Searching for torrents from within qBittorrent

Martin Brinkmann
Nov 19, 2018
Updated • Nov 19, 2018
Internet
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Did you know that the popular cross-platform torrent client qBittorrent has torrent search functionality baked directly into the client?

Torrent users have plenty of options when it comes to finding torrent files: from using torrent search engines and general search engines to public or private forums, trackers, or specialized torrent search software.

The torrent client qBittorrent supports searching for torrents straight from the client's interface; no plugins or extra software needed to do so.

The following guide instructs you how to run searches using the client, and what you may and may not use search for.

Probably the biggest advantage of using an in-built search option is that you can do the searching and downloading using a single program.

The search functionality is somewhat hidden in qBittorrent on the other hand.

To get started, select View > Search Engine; this unlocks the search tab that you may switch to. The interface is straightforward and easy to use.

Start by typing a search term in the search field at the top. You can hit search right away or use the provided filters to filter results right away.

The two main options that qBittorrent's search provides are to limit results to a specific category, e.g. TV shows, software, or movies, and to select the torrent search engines that you want searched.

The default selection includes The Pirate Bay, ExtraTorrent, Demonoid, Legit Torrents and Kickass Torrents. You can block results from any site and install new search plugins for sites that are not supported by default.

Installation of plugins

Go to the unofficial list of search plugins for qBittorent to find out if your favorite torrent search engines or sites are supported. The download link displays a Python file with the .py extension in the browser. Just save it to the local system and select the menu next to "Only enabled" on the Search tab, and in the context menu that opens "select".

Doing so lists all supported search plugins. Click on "install a new one" and select the downloaded file to install it as a new search plugin in qBittorrent.

Note that you can enable or disable plugins by right-clicking on them and selecting the "enabled" option which toggles the status.

Search results in qBittorrent

It takes only a brief moment before results start to show up on the same page. You can run multiple searches one after the other; each search is loaded in its own tab so that you don't lose previous search results when you do.

There is a handy option to search in the results only, and several filtering options as well.  A click on a table header sorts the data accordingly, e.g. by size, seeders, or name.

You can filter by the number of seeds or by size. Once you found a promising result you select it to hit the download button right away or click on the "go to" links to open the torrent file on the linked site.

The download button initiates the default torrent add dialog to add the torrent to qBittorrent to start downloading it.

Closing words

Torrent search functionality that is baked into the torrent client is quite the handy function. While it is limited to sites that plugins are available for, it may speed up searches for users who use qBittorrent as their main torrent client.

Now You: do you use torrents?

Summary
Searching for torrents from within qBittorrent
Article Name
Searching for torrents from within qBittorrent
Description
Did you know that the popular cross-platform torrent client qBittorrent has torrent search functionality baked directly into the client?
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Ghacks Technology News
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Comments

  1. ilev said on August 4, 2012 at 7:53 pm
    Reply

    Doesn’t Windows 8 know that www. or http:// are passe ?

    1. Martin Brinkmann said on August 4, 2012 at 7:57 pm
      Reply

      Well it is a bit difficulty to distinguish between name.com domains and files for instance.

    2. Leonidas Burton said on September 4, 2023 at 4:51 am
      Reply

      I know a service made by google that is similar to Google bookmarks.
      http://www.google.com/saved

  2. VioletMoon said on August 16, 2023 at 5:26 pm
    Reply

    @Ashwin–Thankful you delighted my comment; who knows how many “gamers” would have disagreed!

  3. Karl said on August 17, 2023 at 10:36 pm
    Reply

    @Martin

    The comments section under this very article (3 comments) is identical to the comments section found under the following article:
    https://www.ghacks.net/2023/08/15/netflix-is-testing-game-streaming-on-tvs-and-computers/

    Not sure what the issue is, but have seen this issue under some other articles recently but did not report it back then.

  4. Anonymous said on August 25, 2023 at 11:44 am
    Reply

    Omg a badge!!!
    Some tangible reward lmao.

    It sucks that redditors are going to love the fuck out of it too.

  5. Scroogled said on August 25, 2023 at 10:57 pm
    Reply

    With the cloud, there is no such thing as unlimited storage or privacy. Stop relying on these tech scums. Purchase your own hardware and develop your own solutions.

    1. lollmaoeven said on August 27, 2023 at 6:24 am
      Reply

      This is a certified reddit cringe moment. Hilarious how the article’s author tries to dress it up like it’s anything more than a png for doing the reddit corporation’s moderation work for free (or for bribes from companies and political groups)

  6. El Duderino said on August 25, 2023 at 11:14 pm
    Reply

    Almost al unlmited services have a real limit.

    And this comment is written on the dropbox article from August 25, 2023.

  7. John G. said on August 26, 2023 at 1:29 am
    Reply

    First comment > @ilev said on August 4, 2012 at 7:53 pm

    For the God’s sake, fix the comments soon please! :[

  8. Kalmly said on August 26, 2023 at 4:42 pm
    Reply

    Yes. Please. Fix the comments.

  9. Kim Schmidt said on September 3, 2023 at 3:42 pm
    Reply

    With Google Chrome, it’s only been 1,500 for some time now.

    Anyone who wants to force me in such a way into buying something that I can get elsewhere for free will certainly never see a single dime from my side. I don’t even know how stupid their marketing department is to impose these limits on users instead of offering a valuable product to the paying faction. But they don’t. Even if you pay, you get something that is also available for free elsewhere.

    The algorithm has also become less and less savvy in terms of e.g. English/German translations. It used to be that the bot could sort of sense what you were trying to say and put it into different colloquialisms, which was even fun because it was like, “I know what you’re trying to say here, how about…” Now it’s in parts too stupid to translate the simplest sentences correctly, and the suggestions it makes are at times as moronic as those made by Google Translations.

    If this is a deep-learning AI that learns from users’ translations and the phrases they choose most often – which, by the way, is a valuable, moneys worthwhile contribution of every free user to this project: They invest their time and texts, thereby providing the necessary data for the AI to do the thing as nicely as they brag about it in the first place – alas, the more unprofessional users discovered the translator, the worse the language of this deep-learning bot has become, the greater the aggregate of linguistically illiterate users has become, and the worse the language of this deep-learning bot has become, as it now learns the drivel of every Tom, Dick and Harry out there, which is why I now get their Mickey Mouse language as suggestions: the inane language of people who can barely spell the alphabet, it seems.

    And as a thank you for our time and effort in helping them and their AI learn, they’ve lowered the limit from what was once 5,000 to now 1,500…? A big “fuck off” from here for that! Not a brass farthing from me for this attitude and behaviour, not in a hundred years.

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