Create and upload a torrent on TPB using µTorrent

• a TXT file,
• a picture,
• and the .torrent that we will create in section (2).

The second folder will contain the files you wish to share with the world.
Give it a title representing the content.
We’ll need it for section (2) ‘Creating the .torrent’.

1.1 The torrent description in a TXT file
Why? For three reasons:
a) TPB captcha times out after approximately 90 seconds, so we’re better off copy/pasting a description previously written than typing hastily the text while uploading.
b) At the time of writing this tutorial, the edit and delete torrent functions are disabled.
It is important to have your text exactly as you wish it to be seen on TPB before you upload.
c) It’s always handy to have your description backed up in case you want to post your torrent on another site as well as TPB.

1.2 A picture in .jpg or .png
Why?
Although it’s not compulsory, it will improve your torrent presentation and allows room for some more visual information.
TPB implemented its own image hosting site for that purpose, bayimg.

1.3 .torrent file
We haven’t got it yet, but we will in section (2).
Why?
We need it to share our files with others.
TPB hosts and indexes .torrent files (URLs of trackers and metadata about the pieces), the actual content is in people’s computer’s hard drives.

(2) Creating the .torrent

Note : Before creating the torrent it is recommended that you ‘write-protect’ the files you wish to upload.
This protects your sacred files from being altered in any way which could cause the torrent to be impossible to finish uploading (read more here).
To do so, right click on the file or folder -> click on “Properties” -> check the box “Read only” -> click on “Apply”.Now to the good stuff!

• Open µtorrent.
• Click on “File” and then click on “Create new torrent” or click the icon as shown in screenshot 1 (icons vary but hover your mouse and you’ll find it) alternatively, press CTRL + N as a shortcut.

Screenshot 1 :

• As if by magic the ‘Create new torrent’ window will have opened!
  Screenshot 2 :
  
• Depending on whether you are sharing a single file or a folder, select either ‘file’ or ‘directory’.
  I have selected directory (see 1 in screenshot 2).
• In ‘trackers’ (see 2 in screenshot 2), you are no longer required to include any tracker (announce URLs) for uploading at TPB so you may leave that field empty.
  DHT and PEX will work things out.
  However, if you upload elsewhere, use the same tracker list in the torrent files that you use on the other sites.
  Note that TPB will accept torrent files containing legitimate announce URLs, be they public (PublicBT, 1337x, torrent.to, tracker.prq.to, etc.), or semi-public (h33t and Demonoid) but not torrents from private trackers.
• At the bottom, within ‘Other’, ‘Start seeding’ is enabled by default (that’s fine, leave it as it is).
• Do not tick the ‘Private torrent’ box; it would disable DHT and Peer Exchange, thus preventing your .torrent file from being uploaded to TPB (the system rejects all private .torrents).
• Proceed to click on ‘Create and save as…’ (see 3 in screenshot 2).

If you have not included trackers µTorrent will ask if you wish to continue.

Click Yes :

Now you can see how the torrent is gradually being created in the progress bar.
You will next be asked where you wish to save the .torrent file, so browse to the ‘info’ folder we created in section (1) and press ‘Save’ when done (see 4 in screenshot 3 below).

Screenshot 3 :

• In µTorrent, right click on the torrent in question, click on ‘Start seeding’.If you wish you can enable the option ‘Initial seeding’ (learn about initial seeding here).
  Double click on the torrent and tick the suitable box within ‘Other settings’.
  Initial seeding is useful when seeding a new torrent, particularly medium to big files, or when uploading new torrents on a low bandwidth.
  Use this option when you are the sole seeder on a new torrent upload, never use it to seed files which have several seeders.

We’re finished creating the .torrent!

(3) Uploading your .torrent to TPB

• Log in to your account (I assume you have already created one).
• Click on “Upload torrent”.
  TPB upload page is captured in screenshot 4 below with all the required fields.
  For the sake of this tutorial I’ve chosen to upload a movie because this adds some options which are worth commenting on.

5. The .torrent file :
Browse and select the .torrent file we saved earlier in D:\info.
6. Torrent name (title):
Torrent names are limited to 55 characters and, if left blank, will be given the name as your .torrent file.
Always use descriptive and sensible torrent titles which are likely to be easily found via the search function.
7. Category :
Audio, Video, Applications, Games, Porn, and Other are the broad categories on TPB.
I’m uploading within Video > Movies in this tutorial.

8 IMDb ID : You fill in this field with the last piece from the IMDb page link for the movie we are uploading.
ie. the part of the url starting with ‘tt’ :
In this example, from the url http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0075627/ we copy tt0075627 into that box.
9 Languages : Select the spoken language(s) and Texted language(s).
If there are more than one language included, hold CTRL and click the appropriate ones.

10 Tags : Also known as keywords, will help people locate your uploads via the ‘tag’ search.
Do not use just any keyword that comes to mind;
there is a tag cloud, which consists of the most widely used keywords.
Therefore, it is wise to use the same tag/keyword as employed by other uploaders in order to appear in this alternate way of searching torrents.
11 Image tag from bayimg : Will make the torrent description page a little more eye catching and allows room for more information.
We need a 40 digit Imagetag from bayimg :

• a) Browse for the picture in your ‘info’ folder ->
• b) Enter a removal code (in case you want to delete the picture in the future) ->
• c) Click on “Settings” ->
• d) Check the box “Resize to” and select ‘300×300 TPB – Torrent image’ ->
• e) Click on “Upload”.

12 Copy the description from your TXT file onto the uploading page.
Note that BBCode is not enabled on TPB.
Links are parsed and clickable so long as you leave two blank spaces before them.

13 Enter the captcha code.

14 Add to index.
Aka “confirm upload”. After this step the torrent is immediately added to the site.

(4) Final notes

i) Why does it say “Error (2) The torrent file seems to be broken”?
There is a 0-byte file within your torrent. Remove any such files and recreate your torrent. For that matter, make sure you do not have any hidden dump files inserted in the folder (.thumbs is a classic). You should also enable the option to see file extensions (cf. “How do I show file extensions in Windows?“).

ii) I’m seeding my torrent, how come everyone is stuck at 99%?
Read this.

Code errors returned by the system:

iii) “The torrent you are trying to upload has the private-bit set, this means it will not work with DHT, please recreate it without the private torrent option.”
Ay, it is no longer possible to re-upload torrent from private sites onto TPB (all torrents must be public, that is, have “DHT” and “Peer Exchange” enabled).

iv) “Filename error”

• Certain files such as TXT and URL are banned in some categories due to spam.
  NFO are allowed everywhere, though.
  In general, I recommend that you discard any worthless, dump file, and only share functional content.
  Save the description, greetings, install notes, etc. for your actual uploading page.
  You can always add comments later.
• Certain categories require files of a specific size.
  This helps prevent uploads from going into the wrong categories.
  For example a video smaller than 200MB cannot be uploaded into the Movies category.
  In the same way it is not possible to upload a 700MB DVD rip into the category for full DVDR.

v) “Torrent already exists in the system”:
It means that you or someone else has already posted that torrent on TPB (either it’s indexed so a duplicate is rejected, or it’s been deleted by its owner or a Moderator). If your torrent is clean and you want to re-upload it, you need to ask a TPB Moderator to clear the torrent hash from the system. Create a topic here requesting it.

vi) URLs and Image hosting sites banned on torrent description:
Yes, there are many so use the allowed ones. To make it short, YouTube, lookpic.com and tinypic.com. are banned everywhere on the site, so are some DDL domains. For product reference, you can use for instance AllMusic.com, Amazon (all of them), IMDb, RottenTomatoes and Wikipedia.
Some allowed and popular image hosting sites: Imageshack, Leetleech, Photobucket, imgur, and ImageBam (all have a free a version).

vii) I have followed all the steps described in this tutorial and, yet, I cannot make it.

Before you panic
and start making a dozen new threads on SuprBay, check this page first >
https://forum.suprbay.org/misc.php?page=state
and this one for any recent news on TPB issues >
https://forum.suprbay.org/showthread.php?tid=125071

If you think it’s a TPB problem and not yours, then post here.

If you think the problem is at your end or if you have another problem with your account, and cannot find an answer in the FAQs, nor in any topic returned by the search function, then create a new thread in Account Issues.
Read this sticky first, though.