Search engine returning no results

[Xyrexus]

qBittorrent & operating system versions

qBittorrent: 4.6.2 x64
Opering system: Windows 10 Pro 22H2 10.0.19045

What is the problem?

Until recently the search engine worked, now none of the plugins are returning any results (tried all enabled, all, and individually), also Jackett gives an error "connection error getting indexer list". I haven't changed anything about my PC that would start blocking connections or anything, so I have no idea why this function no longer seems to work. (Torrents are behaving normally)

Steps to reproduce

No response

Additional context

No response

Log(s) & preferences file(s)

No response

[ffynnon]

Same here. Was working fine and now nothing. I haven't changed anything.

[nokti]

Something definitely happened with the search plugins because mine stopped showing completely, with qBit telling me there were no plugins installed! They were still there in the AppData\Local\qBittorrent\nova3\engines folder but qBit refused to load them. I tried to manually install them but I got error messages for some of them... though they were listed as installed. I ended up completely deleting the nova3 subfolder and reinstalling the plugins one by one. They're all working now.

[ffynnon]

Thanks, I'll try that.

[Xyrexus]

Following nokti's thing unfortunately didn't work for me :(

[Idioversal]

Same problem here - anyone found a solution?

[nokti]

Thanks, I'll try that.

What I did was shut down qBit, delete the nova3 folder, restart qbit and then add each plugin one by one. I think I have 10 plugins installed now and they're all working again. I'm on qBit 4.6.2 lt2 qt6.

[Idioversal]

Thanks nokti, but that didn't help. Even with one plugin I get no results. I'm on qBit 4.6.2 as well.

[nokti]

Thanks nokti, but that didn't help. Even with one plugin I get no results. I'm on qBit 4.6.2 as well.

Just throwing a few ideas around:

• Have you checked that you are connectable? https://www.canyouseeme.org/
• Have you tried upgrading python? https://www.python.org/ (it seems the minimum version required is v3.7)

Can you tell us which plugins are not working for you? Maybe I have one of them installed and can test it.

[Idioversal]

Good ideas - canyouseeme can, in fact, see me!!
Just before your message arrived, I installed 3.12 (from 3.8) and deleted 3.8. I'm not entirely sure I did this correctly, but the folder c:\users...\appdata\local\programs\python now only contains a single folder "Python312".
I just use the default official search plugins - so for instance EZTV. What is strange is that the results (i.e. no results and the orange triangle) come back seemingly instantaneously. If I have Jacket enabled then the Jackett api error comes back straight away.

[nokti]

I just use the default official search plugins - so for instance EZTV. What is strange is that the results (i.e. no results and the orange triangle) come back seemingly instantaneously. If I have Jacket enabled then the Jackett api error comes back straight away.

Maybe some of these plugins are outdated? The eztv plugin is not installed on my machine (maybe that's one of the plugins that wouldn't reinstall, I don't recall) and I also don't see it in the list: https://github.com/qbittorrent/search-plugins/wiki/Unofficial-search-plugins

[Idioversal]

I don't think they're out of date - firstly, when I deleted the nova3 folder then that would have removed any old versions; and secondly with zero plugins (i.e. after nova3 deletion), I click on "search plug-ins" and then "check for updates" and 8 official, up-to-date search plugins are installed (EZTV; Jackett; Lime; Solid; TPB; TorLock; TorrentProject; torrents-csv).

[glassez]

I wonder if you are all really sure that the qBittorrent log does not contain any related information, that none of you provided it (despite the fact that it is requested in the Issue template)?

[Idioversal]

Hi glassez - I think that was a good catch and apologies for not thinking of it.

The log shows a series of "Ignoring SSL error, URL: "https://thepiratebay.org/favicon.ico", errors: "The host name did not match any of the valid hosts for this certificate"" errors when a search is run. I've had a quick search and couldn't find anything that I could make sense of - any ideas what the problem, or the fix could be? Thanks!

Here is the (redacted) log in full:

12/12/2023 12:28 - Ignoring SSL error, URL: "https://thepiratebay.org/favicon.ico", errors: "The host name did not match any of the valid hosts for this certificate"
12/12/2023 12:28 - Ignoring SSL error, URL: "https://torrentproject2.se/favicon.ico", errors: "The host name did not match any of the valid hosts for this certificate"
12/12/2023 12:28 - Ignoring SSL error, URL: "https://www.torlock2.com/favicon.ico", errors: "The host name did not match any of the valid hosts for this certificate"
12/12/2023 12:28 - Ignoring SSL error, URL: "https://www.limetorrents.lol/favicon.ico", errors: "The host name did not match any of the valid hosts for this certificate"
12/12/2023 12:28 - Ignoring SSL error, URL: "https://eztv.re/favicon.ico", errors: "The host name did not match any of the valid hosts for this certificate"
12/12/2023 12:28 - UPnP/NAT-PMP port mapping succeeded. Message: "successfully mapped port using UPnP. external port: UDP/xxx"
12/12/2023 12:28 - UPnP/NAT-PMP port mapping succeeded. Message: "successfully mapped port using UPnP. external port: TCP/xxx"
12/12/2023 12:28 - Python detected, executable name: 'C:/Users/xxxx/AppData/Local/Programs/Python/Python312/python.exe', version: 3.12.1
12/12/2023 12:28 - Detected external IP. IP: "xx.xx.xx.xx"
12/12/2023 12:28 - IP geolocation database loaded. Type: DBIP-Country-Lite. Build time: Fri Dec 1 01:11:53 2023.
12/12/2023 12:28 - Restored torrent. Torrent: "xxxxxxxxxxxx"
12/12/2023 12:28 - Restored torrent. Torrent: "xxxxxxxxxxxx"
12/12/2023 12:28 - Restored torrent. Torrent: "xxxxxxxxxxxx"
12/12/2023 12:28 - Restored torrent. Torrent: "xxxxxxxxxxxx"
12/12/2023 12:28 - Successfully listening on IP. IP: "::1". Port: "UDP/xxx"
12/12/2023 12:28 - Successfully listening on IP. IP: "::1". Port: "TCP/xxx"
12/12/2023 12:28 - Successfully listening on IP. IP: "xx.xx.xx.xx". Port: "UDP/xxx"
12/12/2023 12:28 - Successfully listening on IP. IP: "xx.xx.xx.xx". Port: "TCP/xxx"
12/12/2023 12:28 - Successfully listening on IP. IP: "xx.xx.xx.xx". Port: "UDP/xxx"
12/12/2023 12:28 - Successfully listening on IP. IP: "xx.xx.xx.xx". Port: "TCP/xxx"
12/12/2023 12:28 - Successfully listening on IP. IP: "xx.xx.xx.xx". Port: "UDP/xxx"
12/12/2023 12:28 - Successfully listening on IP. IP: "xx.xx.xx.xx". Port: "TCP/xxx"
12/12/2023 12:28 - UPnP/NAT-PMP support: ON
12/12/2023 12:28 - Encryption support: ON
12/12/2023 12:28 - Anonymous mode: OFF
12/12/2023 12:28 - Peer Exchange (PeX) support: ON
12/12/2023 12:28 - Local Peer Discovery support: ON
12/12/2023 12:28 - Distributed Hash Table (DHT) support: ON
12/12/2023 12:28 - HTTP User-Agent: "qBittorrent/4.6.2"
12/12/2023 12:28 - Peer ID: "-qBxxxx-"
12/12/2023 12:28 - Trying to listen on the following list of IP addresses: "0.0.0.0:xxx,[::]:xxx"
12/12/2023 12:28 - Using config directory: C:\Users\xxxx\AppData\Roaming\qBittorrent
12/12/2023 12:28 - qBittorrent v4.6.2 started

[ffynnon]

Something definitely happened with the search plugins because mine stopped showing completely, with qBit telling me there were no plugins installed! They were still there in the AppData\Local\qBittorrent\nova3\engines folder but qBit refused to load them. I tried to manually install them but I got error messages for some of them... though they were listed as installed. I ended up completely deleting the nova3 subfolder and reinstalling the plugins one by one. They're all working now.

I tried this and it didn't work for me. Just manually installed [MagnetDL with categories] and it's working fine. Still no results from any of the default ones.

[Cirieno]

1. I found that the built-in updater isn't always updating as it should. Check your search engines versioning against these two pages: https://github.com/qbittorrent/search-plugins/wiki/Unofficial-search-plugins and https://github.com/LightDestory/qBittorrent-Search-Plugins

2. I think there has been a wave of ISPs blocking sites (not the sites being down) for the last week or so. When I check the sites in each search engine outside of a VPN the browser won't show the site, while it will via VPN. Now, while everyone should be running qBT bound to a VPN virtual ethernet interface for security reasons anyway, that won't fix this issue as I think the search engines are run as CLI apps and the results consumed back into qBT.

3. to test if your engines are being blocked by your ISP (your OS may vary):
   $ cd ~/.var/app/org.qbittorrent.qBittorrent/data/qBittorrent/nova3/engines
$ python3 ../nova2.py one337x all test

where nova2.py params = (engine, categories, keyword)
and python must be 3.7 or higher

blocked result = Connection error: [SSL: SSLV3_ALERT_ILLEGAL_PARAMETER] sslv3 alert illegal parameter (_ssl.c:1131)

unblocked result is lots of magnet links

4. I have fixed this on the CLI by forcing python (/usr/bin/python -- append your version number) through the VPN split-tunnelling.

5. I have fixed this OS-wide by sending everything through the VPN except a few services I've split-tunnelled to not use the VPN. It doesn't seem to help to have python and qBT going through the VPN explicitly (qBT is still bound to the v-Ethernet interface!).

[nokti]

I tried updating again and this time it worked, I got the default plugins to be installed and updated:

12-12-23 16:48 - Ignoring SSL error, URL: "https://thepiratebay.org/favicon.ico", errors: "The host name did not match any of the valid hosts for this certificate"
12-12-23 16:48 - Plugin "torrentscsv" is outdated, updating to version 1.2
12-12-23 16:48 - Plugin "torlock" is outdated, updating to version 2.22
12-12-23 16:48 - Plugin "solidtorrents" is outdated, updating to version 2.1
12-12-23 16:48 - Plugin "piratebay" is outdated, updating to version 3.2
12-12-23 16:48 - Plugin "limetorrents" is outdated, updating to version 4.7
12-12-23 16:48 - Plugin "jackett" is outdated, updating to version 4.0
12-12-23 16:48 - Plugin "eztv" is outdated, updating to version 1.14
12-12-23 16:48 - Ignoring SSL error, URL: "https://thepiratebay.org/favicon.ico", errors: "The host name did not match any of the valid hosts for this certificate"
12-12-23 16:47 - Python detected, executable name: 'python', version: 3.12

No idea why it worked now and didn't before. It also makes me think that the default plugins bundled with qBit are all outdated judging by the log here above.

[Xyrexus]

I tried this and it didn't work for me. Just manually installed [MagnetDL with categories] and it's working fine. Still no results from any of the default ones.

Where does one find this? I'll take anything right now since nothing's working for me.

[Idioversal]

I think Cirieno has it right - the search sites are being blocked. I followed their link to the LightDestory plugin site and installed the Snowfl aggregator search plugin (https://raw.githubusercontent.com/LightDestory/qBittorrent-Search-Plugins/master/src/engines/snowfl.py) and that is working fine at the moment.

[ghost]

even deleting the entire nova3 folder in local appdata didn't fix it for me.

if it's related to some ISP domain blocking, then why did it not show any of my search plugins that already had been installed and the files were all locally in the engines folder?
I had a huge list of installed plugins. there's no way in hell all of their domains are blocked on my ISP.

[ghost]

Same issue as here:
#16589

[kyleli666]

even deleting the entire nova3 folder in local appdata didn't fix it for me. if it's related to some ISP domain blocking, then why did it not show any of my search plugins that already had been installed and the files were all locally in the engines folder? I had a huge list of installed plugins. there's no way in hell all of their domains are blocked on my ISP.

I have the same situation as you, and I have 2 windows PCs that are affected together recently, so it makes me suspect windows updates.
I found a work around to my case is to move %LOCALAPPDATA%\qBittorrent\nova3\engines to some other place, and reinstall the inside plugins in qBit, then they recovered... After a system reboot they might lost again, I reinstall again and it seems fixed finally.
(qbittorrent/search-plugins#263)

[Doublejay]

👍 Another success with deleting /nova3.

Path is here /Users/[userfolder]/Library/Application Support/qBittorrent/nova3 for macos users.

I have been getting some wild results not matching the query from some of the engine though.

[godzfire]

Plugins still broke for me, 4.6.4 Mac OS. Any other Mac users actually have theirs working?

[Tox46]

@godzfire I've been trying to make it work without much success (i don't know mac os well) .
I'm on Python 3.12.2. It seems in the "auto-installing" plugins only piratebay is working, but maybe this is just me.
If you reinstall the program deleting both preferences folders you can make one (1) search, after that you get the yellow triangle and no plugin work.
When i run python3 ../nova2.py piratebay all 2024 i get this error Connection error: [SSL: CERTIFICATE_VERIFY_FAILED] certificate verify failed: unable to get local issuer certificate (_ssl.c:1000) (even after removing the nova2 folder with the program closed and reinstalling the plugins).

[Womos]

same here search yields no results

[Xyrexus]

They're not really working again for me, they did briefly for... some reason, now I'm only getting snowfl results when searching, none of the others are functioning.

[olegkostoglotov]

None of the workarounds suggested worked for me. Just as @Tox46 reported, reinstalling gets me exactly one search before things stop working again, and running python nova2.py piratebay all 2024 produces SSL CERTIFICATE_VERIFY_FAILED errors.

It seems like this is an issue with Python and the root certificate store, as discussed in python/cpython#80192

For now I can get search to work perfectly with the following workaround. Since the certificate verification is causing an error, I just turn it off, by editing %LocalAppData%\qBittorrent\nova3\helpers.py as follows:

*** helpers.old Sun May 19 16:16:54 2024
--- helpers.py  Sun May 19 16:29:20 2024
***************
*** 35,40 ****
--- 35,41 ----
  import socket
  import socks
  import tempfile
+ import ssl
  import urllib.error
  import urllib.parse
  import urllib.request
***************
*** 72,80 ****

  def retrieve_url(url):
      """ Return the content of the url page as a string """
      req = urllib.request.Request(url, headers=headers)
      try:
!         response = urllib.request.urlopen(req)
      except urllib.error.URLError as errno:
          print(" ".join(("Connection error:", str(errno.reason))))
          return ""
--- 73,84 ----

  def retrieve_url(url):
      """ Return the content of the url page as a string """
+     ctx = ssl.create_default_context()
+     ctx.check_hostname=False
+     ctx.verify_mode = ssl.CERT_NONE
      req = urllib.request.Request(url, headers=headers)
      try:
!         response = urllib.request.urlopen(req, context=ctx)
      except urllib.error.URLError as errno:
          print(" ".join(("Connection error:", str(errno.reason))))
          return ""

[ArhumMK]

Thank you, your workaround worked for me but since this turns off certificate verification I was wondering if there are any security risks to be worried of.

[olegkostoglotov]

There are certainly security risks: someone with access to your upstream internet connection could spoof the results and trick you into downloading malicious files. But since the whole point of bittorrent is to download random stuff from the internet, the added level of risk is maybe not all that much. Just don't run this on a public WiFi you don't trust, and virus-scan whatever you download-- both of which are good ideas in any case.

[Womos]

that workaround doesn't work in my case

[godzfire]

bump plugins still aren't working properly

[Womos]

it's working for me now it fixed itself somehow

[xavier2k6]

official plugins have been updated since end of June '24, if anybody is still experiencing issues with qBittorrent v5.0.0. - then please open a new ticket & provide as much info as possible/logs & if affected plugin is official/unofficial etc.