diff --git a/src/renderer/controllers/torrent-list-controller.js b/src/renderer/controllers/torrent-list-controller.js
index 7b310b26..a03343ed 100644
--- a/src/renderer/controllers/torrent-list-controller.js
+++ b/src/renderer/controllers/torrent-list-controller.js
@@ -127,7 +127,9 @@ module.exports = class TorrentListController {
     torrentSummary.selections[index] = !torrentSummary.selections[index]
 
     // Let the WebTorrent process know to start or stop fetching that file
-    ipcRenderer.send('wt-select-files', infoHash, torrentSummary.selections)
+    if (torrentSummary.status !== 'paused') {
+      ipcRenderer.send('wt-select-files', infoHash, torrentSummary.selections)
+    }
   }
 
   confirmDeleteTorrent (infoHash, deleteData) {
diff --git a/src/renderer/webtorrent.js b/src/renderer/webtorrent.js
index 2be1d25d..7018582d 100644
--- a/src/renderer/webtorrent.js
+++ b/src/renderer/webtorrent.js
@@ -350,6 +350,9 @@ function selectFiles (torrentOrInfoHash, selections) {
   } else {
     torrent = torrentOrInfoHash
   }
+  if (!torrent) {
+    throw new Error('selectFiles: missing torrent ' + torrentOrInfoHash)
+  }
 
   // Selections not specified?
   // Load all files. We still need to replace the default whole-torrent