Install Transmission on Debian Server.


First, let’s check everything is up to date before we start..


sudo apt update && sudo apt upgrade -y


Now that your server is fully up to date let’s start the installation of transmission.


sudo apt install transmission-cli transmission-common transmission-daemon


Now lets create some folders for transmission to download to. You can name these any how you want, but for ease sake let’s just use these.


sudo mkdir -p /Data/Media/Transmission/Completed

sudo mkdir -p /Data/Media/Transmission/Incomplete

sudo mkdir -p /Data/Media/Transmission/Watch


The Completed folder will keep all of the torrents that have completed downloading. The Incomplete folder will hold all the files that are not finished downloading or are in the process of downloading. The Watch folder will be able to hold all the torrent seed files that we want to download, so transmission will scan this folder to add new torrent files. This may be better for people that do not have web-brower access.


When files are downloaded transmission gives ownership of the files to the transmission group so we need to add our group to the transmission group.


sudo usermod -a -G debian-transmission merlin
sudo chgrp -R debian-transmission /Data/Media/Transmission
sudo chmod -R 777 /Data/Media/Transmission


Now let’s edit your transmission config file, before we open the file we need to shut down transmission, otherwise it will overwrite your file as soon as you save it.


sudo systemctl stop transmission-daemon

Now let’s edit the configuration file. I prefer to use nano since it is more user friendly.


sudo nano /etc/transmission-daemon/settings.json


You can edit the configuration file to the way you like, but here are some of the basic edits that you should do.


download-dir”: “/Data/Media/Transmission/Completed”,

incomplete-dir”: “/Data/Media/Transmission/Incomplete”,

incomplete-dir-enabled”: true,

rpc-authentication-required”: true,

rpc-password”: “password,

rpc-username”: “admin”,

rpc-whitelist-enabled”: false,


Also add your watch directory to the end of the file, but just before the closing bracket “}” (May already be there, just need to fill in the path).


watch-dir”: “/Data/Media/Transmission/Watch”,
watch-dir-enabled”: true


Once you have made the changes you like, you now should start the transmission daemon again.


sudo systemctl start transmission-daemon

You are all set! Transmission daemon is fully installed.

Head over to http://your-server-ip:9091 to access your web Ui.