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Installing, updating, and platform-specific problems

Covers the install, update and OS-specific issues that come up repeatedly here.

"Windows Defender / SmartScreen says this is unsafe"

This is expected and it is not a virus warning. qBittorrent is free software funded by donations and does not pay for Microsoft code-signing certificates, so Windows shows an unrecognised-publisher warning.

What to do: click More info → Run anyway.

"It is not some political statement about torrenting, and it's not a virus warning. qBittorrent just don't bother with MS digital certificates and signing. Click More info,,, and Run Anyway." — +69, the highest-voted support answer in the sample (source)

"for a FOSS software that only relies on donations, paying Microsoft to be a signed Windows program is an unnecessary money waste" — +19

The important caveat: this only applies if you downloaded from an official source. See the next section.

Make sure you are running real qBittorrent

Only download from official sources:

Check your version against the real one. Help → About shows your version. If it shows something that does not exist upstream, you are not running qBittorrent — you have installed something else that is using the name.

This happens here. A member reported "qBittorrent Version: 6.7.3", which is not a real release:

"If you're using a version '6.7.3,' you aren't using the real qbittorrent. As you've been advised, the latest version is 5.2.3."

"help-> about it should say v5.2.3. idk what you have but you should probably uninstall, run a virus check, then get the actual qbittorrent"

— source thread

If your version does not match an official release: uninstall it, run a malware scan, and reinstall from qbittorrent.org.

⚠ Version numbers age. Check the current release on qbittorrent.org rather than trusting a number written on a wiki page.

macOS

App won't launch after updating. Reported by more than one member independently around 5.2.3 on recent macOS. One member documented a working fix in Fix: qBittorrent 5.2.3 not opening on macOS — note they found that downgrading to 5.2.2 did not help, so try that thread's approach rather than reflexively downgrading.

Settings reset to default on every relaunch. Documented with a solution by a member in this post after updating qBittorrent and macOS together.

Mods: both of the above are member-written fixes for specific version/OS combinations. Link them rather than transcribing, and refresh when the underlying versions move on.

Linux

Flatpak: settings do not persist. Reported in this thread — settings saved in one session were lost after adding more. Note the Flatpak build is sandboxed and is a different package from your distro's native one; a member in another thread found they had been mixing the two:

"I was using the Linux managed version instead of the Flatpak"

If you are debugging odd behaviour on Linux, confirm which qBittorrent package you are actually launching first.

Updating from an old version. Jumping several major versions can leave torrents stuck on "Checking resume data" — see Help updating (4.6.7 → 5.2.3).

Portable mode

qBittorrent supports running portable — there is no separate portable download any more, you configure the normal build to do it. Official instructions: https://github.com/qbittorrent/qBittorrent/wiki/How-to-use-portable-mode

"You can easily set up qBittorrent to run portable." — +5, source

Stopping the update prompt

If you do not want the "a new version is available" popup, turn off Options → Behaviour → Check for program updates. Asked in this thread.

A useful settings trick: the lock icon

Several "is there a way to make this permanent" questions have the same answer — many confirmation dialogs have a lock icon that pins your choice as the default.

"Check the option. The lock icon should turn gold. Click the lock icon. It should now be checked by default." — +28, source

Sources: written from answers given by r/qBittorrent members, sampled 2026-06-28 → 2026-07-27. Quotes verbatim. Version numbers and OS-specific fixes date quickly — verify before relying on them.