Getting Started
Prerequisites
Torrent-fu uses uTorrent WebUI or Transmission to download torrents to a remote computer, it does not download torrents directly to your phone. Therefore, either uTorrent or Transmission is required. It has been tested with uTorrent versions 1.8.2 and 1.8.3 and Transmission versions 1.73 and 1.72. It may work with earlier versions, but I have not personally verified any, besides they’re free so why not keep up to date?
Note: uTorrent 2.0 users
If you upgraded from uTorrent 1.8 and can no longer connect, there seems to be a bug in uTorrent’s settings that makes it refuse connections.
To remedy: disable then re-enable webui.token_auth in the advanced preferences section, then re-enter your username and password in the webui settings.
I have no idea why this works, but it did for myself and others that have emailed with the issue.

You can download uTorrent at http://utorrent.com
You can download Transmission at http://transmissionbt.com
Setting up uTorrent
Follow the instructions to get uTorrent installed. Once uTorrent is installed, you can enable WebUI by clicking on Options>Preferences in the toolbar.
Then, on the prefrences window, select WebUI marked 1 in the screenshot below.
Then check the box (#2 in the screenshot) to enable WebUI.
#3 is the admin username, you can leave it admin, or change it to whatever you like, remember the name, it will be used in Torrent-fu’s preferences.
#4 is the admin password, remember this as well it is used in Torrent-fu’s Preferences too.
#5 is optional, but can be useful if your computer is behind a router and you are forwarding a port to WebUI. For more info on port forwarding click here.
If you set #5 remember that too, it will be the port that is used in Torrent-fu’s preferences.
If you do not set a port in the WebUI preferences window, then the port you will use is located under “Connection” in the prefrences window (see screenshot below). You don’t have to change anything, just note the port number listed.
To check that uTorrent WebUI is set up properly, type http://localhost:[your port number]/gui, replacing [your port number] with the port you chose in the last step ie:
http://localhost:8080/gui
or http://localhost:55671/gui.
If you are prompted for a username and password, WebUI is set up properly.
Now, uTorrent’s WebUI needs to be seen by the outside world in order for Torrent-fu to be able to communicate with it.
Setting up Transmission
Once you have transmission installed go to File>Preferences and click on the “Remote” tab in the preferences window. Check off “Enable remote access” and “Require authentication”, then type in a
(#3) username
(#4)password
and write down
(#5) Listening port
To check that Transmission is set up properly, type http://localhost:[your port number]/transmission, replacing [your port number] with the port you chose in the last step ie:
http://localhost:9091/transmission
If you are prompted for a username and password, Transmission is set up properly.
Now, Transmission needs to be seen by the outside world in order for Torrent-fu to be able to communicate with it.
Making your torrent client visible to your phone
If your computer is connected directly to the web (through a modem, not a router) then you should be able to access uTorrent’s WebUI through your external IP address.
You can find out your IP through many sites, but the first one I found with a google search was: http://www.whatismyip.com/
If you go there you external IP will be dispayed just under the header with the label “Your IP Address Is:”
To check to see if you don’t need to set up a forwarded port go to
For uTorrent:
http://[your IP address]:[your port number]/gui
For Transmission:
http://[your IP address]:[your port number]/transmission
and see if you are prompted with the same login prompt as before. If you are, then you now have all required information to set the preferences in Torrent-fu!
If you are not so lucky, then one more step is needed to allow Torrent-fu to connect to your uTorrent WebUI. Port Forwarding.
Port Forwarding
If you are not familiar with port forwarding, this may be a little confusing, and I can’t help much outside of links and a little explanation.
port forwarding opens up a connection between your router and a machine on your network that data can be passed through. The information required to forward a port will be: a source port (what port the connection comes in to the router on), a destination IP(the local IP of a computer on your network), and a destination port (the port data is passed to on the destination IP)
Here’s an example: If the external ip is 60.24.200.35, the local IP of the machine running uTorrent is 192.168.1.100, the source (incoming) port is 8080 and the destination port is 8080, then all data sent to port 8080 on 60.24.200.35 will be passed to the target computer 192.168.1.100 on port 8080. Sound confusing? it’s really not that bad.
For more info on port forwarding check out this wiki article.
Basically what you have to do is forward the port from #5 above to the local IP of the computer running uTorrent.
For help on setting up port forwarding on many routers, you can visit http://portforward.com/ and follow the instructions there. There are tons of tutorials with screenshots and even specific instructions of setting up port forwarding to uTorrent.
After you are done, use the external IP, port, username and password in Torrent-fu.
Torrent-fu Profiles
(Note: the home screen shot is of the upcoming release, which is why Custom Search Providers is listed)
Torrent-fu profiles are accessed by going to the main screen and tapping “Profiles” or hitting the menu button on the phone, then tapping “Profiles”. Then tapping “Add Profile”
Under “Name” type a name for the profile, it can be whatever you want.
“Type” is simple, just pick your client, either uTorrent or Transmission.
Your external IP goes under “Host”
Your port goes under “Port”
Your username goes in “Username”
And your password goes in “Password”
Hit Save and you’re done!










Andrew
Does this work with uTorrent for Mac?
max
hello this is a great app so thanks,
one problem is that it works fine over wifi but if i try to add a torrent using mobile internet (3g or hdspa) about half the time it takes about fifteen seconds before saying ‘error sending…name of torrent’.
any ideas or are they just bum links or something?
brian
hey think I’m connected , I’m able to view my torrents I have downloaded but how do I download new 1s ?
Ian
Hey Matt,
Set up everything with my Epic 4G and MacbookPro, and the remote interface works from the local host and on the web. When I try to connect with Torrent-Fu, it searches for a while and then tells me that “Socket is not connected.” Another commenter had this issue, but I couldn’t find a resolution. Any ideas?
Thanks
Ian
I am using Transmission
Skrewed_187
I got T-Fu Ver. 25 on my Galaxy S Eclair OS and I’m trying to connect to uTorrent 2.0.2 on my Win7 64bit. I have AVG and Peerblock off. I can connect via the http://localhost route on any installed browser but the client for my phone returns the following error:
The following error was returned by the server:
Illegal character in query at index 43: HTTP://ipaddress:torrentport/gui/
Where is this character coming from and is this something I can semi-easily fix?
mimstyle
Work great for me thank you !
Adamal
Having a bit of trouble that some others have mentioned.
Can manage torrents, but can’t add to utorrent 2.0.4. Have tried others suggestions, but doesn’t wanna work. Tried disabling AV, but no help, and firewall isn’t on.
Any ideas?
Etienne
Just a quick question Matt. I’m in the process of setting up transmmission-daemon on a headless server. Does torrent fu connect through the webui or do i simply have to enable remote management in the daemon.
Thanks,
Etienne
Matt
You will need to have the web-facing portion of your server set up. Also Torrent-fu automatically appends /transmission/web to the IP or hostname you provide so the web interface needs to be at http://ip/transmission/web.
This thread has a bit about apache and transmission-daemon: https://forum.transmissionbt.com/viewtopic.php?f=8&t=9396.
If you search for
transmission-daemon RPC
or
transmission-daemon web RPC
on the transmission forums there is a lot of help
LD9791
Ok the idea sounds awsome but i need some guidence.
I got utorrent set up. I can get to the log in page after typing in http://isp.port/gui
But
When I try to get in via torrent fu I get the error (A JSONObject error) I have tried changing the password, did the reseting token thing, even turned the filter isp to off. oh and add delted and uninstalled.torrent fu.
kinda lost on what to try next. any ideas peoplek?
would love thos app. just gotta figure it out.
buster
Really awesome! Got it all set up with port forwarding and everything and it just worked. Then I got a bit ambitious and tried to set up no-ip to handle dynamic id address. Got this working from my phone browser but the torrent-fu client gives me an error “Illegal character in fragment at index 2505: http://xxx.hopto.org:1234/gui/?token=hopto.org“. Did I enter my hostname incorrectly?
wldickin
re: the json error
my issue seemed to be having a number in the password. I removed and it is working just fine
Joe P
Pretty Fricken Sweet
Brian
Matt; great app! Gotten lots of use on it. I recently rooted my Eris to Froyo, and had to reinstall and re set up the app; and its been acting a little buggy on me. For example; I am able to over WIFI or 3G manager my torrents; but neither sending them from the browser nor downloading then sending the torrents seem to be working. I re-checked my settings; added the password again (reset it both on the web ui portion and on the app) and it still didn’t seem to be working.
Ohp! I just got a bubble saying the last one I tested was done downloading; so it appears to be back up.
But if this happens again (either the torrent is unable to be sent, or it says it sent, but doesn’t show up in utorrent) what steps should I take.
Did you secretly put it a bad music filter to prevent the spreading of bad music??? The link I was d/l wasn’t something I wanted; just the first one I saw.
At ANY RATE; Thanks again for your hard work on this. If you don’t have a demonoid account let me know; I’ll hook you up
B
Lawrence
I also can’t see the lists of active/downloading/seeding torrents. Just the ‘all’ list. Other than that: fantastic app!
Jane
Lawrence, try it also here:
http://www.torrentpond.com
http://www.seedpeer.com
http://www.nanotorrents.com
http://www.sumotorrent.com
http://www.torrentscan.com
http://thepiratebay.org
Chris
I’d like to make an enhancement request. My server at home isn’t “always on”. Can you add a background service to ping the server (say once a day) and transmit new torrent details when the server is available?
In essence, this would allow the user to “stockpile” torrents on the mobile device and when the server comes on, the torrents are communicated and start downloading.
Derek
I’m having a bit of trouble getting everything configured here, im using the http://localhost:port/gui/ to test everything out and i can connect without any trouble from my computer browser, however when i input the information on my phone is adds a port automatically as :80, so it would how up as:
http://localhost:port:80/gui/
i try to add this on my computer and it just removes the :80 and connects me. I’ve tried adding that extra option and with port 8080 it still is not working and my computer still just removes that.
Josh
Any word on how to set this up with the Mac version of uTorrent? It doesn’t have the WebGui setting? Thanks
Seb
Tells me that I can’t connect to the stated IP. Though I can connect from my own PC (192.168.1.17:11170) – I have VLC and WinAMP apps running, so my router is not the issue. I am using Utorrent v1.8.2
kefsx
getting the same error..
“A JSONObject text must begin with ‘{‘ at charcter 0 of”
running tfu 1.7 and uTorrent 2.04…
anyone else find a fix yet?
Rob
I’ve been getting an error anytime i try sending a torrent to my computer. I’ve gotten everything correct with seeing it with my ipaddress/port/gui but keep coming up with an error message. any thoughts?
Noises
Hi very nice app.
But i have issues connecting from 3g networks i however can connect on wifi.
I keep getting connection to ip:port timed out when connecting from 3g network O.o
I have done portforward on port and local ip so whats gone wrong ?
vandinroth
i can access from local host, i can access from another computer using the direct IP address. But i can’t get connected from the phone. it takes forever then says “socket is not connected”.
Any help?
KnightofNEE
O.K. I’ve forwarded the ports (and checked they’re actually forwarded) and can connect using localhost and internal ip but can’t connect using external IP (and thus can’t connect with Torrent-fu). Any help?
Dante
Hey, I really like the idea of this app. I have been trying to connect to this for about a week now and I can’t seem to do it right. I am able to connect from my computer with http://IP:Port/gui, but when I try and connect with the app on my phone, it tells me:
“A JSONObject text must begin with ‘{‘ at charcter 0 of”
I can’t scroll down after “of”, so I don’t even know where it wants me to put the “{“. If somebody would be able to help me out, I would greatly appreciate it.
Thanks!
Stephen Miller
Does anybody have any idea if this will work on bit torrent 7.0? the latest bit torrent client is based on and is identical to utorrent in every way so far as I can see.
Why use bit torrent instead of utorrent? I like the icon better
Axel
Great app, works just fint. There is one thing though that doesn’t seem to work, and that is torrents showing up in the different Tags in Manage mode, ie Active, Seeding, Downloading, no torrents are shown there even if they should.
If I choose my own Labels in the Tag section, ie TorrentLeech, the torrents under that label shows there, but as I said, not the active under active etc., quite annoying. Anyone has the same problem or knows a solution?
PS. One thing that would be amazing is if you’re able to develop a widget where you could look at, for example your active torrents!
Arjan
Works perfect for me – awesome work that you have done
Jason
i have no clue as to what is needed to be done, but those of you that do – please work on demonoid.
if you’ve ever used it you’ll know it’s the best. basically a private community that takes care of itself, and encryption keeps us ‘safe’.
erin
where is the password generated from in utorrent? i dont know what it is nor can i change it. please help
Lindhé
Doesn’t work for me :O I think that all settings are ok on my phone as well as in my computer… I can access it from localhost:[port]/gui but not on [ip-address]:[port]/gui!
I’ve made an exclusion in the firewall and my antivirus. Should I try forwarding the port on my router? How do I do that? Is it NAT I change, or how do I do that?? :S
daniel
String cannot be converted to type jasonobject…
Port is forwarded, user/pass de-capitalised, and i can access through http/browser; but torrentfu is still giving me error when i try to “manage”
Using ubuntu 8.10 transmission 1.34 (6778)
Jeff
Does not work on my 3G phone! And does not work when i http://ip-address:8080/gui only the http://localhost:8080/gui works from my computer! Is it because of my router?? Please help! this looks like a cool app that i would love to use.
Tomaco
Does it work only with Wi-Fi? I cant connect over EDGE
Graham
Hi guys, great app but im having a problem, i can manage torrents that are already on Utorrent (Windows XP) but for some reason when i try to add one from the phone it says torrent sent, but nothing happens on Utorrent.
Any Ideas?
Thanks in advance,
Graham
Dave
I am having exactly the same problem, can manage existing torrents great but cannot add one, somebody please help as I really want this to work on my HTC Desire
Gman
Yeah, it doesn’t seem to work for me on my Droid X as well. From my PC [uTorrent], I can connect using http://localhost:port/gui, but I can’t connect using http://ipaddress:port/gui.
I turned off avast and spybot, and my ports are forwarded, but it still refuses to work even after re-enabling webui.token_aut.
Help is greatly appreciated.
mc3ain
IM using utorrent 2.0.2, and was having issues connecting to it after setting it up. local and remotely.
then it then i thought hmmmm, i wonder, i shut utorrent down, and restarted it, everything connected fine.
torress
only MAC and Linux?
Kloopk
Ignore my previous comment, I resolved it by doing the one thing I should have done at the beginning, I removed and reinstalled TorrentFU permissions somewhere must have been crossed.
Matt
That is odd, I’ve never seen missing INTERNET permission pop up. I wonder if that was stopping it from connection to the beta. I’m going to d/l the beta and check it out.
Matt
Yup, just updated to 2.0.3beta and connected no problem.
Kloopk
I tried out the Beta for uTorrent and torrentfu refused to work, transdriod did however.
I have downgraded back to 2.02 as i need stability. however TorrentFu continues to report “permission denied (maybe missing INTERNET permission)” any ideas on resolution as I prefer TorrentFU to transdriod and want to return to the fold.
all other webui connections work PC, and android
Gotorrent-fu
Where are these torrents coming from exactly, like piratebay or something like that? Or they actually accessed directly through torrent-fu and that is the only place. I guess my question is what is the search engine for the torrents.
Matt
t-fu uses isohunt and mininova, but also supports adding any site that has an RSS based search. Also if you have a what.cd account it can use that.
procreate
i have been having a time trying to get the rss seach thing functioning on particular sites… im not sure exactly how to set it up. i tried to set up two different providers but get no search results, im sure its just user error but any chance on a setup tutorial for this? would love how to set eztv up or funfile.
Mike
I know you can get the application to search other torrent sites for torrents, but, to those who belong to places that require logins, is there a way to search those sites? I’d like to be able to have the app log in to demonoid, and I can search and start torrents there. Thanks!
Jared
I am STUMPED. I’m rather computer savvy, forwarded ports for both my firewall as well as my router. I’m thinking that my using uTorrent 2.02 my be what is causing my problem. I turned off/on webui.token_auth as suggested but I STILL can’t connect. Can anyone offer other suggestions?
Matt
@Jared, to check that the port is forwarded correctly try: http://www.yougetsignal.com/tools/open-ports/
That’s generally where the problem lies.
Can you connect to the webui from an outside computer using http://external ip]:[port]/gui ?
2.0.2 works fine for me, so that’s definitely not the issue.
Also, Have you tried using your local ip over Wifi (just to verify that t-fu can connect?)
Jared
According to your first link, my port is forwarded correctly. I however cannot connect to the webui from an outside computer. I’ll try to connect over local wifi now.
Jared
I used my local IP and tried to connect… no go.
Matt
@Jared can you connect via local ip from the computer?
Jared
I get “invalid request” for both external and local ip addresses.
Jared
I GOT IT! haha. I turned OFF the Alternative listening port. It was the same though so I’m not sure why it wasn’t working.
Matt
I’d double check that the local ip for that computer hasn’t changed, if that’s still ok then try disabling windows firewall (or any other firewall) and trying again. If that still doesn’t work try another port like 8081 or 8082. once you can get to http://localhost:port/gui then try http://internal ip]:[port]/gui, once you get there (as long as the forwarding is ok) you should be able to connect with the external ip
Matt
Cool! scratch that last bit then
Jared
Thank you very much for your help Matt.
Matt
login based sites (except what.cd) won’t work. I have written a demonoid search, but have been unsuccessful at getting the torrents to transfer to the clients because of demonoid’s annoying security.
Randy
The ability to search demonoid would be great. I hope one day you do get it going.
diddydeadman
I’m having problems connecting via 3G. I can connect WiFi wit no issues. I’ve put in the IP I got off whatsmyip.org went into my router to set a permission. But it just says ip address is illegal. It won’t allow a 2nd permission for port 8080. Keep getting the message “this rule already exists.” Any help would greatly appreciated. Connecting while at home is good. But I wanted this for while I was out and about. Really don’t want to have to uninstall.
Matt
You’re probably adding the external IP in the rule instead of the local. In your router you should add the local ip (192.168.x.x) of the computer.
Jack
Web UI works on my laptop, but not on my phone browser. Doesn’t work with the torrent fu app either – what am I doing wrong? I looked up the ip, forwarded the port (8080 alternative listing port) and edited the Web UI settings on utorrent respectively. Tried both upper and lower case Passwords and Usernames.
Riverfalcon
Just set it up now running under Verizon network (3G not wifi mode) using WinXP and the latest version of uTorrent. I have no issues and it runs great! Directions are very straight forward and simple. Using the Motorola Droid!
Excellent App…highly recommended!!!
jeff
I was getting a JSON error but was able to fix it by changing the username and password to all lowercase on the utorrent webui setup.
Aaron
Hi, great app, this was working on Windows XP perfectly, now that I upgraded to Windows 7. I cannot get it working! I have applied the same setting, but still no luck. Does this app work with Windows 7?
Kiwi
Same problem, through wifi or 3G. I checked on some other computer and that can connect to the webUI perfectly, the browser on my milestone can access the webui (locks on load though), but torrent-fu isn’t able to
joe
does it only work on WIFI?? or can it work on 3G too?
Darin
i get a JSONObject text must begin with ‘{‘ at character 0 of when i click manage.
im using EVO android 2.1 utorrent version 2.0.2
Kevin Francis
I’m getting the same error:
JSONObject text must begin with ‘{‘ at character 0
Matt
that means t-fu can’t connect (usually generated by a 404, page not found error). Can you connect from a web browser?
Collegedropout
okay tried everything then i figured it out when you log in on or cell phone most start typing with capital letters so make sure the password o utorrent is a uppercase letter to begin with
steaprok
wow, it worked! LOL thx…
Joshua
For some reason, it only works on wifi and it never works on a full 3G connection, any ideas on how to fix it.
Yazdui
Any idea on why it doesnt work on 3G im on fido. It’s really weird
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