How do I migrate torrents from a different client to uTorrent?

Migrating Your Files

Now that you've moved on to the best BitTorrent client around, you might have some torrents from your previous clients that you want to resume in µTorrent. Some of these files you just want to seed, others have not finished downloading yet. While there is no automated way to do this, the procedure is not as daunting as you might expect.

"But what about my share ratio?" Sorry, there is nothing we can do about that, you will be starting back at zero. Share ratio with trackers however will not be affected.

VERY IMPORTANT NOTE: Unlike traditional file sharing programs, the BitTorrent protocol uses a reference file known as the torrent (whatever_the_subject.torrent). The torrent is what you originally download from the indexing site. The torrent is separate from the content you will ultimately be using/viewing/listening to. From here on, "files" will refer to the content while ".torrent" refers to the reference file.

Renaming appended files

Some clients will append partially downloaded files with an extra extension in order to lock them and keep them from being accidentally accessed by other applications, which might cause some problems with the downloading process (µTorrent also does this, if requested, by appending the extension .!ut to its files).

For µTorrent to resume those partially downloaded files these extra extensions must be removed. This can be tedious but there is nothing to it. We can however make a small batch file that will simplify the job.
01Open Notepad and write this line into it (replace "bc!" with which ever file extension you need to remove):
@for /r %i in (*.bc!) do @move "%~fi" "%~dpni"
02In Notepad, File > Save As: RENAME.BAT
03Open the location folder for the partially downloaded files you need to rename.
04Drag and drop the RENAME.BAT file into this folder
05Right click on RENAME.BAT > Open; a DOS window will briefly appear as it scrolls through all the files in the folder as they are getting renamed.

Repeat from step 3 for each folder containing files that need renaming.

Loading torrents in µTorrent

Loading a single torrent for seeding is simple enough provided you know the location of the .torrent and the files.
01In µTorrent, click File > Add Torrent (no default save)
02Browse your way to the .torrent file you wish to seed and select.
03Browse your way to the folder where the files are located and select the folder.

The torrent should appear in the torrent window and load (you will see the % climb up as µTorrent checks the file).

Loading multiple torrents stored in a single folder.

Let's say in your previous client you had setup a "completed torrents" folders and you wish to reload all the torrents from this location into µTorrent.
01Create a folder called AUTOLOAD on your desktop
02Create a folder called TORRENTS somewhere where you wish your finished torrents to be relocated (for example c:\My Documents\My Torrents\).
03Go to Options > Preferences > Downloads : location of downloaded files: check "Put new downloads in:" and point the path to the folder you were using to save your completed torrents in with your previous client.
04Go to Options > Preferences > Others. Under Storage for torrent files: Check "Move .torrents for finished jobs to: " and point the path to the TORRENTS folder (never mind the "Save the .torrent files" option for now).
05Under Auto-load Torrents, check "Automatically load torrents in directory" and point the path to the AUTOLOAD folder on your desktop.
06Find the .torrent for the files you wish to load (which match the files in your completed folder), and move them (not copy) to the AUTOLOAD folder on your desktop.

µTorrent automatically loads the .torrents from the AUTOLOAD folder into the torrent list. µTorrent will find that the matching files are already in the download folder and will check them to make sure they are complete.

Note: this procedure is also valid for partially downloaded files.

Moving files to another location after they have been loaded in µTorrent

For sorting reasons you may wish for your newly reloaded files to be saved to a different location. This is easy enough but must be done a single torrent at a time.
01Stop the torrent you wish to move in the torrent list in µTorrent.
02Move the files to the location of your choice (for multiple files move the containing folder as a whole)
03In µTorrent, right click > Advanced > Set Download Location ...
04Browse to the location where you have moved the files.
05Start the torrent again.

Note: if you wish to move several torrent to the same location you can select multiple torrents and perform the same action.