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Trying to get my transmission-daemon to pick up files from a dropbox folder, to make remote starting easier (it's a headless system).

As far as I can tell, the settings.json file is as expected, but none of the files I place in the folder get picked up.

I have checked that dropbox is syncing correctly.

Here is the whole settings.json file, but the relevant lines are included below:

  "watch-dir": "/home/john/Dropbox/torrents",
  "watch-dir-enabled": true

Update

It appears to be a permissions issue. From /var/log/syslog:

Unable to watch "/home/john/Dropbox/torrents": Permission denied (watch.c:79)

I have tried stopping the daemon -> sudo service transmission-daemon stop -> changing permissions of folder using chown -> sudo chown -R john /home/john/Dropbox/torrents -> restarting daemon -> sudo service transmission-daemon start

Same result, however

Update 2

Permissions for the folder are:

drwsrwsrwx 2 john debian-transmission 4096 2012-04-09 19:40
Mild Fuzz
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  • Transmission doesn't run as your user, so chowning the files is useless. Try `chmod go+rw` instead. – Daniel Beck Apr 09 '12 at 08:22
  • what is that doing? – Mild Fuzz Apr 09 '12 at 12:09
  • `chmod -R go+rw filename` gives read/write permissions to all files' group members and everyone neither a group member nor the file owner for the given `filename` and, recursively, for everything it contains. You should try to find out as what user Transmission is running, then you can give that user, specifically, permissions to that folder and everything in it. Also, in case that's your real pass phrase in the JSON, consider changing it now. – Daniel Beck Apr 09 '12 at 12:23
  • It's not, although the sentiment is accurate ;) – Mild Fuzz Apr 09 '12 at 19:13
  • Tried, same result in the syslog. I have included the folders permissions in the second update – Mild Fuzz Apr 09 '12 at 19:17
  • Looks good, even the setgid bit is set, so new folders should be accessible to any user. Could you run `ps aux` to determine under what user transmission is running, and check that all folders in the hierarchy (i.e. `/home`, `/home/john`...) are executable by everyone? – Daniel Beck Apr 09 '12 at 19:35
  • Right, I did all that. Now the syslog gives me `Found new .torrent file "myLegal.torrent" in watchdir "/h$`, but it doesn't appear in the web interface, and the torrent file doesn't get deleted (my intention) – Mild Fuzz Apr 10 '12 at 15:54
  • sorry, the syslog says `Found new .torrent file "myLegal.torrent" in watchdir "/home/john/Dropbox/torrents (watch.c:92)` – Mild Fuzz Apr 10 '12 at 19:05
  • Did you manage to fix this? I get the same 'Found new .torrent' message, but no torrent is downloaded – Mihai Oprea Mar 14 '13 at 09:49
  • yes, the given answer works – Mild Fuzz Mar 14 '13 at 10:47

3 Answers3

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The solution is to give your dropbox folder permissions of 775

sudo chmod -R 775 ~/Dropbox
Mild Fuzz
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For those landing here : you must edit /var/lib/transmission-daemon/.config/transmission-daemon/settings.json instead of the one in ~/.config/transmission

Specifically tested on version 2.92, you have to stop transmission-daemon service before editing the settings.json. Otherwise, upon service restart, all changes made are rolled back. Weird, I know but don't ask me why.

The catch is that the last transmission-daemon folder is permission locked, so edit the settings.json with an absolute url

sudo nano /var/lib/transmission-daemon/.config/transmission-daemon/settings.json

And of course, restart the service

sudo service transmission-daemon restart
user2118439
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Goufalite
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I had the same issue, but any solution did not help me until I moved torrents folder from external disk to internal. After that everything works just fine!

Dmitriy K
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