Editing Configuration Files

It's not always possible to set all configurations from the GUI, especially on the Daemon or the Web Interface. This guide will try to give an overview of how and what you can change. For the location of these files, look at the Configuration Files page.

Note: The client should be closed before making changes, otherwise settings will be reverted to it's previous state.

Some of Transmission's behavior can also be customized via EnvironmentVariables.

GTK / Daemon / CLI

Overview

GTK, CLI and Daemon (both on a Mac and Linux) use a ​JSON formatted file, mainly because of its human readability.
(Consult the ​JSON for detailed information)

Reload Settings

You can make the daemon reload the settings file by sending it the SIGHUP signal.
Or, simply run either of the following commands:

$ killall -HUP transmission-daemon

Or:

$ pkill -HUP transmission-daemon

Formatting

Here is a sample of the three basic types, respectively Boolean, Number and String:

{
    "rpc-enabled": true,
    "peer-port" : 51413,
    "rpc-whitelist": "127.0.0.1,192.168.*.*"
}

Options

Bandwidth

• alt-speed-enabled: Boolean (default = false, aka 'Turtle Mode')
  Note: Clicking the "Turtle" in the gui when the scheduler is enabled, will only temporarily remove the scheduled limit until the next cycle.
• alt-speed-up: Number (KB/s, default = 50)
• alt-speed-down: Number (KB/s, default = 50)
• speed-limit-down: Number (KB/s, default = 100)
• speed-limit-down-enabled: Boolean (default = false)
• speed-limit-up: Number (KB/s, default = 100)
• speed-limit-up-enabled: Boolean (default = false)
• upload-slots-per-torrent: Number (default = 14)

Blocklists

• blocklist-url: String (default = ​http://www.example.com/blocklist)
• blocklist-enabled: Boolean (default = false)

Files and Locations

• download-dir: String (default = default locations)
• incomplete-dir: String (directory to keep incomplete files in)
• incomplete-dir-enabled: Boolean (default = false) When enabled, new torrents will download the files to incomplete-dir. When complete, the files will be moved to download-dir.
• preallocation: Number (0 = Off, 1 = Fast, 2 = Full (slower but reduces disk fragmentation), default = 1)
• rename-partial-files: Boolean (default = true) Sets whether default Transmission should postfix partially downloaded files with ".part".
• start-added-torrents: Boolean (default = true) Start torrents as soon as they are added.
• trash-original-torrent-files: Boolean (default = false) Delete torrents added from the watch directory.
• umask: Number (default = 18) Sets transmission's file mode creation mask. See ​the umask(2) manpage for more information. Users who want their saved torrents to be world-writable may want to set this value to 0. Bear in mind that the json markup language only accepts numbers in base 10, so the standard umask(2) octal notation "022" is written in settings.json as 18.
• watch-dir: String
• watch-dir-enabled: Boolean (default = false) Watch a directory for torrent files and add them to transmission.
  Note: When watch-dir-enabled is true, only the transmission-daemon, transmission-gtk, and transmission-qt applications will monitor watch-dir for new .torrent files and automatically load them.

Misc

• dht-enabled: Boolean (default = true) Enable ​Distributed Hash Table (DHT).
• encryption: Number (0 = Off, 1 = Preferred, 2 = Forced, default = 1) ​Encryption preference. May help get around some ISP filtering.
• lazy-bitfield-enabled: Boolean (default = true) May help get around some ISP filtering. ​Vuze specification.
• lpd-enabled: Boolean (default = false) Enable ​Local Peer Discovery (LPD).
• message-level: Number (0 = None, 1 = Error, 2 = Info, 3 = Debug, default = 2) Set verbosity of transmission messages.
• pex-enabled: Boolean (default = true) Enable ​Peer Exchange (PEX).
• script-torrent-done-enabled: Boolean (default = false) Run a script at torrent completion.
• script-torrent-done-filename: String (default = "") Path to script.

Peers

• bind-address-ipv4: String (default = "0.0.0.0") Where to listen for peer connections
• bind-address-ipv6: String (default = "::") Where to listen for peer connections
• peer-congestion-algorithm: String. This is documented on ​http://www.pps.jussieu.fr/~jch/software/bittorrent/tcp-congestion-control.html.
• peer-limit-global: Number (default = 240)
• peer-limit-per-torrent: Number (default = 60)
• peer-socket-tos: String (default = "default") Set the ​Type-Of-Service (TOS) parameter for outgoing TCP packets. Possible values are "default", "lowcost", "throughput", "lowdelay" and "reliability". The value "lowcost" is recommended if you're using a smart router, and shouldn't harm in any case.

Peer Port

• peer-port: Number (default = 51413)
• peer-port-random-high: Number (default = 65535)
• peer-port-random-low: Number (default = 1024)
• peer-port-random-on-start: Boolean (default = false)
• port-forwarding-enabled: Boolean (default = true) Enable ​UPnP or ​NAT-PMP.

RPC

• rpc-authentication-required: Boolean (default = false)
• rpc-bind-address: String (default = "0.0.0.0") Where to listen for RPC connections
• rpc-enabled: Boolean (default = true)
• rpc-password: String
• rpc-port: Number (default = 9091)
• rpc-url: String (default = /transmission/. Added in v2.2)
• rpc-username: String
• rpc-whitelist: String (Comma-delimited list of IP addresses. Wildcards allowed using '*'. Example: "127.0.0.*,192.168.*.*", Default: "127.0.0.1" )
• rpc-whitelist-enabled: Boolean (default = true)

Scheduling

• alt-speed-time-enabled: Boolean (default = false)
  Note: When enabled, this will toggle the alt-speed-enabled setting.
• alt-speed-time-begin: Number (default = 540, in minutes from midnight, 9am)
• alt-speed-time-end: Number (default = 1020, in minutes from midnight, 5pm)
• alt-speed-time-day: Number/bitfield (default = 127, all days)
  • Start with 0, then for each day you want the scheduler enabled, add:
    • Sunday: 1 (binary: 0000001)
    • Monday: 2 (binary: 0000010)
    • Tuesday: 4 (binary: 0000100)
    • Wednesday: 8 (binary: 0001000)
    • Thursday: 16 (binary: 0010000)
    • Friday: 32 (binary: 0100000)
    • Saturday: 64 (binary: 1000000)
  • Examples:
    • Weekdays: 62 (binary: 0111110)
    • Weekends: 65 (binary: 1000001)
    • All Days: 127 (binary: 1111111)
• ratio-limit: Number (default = 2.0)
• ratio-limit-enabled: Boolean (default = false)

Legacy Options

Only keys that differ from above are listed here. These options have been replaced in newer versions of Transmission.

2.31 (and older)

• open-file-limit: Number (default = 32)

1.5x (and older)

Bandwidth

• download-limit: Number (KB/s, default = 100)
• download-limit-enabled: Boolean (default = false)
• upload-limit: Number (KB/s, default = 100)
• upload-limit-enabled: Boolean (default = false)

Peer Port

• peer-port-random-enabled: Boolean (default = false)

1.4x (and older)

Proxy

• proxy-authentication String
• proxy-authentication-required: Boolean (default = 0)
• proxy-port: Number (default = 80)
• proxy-server: String
• proxy-server-enabled: Boolean (default = 0)
• proxy-type: Number (0 = HTTP, 1 = SOCKS4, 2 = SOCKS5, default = 0)
• proxy-username: String

Peers

• max-peers-global: Number (default = 240)
• max-peers-per-torrent: Number (default = 60)

1.3x (and older)

RPC

• rpc-access-control-list: String (Comma-delimited list of IP addresses prefixed with "+" or "-". Wildcards allowed using '*'. Example: "+127.0.0.*,-192.168.*.*", Default: "+127.0.0.1" )

Mac OS X

Overview

Mac OS X has a standardized way of saving user preferences files using ​XML format. These files are called ​plist (short for property list) files. Usually there is no need to modify these files directly, since Apple provided a ​command-line tool to reliably change settings. You do need to restart Transmission before these have effect.

In short:

• To set a key: defaults write org.m0k.transmission key value
• To reset a key: defaults delete org.m0k.transmission key

Options

Nightly

Note: Nightlies are untested snapshots. Use them with care.

• SUFeedURL:

  $ defaults write org.m0k.transmission SUFeedURL http://transmission.xpjets.com/ZIP/
  

Advanced

• PeerSocketTOS: Number (Default = 0)