1337x.to is the go-to destination for many seasoned BitTorrent users. The site has been around for fifteen years and is home to many reputable uploaders.
Over the years 1337x has steadily climbed through the ranks, building a stable and loyal userbase.
With over 60 million monthly visits to its main domain name, 1337x is currently the second most used torrent site, trailing only behind YTS.mx, while beating The Pirate Bay. This also means that if something breaks, people take notice.
1337x Troubles
1337x has had its fair share of issues over the years. The forum, for example, has been offline for years despite still being promoted throughout the site. The same is true for the site’s chat function, which is offline as well.
Most users can live with these shortcomings, as they are mostly interested in finding the latest torrents. However, that has started to become a problem as well recently, as 1337x’s search function is not functioning as it should.
Over the past few days, many users have complained that they are unable to find recent uploads. A quick inspection of the site shows that new content is still being added, exemplified by recent torrents in the “most popular” and “trending” lists.
No Torrents After April 10
While they do exist, finding these recent torrents using direct searches seems to be a problem. It appears that the search function only shows torrents uploaded on or before April 10, more than two weeks ago.
TorrentFreak reached out to 1337x’s operator to get a comment on this problem, but we haven’t heard back. Previous requests for comment remained unanswered as well, which isn’t really a surprise as the domain’s MX records, which specify the mail server, are gone.
Based on available information, the search problems appear purely technical in nature, likely related to a simple database issue. If and when the issue will be fixed is unknown.
On Reddit, some people have pointed out that some 1337x mirrors can still find recent torrents. While that may be the case, none of these sites are official. They likely scrape the official site or use other data sources.
This certainly isn’t the first time that 1337x has run into trouble. Last year, the official 1337x.to domain name stopped working entirely after it expired. That issue was resolved fairly quickly, however.
Update April 26: The search problems appear to be fixed now.
