One day while trying to make use of torrents, I accidentally clicked a button that stopped my favorite browser, Google Chrome, from being able to handle magnet links. I searched high and low to find an answer and it took me about a month to find it. I wanted to make it easier for others to find the answer so I've posted it below. Let me know if this works for you.
For MAC OS:
Step 1: Exit Google Chrome. Make sure you have completely exited by right clicking the icon and selecting "quit".
Step 2: You'll need to have a program installed that will allow you to view hidden files and folders on your mac. I personally use "Main Menu". They have a 15-day free trial that you can use if this will be the only use you need for it. You can download it from here: http://download.cnet.com/MainMenu/3000-2094_4-10558513.html . Once you install the program, open the menu. The icon should be located in the top right of your screen by your clock. Scroll down to "User" and then under the user menu select "Show invisible files".
Step 3: Open find and in the search bar type "Library". Click on the folder and navigate to: Application Support/Google/Chrome/local state.
Step 4: Open "Local State" in textedit.
Step 5: Scroll down the file until you see "Protocols". Then under protocols you should see the word "magnet". Change the word "true" to "false" and save the file. DONT CHANGE THE FILE FORMAT!
Step 6: Relaunch Chrome and test out a magnet link. It should now open up your favorite torrent program.
(If this does not work for you, open up the "Local State" file and simply delete the line w/ "magnet" on it. Don't delete anything else or it could cause instability in your web browser.)
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For PC users:
Step 1: Go to your Start Menu > Run and type in %LOCALAPPDATA%\Google\Chrome\User Data.
Step 2: Double click "Local State".
Step 3: Open the file with Notepad.
Step 4: Use ctrl+f and search for "protocol_handler" within the document.
Step 5: Look under "Protocol_handler" and find where it says "magnet". Delete that entire line and nothing else as deleting more than needed could cause instability in your web browser.
Step 6: Relaunch Chrome and try to use a magnet link. Everything should be working fine now.
Thank you for visiting my blog and I hope this helps! Leave a comment and come back soon! :)
Wednesday, May 2, 2012
Fix Magnet Links for torrents using Chrome!
It works! I've been looking everywhere for this fix. Thank you very much!
ReplyDeleteThanks so much! For less smart PC users (like me), you should add that Chrome needs to be closed when you delete the stuff in the Local State file, otherwise the changes won't save and it won't work... It took me a couple of tries to figure it out, but that one's on me ;) The method works perfectly!
ReplyDeleteThank you very much! I've been looking for this for weeks! I gotta say that my error was "Could not connect to diskstation" and that was what I was searching in Google with no luck. Hopefully, now that I wrote it, Google will index it and more people would find the answer ;)
ReplyDeleteThanks!!!
This didn't work for me. I tried deleting the whole line as well and that didn't work
ReplyDeleteSame here I deleted the entire line and nothing changed
ReplyDeleteI opened it in notepad but there isn't even a line that says magnet? I'm confused because I can't open magnet links nonetheless.
ReplyDeleteto PC USERS:
ReplyDeletetry adding:
"magnet": false,
after javascript if you dont find it on the script under:
"protocol_handler": {
"excluded_schemes": {
this works for me after comparing two scripts from two different computers.
Well, This worked for pc. Thanks for the great help :)
ReplyDelete