Note: the site appears to be back online at a new domain name, see updates below.
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TorrentGalaxy is little over five years old but, in that time, it established itself as a leading player in the torrent ecosystem.
While all torrent sites have technical issues occasionally, alarm bells start to go off when downtime is paired with a cryptic message.
A few hours ago, TorrentGalaxy’s main website and mirrors suddenly displayed the following mysterious message.
“TGX is offline. Updates will be posted in case of any changes.”
This message doesn’t have to be alarming; the site may simply return in a few hours after some much-needed maintenance. In that case, however, “TGx is down for maintenance, updates will be posted when more information is available” would have been a more appropriate message.
IF
The wording of the current message suggests that TorrentGalaxy is offline, may not come back soon, and updates will only follow IF anything changes.
We have reached out to our contacts at the site asking for clarification. At the time of publication, we have yet to receive any response. If we hear anything new, this article will be updated accordingly.
In addition to the main TorrentGalaxy.to domain, all official mirrors and proxies are down as well. The domain name of the status page, which showed all mirrors and proxies, is currently parked. That’s not a positive sign for users either.
The TorrentGalaxy downtime is not only felt at the site itself. Since it also provides a steady flow of [TGx] releases to other torrent sites, it will be noticeable there as well. This includes the popular ‘TGxGoodies’ user at 1337x, whose releases have been halted for now.
The current downtime might be related to enforcement actions. TorrentGalaxy has been on the radar of anti-piracy groups for a long time as a major source of copyright infringement and, earlier this year, the U.S. Trade Representative flagged it as one of the most notorious piracy sites.
With the information that’s available to us presently, we can do little more than speculate. However, we will keep an eye out for updates and changes in the coming hours and days.
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Update: we’re aware that some copycat sites are still online, but there have nothing to do with the original.
Update: A TGx admin informed TorrentFreak that the site operators haven’t informed them about the downtime either.
Update: TGx has changed the initial message to the following. “4ever?”
Update: After more than a day, TorrentGalaxy.to now redirects to Torrentgalaxy.mx, through the following banner. The site appears to be back as new uploads are coming though as well.
TorrentGalaxy uploads at other torrent sites are coming though as well.
The reason for the downtime and the domain switch are still unclear. If more information comes available we will cover it accordingly.
Update: TorrentGalaxy is now back at its .to domain.
