@kco said in Handling "dead" torrents.:
I've got "some" unregistered torrents. (As reported by the tracker)
That means:
. taken down?
"Unregistered torrent" usually means that the site has deleted the torrent--most likely because of a takedown request, but there can be other reasons. Once it's gone from the system, the tracker will no longer play matchmaker between you as a seeder and others who are leeching the torrent. But, if you were connected to other leechers when it was taken down, you'll be able to continue seeding to those specific leechers. The tracker is out of the loop at this point, and you won't get upload credit for whatever you're seeding...but will get the satisfaction of sharing your own seed with someone else. (The same situation is true in reverse if you were leeching material--if you were connected to seeders when the torrent was deleted from the tracker, you'll still be able to leech from them as long as they keep the torrent alive in their client.)
Why I don't delete them? Because sometimes torrents "revive".
Strictly speaking, a torrent that is removed won't "revive." But, if the original uploader (or someone who has snatched all of the content) uploads a new torrent with the same name and file contents, it will look similar enough to the tracker that if you still have the original torrent in your client, the tracker will connect to it and you can resume seeding to new leechers. While in my experience this doesn't happen very often, I will keep a dead torrent active in my client for a few days to see if a replacement torrent is uploaded. If this hasn't happened in a week, I'll delete the torrent from my client, and archive or delete any downloaded material.