BitTorrent Client Transmission Gains Apple Silicon Support in Fourth Major Release

[MacRumors]

Popular old-school BitTorrent client Transmission is today celebrating its fourth major release, with a huge list of changes accompanying the update, including native Apple silicon support.

With Transmission 4, the client is no longer an Intel app that runs on Macs with M1 or M2 chips via Rosetta. It's now a universal binary, so it now runs natively on all Macs.

There are some UI design changes to match the latest version of macOS, and the developers have modernized the code by migrating from C90 to modern C++. Resource efficiency has also been improved, so the app now uses less memory and fewer CPU cycles.

New feature highlights include support for using BitTorrent v2 torrents and hybrid torrents, users can now set "default" trackers that can be used to announce all public torrents, and an option to omit potentially-identifying information (e.g. User-Agent and date created) when creating new torrents has been added.

Elsewhere, newly added seeds can now start immediately and verify pieces on demand, instead of needing a full verify before seeding can begin, and the web client has been rewritten to support mobile use. When creating new torrents, users can also now specify the piece size, and IPv6 blocklists are now supported.

"Transmission on macOS is a truly native and polished experience," reads the client's website. "This isn't some cross-platform app that treats macOS as an afterthought. With a sleek and simple interface, Transmission meets or exceeds Apple UI standards while using native features.

Transmission has one of the lowest memory and resource footprints of any major BitTorrent client. Its light overhead is one reason why it is so well suited for home NAS and media servers. Having been used by Western Digital, Zyxel and Belkin, Transmission gives truly impressive performance on almost any compatible hardware."

According to the developers, the open source, volunteer-based project is much more responsive to bug reports and code submissions than it has been in the past, with over 350 new community commits contributing to the release of Transmission 4.

Transmission 4 is available for macOS, Windows, and Linux, and can be downloaded for free from the Transmission website.

Article Link: BitTorrent Client Transmission Gains Apple Silicon Support in Fourth Major Release

 

[Wokis]

Mmm, yes. For all the Linux distros I'm gonna download on my Mac.

 

[ForkHandles]

I always thought that bit torrent has more to do with the dark web than anything really useful.

 

[sam_dean]

Any word on Powder Player?

 

[arkitect]

I always thought that bit torrent has more to do with the dark web than anything really useful.

Errm.
No.

Believe it or not, there are perfectly legal uses for Bittorents…

Go to archive.org here for example, and download an old book from the Getty Institute or the Metropolitan… or Yale University, published maybe in 1765, A treatise on Architecture as an example, and the files can be in excess of 2GB.
A Torrent is the best way to do this. Doesn't overload their servers and works happily in the background on my Mac.

Not everything is evil and out to get you.

 

[T'hain Esh Kelch]

I was happily downloading several torrents, updated to 4.0, and then I haven't had a single bit come down since then.

I always thought that bit torrent has more to do with the dark web than anything really useful.

All bundles you can buy on HumbleBundle are available as downloads by torrents. It is really useful, as some bundles can get incredible large, and you can then also download in increments when you see fit.

 

[floral]

I always thought that bit torrent has more to do with the dark web than anything really useful.

Depending on your morality, it can be very, very useful.

 

[sam_dean]

Errm.
No.

Believe it or not, there are perfectly legal uses for Bittorents…

Go to archive.org here for example, and download an old book from the Getty Institute or the Metropolitan… or Yale University, published maybe in 1765, A treatise on Architecture as an example, and the files can be in excess of 2GB.
A Torrent is the best way to do this. Doesn't overload their servers and works happily in the background on my Mac.

Not everything is evil and out to get you.

Dont forget the Linux ISO!

 

[arkitect]

Dont forget the Linux ISO!

Funny.

 

[macintologist]

I use BT to download Bluray/HD versions of the DVDs that I own. I use it with a VPN.

 

[Spaceboi Scaphandre]

I always thought that bit torrent has more to do with the dark web than anything really useful.

The iPhone and iPad ruined a generation of computer users

 

[sam_dean]

I use BT to download Bluray/HD versions of the DVDs that I own. I use it with a VPN.

Innovative!

 

[pacmania1982]

I've used Transmission for years. It's especially useful for downloading stuff from Archive.org.

I found a beta of version 3 that was built for Apple Silicon a while ago and was using that until the beta of version 4. The nightly build I was running (and all of them) used to crash whilst clicking on magnetic links when starting to transfer the file. It was an easy fix, just restart the client, but irritating none the less. The beta for version 4 was much more stable and this bug seems to have been squished, so I'm super pleased version 4 is now officially released.

Great work guys over at Transmission!

 

[StellarVixen]

I always thought that bit torrent has more to do with the dark web than anything really useful.

Apple seems to disagree with you, but Microsoft agrees with you.

Windows 11 flags bittorrent clients as malware. Apple seems to disagree with flagging them as "malware" and for that I am thankful.

@arkitect explained it well.

 

[AndyUnderscoreR]

Does it still leave massive .part files lying around when you only download a few files from a torrent, or does it finally cache the small bits of overlapping blocks?

 

[DFZD]

I think it has been abandonware for few years now.. precisely why I switched to qBittorent.

 

[Kylo83]

Been using the beta it’s good, now I just need WhatsApp final and 4k download app which they say they don’t have time to make it apple silicon

 

[-AG-]

I was happily downloading several torrents, updated to 4.0, and then I haven't had a single bit come down since then.


All bundles you can buy on HumbleBundle are available as downloads by torrents. It is really useful, as some bundles can get incredible large, and you can then also download in increments when you see fit.

I did the same thing. Constant corrupted packets, would not finish files and there seems to be an issue with the peak speeds not setting correctly on their GITHUB forum too.

Removed and reinstalled 3.0 and works flawlessly again.
This seems like a wait a few releases for the bugs to be ironed out before updating (and make sure to keep a copy of the installer dmg just in case)

 

[Danfango]

I always thought that bit torrent has more to do with the dark web than anything really useful.

Yes I mostly use it people trafficking, gun running and dealing coke.

Oh and downloading Linux distributions. Can't forget that.

 

[ahurst]

Nice, and just in time for the Netflix password crackdown too! Thanks Transmission devs! 🙂

 

[darkpaw]

Bugs:
- "Automatically size window to fit all transfers" doesn't respect the Dock when it's on the bottom of the screen, so the window goes behind it and you can't see the bottom torrent.
- If you limit the maximum downloads and seeds to, say 7 and 3 respectively, when one is downloaded it should start seeding. When you have three torrents already seeding, a fourth download will also start seeding, thereby ignoring the maximum seeds. This has been an issue with Transmission for years.
- This new version seems to add torrents that aren't yet started as "Stalled". They aren't stalled, they're paused, and these torrents show up when you press "Paused" from the filter buttons at the top. Equally, when a torrent has finished seeding it's now "Stalled". Stalled is not the right word to use.

 

[Choco Taco]

And after all these years, this app is still complete trash. qBittorrent is a hundred times better. I prefer the simple UI of Transmission, but everything else about it is terrible.

I think it has been abandonware for few years now.. precisely why I switched to qBittorent.

It's not abandonware, it's just perpetually in beta.

 

[CarAnalogy]

The iPhone and iPad ruined a generation of computer users

The golden age was already ending anyway.

 

[Larsvonhier]

Depending on your morality, it can be very, very useful.

And, as Saul Goodman once said, it can be quite an advantage to be "morally flexible". ;-)

 

[Dan From Canada]

I was happily downloading several torrents, updated to 4.0, and then I haven't had a single bit come down since then.


All bundles you can buy on HumbleBundle are available as downloads by torrents. It is really useful, as some bundles can get incredible large, and you can then also download in increments when you see fit.

I updated to 4 this morning.
The torrent downloaded. No problems here.