Give higher download priority to specific parts of file in a BitTorrent client?

Solution 1:

No, there is no way to prioritize an arbitrary part of the file. Years ago, I asked the devs of eMule to implement this feature because sometimes while watching a show, the network cuts off the last minute or I’d miss a few seconds after one of the commercial breaks, and I didn’t want to download an entire episode just to watch a few seconds. They shot the idea down, stating that it would hurt the swarm if people could pick and choose what they get.

It is no different with µTorrent, or any other P2P system that relies on evenly distributing parts of a file among the peers.

The closest thing to this is the ability (usually set to off by default) to prioritize the first and last part of the file which was done specifically so that the file can be verified as genuine and not a fake (because most file-types put the header and meta-data at the beginning and a few put it at the end).

In µTorrent, set the bt.prio_first_last_piece advanced option:

Solution 2:

I came here looking for the answer to the same question, and @Synetechs's answer pointed me in the right direction. I don't know if this is a new feature that didn't exist when he posted his answer (it's been 3 years, after all). But in the same advanced tab, now there is a bt.progressive_piece_picker setting, which seems to prioritize pieces from the beginning of the file. Has worked for me so far. Use this setting with care, though. It bypasses the core of the protocol, which is the unordered nature of the download. May be ok for torrents with lots of seeders, but may kill less active torrents.

Solution 3:

In uTorrent, if you hold Shift+F2 while clicking on "preference" you will have access to some special options.

As you can see in the following screenshot: you have, among other things, two new options:

• bt.sequential_download
• bt.sequential_files

You can change the value of those parameters to "True" in order to download your file sequentially.

Of course avoid to use those options for torrents with a few seeders.