the seed as an error.
Happens sporadically of the order of once a month and
stopping/restarting the torrent involved will fix it. So it's not a very
crucial problem and only happens on the fully seeding torrents because
my initial downloads go to a local drive and don't experience this at
all. Seems to me it wouldn't be very difficult for the Azureus/Vuze
people to fix.

[Hop-Frog]

Post by Sid Elbow
Rebooting the machine didn't help. In the end I used Plan-B (ran it on
another machine).

Well, so long as everything worked out!

Post by Sid Elbow
You might be right about Azureus becoming a little flakey. The
transfer speeds seemed a bit off the last couple of weeks

Azureus/Vuze is designed for an end-user environment, and I doubt its
designers ever considered that someone might have hundreds of files in the
queue. That sounds more like what one would expect to find on a dedicated
server. I suspect the software just had trouble keeping up with the
demands you were putting on it, and some data file just got messed up. If
you have UPnP enabled, that could easily explain the incorrect port-
forwarding, too.

On the other hand, if it's been chugging along just fine until now, and
you've only run into one problematic torrent of hundreds, I'd say that's an
acceptably low error rate!

[Sid Elbow]

Post by Hop-Frog
On the other hand, if it's been chugging along just fine until now, and
you've only run into one problematic torrent of hundreds, I'd say that's an
acceptably low error rate!

That's what I think too and why I don't think I'll re-install unless it
gets a bit worse.

Thanks for your (as usual) insightful (is there really such a word? :-)
) comments and suggestions HF. Always appreciated - not always stated.

[Hop-Frog]

Post by Sid Elbow
Thanks for your (as usual) insightful (is there really such a word?
:-) ) comments and suggestions HF. Always appreciated - not always
stated.

Happy to help in any way I can, even if I don't think I actually helped
much in this case!

[Ato_Zee]

Post by Sid Elbow
If it isn't easy to fix , I'll go to Plan-B and run another copy of
Azureus on another machine.

uTorrent is small and effective, since it's not Azureus it
might start from scratch.
If he reissued the torrent and added the missing episodes
surely it would be a different torrent that you client has no
history of. Which makes it harder to understand what
Azureus is complaining about.
Whether you can select bits of the new torrent, the
missing episodes, well that's a different issue.
Some clients don't cooperate with your attempts
to download bits, been there, done that, it won't
let you have the keygen when to avoid possibly
hacked versios of a program you prefer the real McCoy
from the vendors website; then you have only the
possibility of a virus in the keygen to worry about.

[Sid Elbow]

Post by Ato_Zee
uTorrent is small and effective, since it's not Azureus it
might start from scratch.
If he reissued the torrent and added the missing episodes
surely it would be a different torrent that you client has no
history of. Which makes it harder to understand what
Azureus is complaining about.
Whether you can select bits of the new torrent, the
missing episodes, well that's a different issue.
Some clients don't cooperate with your attempts
to download bits, been there, done that, it won't
let you have the keygen when to avoid possibly
hacked versios of a program you prefer the real McCoy
from the vendors website; then you have only the
possibility of a virus in the keygen to worry about.

I've done that (selected individual files from the download) a lot with
Azureus. Are you saying that µTorrent won't allow it? (I thought it did
actually).

[Jake Ggle]

Post by Hop-Frog

Post by Sid Elbow
Azureus gave me the message < Media has already been
added as '......' >.

Once you remove the torrent from you
"My Torrents" list, Azureus shouldn't know that it ever had anything to
do with that file.

13 years later and this bug still isn't fixed.

If you get a torrent file via a Magnet link which is temporarily unavailable, then cancel it, Vuze will have stored the metadata but seems to provide no way of getting back to the torrent, and even blocks re-downloading the torrent file with the error message your report, with no apparent way to resume the download, as it is not listed in "My Torrents".

It seems however that after a period of time (regardless of reboot) the error clears.

[Jake Ggle]

Post by Hop-Frog

Post by Sid Elbow
Azureus gave me the message < Media has already been
added as '......' >.

Once you remove the torrent from you
"My Torrents" list, Azureus shouldn't know that it ever had anything to
do with that file.

13 years later and this bug still isn't fixed.

If you get a torrent file via a Magnet link which is temporarily unavailable, then cancel it, Vuze will have stored the metadata but seems to provide no way of getting back to the torrent, and even blocks re-downloading the torrent file with the error message your report, with no apparent way to resume the download, as it is not listed in "My Torrents".

It seems however that after a period of time (regardless of reboot) the error clears.