Many users confuse rTorrent and ruTorrent, even though they are two completely different applications. Understanding the difference makes troubleshooting much easier.
rTorrent is the actual BitTorrent client. It is a command-line (CLI) application that runs in the background inside a screen session.
ruTorrent is simply a web interface (WebUI) for rTorrent. It runs in your web browser and connects to rTorrent, allowing you to manage your torrents without using the command line.
Because of this, ruTorrent itself cannot be restarted. It is only a web application. If you cannot access ruTorrent or your torrents are no longer visible, the problem is usually that rTorrent is not running or ruTorrent is unable to communicate with it.
If ruTorrent displays JavaScript errors, gets stuck on the Loading screen or behaves unexpectedly, first perform a hard refresh of the page.
Press Ctrl + F5 on Windows or Linux, or Cmd + Shift + R on macOS. This forces your browser to reload the latest JavaScript and CSS files instead of using the cached versions.
If the problem persists, clear your browser cache and cookies for your ruTorrent URL and then try again.
Cached JavaScript and CSS files are one of the most common causes of ruTorrent interface issues after updates.
General Troubleshooting
If you experience problems with rTorrent, you can restart it directly from your Client Area.
Before restarting, check whether your service has enough free disk space. A full disk is the most common reason for rTorrent stopping unexpectedly.
You can check your current disk usage via SSH using:
du -sh ~ | awk -F " " '{print $1}'
If your storage is full, delete some unnecessary files first. You can do this via FTP, SSH or Direct HTTP Access while rTorrent is stopped.
Once sufficient disk space has been freed, restart rTorrent from your Client Area.
ERROR: could not connect to rTorrent — check if rTorrent is really running
This message means that ruTorrent cannot communicate with rTorrent.
In most cases, rTorrent has stopped or crashed.
You can restart it manually from your Client Area or simply wait for the automatic monitoring system.
The monitoring system checks rTorrent approximately every 15 minutes and attempts to start it automatically if it is not running.
If your storage is completely full, the automatic restart will also fail until enough free space has been released.
ERROR: ruTorrent Stuck on "Loading"
If ruTorrent previously worked correctly and suddenly remains on the Loading screen:
- Clear your browser cookies.
- If the problem persists, clear your browser cache and temporary files.
- Try accessing ruTorrent from a different web browser.
If the issue still persists, please open a support ticket and we will investigate it further.
ERROR: Storage error: File chunk write error: Cannot allocate memory
This error indicates that rTorrent has temporarily run out of available memory.
It most commonly occurs while downloading several torrents simultaneously at high download or upload speeds.
In most cases no action is required. Simply allow the current transfers to finish and the error will disappear automatically once memory becomes available again.
ERROR: Could not parse bencoded data
This error means that rTorrent was unable to parse the response received from the tracker.
Usually this happens because the tracker returned an incomplete, empty or otherwise invalid response.
In most cases the tracker is temporarily overloaded or experiencing technical issues.
No action is required. Once the tracker starts responding correctly again, the error will disappear automatically.
Checking Whether rTorrent Is Running
You can verify whether rTorrent is currently running by logging in via SSH and executing the following command:
ps --User $(whoami) | grep rtorrent
If rTorrent is running, you will receive output similar to the example below:
sh-4.2$ ps --User $(whoami) | grep rtorrent 13278 pts/13 00:04:57 rtorrent
If the command returns no output, it means that rTorrent is not currently running.
Attaching to the Existing rTorrent Screen Session
rTorrent runs inside a screen session. If you would like to access its console, you first need to determine the session ID.
Run the following command:
screen -ls | grep rtorrent | awk -F '.' '{print $1}'
The command will return the PID (session ID) of your rTorrent screen session.
To attach to that session, run:
screen -r PID
Replace PID with the value returned by the previous command.
For example, if the returned PID is 2761, use:
screen -r 2761
You can also combine both steps into a single command:
screen -r $(screen -ls | grep rtorrent | awk -F '.' '{print $1}')
If rTorrent is running, its interface will now be displayed in your terminal.
Attaching to the screen session is useful for checking rTorrent messages, startup errors and other diagnostic information that may not be visible through ruTorrent.
Detaching the Screen Session
When you finish working inside the rTorrent screen session, do not close the terminal by typing exit or simply closing the session.
Instead, detach the screen session by pressing:
Ctrl + A, then D
This leaves rTorrent running safely in the background while disconnecting your terminal from the screen session.
If you exit the screen session instead of detaching it, rTorrent will also terminate.
If this happens, simply restart rTorrent from your Client Area or wait for the automatic monitoring system to start it again.
