qBittorrent is trying to access protected %userprofile%\Favorites on Windows

[LombudXa]

qBittorrent & operating system versions

qBittorrent: 4.5.4 x64
Operating system: Windows Server 2022 x64

What is the problem?

The client is trying to access the folder: %userprofile%\Favorites. Please remove immediately.

Steps to reproduce

Nothing really. It just wants to access a user's Favorites folder.

Additional context

Log(s) & preferences file(s)

No response

[PredatorIWD]

Closed duplicate: #12518

[luzpaz]

(Copied from dupe)

[giwrgosmant]

(Copied from dupe)

I just got the same notification. 🤔

[giwrgosmant]

Hi, @xavier2k6
May I ask why you added the tag "Not an issue" and you closed the issue when several people facing this?

I would like to know why qBittorrent needs access to Favorites folder. I am not a dev to check the code but I generally trust qBitorrent and out of curiosity I would like to know why this happening.

[glassez]

For some reason, no one mentioned at what exact moment qBittorrent is trying to do this.

Nothing really. It just wants to access a user's Favorites folder.

Nothing really?
How can I (or someone else) reproduce it?

[giwrgosmant]

For some reason, no one mentioned at what exact moment qBittorrent is trying to do this.

Nothing really. It just wants to access a user's Favorites folder.

Nothing really? How can I (or someone else) reproduce it?

Tbh, it happens totally randomly for me.
First time it happened around a month ago when I also comment here about it and few days ago while I was downloading, it happened again twice.

[xavier2k6]

Hi, @xavier2k6 May I ask why you added the tag "Not an issue" and you closed the issue when several people facing this?

I would like to know why qBittorrent needs access to Favorites folder. I am not a dev to check the code but I generally trust qBitorrent and out of curiosity I would like to know why this happening.

I closed it as it's not qBittorrent code that's causing this.

I've come across this just recently & it was more than likely due to the torrent that I was trying to download had *.url & *.html extensions which may be trying to automatically add a bookmark.

I didn't delve in to it too much as I made a choice....allow it access to %userprofile%Favorites folder or de-select these unwanted/not needed files.

I went with the latter & de-selected....

[giwrgosmant]

Hi, @xavier2k6 May I ask why you added the tag "Not an issue" and you closed the issue when several people facing this?

I would like to know why qBittorrent needs access to Favorites folder. I am not a dev to check the code but I generally trust qBitorrent and out of curiosity I would like to know why this happening.

I closed it as it's not qBittorrent code that's causing this.

I've come across this just recently & it was more than likely due to the torrent that I was trying to download had *.url & *.html extensions which may be trying to automatically add a bookmark.

I didn't delve in to it too much as I made a choice....allow it access to %userprofile%Favorites folder or de-select these unwanted/not needed files.

I went with the latter & de-selected....

Thanks for the response and the explanation.

[buggerlugz]

But why would downloading a *.url & *.html extension automatically want to add them to favourites?

[silpyy]

same issue here. why would downloading a *.url & *.html extension automatically want to add them to favourites?!

[LombudXa]

I uninstalled qBittorrent and using a different one. No access to favorites directory or any other directory anymore since months.

I couldn't reproduce it because it just happens, as stated in my initial post. It's not related to adding a torrent to qBittorrent, at least for me. It, yep, just happens. Sorry that I cannot describe it better but that's what I see. Since it's clear what app is accessing it, to me, the source can only be the qBittorrent itself but I may be wrong. If that's the case, either make this optional where we can allow or disallow this or get rid of it all together.

[LombudXa]

I'd like to add that if my developers would not "delve" into the issue especially if they experienced the issue themselves and give me some "probably/maybe" responses, they wouldn't work on the software anymore and I just don't use such software where developers cannot tell me the source of the issue. This is equivalent of saying, "the user is dumb", "who cares about it", "I don't understand" or "I cannot fix the issue because of my skill issues" :). Such developers shouldn't develop, in my opinion. Because, you know, this gives me the impression that developers don't care about other things too. If developers don't care, I can care less and use alternatives. And if I'm responsible for the quality of the software, they're gone soon.

Anyway, no matter if it's the client, the torrent file or the user causing the problem (which in this case is very unlikely because what could the user do wrong here), qBittorrent should handle it, in my opinion, which other clients seem to do. I have one source where I download torrents from and that's even a legal one. So, I'm pretty sure it's not a torrent file causing it which only means one thing. Again, I can be wrong. I'm not saying it's qBittorrent itself 100 %, although, it's qBittorrent which wants to access my favorites directory. We can all agree on that, I hope. I'm sure you could implement something, no matter the actual source, that qBittorrent won't allow it or allow it if the user chooses so. After all, this is a torrent client. You want to have the user in control and not the other way round. At least I hope so.

To me, this is solved. Do with it as you please. I only wanted to help improving your software because I used to like it.

[LombudXa]

I'm very happy to see the outcome of all this. It just shows, this is not the software for me. I'm happy that you have loyal users using your software on a daily base, I used to be one of them. But I can also say, you have no clue about providing quality software. Very unprofessional. Good that we make this one clear for all of us. You may close this case, as you please.

[buggerlugz]

It seems very suspect to me that something I reported last year still hasn't been patched. I mean it would have been by now if the qBittorrent devs didn't have other nefarious reasons to not resolve it. Its so very difficult to find a Bittorrent client these days that doesn't have spyware of one form or another included, eventually they all stray to the dark side when money signs flash before them.

[LombudXa]

There are a few very good torrent clients, in fact. However, I'm not here to advertise other clients. I am very happy with the one I found and never had any similar issues since months. Just to clarify, you can use almost any other torrent client, you will not see any access to any folders at all.

[HanabishiRecca]

@LombudXa, you need to be ashamed for your words. If you just would have properly diagnose the issue instead of pointless ranting.

qBittorrent has nothing to do with that and has no related code. As we found #20908 (comment) this turns out to be a Windows issue with handling .url files. I.e. your dumb OS just bans itself.

Should be fixed by #20936.

[xavier2k6]

@LombudXa I am not a developer, just a normal user & no developer or user gets paid here - we all give our time for free!