Vuze/Azureus Help

February 8, 2009 12:42 PM

Why are file size and downloaded percentage not in sync in Vuze (fka Azureus)?

The stated file size of the file I'm downloading is 14.15 GB, and I've downloaded 12.52 GB of that -- but Vuze tells me I'm only 60.5% done. This has happened to me before when I've had to stop and restart the download a few times (due to restarting computer, etc.)

In the past, I've ended up with a jacked-up file. Is that what I'm looking forward to a again? Anyone know why this is happening?

Thanks...

posted by hapax_legomenon to Computers & Internet (13 answers total)

Peers may be sending you bad blocks. In utorrent, for instance, the "Downloaded" column shows how much data you've downloaded for a particular torrent without regard for whether your client has rejected some of that data for mismatched hashes, etc. A screenshot of your torrent queue could help confirm this.

Also, I'll take this opportunity to point out that Vuze is the most bloated, resource-hungry bittorrent client available.
posted by Inspector.Gadget at 12:53 PM on February 8, 2009

It could definitely be bad data coming from a peer or peers, but barring that it could just be a difference in the way Azureus reports the two statistics. The amount of data downloaded is just that - the raw count of what's come down the pipe. The completion percentage is measured by the number of completed blocks, so there may be a large number of incomplete blocks, especially if the block size set in the torrent is large.
posted by kid_dynamite at 1:12 PM on February 8, 2009

I know that the torrent's tab doesn't update the percentage until you click on it.
posted by dunkadunc at 2:15 PM on February 8, 2009

Response by poster: Also, I'll take this opportunity to point out that Vuze is the most bloated, resource-hungry bittorrent client available.

Thanks for the info - would love a recommendation for a different client...
posted by hapax_legomenon at 3:19 PM on February 8, 2009

Hmm. I like Azureus just fine, it works and I appreciate all the many options. It did take me some weeks to get it set up to my liking. It's easy enough to turn it down while you are busy doing other labor intensive tasks by lowering your Transfer settings, then raising them when you go to bed, so Azureus does most of its work while you sleep. Lots of tips to be found at http://forum.vuze.com
and if you can't find the answer, just ask.
posted by sugarbx19 at 4:23 PM on February 8, 2009

utorrent instead of vuze
posted by dripped at 6:06 PM on February 8, 2009

Also, I'll take this opportunity to point out that Vuze is the most bloated, resource-hungry bittorrent client available.

...on Windows. On Mac and Linux it runs awesome. Kinda like how iTunes is "bloated and resource hungry" on Windows but awesome on the Mac, and probably other cross-platform apps that run poorly on Windows but run fine on operating systems that aren't awful. Hmm, what's the common denominator there?

Vuze is much more than just a BitTorrent client. I have it running headless on my media server with the WebUI plugin, and have installed a seperate FireFox addon on other machines that allows me to just click on torrent download links and have them automatically loaded onto the client on the media server which I can then control and monitor from any web browser. I can also control it remotely with AzSMRC, which also allows loading torrents from RSS feeds, or I can do the same with the graphical client on my Mac. It has a plugin that preferentially ranks peers based on latency (Ono), which improves download speeds. Every possible aspect of it can be configured and tweaked. I've never used uTorrent, because it's Windows-only, but the only thing it could possibly do better is run better on Windows, which I could care less about.
posted by DecemberBoy at 6:33 PM on February 8, 2009

Hmm, what's the common denominator there?

Vuze runs in a Java VM. iTunes loads myriad helper applications. The common denominator is bloat. I'm not really one to defend Windows and its headaches, but those two pieces of software are genuinely shitty.

uTorrent on the other hand runs with very low resource use.
posted by Inspector.Gadget at 9:46 PM on February 8, 2009 [1 favorite]

Response by poster: Thanks, everyone, for chiming in. I know this thread has diverted a bit from its original direction, but I'm happy about that actually, because I am definitely interested in knowing about different/better torrent clients. To that end, a bit more about my situation: I am not a power user, i.e., I download/upload this and that once or twice a week, and I'm on a Mac. I've often thought that Vuze is complicated/advanced beyond my needs, but for whatever reason, it's what I've been using for the past year+.

Any other/better-suited-for-me Mac client suggestions, again, thanks, I'd love to hear them.
posted by hapax_legomenon at 2:10 AM on February 9, 2009

Utorrent has those neat things built in. I have it running on a headless machine. It automatically picks up torrents from a directory*, starts the torrents, finishes the torrents, seeds to a %, then moves the downloaded file to my media server drive, then deletes the original. -or- just picks up the torrent in the first place from a rss monitor. All can be controlled/monitored from its web interface if needed.

*the torrent directory is a synced by windows sync (nee foldershare) accross my computers. So whenever I see something I want that isn't going to be picked up in my rss filters, I grab the .torrent and drop it into the sync directory. uTorrent will pick it up.

I was a big fan of Vuze until I saw the resource performance difference with Utorrent.
posted by dripped at 3:19 AM on February 9, 2009

Any other/better-suited-for-me Mac client suggestions, again, thanks, I'd love to hear them.

http://mac.utorrent.com :)
posted by Inspector.Gadget at 1:09 PM on February 9, 2009

Response by poster: Oh, now I get it: utorrent. Thanks!

(Um, yeah..I'm not too slow, I swear!)
posted by hapax_legomenon at 10:47 PM on February 9, 2009

Any other/better-suited-for-me Mac client suggestions, again, thanks, I'd love to hear them.

I'm a bit late to the game, but Transmission is a great OS X (and linux) client with an active developer group. Has nearly all the features you need from Azureus/Vuze but with the low-memory and high-performance of a native app.
posted by Fin Azvandi at 8:18 AM on February 10, 2009