Unable to torrent through my VPN – What can I do?

Multiple factors could prevent you from torrenting through your VPN, including ISP bandwidth throttling, a firewall or antivirus conflict, improper VPN or router configuration, or a simple case of your VPN not allowing torrenting on specific servers (or at all).

Then you have the usual suspects: outdated software (usually your network adapter drivers), a blocked VPN protocol, VPN leaks, DNS caching issues, or a recent update to your torrenting app that may interfere with your VPN.

Whatever has prevented you from torrenting through your VPN, we’ll walk you through some easy fixes in the lines below. Afterward, we’ll address a few frequent questions we’ve seen pop up during our research.

Why you can’t torrent through your VPN (and how to fix it)

Here’s a list of potential problems when torrenting with a VPN, plus some fixes for each.

1. VPN server restrictions

Your provider might not allow torrenting everywhere on its network. For instance, if you use NordVPN for torrenting, you’ll notice a special P2P server category within the app.

As the name implies, these are specifically optimized for P2P traffic. However, only 5,300+ of the provider’s 6,400+ servers actually support torrenting. So, what happens if you fire up qBittorrent while connected to a non-P2P server?

According to NordVPN support, you’ll be automatically redirected to one of the provider’s P2P servers in Canada or the Netherlands. Depending on the distance, the server you switch to may not be optimal. Or, it could simply be experiencing technical issues.

No matter how your provider handles P2P traffic, these edge cases could prevent you from torrenting through your VPN. Switch servers or use the correct category to avoid the problem. This should also help you avoid network congestion on any servers you connect to, though the best torrenting VPNs typically have systems to prevent that.

2. Your VPN leaks data

Use a service like Browserleaks to test whether your VPN is leaking data in any way. If so, your ISP is likely to block P2P traffic on your end.

Also, ensure your VPN kill switch is turned on to avoid exposing your real IP to the swarm if the VPN connection drops. If your provider has a setting to disable internet access when you disconnect manually, turn that on, too. You never know when you might forget to close your torrent client before turning off the VPN.

We should also warn against a related matter mentioned by a Reddit user. They noted that their torrent download wouldn’t start while connected to the VPN but would progress after temporarily turning off the VPN.

Do not do this.

When you connect to peers in the swarm without a VPN, these already established connections may not roll over to the VPN, thus leaving you exposed online.

3. Improper configuration of your VPN

Torrent clients often require specific open ports to accept incoming connections. If your VPN doesn’t support port forwarding or is not configured correctly, your torrent app may struggle to connect to peers, resulting in slow speeds or the inability to download/upload torrents.

A similar issue can occur if you’ve ever bound your torrent client to your VPN’s IP. Unless your VPN provider lets you connect to a specific server, your IP will likely change each time you connect to a region. To prevent old bindings from interrupting your torrenting, disable IP binding within the torrent client’s settings or rebind whenever you connect to the VPN.

Even an aggressive kill switch can cause torrent connectivity issues. For example, if the kill switch is programmed to shut off Internet traffic at the slightest hint of instability, your torrents could fail to start.

Split tunneling may also be to blame. Imagine you’ve set up split tunneling to exclude your browser from the VPN connection for faster browsing, but you forgot to include your torrent client in the list of apps that should use the VPN. In this case, your P2P traffic would not be routed through the VPN, thus leaving you exposed.

4. Blocked VPN protocol

Governments, your ISP, or the admin in charge of your network may block certain VPN protocols, whether for censorship or just to stop you from torrenting on-campus wi-fi. Switch to a different protocol (e.g., OpenVPN TCP) to see if that solves the issue.

5. Firewall or antivirus conflicts

Most network-capable apps, such as VPNs and torrent clients, will prompt you to add a firewall exception during installation. Look into your system firewall or antivirus blocklist in case you accidentally unchecked the option to whitelist your VPN or torrent app.

Here’s how to check your default Windows Defender firewall rules on Windows 10/11:

1. Press the Windows Start button and search for Firewall.
2. Click on Windows Firewall (Win 10)/Windows Defender Firewall (Win 11).
   
3. On the left side of the screen click Advanced settings.
4. At the top-left of the settings menu, click on Inbound Rules.
5. Ensure your torrenting client or VPN has a green checkmark icon (if present at all).
   

Naturally, this will be different for every firewall vendor. If you’re unsure how to check your firewall rules, consult your provider’s support pages.

6. ISP bandwidth throttling

VPNs hide the fact that you’re torrenting from your ISP pretty effectively. What they can’t do, however, is mask your high data usage while downloading torrents. Even if they can’t see what you’re doing online, your ISP may throttle your bandwidth to reduce network congestion.

One solution you can try is to use obfuscated servers to disguise your VPN traffic as everyday HTTPS traffic. Of course, obfuscation can cause massive slowdowns, but it’s a step up from being unable to torrent through your VPN.

7. DNS caching issues

You’ll need to flush your DNS cache to fix DNS (Domain Name System) caching errors. Here’s a quick rundown of what to do before we explain how this affects your torrenting:

Flush DNS cache on Windows 10 and 11:

1. 1. Right-click the Start button.
   2. Click on Windows PowerShell (Admin) on Win 10, or Terminal (Admin) on Win 11.
      
   3. Click Yes in the User Account Control pop-up.
   4. Type in ipconfig /flushdns and press Enter.
      
   5. You should get a message saying Successfully flushed the DNS Resolver Cache.

Flush DNS cache on Mac OS:

1. Open Launchpad and search for Terminal.
2. For Big Sur and later versions, copy this command in the Terminal: sudo dscacheutil -flushcache; sudo killall -HUP mDNSResponder.
3. For Catalina to El Capitan versions, copy this command instead: sudo killall -HUP mDNSResponder.
4. Press Enter and you should see a confirmation message if everything went well.

When you flush your DNS cache, you clear out all the stored IP addresses for domain names you’ve previously accessed. This forces your system to look up the IPs again the next time you need to connect to those domains.

What does this have to do with torrenting, you ask? Trackers or seeders your torrent client is trying to reach will have their IPs re-resolved. Flushing the DNS cache basically ensures that your client gets the most current IP info.

8. Router settings

Your router’s NAT firewall prevents unauthorized traffic to your device, and in some cases can make it impossible to connect to peers while torrenting. Typically, a VPN will bypass a NAT firewall installed on a router, though stricter routers (such as on school or hotel wi-fi) may still cause trouble.

In that case, you may need a VPN with port forwarding to resolve the issue. As each VPN and router vendor implement things differently, consult the setup guide on their website. Note that port forwarding leaves you more open to tracking and cyber attacks.

Port forwarding punches a hole in your NAT firewall to allow unsolicited incoming connections–often used in torrenting. Port forwarding is particularly useful if you want to seed (upload) files on BitTorrent.

Another aspect that could make it difficult to torrent through your VPN is the router’s Quality-of-Service (QoS) feature. Basically, QoS uses predefined rules to prioritize certain types of traffic. This ensures that tasks like VoIP or video streaming receive enough bandwidth.

If you’re experiencing performance issues when torrenting with a VPN, you may want to adjust your QoS settings to give higher priority to torrent/VPN traffic. Each router’s QoS settings are different, so check out your manufacturer’s guides on how to customize QoS settings.

More fixes if you’re unable to torrent through your VPN

Tried everything above and not getting any results? Here are some other solutions to check out:

• Reboot your device: Clichés aside, a good restart is often enough to fix the issue, especially if you’re torrenting on Android.
• Update your software: Whether it’s your OS, network adapter drivers, torrent app, or VPN, having the latest fixes definitely won’t hurt.
• Use a different torrent client (or downgrade): Users unable to torrent through their VPN have reported solving the issue by installing an older version of qBittorrent. Try that, or use a different client altogether (e.g. Transmission, Deluge).
• Get in touch with customer support: Your VPN provider may provide app-specific fixes or tweaks for your problem.
• Choose a better VPN: If all else fails, it’s time for a change. Luckily, most top-rated torrenting VPNs have generous money-back policies so you can test them out risk-free.

Unable to torrent through VPN FAQs