Provide a switch to enable / disable WebTorrent in settings

[yrliou]

We should provide a switch for webtorrent, probably in a brave-specific settings section.

[Brave-Matt]

• 1's from Community:

https://community.brave.com/t/is-there-any-way-to-disable-webtorrent/33872

https://community.brave.com/t/how-to-disable-webtorrent/33659?u=eljuno

[eljuno]

+1 from community https://community.brave.com/t/i-want-brave-to-not-handle-torrents/36668?u=eljuno

[NejcZdovc]

+1 from me

[lordirfan99]

+1 from me. i would like to use 3rd party torrent apps

[pongraczi]

+1
In general, it should be a good idea to not force the user to use an extension like this, but make it as an option and user could decide.
For me, I even cannot download the torrent file from a site, I have to use chromium or firefox only for download a torrent file.
Thnx

[DarkDibblez]

+1 from me

[justmwa]

+1. Opt-in by default for an optional feature is bad design. No opt-out ability is wtf.

[AoDev]

Same complain. I've told people to start using Brave then this came up. Nobody using the browser until this is fixed.

[damienOlsen]

This is really impacting my transition from Chrome to Brave.
Can we please get a flag to disable this, or just revert to default protocol handling

[Ronkn]

+1 would love to be able to toggle this off or have a work around in the meantime until the fix is pushed to stable. Thanks

[Brave-Matt]

+1 from Reddit (several users requesting this in the thread):
https://www.reddit.com/r/brave_browser/comments/a0dl7y/torrents_with_brave/

[psypher246]

Due to lack of switch to turn of webtorrent and this bug: https://community.brave.com/t/webtorrent-in-incognito-mode/37461 NO torrent files can be downloaded in incognito mode. It was mentioned here https://community.brave.com/t/possibility-of-disabling-webtorrent/35699 on Oct 23rd that a switch to turn off webtorrents is coming. What is the progress of that?

[Brave-Matt]

+1 from Reddit:
https://www.reddit.com/r/brave_browser/comments/a0u7ro/how_do_i_open_torrents_with_my_default_torrent/

[rht]

I tried launching brave by adding a command line flag --disable-webtorrent-extension (which should have worked according to https://github.com/brave/brave-core/blob/46601383bbc6da47c0ac60f0ba0bc5613de2944e/common/brave_switches.cc#L30) but it had no effect on 0.56.12 on NixOS (from a .deb file). It might have worked on other platforms / versions.

Update: ok, the switch was added after 0.56.12, brave/brave-core@25bb585#diff-a9d2a0787e829b9ff4f75ffff0682354
Update2: the switch is confirmed to work in 0.58.10 dev.

[InVItroVeritas]

+1 from me

[peyao]

+1, prefer to use my own client with SOCKS5 proxy.

Right now the experience is copy and pasting magnet links, which gets old pretty quickly.

[srirambv]

+1 from https://community.brave.com/t/trying-to-use-remote-torrent-adder-extension/38775/

cc: @rebron need to prioritize this. Lots of community feedback to provide a switch.

[Brave-Matt]

Several more +1's from Reddit:
reddit.com/r/brave_browser/comments/9rmnlv/how_can_i_disable_the_built_in_torrent_client/

[Brave-Matt]

Another +1 from Reddit:
https://www.reddit.com/r/brave_browser/comments/a3upj1/a_couple_anoying_issues/

[pongraczi]

What if developers just disable the torrent handler, until the on/off button will be ready?
I do not know the details, maybe disabling it (for example handling mime/torrrrentttt instead of mime/torrent if complete disable more difficult) is not as difficult as making a new menu/design/button, whatever and could be a quick patch.

[rht]

Since the command line switch already existed, adding it to brave://flags, should be straightforward:

diff --git a/chrome/browser/about_flags.cc b/chrome/browser/about_flags.cc
index 9b1ce28ebb..1ff69333b0 100644
--- a/chrome/browser/about_flags.cc
+++ b/chrome/browser/about_flags.cc
@@ -1284,6 +1284,10 @@ const FeatureEntry::FeatureVariation kOfflineIndicatorFeatureVariations[] = {
 //
 // When adding a new choice, add it to the end of the list.
 const FeatureEntry kFeatureEntries[] = {
+    {"disable-webtorrent-extension",
+     "Disable webtorrent extension",
+     "Disable webtorrent extension.",
+     kOsAll, SINGLE_VALUE_TYPE("disable-webtorrent-extension")}
     {"ignore-gpu-blacklist", flag_descriptions::kIgnoreGpuBlacklistName,
      flag_descriptions::kIgnoreGpuBlacklistDescription, kOsAll,
      SINGLE_VALUE_TYPE(switches::kIgnoreGpuBlacklist)},

At least the about flag should be added until the switch is moved to the web preferences.

[SSCBryce]

cant believe this is a thing. considering this is an issue from 2018, pretty sure im gonna drop brave now. someone go ahead and message me if this changes

[kjozwiak]

cant believe this is a thing. considering this is an issue from 2018, pretty sure im gonna drop brave now. someone go ahead and message me if this changes

@Farfie what's the exact issue that you're having? The ability to turn off WebTorrent has been available under brave://settings/extensions for a long time. It comes enabled by default but you can always disable it via the settings. I double checked and made sure it was working as expected.

You can see that I have it disabled on my profile. Either way, please let me know what the issues you're having.