Change Program For Magnet Links Chrome

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Magnet Links are the best way to download any torrent files from the internet using an application like ‘uTorrent’. But, if you are using the Google Chrome web browser, then sometimes the magnet links become unresponsive and do not work at all.

How To Change Default Program For Magnet Links Chrome Mac; Change Default Program For Jpeg; Good day i noticed since going to 10 that clicking on magnet links does not open bittorrent. I have rerun windows and still the same problem. In cyberfox i fixed it easily enough, but for chrome and torch no love.

About Magnet Link

A magnet link is kind of a hyperlink that lets users download any file or data from the P2P sharing networks mainly the torrent networks. This hyperlink functions in the serverless ecosystem and has all the information within it that the torrent client needs, in order to download a distinct file. The reason for magnet links’ popularity is due to the fact that a user can copy these links and paste them anywhere like emails, text messages and etc.

Why the Magnet Links are used over ‘.torrent’ Files

The traditional ‘.torrent’ files that the users download consist of trackers, names of files to be downloaded’, hash code, URL and takes up some amount of storage space. Sometimes, along with the downloaded ‘.torrent’ file, you can get a malicious code. However, the magnet links are safer, protective and remove the requirement to hash single files to secure them from any cyber threats.

The magnet link connects the users directly with the source of the file via a hash code. This hash code will be used by the torrent client to locate the peers who upload the requisite files. That is why there is no need to download ‘.torrent’ file and then execute it to download a file.

Also Read: Free YouTube Downloader

Change Program For Magnet Links Chrome

Just upgraded to Windows 10 and every time I try to set my Protocol Handler in Chrome, (for Bitcoin, Gmail, Etc) Windows gives me a dialog box that states 'To change your default apps, go to Settings System Default Apps' but there is no way in that area of settings that I can change this behavior. But when you click a magnet link in your Firefox or Google Chrome browser, your old torrent client will open up. We will use gio command line utility to alter the default program for magnet links. First, run the following command to show the default program and alternative programs to open magnet links. Open a command line prompt: press the Windows logo key, type “cmd” and open Command Prompt. Change the active directory to Chrome’s installation path. Cd ' Program Files (x86) Google Chrome Application'. Now launch the browser in incognito mode. Chrome - incognito. In this case, -incognito is the command-line switch. 1) Find the magnet torrent file. 2) Right click the little magnet icon in Chrome, then copy the URL. 3) Launch uTorrent / Torrent software of your choice. 5) Paste magnet link into field, press enter. 6) Download Starts. 6 steps, not bad if you just wanted to download a file or two.

How the Magnet Link not working issue occurs on Chrome?

When you click a magnet link of a file that you need to download on Google Chrome, next, the browser will analyze the hash code and launch it on the torrent client installed within the computer. Now, this problem arises when Google Chrome is unable to identify the magnet link and as a result returns an error.

How to Fix the Magnet link not working problem on Google Chrome Browser?

Change Program For Magnet Links Chrome Download

Here, get two specific methods to rectify the magnet link is not working issue on the Google Chrome web browser.

Change a key in the Registry

Sometimes, the given issue can be triggered due to another problem which shows the following message – “this file does not have an app associated with it”. This error message can come up due to the fact that either ‘Google Chrome’ or the ‘Windows’ OS is unable to identify the correct application i.e ‘UTorrent’ for the job. Thus the magnet link cannot be associated with the installed torrent client. Get steps here, on how to alter the registry.

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  • First, tap on the combination of ‘Windows + R’ key simultaneously, to open the ‘Run’ dialog box.
  • Inside that dialog box, type in the text “regedit” on the empty space beside the label ‘Open:’ and then press the ‘OK’ button.
  • As soon as you click on that button, then a new window with the name ‘Registry Editor’ will come up.
  • Inside that window, go to the left side and then follow the path to navigate to a ‘command’ folder location – “ComputerHKEY_CLASSES_ROOTMagnetshellopencommand”
  • Next, go to the right pane and then see the location path of the ‘UTorrent’ client within the ‘Data’ column.
  • Usually, the path where the torrent client is as follows – “C:Users(username)AppDataRoamingUTorrentUTorrent.exe”
  • Now, tap on the ‘Windows + E’ key together, to open the ‘ Windows Explorer’ folder. Then, go to the left pane and choose the ‘This PC’ section. Within this section check the location of the torrent client.
  • Now, if it is present in a different directory, then go to the ‘Registry Editor’ and change the location path of the torrent client, by right-clicking on the ‘Default’ key and then choose ‘Modify’ option.
  • At last, once the change of the path is successful, next try to download a file using a magnet link and check if this problem is there or not.

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Enable the site Settings on Google Chrome

If the site settings within the Google Chrome web browser are not active, then you can get the magnet link is not working error. The one and only answer to fix this issue is to activate the site settings of the Chrome browser. How can you do it is as follows.

  • First, on the desktop locate and double-click on the Google Chrome icon to open the same.
  • Next, go to the top right corner of the window and click on the ‘three vertical dots’. This action will open a drop-down menu with a list of options.
  • Out of all those options locate and select the one that says ‘Settings’. As soon as you do that, then a new page with the name ‘Settings’ will come up.
  • Inside that page, go to the bottom, and click on the ‘Advanced’ option. After that, move to the bottom a little more and choose the ‘Site Settings’ option, under the ‘Privacy and Security’ section.
  • Once a new page comes up with the name ‘Site Settings’, next, find and choose the ‘Handlers’ option.
  • Now, on the new ‘Handlers’ page, shift the switch to the right side of the ‘allow sites to ask to become default handlers for protocols (recommended)’ option.
  • At last, check if the magnet URL is working correctly or not.
Change Program For Magnet Links Chrome

FireFox:

The Applications panel allows you to choose how Firefox handles different types of files. For each content type Firefox recognizes, you may select an action that Firefox will use to handle that type of content.

Change Program For Magnet Links Chrome

Change Program For Magnet Links Chrome Browser

Open new tab Firefox: and go to address: about:preferences#applications

Change Program For Magnet Links Chrome Web

Google Chrome:

1. Quit Google Chrome
2. Navigate to ~/Users/YOUR USER NAME/Library/Application Support/Google/Chrome/Local State
[note: the User Library folder is invisible, so to open it, go to your user folder and press command-G (Go to folder) and type Lib]
3. Open “Local State” in a text editor (like Text Wrangler, Text Edit, etc.)
4. Look for “protocols” and “magnet” and change “true” to “false” (this means ignore Magnet links = false)
5. Save file in same format it’s already in (should not have file extension on end of filename – not Local State.txt or anything else)