Download Torrents Safely Mac

  • BitLord for Mac. BitLord is a free torrent client for Mac that’s easy to use and has some cool features. It’s sort of a middle-of-the-road Mac torrent downloader that can be utilized by anyone from beginners to “professionals”. Built-in browser to easily search for and download torrents.
  • It's time to renew our list of the 10 best torrent sites for 2021. While favorite sites continue to find a place as one of the top torrent sites, IsoHunt and TorrentProject.se went offline.

Have you tried to download a mac - app recently? I found my self trying to unzip a file with a strange name extension 7zx.:(1. Most torrenting clients should show you the number of seeders that are in that torrent. Before you download the torrent, check the files that you are downloading. If any of them have a.exe or.bat file extension, then it's probably not safe. But that is up to you to decide. If anyway you choose torrent trackers as the source of getting files from the web, you need a safe and trusted torrent client. It should ensure protection for your Mac from any possible malware as well as quick downloading. Folx is the most reliable and effective torrent client and downloader for Mac.

The Pirate Bay is a search tool for torrent files and magnet links. It became hugely popular several years ago, as a way of finding torrents and magnet links that are up to date and could be downloaded conveniently in a torrent download tool. However, its popularity was largely due to the fact that it made it very easy to discover links to illegal files, such as those that breach copyright laws in several countries.

Is The Pirate Bay legal?

The founders of The Pirate Bay were found guilty in Sweden of assisting in copyright infringement and sent to prison. And in some territories, such as the EU, internet service providers must block access to the site. However, in other countries it can be accessed legally. Even where The Pirate Bay is legal, however, using it to find and download content that’s protected by trademark and copyright laws may not be.

Is The Pirate Bay safe?

The Pirate Bay itself is just a website. It doesn’t host any content or display adverts and so, in those countries where you can access it, it’s safe. In countries where it’s blocked, there are several proxies (sites that mirror the original but have a different domain and IP address) that may be accessible. It’s impossible to say for certain that all the proxies are safe — most are, but there may be some that host adware or other forms of malware.

Download Torrents Safely Without Vpn

Torrents

There are other aspects to consider. While The Pirate Bay itself may be safe, the torrents and magnet files that turn up in its search results may not be. Those files are distributed on a peer-to-peer basis — they’re hosted by individuals on their own computers, rather than being hosted centrally somewhere. So they are completely unregulated. It’s possible that when you click on a magnet link to download a file, that you could be downloading something harmful.

What should I do if I’m worried I’ve downloaded malware?

Don’t panic. If you haven’t noticed your computer behaving unusually or running particularly slowly, it’s unlikely you’ve downloaded a virus or other malware. Most malware either displays adverts, demands a ransom, or steals resources such as CPU cycles. It’s possible there could be some nasty code lurking on your hard drive that you haven’t yet noticed, though. So, to be safe, you should scan your Mac or PC.

There are a couple of options for scanning for malware. One is to use an antivirus tool. There are several available for both macOS and Windows, and some of them will allow you to scan your computer free of charge. Once they’ve reported their results, they will either allow to to delete the malware, if there is any, or tell you that you need to pay for a full version of the application to do so.

The other option, if you have a Mac, is to use CleanMyMac X’s Malware utility. Part of CleanMyMac X’s suite of cleaning tools, the malware utility scans your Mac for known threats and reports the results. If it finds anything, it allows you to remove it at the press of a button. CleanMyMac X’s database is updated regularly and so it’s aware of the latest viruses and other malware.

How can I avoid problems?

If you want to use The Pirate Bay, the first thing you should do is use a VPN. We recommend ClearVPN — the first effortless VPN for a personalized online experience. You can then change your location if you live in a territory where it’s blocked by ISPs, so you can use it without a problem. ClearVPN encrypts data that travels on the network, giving you another level of protection.

When it comes to downloading torrents or the target of magnet links, you should be vigilant. Satisfy yourself that the file you’re downloading is what you think it is, and not malware in disguise. That’s no easy task. Here are a few of ways to mitigate the risk:

  1. Only download torrents with lots of seeders – it’s likely that others have already checked these files and found them to be safe.
  2. Better still, only download torrents from users with skulls next to their name. The skull denotes a trusted or a VIP user and is the best way to judge whether you can trust a torrent or magnet link.
  3. Read the comments next to download links – if there are comments about viruses or malware, don’t click on the link.
  4. If you’re using Windows, don’t download .exe files from a torrent.
  5. Use a VPN. We recommend ClearVPN to anonymize all your traffic and keep your IP address hidden. So, if you seed files for others to download, you will remain anonymous.

The most important takeaway is that The Pirate Bay is a bit like the Wild West: there is no central control; no one monitoring the torrents for malware, or anything else; and no way to be certain that your Mac or PC will be safe when you use it. However, there are many things you can do to mitigate the risk — including the risk of your ISP finding out that you’ve been using it in a country where it is blocked. (Note: if you are in a territory where The Pirate Bay is blocked, we do not advise that you use the methods described here to get around that block. Whether you do so or not is, of course, your choice).

Vigilance and common sense are your two most important tools in the quest to stay safe on The Pirate Bay, or anywhere else online. Remain vigilant, be careful about what you download, and don’t take unnecessary risks. Use a VPN and regularly scan your Mac or PC for viruses using either an antivirus tool or CleanMyMac X’s malware tool. If you follow all of the advice above, you should be able to use The Pirate Bay safely and without putting your computer at risk from malware.

Every computer user’s first roadblock (usually) is using Torrents. We’ve all heard of them, and are quite curious with what they have to offer. I can’t quite imagine what life would be like if I didn’t know how to use torrents, so I’ll teach you enough to get along and walk on your own two feet.

First, I want you to remember that what you download and do with your computer is your own responsibility! Unfortunately, we are not in the position to help you out if you “accidentally” pirate any software or seasons of Friends.

You’ll need a BitTorrent client for your computer. As a Mac user, I prefer Vuze, although I’ve heard great things about Transmission and uTorrent as well.

How to use Vuze

You can usually get by with any ol’ client, as long as you can interact with it. Make sure you’re familiar with the UI! You should be familiar with where the download progress bar is, where the expected time remaining is, and how to set upload/download max limits (can usually be done by right-clicking).

How To Safely Download Torrents

The torrent client isn’t exactly the most important part — the torrent is! Here, I’ll introduce you to two sites that aggregate torrents, meaning they gather torrents from around the Internet and index them, and thus allow you to sort from a greater variety.

There are tons of confusing things about torrents: trackers, specific files, and legality issues — but ultimately, the only thing you need to know is that the seed-to-leech ratio needs to be high. (Although brushing up on legality issues should be a priority as well. ;))

How To Use Torrents Safely

What is a seed-to-leech ratio?

Download Torrents Safely Mac

A seed-to-leech ratio is the number of seeders to leechers. You want this number to be as high as possible! Basically, always pick the torrent with the highest number of seeds (hosts/uploaders) to leeches (downloaders). (In the picture, the green numbers represent the number of seeds and the blue zero is the number of leechers.)

If you’re given an option to go with 300 seeds and 500 leeches or 50 seeds and 30 leeches, go with the torrent with 50 seeds. You’ll notice that the speeds are dramatically faster and often quite capable of reaching breakneck speeds.

If/when a download ever appears to slow down or freeze, it never hurts to right-click a torrent and click Update Tracker. This prompts the client to refresh the list and hopefully find more peers on, which you can obtain the file from.

Where do Downloaded Files go?

You can set a location for your files to get downloaded into. By default, Vuze creates a Vuze Downloads folder in your Downloads folder.

You can always change the location from within Vuze. Simply click the Vuze menu, and select Preferences. From there, select Downloads and you can change the location within the bar.

How can I Stop Seeding?

I usually don’t prefer for people to stop seeding (sharing is caring). If in some cases, your Internet is lagging though or if you’re not legally allowed to upload music but are allowed to download, then I can sympathize with you. Stopping uploading (seeding) is simple: simply select the torrent that’s complete, and select Stop at the top.

Start Getting Friendly with Torrents!

They’re only going to be more and more mainstream: HD trailers and documentaries are starting to be released via torrent. It’s useful to learn how to better use torrents, and how you can take advantage of this nice piece of technology.


The above article may contain affiliate links which help support Guiding Tech. However, it does not affect our editorial integrity. The content remains unbiased and authentic.

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