Rare downloading anomaly with torrents
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I don't know enough about Torrent technology to comment myself... but I wonder why when downloading a torrent of dozens of files, some files don't reach 100% completion until OTHER files complete, even if you give the highest priority to the files that are stuck at about 99%.
This can be a problem, if you choose NOT to download certain files, yet those files you don't want MUST be downloaded to complete the ones you DO want.
It is as if some packets are 'linked" between files you want and don't want. -
@lololulu19 Here is an example.
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@lololulu19 It's simply because the peers that you are connected to don't have the high priority segments that you are missing. You may not be connected to any seeder, but instead other leechers so only the files / segments they have downloaded will be available to you.
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@drekkin well.. immediately after the lower priority files completed, the high priority ones that were 97+% completed instantly... like they were linked to other files.
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@lololulu19 Because while you were downloading other segments the high priority segments were downloaded by one of the peers that you can connect to, and they were downloaded by you once your other downloading segments completed. The high priority only works when these files are available from a peer you can connect to, if they are not available your client will download other available files. This is particularly apparent when a torrent is new with only one seeder.
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@drekkin That sounds logical.
The next time I spot this anomaly, I will make a video of it. I suppose the ultimate test would be to STOP the low priority file that IS downloading, to see if the high priority ones ever do complete on their own - without the low priority file being completed.I tinker with priorities a lot. Sometimes I choose to download NONE and then add the ones I want because of their filename or they are the biggest file.. or I set a higher priority on small files just to get them out of the way.
Normally, torrent has just 3 priority levels, but there is a setting to fine tune the priorities to get 15 levels. -
@lololulu19 constantly messing with what you're downloading and the priorities probably slows both you and whoever is trying to leech from you (and by extension, the whole swarm) - sort of like that car on the busy freeway that keeps changing lanes and changing speeds.
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@tnar Actually... getting some files completed rather than have them all complete at the same rate seems to speed things up.
I noticed something else. The files set to high priority that don't complete seem to have some packets tied/overlapping with packets of low priority files. So, this phenomenon probably only shows up with collections of mixed priorities.
I tried to test this by setting the low priority files do DO NOT DOWNLOAD to see if that prevented the high priority incomplete files from completing. It did NOT. The high priority files not only completed, but also the files set to DO NOT DOWNLOAD completed.. making me think those DO NOT DOWNLOAD packets are tied to the packets in the other files.