What happened to µTorrent on the Mac
µTorrent's Mac app, now called µTorrent Classic, was a 32-bit app. With macOS Catalina in 2019, Macs stopped running 32-bit apps, and rather than rebuild it, µTorrent moved Mac users to µTorrent Web. Its last version came out in January 2020.
µTorrent's Mac download page still offers Classic, marked “Not compatible with MAC OS Catalina Version 10.15 and above”. So on any recent Mac, µTorrent's desktop app won't open.
µTorrent Web
µTorrent Web runs inside your web browser: you add torrents and watch them in a browser tab, and it can play a video or a song while it downloads. The free version shows ads, and yearly subscriptions remove them. Its source code isn't public.
A Mac app instead
If you miss having a real app, OrbTorrent is one:
- Free, with no ads, no account and nothing to buy. It's open source, under the GPL.
- In your menu bar. An orb shows how your downloads are doing, and a click shows speeds, downloads and their files.
- qBittorrent's engine does the downloading. It's free and open source too.
- Downloads only through your VPN, if you like. If the VPN drops, downloading stops instead of carrying on without it.
- Fake downloads held before they arrive, such as a “film” that's really a program.
OrbTorrent needs macOS 26 or later. On an older Mac, Transmission runs on macOS 11 and later, and is free and open source too.
Bringing your downloads over
OrbTorrent imports downloads from Transmission and qBittorrent, but not from µTorrent. To carry on with a download, open its magnet link or .torrent file in OrbTorrent and choose the folder µTorrent saved it in. OrbTorrent checks the files already there, and downloads only what's missing.
