Kickass Torrents Not Downloading Normally? Skip Torcache Issues By Switching To Magnet Links

Social media and the community news site Reddit were flooded Friday with comments from Kickass Torrents users complaining that they were unable to download movies, TV shows and other copyright content as usual. The problems lie with the website Torcache, which Kickass uses to store torrent files, and can be fixed easily.

Kickass Torrents is the most popular site online where visitors can illegally download movies, video games, computer software, popular television shows and essentially any other popular piece of media imaginable. Rather than downloading a single file, as with a program like iTunes, users download .torrent extensions, which link the downloader to thousands of other users (known as “seeds”) who are already hosting that file. It’s a data exchange program in which the user downloads a small piece of the file from many sources, helping the download process complete faster.

Users complained that, upon pressing “Download Torrent” on Kickass Torrents, they were redirected to a third-party website called Torcache instead of their download beginning automatically, which usually happens. Torcache is a storage site that collects and saves torrent fines indefinitely.

“Recently, every time I go to torrent from Kickass (Kat.cr) the torrent opens Torcache, and Torcache just sits and refreshes, never downloading a torrent,” one Reddit user wrote. “It happens on just about everything from that site. Is anyone else having this issue, and if so how have you fixed it?”

The issue, a frequent problem, occurs when files are taken down for copyright reasons, Kickass Torrents said in a 2013 forums post, and site technicians work as quickly to replace the affected torrents in each case.

The solution is to clock “Download Magnet Link” rather than “Download Torrent.” The difference, simply put, is that .torrent files contain unique hash codes used to locate other users with the same code. Magnet links use a hyperlink to the hash code rather than including it in the downloaded file.

Translation: It really doesn’t make that much of a difference, and even when it does, Kickass generally fixes the issue quickly.