Downloads won't progress unless forced by verify?!

As of 12 hours ago, every new torrent I add encounters an issue where data is showing as downloading (well beyond the size of the torrent itself) yet the status bar stays at 0%. I have found that right clicking on the torrent and selecting verify will help fill the status bar in increments.. Most recent was a 170MB torrent which showed a downloaded amount of 3GB and by verifying it 10 times I got it from 0% to 100%