Most of you must have come across magnet links at least once in your life. They are most commonly used for downloading torrents from the web which is a popular way to share files. They are also known as magnet URLs.
The reason they are so popular is because you can copy and paste these links in plain text almost anywhere, like mails, text messages, and web. This makes it easier to share files in P2P environment. Also, there is no need to store bittorrent files on the server.
Dec 29, 2019 Vuze is a renamed and updated version of the popular torrent software for MAC, Azureus. Similar to uTorrent, Vuze allows users to search for torrents and magnet links right from the app. This popular BitTorrent client features a visually impressive interface. Dec 26, 2009 Preferences-General- click 'Set Default Application' next to 'Accept Magnet Links' I had no problem with this until, randomly (and these are the only recent computer use changes), I updated my phone to iOS 6 and backed up my computer with TimeMachine. Then Safari would not load the magnet links anymore. Clicked this and no problems. Open up Folx when presented with the choice. This copies and pastes the magnet link into Folx. Change the download settings and then start the download when you’re ready. This begins the download process and the Pirate Bay downloader Mac process is complete. Create the download task. There are a couple of ways to do this: Open up the main menu and choose File New Task; Click the + button to the top of the main window; Click on the download link in the web page (you must allow Folx to catch magnet download links through the preferences for the program) 2. Choose the Download Options. Download Magnet keeps your workspace organized. Activated by dragging, customizable keyboard shortcuts or via menu bar, Magnet declutters your screen by snapping windows into organized tiles. Download Magnet for macOS 10.9 or later and enjoy it on your Mac. Every time you move your focus from one app to another, compare data side by side or multitask in any other way, you need all the windows arranged accordingly. Magnet makes this process clean and simple. In one drag to the edge of your display, you size a window into half of. Jan 10, 2020 Magnet links replace torrent files, just by clicking on them, or adding them to your torrent client, such as uTorrent, starts the download. Yes, you can download a torrent file and add it to uTorrent to begin downloading.
Why Magnet Links
Magnet links are more secure and remove the need to hash individual files in order to protect them against cyber threats. The .torrent file contains tracker URL, names of files to be downloaded, and hash code.
Magnet link will essentially remove the middleman and connect you directly with the source using the hash code. Your torrent client will use this hash code to find peers who are uploading the required files. There is no need to download the torrent file or even the tracker. This saves bandwidth of the hosting site as well as the users. A win-win situation.
Once you click on a magnetic link, Chrome should be able to parse the hash data and open it in your default torrent client. The problem arises when Chrome refuses to identify the magnet link and returns an error. Now you can’t download files shared by friends and peers.
Also on Guiding Tech
How to Share Files of Any Size Online by Creating Private Torrent File in uTorrent
Read MoreContent Settings
Since you are dealing with content here, let’s see if the content settings of your Chrome browser are set correctly. Click on the Menu icon in any Chrome tab and select Settings.
Scroll to the very bottom of the page to find the Advanced button. Click on it to reveal more options.
The first heading should be Privacy and security. Underneath it, you will find Content Settings.
You are looking for Handlers option where you will ‘allow sites to ask to become default handlers for protocols (recommended)’.
Click on it and make sure that the option is toggled on. If it is, you will see it in blue and if it is not then it will be greyed out.
This setting essentially tells Google to make a call and handle the necessary protocols, magnet links in our case, and associate it with the correct program automatically, BitTorrent in my case. You might be using another torrent client like Vuze which is cool.
If the setting was off, you need to toggle it on and visit a torrent hosting site which offers the magnet link option. Click on one of the magnet links to see if Chrome opens it with BitTorrent automatically. It may take a few seconds so don’t panic just yet.
If Chrome is not working as intended or the setting was toggled on by default but Chrome is still not playing nicely with magnet links, you will have to dig deeper into Windows' registry settings.
Also on Guiding Tech
Flud vs tTorrent vs uTorrent: Which Is the Easiest Torrent Downloader for Android?
Read More
Edit Registry
Sometimes, you may get an error saying ‘this file does not have an app associated with it’. Why is it happening if you have a torrent client already installed?
This is happening because Chrome or Windows is unable to detect the right application for the job. It fails to associate the magnet link with the torrent client. Duh.
Click Win+R to open the run command prompt. Here you can enter a number of commands to help you manage your PC. We will enter 'regedit' in the box.
This will open the Registry Editor in a new window. Now you must navigate to the following file location.
ComputerHKEY_CLASSES_ROOTMagnetshellopencommand
Check the screenshot below to better understand the folder structure. You may have to scroll a lot here.
In the right pane, you will see the Data column which will show the complete directory path of the BiTtorrent client. Your job here is to make sure that the BitTorrent client resides in the same directory that you see here. In my case, it must be here:
C:UsersaAppDataRoamingBitTorrentBitTorrent.exe
Notice the .exe at the end? That means it is linking to an executable file which should launch when need be. Ignore the random string of text after that. Now open C drive in a new window and begin the drilling process. Press Win+E to open My Computer directly.
In case your torrent client is located in a different folder, you will have to edit the registry entry under Name column. Select Default under Name and select Modify to be able to change the directory hierarchy that should link to your torrent client’s executable file (.exe format).
Note that the random key string at the end should remain untouched. It is there for a reason. You just have to change the folder structure and save.Go back to the torrent site of your preference in Chrome and try opening a magnet link again. It should work now.
How To Download A Magnet Link On Mac Os
Law of Attraction
While most torrent sites offer both the options, downloadable torrent file and a magnet link, Piratebay recently announced that they will discontinue hosting torrent files altogether. This, in my opinion, signifies a change that will gradually be adopted by the rest of the internet and for good reason.
This is why it is even more important to fix the magnet link error in Chrome. Make sure everything is working as it should be.
Next up: Are you using uTorrent on your desktop? Want to control it using your Android smartphone remotely? Click on the link below to learn how you can control uTorrent from anywhere in the world.
The above article may contain affiliate links which help support Guiding Tech. However, it does not affect our editorial integrity. The content remains unbiased and authentic.
Read NextHow to Remotely Control uTorrent On Desktop From AndroidAlso See#chrome #torrents Did You Know
Like Google Chrome, Play Music also has experimental features called Labs.
More in Internet and Social
How to Change YouTube Music Playlist Cover on Mobile and Web
Apple does not permit BitTorrent apps in the App Store, which makes torrenting on an iPhone or iPad a little more challenging than it is on other platforms. The good news, though, is that thanks to cloud torrent services, torrenting on an iOS device is possible.
What is a cloud torrent service?
A cloud torrent service is like a friend who does the actual torrenting for you. But instead of going round to their house to transfer the torrented content onto a USB stick when the download is complete, you simply transfer or stream it from a remote server to your iPhone or iPad using regular HTTP.
Cloud torrent services usually work inside your browser, although it is interesting to note that Apple does allow some cloud torrent apps into the App Store.
There are numerous cloud services, most of which work in more or less the same way. These include Bitport.io, put.io, and Zbigz, but there are many more.
Prices
It is common for cloud torrent services to offer free accounts, often with a 1 GB storage limit. These may be useful, but you get what you pay for. We found most free accounts resulted in HTTP download speeds which were all but unusable.
Paid plans typically start at around $10 per month for 100 GB of storage. This can vary dramatically, though, so it’s well worth shopping around. Paid plans invariable produce much better download speeds than free plans and are usually secured by HTTPS.
Streaming
Other than the fact that they will work on your iPhone, a big advantage of cloud torrent services is they can stream video content to your phone so that it doesn’t need to be stored locally.
Apple is notoriously spartan when handing out storage memory on its mobile devices, which also don’t support external SD cards. This makes this space-saving feature a godsend for iOS users.
How torrent on an iPhone or iPad
Some cloud torrent services (including our example put.io) do actually have an iOS app, but most are browser-based only. As this is a generic guide we focus primarily on how to use a cloud service via its web interface.
Get yourself a cloud torrent account. In this guide we’re going to use put.io because it is very typical of this kind of service. We found it worked well and like the fact that it offers an iOS app, but we have not fully surveyed the market and have therefore chosen put.io for purely illustrative reasons.
For what it’s worth, put.io does not offer free accounts. But it does offer a 1-day trial of its premium service for $0.99 which we found much more useful for evaluation purposes than any free account we tried.
Connect to a VPN (not strictly necessary, but always a good idea). We recommend ExpressVPN as it is fast, reliable, and super secure.
Visit a torrent site. Most people reading this article will already have a favorite, but if you are new to torrenting then Google (or a private search engine of choice) is your friend.
Search for the content you want.
Find the Magnet link, long press on it and Copy Link. Some cloud torrent services also allow you paste in .torrent files, but most need a Magnet link to work.
Please note that long-pressing a Magnet link no longer works in Safari, but it does in Firefox and Chrome.In your browser sign-in to your cloud torrent account and find the “add new torrent” field (it may be called something else). Long press -> Paste Magnet link in. See below how we do this in put.io.
In theory, you can use any browser. It is worth noting, though, that Firefox for iOS worked best for us, as Safari and Chrome threw up some errors during the download process.
The torrent will start downloading to your cloud torrent account. To transfer it locally to your iPad via HTTP, simply hit the associated download button.
Alternatively, it is usually possible to stream video content direct in your browser window.
As an iDevice owner, you are probably already well aware that file management in iOS is not as straight-forward as it is on other platforms. Fortunately, Files (the iOS built-in file manager app) provides access to the Firefox Download folder where you can easily access your newly downloaded torrents.
Handy tip: VLC for Mobile is a 100% free and open source app that will play just about any and every video file you can throw at it.
As already noted, put.io does, in fact, also offer an iOS app. This allows you to browse files stored in your put.io account, transfer them locally to your iPhone or iPad, or (in the case of movie files) stream them.
In other words, it replaces the need to perform steps 7 & 8 above in your browser. You will still need to follow steps 1-6 above in order to torrent the files to your account.
How to keep your iPhone secure when torrenting?
Use a VPN to keep your iPhone safe when torrenting
A VPN will help to keep you iPhone secure when you are torrenting. The benefits of using a VPN are as follows:
- Hides your real IP address from peers who can otherwise see exactly who you are. This is particularly worrying when you consider that copyright enforcers routinely monitor the IP addresses of people who torrent their intellectual property and take action against them.
- Hides what you download from your internet provider (ISP).
Please see Best VPNs for Torrenting for a detailed discussion on this subject.
Torrenting on an iPhone or iPad, however, is different because you are not torrenting directly. Your Cloud torrent service is acting as an intermediary which means that:
- Peers see the IP address of the cloud torrent server, not your real IP.
- Your local transfers are likely hidden by HTTPS (this is often not the case with free accounts, but is a fairly standard feature for most premium cloud torrent accounts).
So if all you want a VPN for is to protect yourself while torrenting on an iPhone, then, the case for needing a VPN is less pressing. But we still recommend using a VPN because:
- A VPN will unblock the torrent sites you still need to visit in order to find the torrents in the first place.
- A VPN will hide your real IP address from the torrent sites you visit, and who knows what records they log?
- A VPN will hide your real IP address from the cloud torrent provider (although it will probably have your payment details if purchased a premium plan).
We think you should be using a VPN, anyway, on all your devices. Most VPN services offer an iOS app, but please check out Best VPN Apps For iPhone and iOS for our top recommendations.
ProPrivacy only uses basic cookies to monitor traffic to the site. Is that okay?
Find out how to manage cookies and view our policy here
How To Download A Magnet Link On Mac Os
ProPrivacy does not use marketing cookies
- Fastest VPN we test
- Servers in 94 countries
- Unblocks Netflix, iPlayer and more
wasn't right for you?
We recommend you check out one of these alternatives:
The fastest VPN we test, unblocks everything, with amazing service all round
Longtime top ranked VPN, with great price and speeds
One of the largest VPNs, voted best VPN by Reddit
Strong presence, no-logs policy