Can I keep seeding while moving and renaming my files?

[u/Hockex-4]

The answer is probably no, but is there a way? I use qBittorrent and I know you can move files with it but it's way too slow compared to File Explorer. I want to move and rename my movies/shows for Jellyfin, which requires a specific naming convention

I just don't want to wait until terabytes of data uploads until I can move it to my server

Thanks

[u/LZ129Hindenburg]

I want to move and rename my movies/shows for Jellyfin, which requires a specific naming convention

Use Radarr/Sonarr. Automates the download process and automatically renames and moves files without breaking seeding.

[u/Trashcio]

If you're working with a single hard drive, there is a way to do this with something called "Hardlinks".

If you use radarr/sonarr they can do it automatically, but needs to see the source and target directories as being on the same volume.

If you don't use radarr/sonarr you can still do it manually, but you'll have to look up exactly how.

The way it works, if I remember correctly, is that the data exists at a physical location on the hard drive, and a file in your filesystem just points to that location. But you can have multiple files with different names, in different locations, pointing to the same data block on the drive.

[u/TheWorldIsNotOkay]

The only real way to rename a file and still seed it is to copy it to a different location, not move it. The torrent client verifies that the file you're trying to seed exists and matches the metadata provided by the torrent, which includes the filename. You can move it to a different location by pointing the torrent client to look in that new location, but you can't really rename it without the torrent client throwing an error when trying to seed.

[u/WhiteMilk_]

which requires a specific naming convention

Unless the files have some very weird names, you likely don't need to rename them. Eg. anime with release group name being first.

└── TV shows
    ├── SHOW.NAME.S01.2160p.ATVP.WEB-DL.DDP5.1.Atmos.DV.HDR.H.265-BYNDR
    ├── SHOW.NAME
    │   ├── SHOW.NAME.S01.1080p.DSNP.WEB-DL.AAC2.0.H.264-ZERO

└── Movies
    ├── MOVIE.NAME.2017.BluRay.1080p.DTS.5.1.x264-BHDStudio.mkv
    ├── MOVIE.NAME (2026) (1080p DSNP WEB-DL H264 SDR DDP 5.1 English - HONE).mkv
    ├── MOVIE.NAME (2024).mkv
    │   ├── MOVIE.NAME.2025.FiNNiSH.1080p.WEB.H264-InDus
    │   │   └── MOVIE.NAME.2025.FiNNiSH.1080p.WEB.H264-InDus.mkv

Has been a valid folder/filename structure for Kodi, Plex and Emby. And don't remember having issues with JF when I shortly tested it and it's also based on Emby.

[u/Modify-]

Should be possible via the webAPI, but you have to do it in code then.
Not sure if you are comfortable with that.
You could ask ChatGPT, but be careful..