Is qBittorrent Safe? (Yes, But You Need to Follow Some Steps)

qBittorrent is a very popular torrent client. But is qBittorrent safe, or are there any concerns?

The tl;dr is that yes, qBittorrent is safe. But we’ll show you what measures you need to take to make sure you can safely use qBittorrent to download movies, TV shows, music, and video games.

Is qBittorrent Safe to Use?

Yes, qBittorrent is a safe torrent client – as long as you download it from the official site. It’s open-source, so anyone can inspect the code to make sure there are no issues. Also, qBittorrent doesn’t use ads. And it’s legal to use qBittorrent as long as you don’t download copyrighted materials with it.

We checked multiple Reddit threads about torrenting and safe torrent clients. Redditors consistently recommended qBittorrent as one of the safest torrenting apps.

Is qBittorrent Safe to Download?

Yes, it’s safe to download qBittorrent but only if you download it from the official site. Third-party sources can be safe, but not always. If you download qBittorrent from a shady site, there’s always a chance the uploader tampered with the file. They might have infected it with malware, for example.

We downloaded qBittorrent from the official site many times while using many antivirus programs. We rarely saw any alerts. And when we did, the alerts were false positives, so they weren’t correct.

How to Use qBittorrent Safely

While qBittorrent is safe, you need to take extra measures to make sure you’re protected while using it. Here’s what we recommend:

Use VPNs 

A VPN is an online service that hides your IP address and encrypts your Internet traffic. It’s a must-have tool for torrenting because it makes it safer. Here’s how:

• It hides your IP, so copyright trolls can’t see it in the torrent swarm. Without your IP, they can’t track your ISP to send it angry letters.
• Wannabe hackers in the swarm can’t see your IP address and use it to DDoS your network.
• By encrypting your traffic, VPNs stop ISPs from slowing it down. They can’t selectively throttle speeds if they can’t see which online services you’re using.
• VPNs hide your browsing. Your ISP can’t see that you’re using torrent trackers.
• VPNs have ad blockers that stop connections to fake sites – like malicious torrent trackers, for instance.

The best torrenting VPN in our opinion is NordVPN. It supports P2P traffic on 4,600+ servers, and it works really well with qBittorrent. Also, it offers powerful encryption, an audited no-logs policy, complete leak protection, and a kill switch. But if you’d like to read about other good qBittorrent VPNs, please check out our guide.

How to Use qBittorrent with VPNs:

1. Download & install qBittorrent.
2. Subscribe to a good P2P VPN. We recommend NordVPN.
3. Download & install NordVPN’s app.
4. Use the app to connect to a VPN server.
5. Start downloading torrents. You’ll automatically use NordVPN with qBittorrent as long as you’re connected to its servers.

Use an Antivirus

While qBittorrent is safe to use, the torrents you download aren’t always free of malware. Malicious actors can upload infected files and try to trick you into downloading them. For example, they could upload small .exe files that claim to be the latest blockbusters. If you download and interact with them, they’ll infect your device.

Antivirus programs are the best way to prevent malware infections. They automatically quarantine and remove malicious files and code when they detect traces of malware.

You should always use an antivirus with a VPN when downloading torrents. The antivirus protects you from viruses, and the VPN keeps your torrenting private.

Enable Anonymous Mode

Anonymous Mode is an option in the qBittorrent client that hides various information about you. According to the latest updates, Anonymous Mode removes data about the:

• User agent
• Peer-ID
• Listening ports
• IP addresses

You can enable Anonymous Mode by going to Tools > Options > BitTorrent and checking the box next to “Enable anonymous Mode.”

While qBittorrent’s Anonymous Mode is safe to use, you shouldn’t try to replace a VPN with it. Anonymous Mode can’t encrypt your traffic. Also, the qBittorrent devs said that Anonymous Mode is intended to be used alongside a VPN.

Keep in mind you might experience “client is not on whitelist” errors on private trackers if you enable Anonymous Mode. It’s because the option scrubs torrent client-related data. Consider enabling it only if you use public trackers.

Other Tips

There are other things you can do to stay safe while torrenting. We covered these tips in-depth in this guide, so be sure to read it.

Is qBittorrent Safe According to Reddit?

Yes, most Reddit users agree that qBittorrent is one of the safest torrent clients out there. According to them, if your antivirus quarantines qBittorrent, it’s because the software detects the P2P app as a false positive. As long as you get qBittorrent from the official site, it’s perfectly safe to use.

FAQs

This is where we answer common questions about qBittorent safety, how to use qBittorrent, and more. If you have other questions, please leave a comment.

Is qBittorrent Safer Than uTorrent?

Most torrent users agree that qBittorrent is safer than uTorrent. Both torrent clients are safe to use if you download them from the official source. However, people trust qBittorrent more because it’s open-source and doesn’t display in-app ads. Also, uTorrent’s devs once bundled the app with a crypto miner.

Is It Legal to Use qBittorrent?

Yes, it’s legal to use this app for torrenting in most parts of the world. But, in most countries, it’s against the law to torrent copyrighted content. So you can’t use qBittorrent to download popular movies, TV shows, or video games. You can only legally download open-source apps and public domain content.

You can only use qBittorrent to torrent copyrighted files in certain countries (like Switzerland). In those places, it’s legal to download copyrighted files as long as you don’t try to profit off of them.

Also, remember that some restrictive countries block P2P sites and make it illegal to access them. So we strongly recommend checking your local laws first to make sure it’s safe to use qBittorrent for torrenting.

Why Do Antivirus Programs Flag qBittorrent as a Malicious File?

Antivirus software often flags qBittorrent as a PUA (Potentially Unwanted Application). This happens because the security program detects qBittorrent as a false positive. That means the antivirus wrongly thinks that a legitimate program like qBittorrent is malicious.

If this happens, don’t worry – it’s a normal occurrence. We tested the qBittorrent app with multiple antivirus programs and didn’t notice any problems. Some Redditors recommend using Malwarebytes because that program doesn’t make false-positive errors.

But remember – to make sure qBittorrent is safe, you need to download the app from the official site. Don’t use third-party sources.

What Are the Best Settings for qBittorrent?

qBittorrent is safe to use, but there are certain settings you can tweak to get faster speeds and better security. We checked multiple Reddit and Quora threads and managed to put together this quick list of qBittorrent’s “best settings”:

• Make sure there are no Global Rate Limits. Set them to the infinity symbol.
• Under Rate Limits Settings, check these two options to get rid of slow peers or peers that download but don’t seed:
  • Apply rate limit to µTP protocol.
  • Apply rate limit to peers on LAN.
• Make sure qBittorrent is using a port above 10,000. Some Redditors say it should be 49,152 or higher.
• In the BitTorrent section, enable PEX, DHT, and Local Peer Discovery to locate more peers in the swarm.
• Disable torrent encryption in the BitTorrent section. It will limit the number of peers you can connect to. If you use a VPN, your torrent traffic is automatically encrypted end-to-end.
• Disable uTP to stop qBittorrent from throttling its own speeds if it thinks your Internet is overloaded. To do that, go to Tools > Options > Connection and pick TCP for the Peer connection protocol option.

Is It Safe to Download Torrents on qBittorrent without a VPN?

No — without a VPN, your ISP will see your P2P traffic. So, they can throttle your downloads if they don’t want you using their network to torrent. Also, copyright trolls in the torrent swarm can see your real IP address. They can then use it to track down your ISP and ask them for your personal information.

We strongly recommend using a VPN with qBittorrent to secure your traffic and hide your real IP address. NordVPN is our top pick because it works with this P2P app without any problems and has 4,700+ P2P servers in 50+ countries. Also, it provides very fast downloads, easy-to-use apps, and excellent security features. You can use it to torrent on Android, Windows, MacOS or any other OS. Its Threat Protection feature can even protect you from malicious P2P sites and torrents.

If you don’t like the idea of paying for a VPN, a free torrenting VPN is also an option. It’s better than nothing, but hardly an ideal solution. Most free VPNs don’t allow torrenting. The ones that do have weak security, slow speeds, and limited data usage. That said, if you insist on using a free VPN with qBittorrent, try Atlas VPN. Its free plan supports P2P traffic, has fast speeds, and provides strong security, but it limits you to servers in 2 countries and 10 GB of data per month.

How Do You Set Up qBittorrent with a VPN?

To use qBittorrent with a VPN, you only need to install a VPN app, connect to a P2P VPN server, and start using the torrent client. You don’t need to do any manual setups. The only exception is if you use a VPN’s SOCKS5 proxy. In that case, you must follow the VPN provider’s setup tutorials.

How Do You Bind qBittorrent to a VPN?

To bind qBittorrent to a VPN, you need to go to Tools > Options > Advanced and select the VPN adapter from the drop-down menu next to “Network interface.”

If you do this, qBittorrent won’t download torrents unless you’re connected to the VPN.

However, it’s not mandatory to bind qBittorrent to a VPN. If the VPN has a kill switch, it’s enough to protect you from traffic leaks. NordVPN has a particularly good torrenting kill switch because it works at the app level. Basically, you can tell NordVPN which apps shouldn’t be able to use the Internet if your VPN connection drops. 

You should only bind qBittorrent to the VPN client if you’re worried you’ll forget to connect to a VPN server before you start torrenting. But you can eliminate that risk by configuring the VPN app to automatically run and connect to a VPN server when your operating system starts up.