Thanks @bi4smooth for the reply. Any help/hints are always appreciated!

In this case I was the only one seeding, so it wasn't the case of me not being selected over other seeders. I'm certainly not a torrent tech expert either, but I know there are different methods of seeders/peers finding each other (DHT, PeX, etc.), so I suspect there's some method that isn't working, and the clients trying to connect to me aren't configured to use the methods that I have working.

I ran your UNIX command in terminal and I see qbittorent listening on 8080 for the web interface, but there is no other listing for qbittorent. I expected to see the port that I added for incoming connections, but it's not there. So that may be a clue.

One additional data point since I originally posted. I ran a Windows instance through Parallels and ran qBittorrent there. That instance was able to connect to the peers that the Mac instance couldn't. So more clues that it's an issue with Mac networking (or the Mac build of qBittorrent) and not my router.

Thanks again for the reply. Enjoy the hunt for the smooth guys (leaves more hairy guys for me )

I'm hoping for some help on what to do next in trying to fix this issue.

Issue: For new torrents that I am seeding on here, I can see peers as part of the swarm (the number in brackets), but they for the most part cannot connect to me (so the number before the bracket is 0). Eventually someone is able to find me and the uploading begins (but most peers still remain unconnected to me).

My set-up:

Running qBittorent 4.3.4.1 on Big Sur (11.2.3).
Peer connection protocol set to TCP and µTP
Port for income connections in the 50000 range
Use UPnP not selected (didn't work with it selected either)
Using a SOCKS5 Proxy Server (torguard.org) with Port 1080 (Use proxy for peer connections selected - Use proxy only for torrents not selected)

DHT and PeX selected. Encryption mode: Allow encryption. Anonymous mode off.

Firewall is off on the Mac.

On my router (Netgear), I have port forwarded the port in the 50,000 range to my computer. I also forwarded 1080 for the Proxy Server (I don't know if that was necessary or not)

On CanYouSeeMe.org, when testing the port in the 50K range it gives an error with "Reason: Connection refused". Testing other ports gives the error "Reason: Connection timed out", which makes me think that the port is open fine on the router, but there's something on the Mac side that is causing the issue.

I have tried turning off different things (e.g. no proxy server) but still no luck in any of those peers finding me.

I'm at a loss on what to try next. I've searched through every possible setting in qBittorrent, MacOS networking, and my router, but can't find anything else obvious to test.

Sorry for the long question, but figured it would be helpful to be complete. Thanks in advance for anyone with any clues on what to try next!