uTorrent is one of the most popular torrent clients in the market. It has many competitors, but it has maintained its reputation thanks to its ease of use and availability across multiple platforms.
The application itself is very well maintained, with close to zero bugs found while using. However, one of the most common errors that the users have to deal with is the situation where the torrent client fails to respond and shows the following error message:
“It seems like uTorrent is already running, but not responding. Please close all uTorrent processes and try again.”
Here I shall discuss how you can solve uTorrent not responding error easily.
Why uTorrent Keeps Freezing On My Device?
There are many reasons why uTorrent may fail to respond to your device. Here are some of the most common reasons as reported by the users across many different forums and discussion boards:
- Windows firewall blocking the traffic is one of the most common causes of this error on Windows 10. Firewall blocks unsecured traffic causing the torrent client to misbehave, freezing uTorrent on Windows 10.
- Corrupt AppData is also reported as another main cause of the problem. Users have reported that some recent changes made to the device corrupted the local configuration files, which causes the application to fail to load previously saved data, hence causing uTorrent not responding
- Unavailable permissions are also one of the reported reasons, as it is seen that the application requires admin privileges to download data without any interruptions from firewalls and other security measures.
- Proxy servers also affect uTorrent in a unique way, where if some file is being downloaded from behind proxy servers, users get an error of uTorrent not downloading any files over the internet.
- Bad file data is also known to cause uTorrent errors, and a corrupt installation of the client may be causing errors in Windows 10.
How To Solve The uTorrent Not Responding Error?
Now that you have some idea about why you may be facing this error, let us start looking at the potential solutions on how you can solve the uTorrent not working error on your Windows 10 devices.
Solution 1: Restart From Task Manager
Since the application fails to respond, a temporary fix is to restart the application after force closing it from the task manager. To do so, follow these steps:
- Access the task manager. You can use the keyboard shortcut Ctrl + Shift + Esc.
- Here, locate uTorrent and right-click on it to reveal the context menu.
- Select End task from the context menu.
- Click on File > Run New Task.
- In the following window that opens, click on Browse…
- Navigate to the following path in the window that opens to launch uTorrent:
C:\Users\<username>\AppData\Roaming\uTorrent
Now try the download and check if you still see uTorrent not responding to your inputs. This should solve your error.
However, if the error is with your file itself, you may want to re-attempt the download itself.
Solution 2: Delete And Reattempt Download
One of the first things you should try is to re-attempt the download on your device. This shall also help you if there is a virus in the file that you are downloading.
- To delete the file, right-click on the file that you are downloading.
- Hover over ‘Remove and’ to reveal the extra options.
- Select Delete .torrent + data.
Now check the download link and retry the download.
Solution 3: Allow uTorrent Through Firewall
A firewall refers to the shield between your device and the internet. It prevents malicious users and files from being downloaded onto your device, as the internet traffic passes through the firewall. When any app has been disabled through the firewall, it will not be able to communicate over the internet freely.
If you see uTorrent not working properly, you can try allowing it through the firewall to solve the error.
For a third party premium antivirus software, turn down the shields for the while you will be downloading the file. If you use Windows Firewall, follow these steps:
- In Windows Search, type Firewall.
- Locate and click on Allow an app through Windows Firewall.
- Locate the uTorrent application. Make sure that it is enabled through both the public and private firewalls.
- If it is not, click on the Change settings button at the top.
- Check the boxes next to the app under both Private and Public networks.
- Close the control panel and restart your computer.
- Launch uTorrent again and check if the issue persists.
Allowing the application through firewall should solve the misbehaving uTorrent problem, and you should be able to download files normally over the internet.
If this fails to solve your error and uTorrent still fails to respond on Windows 10, you need to grant it administrative privileges to run it normally.
Solution 4: Run The Application As Administrator
uTorrent has huge network traffic over your computer, and thousands of users download and share loads of data through the application. An application that does so much work is often bottlenecked by the permissions it has on Windows.
Although it may seem absurd, granting uTorrent administrative privileges may come in handy, as without administrative privileges uTorrent is known to perform less than par. To permanently turn admin privileges on for uTorrent, you can follow these steps:
- On the desktop icon for uTorrent, right-click to reveal the context menu.
- Select Properties from the context menu.
- Go to the Compatibility
- Check the box next to Run this program as an administrator.
- Click on Apply followed by OK.
- Restart your computer.
- Launch uTorrent again and check if the error persists.
This uTorrent not responding was caused by the limited permissions the application had, granting full permissions should resolve the error on your device.
Solution 5: Delete AppData
UTorrent also creates temporary data for running the application. However, this data is also prone to corruption and can feed bad data to the torrent application when it runs. If the source data is corrupt, the application will misbehave and you will get many errors on your application.
- Open a Run dialog by pressing Win + R.
- Type the following location and press Enter to launch the app data folder:
%AppData%\utorrent - Delete all the contents present in this folder.
Restart your computer and launch uTorrent again.
The uTorrent client will take some time in building the configuration files again, so it may feel slow to launch. However, all the configuration files will be built again, and the application should feel fresh. Check if the error persists.
Solution 6: Disable Proxy Networks
In many office networks and other public networks, proxy servers are used to provide faster network speeds by caching the frequently accessed elements. Although it is very beneficial, it is known to clash with network-based applications like torrenting clients.
If your computer uses a proxy server, turning it off may solve the error on your device. If you use a premium VPN application, turn it off temporarily and check if the uTorrent keeps freezing error persists. Additionally, follow these steps:
- Open a Run window by pressing Win + R.
- Type the following command to launch Internet Properties console.
inetcpl.cpl - Go to the Connections
- Locate and click on the LAN settings button to reveal additional settings.
- If you are using proxy settings, the checkbox next to ‘Use a proxy server for your LAN’ will be checked.
- Uncheck any proxy servers enabled on your device.
- Click on Apply followed by OK.
- Restart uTorrent and check if the error persists.
If the uTorrent not responding error was being caused by a proxy network error, it should now be resolved.
However, if none of the methods help you, the uTorrent not downloading error may be caused by corrupt uTorrent files, for which you need to reinstall the application.
Solution 7: Reinstall The Application
As a last resort, if none of the solutions helped you, some corrupt application file may be causing the error on your device. This is also true if you are on the beta version of the application, as the beta version is prone to bugs and is known to be full of errors.
If you haven’t updated to the latest version, update your app after deleting the old files. To do this, you can make use of third party uninstallers like IObit uninstaller.
Then download the latest version of the application from the uTorrent official website. Double click on the downloaded installer package to install the file. Your error should be resolved.
Wrapping Up
So there you have it. Now you know how to solve the uTorrent not responding error using the solutions provided above. If you do not find uTorrent charming anymore, you can also switch to alternatives like BitTorrent, etc. Tell us in the comments if you found this useful, and to discuss further the same.