transmission/docs/Editing-Configuration-Files.md

It's not always possible to set all configurations from the GUI, especially on the Daemon or the Web Interface. This guide will try to give an overview of how and what you can change. For the location of these files, look at the [[Configuration Files|ConfigFiles]] page.

Note: The client _should_ be closed before making changes, otherwise settings will be reverted to it's previous state.

Some of Transmission's behavior can also be customized via EnvironmentVariables.

# GTK / Daemon / CLI

### Overview

GTK, CLI and Daemon (both on a Mac and Linux) use a [JSON](http://www.json.org/) formatted file, mainly because of its human readability.  
(Consult the [JSON](http://www.json.org/) for detailed information)

### Reload Settings

You can make the daemon reload the settings file by sending it the `SIGHUP` signal.  
Or, simply run either of the following commands:

```console
$ killall -HUP transmission-da
```

Or:

```console
$ pkill -HUP transmission-da
```

### Formatting

Here is a sample of the three basic types, respectively Boolean, Number and String:

```json
{
    "rpc-enabled": true,
    "peer-port" : 51413,
    "rpc-whitelist": "127.0.0.1,192.168.*.*"
}
```

### Options

#### Bandwidth

 * **alt-speed-enabled:** Boolean (default = false, aka 'Turtle Mode')  
   _Note: Clicking the "Turtle" in the gui when the [[scheduler|EditConfigFiles#Scheduling]] is enabled, will only temporarily remove the scheduled limit until the next cycle._
 * **alt-speed-up:** Number (KB/s, default = 50)
 * **alt-speed-down:** Number (KB/s, default = 50)
 * **speed-limit-down:** Number (KB/s, default = 100)
 * **speed-limit-down-enabled:** Boolean (default = false)
 * **speed-limit-up:** Number (KB/s, default = 100)
 * **speed-limit-up-enabled:** Boolean (default = false)
 * **upload-slots-per-torrent:** Number (default = 14)

#### [[Blocklists]]

 * **blocklist-url:** String (default = http://www.example.com/blocklist)
 * **blocklist-enabled:** Boolean (default = false)

#### [[Files and Locations|ConfigFiles]]

 * **download-dir:** String (default = [[default locations|ConfigFiles#Locations]])
 * **incomplete-dir:** String (default = [[default locations|ConfigFiles#Locations]]) Directory to keep files in until torrent is complete.
 * **incomplete-dir-enabled:** Boolean (default = false) When enabled, new torrents will download the files to **incomplete-dir**. When complete, the files will be moved to **download-dir**.
 * **preallocation:** Number (0 = Off, 1 = Fast, 2 = Full (slower but reduces disk fragmentation), default = 1)
 * **rename-partial-files:** Boolean (default = true) Postfix partially downloaded files with ".part".
 * **start-added-torrents:** Boolean (default = true) Start torrents as soon as they are added.
 * **trash-original-torrent-files:** Boolean (default = false) Delete torrents added from the watch directory.
 * **umask:** Number (default = 18) Sets transmission's file mode creation mask.  See [the umask(2) manpage](http://developer.apple.com/documentation/Darwin/Reference/ManPages/man2/umask.2.html) for more information.  Users who want their saved torrents to be world-writable may want to set this value to 0.  Bear in mind that the json markup language only accepts numbers in base 10, so the standard umask(2) octal notation "022" is written in settings.json as 18.
 * **watch-dir:** String
 * **watch-dir-enabled:** Boolean (default = false) Watch a directory for torrent files and add them to transmission.  
   _Note: When **watch-dir-enabled** is true, only the transmission-daemon, transmission-gtk, and transmission-qt applications will monitor **watch-dir** for new .torrent files and automatically load them._

#### Misc

 * **cache-size-mb:** Size (default = 4), in megabytes, to allocate for Transmission's memory cache. The cache is used to help batch disk IO together, so increasing the cache size can be used to reduce the number of disk reads and writes. Default is 2 if configured with --enable-lightweight.
 * **dht-enabled:** Boolean (default = true) Enable [Distributed Hash Table (DHT)](http://wiki.theory.org/BitTorrentSpecification#Distributed_Hash_Table).
 * **encryption:** Number (0 = Prefer unencrypted connections, 1 = Prefer encrypted connections, 2 = Require encrypted connections; default = 1) [Encryption](http://wiki.vuze.com/w/Message_Stream_Encryption) preference. Encryption may help get around some ISP filtering, but at the cost of slightly higher CPU use.
 * **lazy-bitfield-enabled:** Boolean (default = true) May help get around some ISP filtering. [Vuze specification](http://wiki.vuze.com/w/Commandline_options#Network_Options).
 * **lpd-enabled:** Boolean (default = false) Enable [Local Peer Discovery (LPD)](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Local_Peer_Discovery).
 * **message-level:** Number (0 = None, 1 = Error, 2 = Info, 3 = Debug, default = 2) Set verbosity of transmission messages.
 * **pex-enabled:** Boolean (default =  true) Enable [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peer_exchange Peer Exchange (PEX)].
 * **prefetch-enabled:** Boolean (default = true). When enabled, Transmission will hint to the OS which piece data it's about to read from disk in order to satisfy requests from peers. On Linux, this is done by passing `POSIX_FADV_WILLNEED` to [posix_fadvise()](http://www.kernel.org/doc/man-pages/online/pages/man2/posix_fadvise.2.html). On OS X, this is done by passing `F_RDADVISE` to [fcntl()](http://developer.apple.com/library/IOS/#documentation/System/Conceptual/ManPages_iPhoneOS/man2/fcntl.2.html). This defaults to false if configured with --enable-lightweight.
 * **scrape-paused-torrents-enabled:** Boolean (default = true) 
 * **script-torrent-done-enabled:** Boolean (default = false) Run a script at torrent completion.
 * **script-torrent-done-filename:** String (default = "") Path to script.
 * **utp-enabled:** Boolean (default = true) Enable [Micro Transport Protocol (µTP)](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Micro_Transport_Protocol)

#### Peers

 * **bind-address-ipv4:** String (default = "0.0.0.0") Where to listen for peer connections.
 * **bind-address-ipv6:** String (default = "::") Where to listen for peer connections.
 * **peer-congestion-algorithm:** String. This is documented on http://www.pps.jussieu.fr/~jch/software/bittorrent/tcp-congestion-control.html.
 * **peer-id-ttl-hours:** Number (default = 6) Recycle the peer id used for public torrents after N hours of use.
 * **peer-limit-global:** Number (default = 240)
 * **peer-limit-per-torrent:** Number (default =  60)
 * **peer-socket-tos:** String (default = "default") Set the [Type-Of-Service (TOS)](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Type_of_Service) parameter for outgoing TCP packets.  Possible values are "default", "lowcost", "throughput", "lowdelay" and "reliability".  The value "lowcost" is recommended if you're using a smart router, and shouldn't harm in any case.

#### Peer Port

 * **peer-port:** Number (default = 51413)
 * **peer-port-random-high:** Number (default = 65535)
 * **peer-port-random-low:** Number (default = 1024)
 * **peer-port-random-on-start:** Boolean (default = false)
 * **port-forwarding-enabled:** Boolean (default = true) Enable [UPnP](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Universal_Plug_and_Play) or [NAT-PMP](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NAT_Port_Mapping_Protocol).

#### Queuing

 * **download-queue-enabled:** Boolean (default = true) When true, Transmission will only download `download-queue-size` non-stalled torrents at once.
 * **download-queue-size:** Number (default = 5) See download-queue-enabled.
 * **queue-stalled-enabled:** Boolean (default = true) When true, torrents that have not shared data for `queue-stalled-minutes` are treated as 'stalled' and are not counted against the `queue-download-size` and `seed-queue-size` limits.
 * **queue-stalled-minutes:** Number (default = 30) See queue-stalled-enabled.
 * **seed-queue-enabled:** Boolean (default = false) When true. Transmission will only seed `seed-queue-size` non-stalled torrents at once.
 * **seed-queue-size:** Number (default = 10) See seed-queue-enabled.

#### [[RPC|rpc]]

 * **rpc-authentication-required:** Boolean (default = false)
 * **rpc-bind-address:** String (default = "0.0.0.0") Where to listen for RPC connections
 * **rpc-enabled:** Boolean (default = true)
 * **rpc-host-whitelist:** String (Comma-delimited list of domain names. Wildcards allowed using '\*'. Example: "*.foo.org,example.com", Default: "", Always allowed: "localhost", "localhost.", all the IP addresses. Added in v2.93)
 * **rpc-host-whitelist-enabled:** Boolean (default = true. Added in v2.93)
 * **rpc-password:** String
 * **rpc-port:** Number (default = 9091)
 * **rpc-url:** String (default = /transmission/. Added in v2.2)
 * **rpc-username:** String
 * **rpc-whitelist:** String (Comma-delimited list of IP addresses. Wildcards allowed using '\*'. Example: "127.0.0.\*,192.168.\*.\*", Default:  "127.0.0.1")
 * **rpc-whitelist-enabled:** Boolean (default = true)

#### Scheduling

 * **alt-speed-time-enabled:** Boolean (default = false)  
   _Note: When enabled, this will toggle the **alt-speed-enabled** setting._
 * **alt-speed-time-begin:** Number (default = 540, in minutes from midnight, 9am)
 * **alt-speed-time-end:** Number (default = 1020, in minutes from midnight, 5pm)
 * **alt-speed-time-day:** Number/bitfield (default = 127, all days)  
   * Start with 0, then for each day you want the scheduler enabled, add:
     * **Sunday**: 1 (binary: `0000001`)
     * **Monday**: 2 (binary: `0000010`)
     * **Tuesday**: 4 (binary: `0000100`)
     * **Wednesday**: 8 (binary: `0001000`)
     * **Thursday**: 16 (binary: `0010000`)
     * **Friday**: 32 (binary: `0100000`)
     * **Saturday**: 64 (binary: `1000000`)
   * Examples:
     * **Weekdays**: 62 (binary: `0111110`)
     * **Weekends**: 65 (binary: `1000001`)
     * **All Days**: 127 (binary: `1111111`)
 * **idle-seeding-limit:** Number (default = 30) Stop seeding after being idle for _N_ minutes.
 * **idle-seeding-limit-enabled:** Boolean (default = false)
 * **ratio-limit:** Number (default = 2.0)
 * **ratio-limit-enabled:**  Boolean (default = false)

### Legacy Options

Only keys that differ from above are listed here.  These options have been replaced in newer versions of Transmission.

#### 2.31 (and older)

 * **open-file-limit:** Number (default = 32)

#### 1.5x (and older)

##### Bandwidth

 * **download-limit:** Number (KB/s, default = 100)
 * **download-limit-enabled:** Boolean (default = false)
 * **upload-limit:** Number (KB/s, default = 100)
 * **upload-limit-enabled:** Boolean (default = false)

##### Peer Port

 * **peer-port-random-enabled:** Boolean (default = false)

#### 1.4x (and older)

##### Proxy

 * **proxy-authentication** String
 * **proxy-authentication-required:** Boolean (default = 0)
 * **proxy-port:** Number (default = 80)
 * **proxy-server:** String
 * **proxy-server-enabled:** Boolean (default = 0)
 * **proxy-type:** Number (0 = HTTP, 1 = SOCKS4, 2 = SOCKS5, default = 0)
 * **proxy-username:** String

##### Peers

 * **max-peers-global:** Number (default = 240)
 * **max-peers-per-torrent:** Number (default =  60)

#### 1.3x (and older)

##### [[RPC|rpc]]

 * **rpc-access-control-list:** String (Comma-delimited list of IP addresses prefixed with "+" or "-". Wildcards allowed using '\*'. Example: "+127.0.0.\*,-192.168.\*.\*", Default:  "+127.0.0.1")

## Mac OS X

### Overview

Mac OS X has a standardized way of saving user preferences files using [XML](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/XML) format. These files are called [plist](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plist) (short for property list) files. Usually there is no need to modify these files directly, since Apple provided a [command-line tool](http://developer.apple.com/DOCUMENTATION/Darwin/Reference/ManPages/man1/defaults.1.html) to reliably change settings. You do need to restart Transmission before these have effect.

In short:
 * To set a key: `defaults write org.m0k.transmission <key> <value>`
 * To reset a key: `defaults delete org.m0k.transmission <key>`

### Options

 * **PeerSocketTOS:** Number (Default = 0)
 * **RPCHostWhitelist:** String, see "rpc-host-whitelist" above.
 * **RPCUseHostWhitelist:** Boolean, see "rpc-host-whitelist-enabled" above.