Troubleshooting and FAQ

Troubleshooting and FAQ

This page helps when something does not work: slow or stalled downloads, a port that cannot be reached, warnings from Windows or macOS, private trackers. It also says where Rookparcel's messages are, how to reset its settings, and how to report a problem.

Downloads are slow or do not start

Look at the torrent's Status column and at the status bar at the bottom of the window. They usually say why.

What you see	What it means and what to do
Queued	The queue is full: the number of active torrents or downloads set in Preferences > Queueing is reached. The torrent starts when another one finishes or stops. Force Start in the right-click menu runs it outside the queue. See Queueing and seeding.
Stopped or Paused	Start it with Start (Ctrl+S). With Don't start the download automatically on in Preferences > UI Settings, new torrents are added stopped.
Queued for checking, Checking	Rookparcel is checking the files already on disk. Torrents on the same drive are checked one after another; with Check torrents gently on, they give way to other programs and take longer while the disk is busy. See Disk and storage.
Waiting for the network	Use Only This Network is on in Preferences > Connection and its network (usually your VPN) is not there. The torrent carries on by itself when it comes back. See Connection, ports and firewall.
Error: ...	The message after "Error:" says what went wrong.
"Scheduler: limited", "Scheduler: turned off" or "Scheduler: seeding only" in the status bar	The scheduler is holding speeds back this hour. See Speed limits and scheduler.
"(auto ...)" beside the speeds in the status bar	Keep ping low is capping the speed because the delay on your line grew. See Keep ping low.

Other things to check:

• Seeds and peers. A torrent with no seeds cannot finish. The Trackers tab shows whether the trackers answer; the Peers tab shows who you are connected to. See Torrent details and files.
• Magnet links need the torrent's file list from other peers first, and most need the DHT: keep Enable DHT Network on in Preferences > BitTorrent.
• Speed limits. Check Preferences > Bandwidth and the torrent's own limits (Bandwidth Allocation in the right-click menu, or Properties). 0 means unlimited.
• A busy disk. With Slow downloads down (disk writes) on (Preferences > Advanced > Disk I/O), Rookparcel lowers the download speed while the disk answers slowly.
• A proxy for peer connections. With Use proxy for peer-to-peer connections on, nobody can connect to you, which leaves fewer peers.
• No incoming connections (below) also costs speed: you can reach only peers that accept connections themselves.

"No incoming connections" or "Port ... in use"

The left part of the status bar shows the state of the network:

Text	Meaning
Network OK	Other peers have connected to you, so your listening port is reachable.
No incoming connections	No peer has connected to you yet. Right after the start this is normal; if it stays, your port is probably blocked by the router or the firewall.
Port 6881 in use (with your port number)	Another program, often another Rookparcel profile, holds the port, so Rookparcel listens on another one where nothing is forwarded. Click the text to open Preferences > Connection and choose another port. New in 1.1.45; not in a published release yet.

To make the port reachable:

1. Open Options > Preferences > Connection and note the Port used for incoming connections.
2. Tick Enable UPnP port mapping and Enable NAT-PMP port mapping, so the router is asked to forward the port. Or forward the port by hand in the router (TCP and UDP) to this computer, and leave Randomize port each start off.
3. Allow rookparcel.exe through the firewall (on Linux, rookparcel-gtk), or open the port in it.
4. Behind a VPN, incoming connections work only if the VPN forwards a port to you.

The General tab shows "Your address as trackers see it:", which tells you whether your traffic goes through a VPN. New in 1.1.58; not in a published release yet. More in Connection, ports and firewall.

Windows SmartScreen or macOS Gatekeeper warns about Rookparcel

The programs are not code-signed, so the systems warn the first time:

• Windows: "Windows protected your PC". Click More info, then Run anyway.
• macOS: the app is refused until you open it with a right-click > Open. If macOS offers no Open button, click Open Anyway in System Settings > Privacy & Security.

To make sure a file is the one that was published, compare its checksum with the SHA256SUMS file of the release. Details for each platform are in Installing Rookparcel.

Can I use Rookparcel on private trackers?

Not yet. Private trackers accept only the clients they have whitelisted, and Rookparcel's client ID (its peer ID starts with -PA, and it sends Rookparcel/<version> to trackers) is not whitelisted anywhere yet. Rookparcel always reports itself honestly as Rookparcel, so using it on a private tracker could get your account into trouble. Check your tracker's list of allowed clients first.

Torrents marked private never use the DHT, Local Peer Discovery or Peer Exchange, whatever Preferences say.

Double-clicking a .torrent file or a magnet link does not open Rookparcel

Tick Associate with .torrent files and Associate with magnet: links in Preferences > General. If Windows still opens them with another program, a program was chosen in Windows itself, and only you can change that: click Default apps... and choose Rookparcel there. See Tray, notifications and startup.

The Web UI cannot be reached from another device

• Tick Allow connections from other computers in Preferences > Web UI; otherwise it listens on this computer only.
• Allow rookparcel.exe through Windows Firewall for the Web UI's port.
• "port ... is in use, perhaps by another Rookparcel profile": choose another Listening port.
• An app that reaches Rookparcel by a host name (as in Docker) fails with "unexpected Host header". Add the name in Server domains, or use the IP address.

See Web UI and Sonarr, Radarr and Prowlarr.

Closing Rookparcel takes a long time

Rookparcel saves the torrent list and progress, tells the trackers it stopped and waits for files that are still moving. When that takes more than a moment, the "Rookparcel is closing" window shows what it is waiting for. Quit Now stops waiting; it asks first and lists what it gives up. The torrent list and progress are saved first in any case.

A portable copy cannot write to its folder

"This portable Rookparcel cannot write to its folder" means the folder with rookparcel.exe and rookparcel.ini is read-only for you, for example under C:\Program Files. Move the folder where you can write, or remove rookparcel.ini beside the program to keep the settings in your user folder. See Where Rookparcel keeps its files.

The search helper does not work

See the table at the end of Searching for torrents on Windows and Searching for torrents.

Linux notes

• No tray icon on GNOME. Plain GNOME has no tray; install the AppIndicator extension, or use Rookparcel without one (closing the window then quits it). See Tray, notifications and startup.
• Minimize to tray does nothing on some Wayland desktops, which do not report that a window was minimized.
• Logging out on Xfce does not wait for Rookparcel to save; quit it first.

macOS notes

• Closing the window does not quit. With Close to tray on (the default), the window hides and Rookparcel keeps running in the menu bar. Quit with ⌘+Q. See Tray, notifications and startup.
• No notifications. Allow Rookparcel in System Settings > Notifications.
• Auto Shutdown does not sleep or shut down the Mac. Allow Rookparcel to control "loginwindow" in System Settings > Privacy & Security > Automation. See Auto Shutdown.
• Settings gone after replacing the GTK version. The new app takes over the old gtk folder only while no mac folder exists. If a mac folder was made first, quit Rookparcel and see Where Rookparcel keeps its files.

Where the logs are

The Windows and GTK versions write no log file. Their messages (errors, the IP filter, the update check, the scheduler, completed downloads) go to the Logger tab at the bottom of the main window, which keeps the last 1000 lines while Rookparcel runs. Look at it right after the problem happens, before you exit, and note the lines about it.

rookparcel-nox prints its messages to the terminal. For more detail start it with --verbose, which adds tracker and peer events (each disconnect with its reason). --log FILE appends everything to a file. When it runs as a service:

Where	Log
Windows service	nox.log in the state folder, %ProgramData%\Rookparcel\nox unless --state-dir says otherwise (read it from an elevated prompt)
systemd	the journal: journalctl -u rookparcel-nox
FreeBSD rc.d	/var/log/rookparcel-nox.log

See Running rookparcel-nox.

The search helper (Jackett) keeps its own settings and log in the data folder inside search-helper in your Rookparcel settings folder.

Resetting settings

• One setting: in Preferences > Advanced, select it and click Reset, then OK. Rows marked * differ from the default.
• The first-start questions: Options > Setup Guide (Ctrl+G) asks them again. New in 1.1.62; not in a published release yet.
• Everything: exit Rookparcel (File > Exit), then rename the folder where it keeps its settings and torrents (on Linux and BSD, the settings folder and the data folder); Rookparcel then starts as new, with an empty torrent list. On Windows Help > About Rookparcel shows the folder. Renaming it back restores everything. See Where Rookparcel keeps its files.

Reporting a bug

Open an issue on the tracker: https://github.com/Balls0fSteel/Rookparcel/issues. Please include:

1. Your system (Windows 11, Ubuntu 24.04, macOS 15...) and the file you downloaded.
2. Rookparcel's version, from Help > About Rookparcel.
3. What you did, what you expected and what happened instead, step by step.
4. For a crash or a stuck torrent, the lines from the Logger tab, or the output of rookparcel-nox run --verbose.

Leave out passwords, API keys and anything else private; the issue tracker is public.

Reporting a security problem

Do not open a public issue. Use GitHub's private vulnerability reporting: https://github.com/Balls0fSteel/Rookparcel/security/advisories/new. See SECURITY.md.

FAQ

Is Rookparcel free? Free for noncommercial use under the PolyForm Noncommercial License 1.0.0: personal use, study, hobby projects, charities, schools and public institutions, at no cost. Commercial use needs separate permission. See LICENSE.md.

Is it related to µTorrent or qBittorrent? No. Rookparcel recreates the look and behaviour of µTorrent 2.2.1 but uses none of its code. Its engine is an independent Rust port of libtorrent-rasterbar 2.0.11. Its Web API follows qBittorrent's published documentation so that tools such as Sonarr can talk to it.

Which languages does it speak? English and 34 more, all built in. It follows your system's language; choose another in Preferences > General. The translations are machine-made; corrections are welcome as issues.

What does Rookparcel send, and to whom? The update check downloads one small file from the project website, with nothing about you or your torrents; turn it off in Preferences > General > Privacy. Searches go only to the search sources you added. Like every BitTorrent client, Rookparcel shows your IP address to the trackers, the DHT and the peers of your torrents. See Updating Rookparcel.

Where are my settings and torrents? See Where Rookparcel keeps its files.

Can I run several copies? Yes, as profiles. See Profiles.

Where do I get help? Read the FAQ on the website and the pages of this wiki, or ask on the issue tracker.