Magnet Links not opening for you in Chrome!
Have you ever come across a .torrent file and noticed that Chrome can’t open magnet links? It can be rather annoying, especially if you are using those files quite frequently.
Below are some instructions on how to download a magnet links file with uTorrent, plus guidance on how to fix this problem for future so that Chrome automatically sends the file to uTorrent for opening.
AdHoc Guidance
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.
4) Click “Add Torrent from URL”
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. Way too annoying for anything more than that. See below for a detailed guide on how to apply a fix.
This was done using the (current) latest version of Chrome (33.0.1750.117 m) and uTorrent (2.2.1) on Windows 7 Professional 64-bit, although newer versions of Chrome and uTorrent should still work!
Permanent Fix Guidance
1) Hit the Windows key (not literally)
2) Type in “regedit” without the quotes, then press enter.
3) Navigate to HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Magnet\shell\open\command\ on Windows 8 this is HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Software\Classes\Magnet
This is what you’ll see (below)
Where that arrow is pointing – you’ll want to make sure that is where your uTorrent is located. You may have a custom location, so be mindful of that.
4) Next, navigate to the following folder. C:\Users\[your_user_name]\AppData\Local\Google\Chrome\User Data
5) Close Chrome completely before moving on to the next step. (Otherwise your change will not get saved)
6) Edit the “Local State” file using an editor of your choice (Notepad / Wordpad is fine)
7) Hit Ctrl+F and look for “magnet” – if you do not have this entry, then simply create it in the same place as shown in the screenshot below. This needs to be set to false
8) Save and close the file. All done!
As a side note, you may notice that when you click on a magnet links file, uTorrent may show the file as empty at first, but don’t worry … once you have click OK / Next, the files will start to download.
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well done, it worked for me
Found An easy solution by accident while having this issue myself. Simply clear browser history from chrome and retry a magnet link. For me it asked the permission once again. Had this issue for months and now knowing the simplicity of its fix, my foot is kicking the hell out ofmy own arse lol.
Hope it helps.
This is the real solution. Much easier than trying to find a non-existent entry in the local state file.
cant find magnet or where it should be created.
I tried searching nearby elements. my code is different.
Thanks, It’s working…….
Thank you so much…i cant believe i’ve bin using utorrent for this while and this small trick never dropped in my mind…thank so much…it works fine and cool
Thank you, I accidentally clicked the “Ignore this forever” checkbox and quickly realized I screwed up. This worked wonders, and since I can’t comment on stackoverflow… plus this was explained better with photos… thanks 🙂
You’re welcome 🙂
am I the only one to not have “magnet” in local state file? However, in my case, Chrome says it will open the magnet link with the chosen torrent application, but then it will do nothing. Anyone has the same issue? tnx
i am using windows 10 and i do not get the option of edit local state..what do i do?
Doesn’t work on Windows 10.
Thanks for the help…… It really worked…
thank you!!!! very helpful!
Hi, I had this happen to me where no magnet links worked OR could even find the URL on the right click so I went to the bottom of the right click on “inspect element” to find it in there to no avail, closed that element and it now works, go figure! but it seems to be working
Fixed by changing the directory in the registry file to use instead of /, for some reason qBittorrent automatically uses the wrong one (i.e. when it asks you to set it as the default) which Chrome doesn’t respond to.
OMGGGGGG THIS TOTALLY WORK! IT WAS SO SIMPLE, YOU JUST SAVED ME! I WAS GETTING SO PISSED OFF
OMG YES! THANK YOU! FINALLY!
Chrome is the worst, most insecure peice of shit I’ve ever tried to use, Not being able to open a simple file and instead launching DC++….. yeh use Firefox! Fuck Chrome
Thanks a bunch it works.
help i think i deleted it
well thyis didnt work, msgnet isnt found in my registery keys and my chrome was already set to false, so, any suggestions?
Hi Raymond. Magnet wasn’t found in my registry keys either (Windows 8). Right click on Classes and choose New > Key. Name it magnet and put the location of your torrent software in the data field just like it shows in the article, with the location in quotes, and “%1” in its own set of quotes.
This worked perfectly! As someone who is not technologically savvy, the steps were very easy to follow. Thank you!
You’re welcome, glad it all worked for you 🙂
i cant find app data please help
thankyou it’s working ! .
works for me on win 7 and opera 20.0.1387.82
Nah, that’s not working for me. I tried different pages and the result is alwasys the same: chrome can’t handle magnet links. I checked, double-checked, the “Local State” file, and it is all correct. “magnet” is set to “false” (“magnet”: false), HKEY_CLASSES_ROOTMagnetshellopencommand is pointing to the right location. I also changed the “Local State” file to read-only, but that didn’t help either.
I tried with IE and it worked fine.
I’m running windows 8, and chrome 35.0.1916.153 m. “HKEY_CLASSES_ROOTSoftwareClassesMagnet” doesn’t exist on my computer. I don’t know what else to do.
I had the same problem. I had to create the Magnet key by right clicking on Classes and choosing New > Key. Name it magnet and put the location of your torrent software in the data field, as shown in the article!
Make sure nothing is running in the background that is even related to Chrome.
Thanks so so much! I’ve been trying to fix this for hours and now I finally succeeded!
But it only worked after I change the local state file to read only.
Just as an add on, for some unknown reason, I had to change the local state file to read only as google chrome would revert it back to it’s earlier state.
Very clear, worked for me… though it seems a bit superfluous to have the regedit step included, as mine IS a customized location and it did not effect the rest of the process. Thanks though!
Thanks so much!!!
WOrks for me. Thank you very much indeed !!!!!!!!!!
Cheers, mate 🙂
You saved my life. Thank you very much 😀
It does not work for me.
Windows 8.1 Chrome 34.0.1847.131
Key: HKEY_CLASSES_ROOTMagnetshellopencommand
Value: C:UsersRafaelAppDataRoaminguTorrentuTorrent.exe
Checked!
Chrome closed totally (no process found)
Local State updated with “magnet”:false
Chrome started and magnet links don’t work. Need to copy and paste.
Reopen Local State and changes keep in there. But links not working.
Right click on the magnet then copi the adress of the link then past it in this website http://www.magnet2torrent.me/ then wait while your torrent file is created. When done just download it.
This totally works! 🙂
Why do that when you can just paste the magnet’s URL directly into the torrent software?
Nobody anywhere needs to feed links to your crap site when they can bypass it completely.
Try to change the local state file to read only. It worked for me.
You saved my life. Thanks!