How can I get Firefox to open torrent files with Transmission?
Method (I): Using Firefox's Preferences menu: (preferred)
A. From Firefox's global menu, select Edit -> Preferences (or press Alt + E followed by N) to open Firefox Preferences.
(Snapshot taken in Ubuntu 12.04)
B. Select the Applications menu and search for BitTorrent seed file or application/x-bittorrent or torrent. Change the Always ask or Use gedit (default) to transmission-gtk by selecting Use other... and click File System in the side bar, then browse to /usr/bin
.
C. In /usr/bin
search for transmission-gtk and double click to open.
D. That's it! Now the .torrent files will be opened with transmission.
Method (2): Editing the mimeTypes.rdf file:
Step 1:
Open the mimeTypes.rdf file with text editor of your choice:
gedit ~/.mozilla/firefox/ythemo16.default/mimeTypes.rdf &
(Save a backup of this file.) Search for the container:
<RDF:Seq RDF:about="urn:mimetypes:root">
...
...
</RDF:Seq>
and insert this:
<RDF:li RDF:resource="urn:mimetype:application/x-bittorrent"/>
so that, now the container looks something like this:
<RDF:Seq RDF:about="urn:mimetypes:root">
...
...
<RDF:li RDF:resource="urn:mimetype:application/x-bittorrent"/>
</RDF:Seq>
(step 1 snapshot)
Step 2:
Now, within the container:
<RDF:RDF ... ...>
...
...
...
...
</RDF:RDF>
insert these:
<RDF:Description RDF:about="urn:mimetype:handler:application/x-bittorrent"
NC:alwaysAsk="false"
NC:saveToDisk="false">
<NC:possibleApplication RDF:resource="urn:handler:local:/usr/bin/transmission-gtk"/>
<NC:externalApplication RDF:resource="urn:mimetype:externalApplication:application/x-bittorrent"/>
</RDF:Description>
<RDF:Description RDF:about="urn:mimetype:externalApplication:application/x-bittorrent"
NC:prettyName="transmission-gtk"
NC:path="/usr/bin/transmission-gtk" />
<RDF:Description RDF:about="urn:handler:local:/usr/bin/transmission-gtk"
NC:prettyName="transmission-gtk"
NC:path="/usr/bin/transmission-gtk" />
<RDF:Description RDF:about="urn:mimetype:application/x-bittorrent"
NC:fileExtensions="torrent"
NC:description="BitTorrent seed file"
NC:value="application/x-bittorrent"
NC:editable="true">
<NC:handlerProp RDF:resource="urn:mimetype:handler:application/x-bittorrent"/>
</RDF:Description>
so that the container will look something like this:
<RDF:RDF ... ...>
...
...
...
...
<RDF:Description RDF:about="urn:mimetype:handler:application/x-bittorrent"
NC:alwaysAsk="false"
NC:saveToDisk="false">
<NC:possibleApplication RDF:resource="urn:handler:local:/usr/bin/transmission-gtk"/>
<NC:externalApplication RDF:resource="urn:mimetype:externalApplication:application/x-bittorrent"/>
</RDF:Description>
<RDF:Description RDF:about="urn:mimetype:externalApplication:application/x-bittorrent"
NC:prettyName="transmission-gtk"
NC:path="/usr/bin/transmission-gtk" />
<RDF:Description RDF:about="urn:handler:local:/usr/bin/transmission-gtk"
NC:prettyName="transmission-gtk"
NC:path="/usr/bin/transmission-gtk" />
<RDF:Description RDF:about="urn:mimetype:application/x-bittorrent"
NC:fileExtensions="torrent"
NC:description="BitTorrent seed file"
NC:value="application/x-bittorrent"
NC:editable="true">
<NC:handlerProp RDF:resource="urn:mimetype:handler:application/x-bittorrent"/>
</RDF:Description>
</RDF:RDF>
(step 2 snapshot)
Step 3:
Save and close the file. Then restart firefox.
Open the Firefox
preferences window
. Go to theApplications
tab and you should seemagnet
on the list. Click onAlways ask
and if Transmission does not appear as an option then click onUse other
and navigate to/usr/bin
on your file system. Look fortransmission
ortransmission-gtk
and click that.
Source: How to make Firefox open magnet-links in Transmission
If magnet
didn't show up in the applications tab, then you should do this via about:config
as explained below:
- Type
about:config
into the address bar and press Enter.- Right-click -> New -> Boolean -> Name:
network.protocol-handler.external.magnet
-> Value ->true
- Right-click -> New -> String -> Name:
network.protocol-handler.app.magnet
-> Value ->/usr/bin/transmission
- Ensure
network.protocol-handler.expose-all
is set totrue
Source: Magnet links in Firefox using Transmission
Another more user-friendly way to add a new file type to the Edit -> Preferences -> Applications window is by downloading a file that has the file format you want to add, selecting any option, and selecting the "Do this automatically for files like this from now on." checkbox. Source: firefox doc.