I constantly see people who don't know what Radarr and the like are, so this is a general overview of programs for automation, what they do, and how they can help you. This will not be a guide to installing and configuring, there's plenty of those out there. I will cover a few common misunderstandings/pitfalls/tips however.
Essential apps:
- Radarr - example (alternatively, Couchpotato)
- Sonarr - example (alt. Sickrage)
- Torrent client of your choosing, which mostly depends on your OS, I've use both rutorrent and Deluge, and/or nzbget/sabnzbd for usenet
This is all you need to get started.
Radarr and Sonarr (Pirates say what? Arr!) both work similarly, Radarr is actually a fork of Sonarr. They work by monitoring the latest uploads on your indexers and trackers. They regularly fetch lists every hour (15 mins for Sonarr) of the latest uploaded videos to your sites, and then cross check that with your monitored series and movies, check quality, size, and if it matches, it will download it automatically for you. It can also rename and move/copy them to their final destination. When you add a movie or series to Radarr or Sonarr, it does not automatically go out and search (exceptions noted later). It simply adds it to your monitored list, and it will watch for future uploads. These are just tools, you still need to add/find your own sources.
A few notes for a better experience
Under indexer options, you can set the availability delay. -28 means it will start grabbing files 28 days before retail release, if you choose physical/web as your min availability when adding your movies (and you should). This will severely cut down on the amount of fakes and wrong files, while still allowing for early releases, which happen frequently.
In Radarr, when adding the movie, instead of clicking the add (plus sign) button, you can click the magnifying glass button (example), this will add and do an active search. If nothing is found, it will continue monitoring for uploads.
You can also go to the wanted tab at the top, and filter by released, or sort by various options (example). You can also just check off movies, or just search all here. There is also a cutoff unmet, which will show all files that have not met the cutoff (explained below), like DVD copies with no Bluray release yet.
In the quality profiles, you have the ability to set a cutoff (example), eg don't download any higher qualities. My cutoff here is Bluray 720p, it will stop downloading once it has acquired at least a 720p, though it will prefer 1080p since it's higher in the list. It will download a WebDL or HDTV copy, but since it doesn't meet the cutoff, it will upgrade until it has a file that meets the cutoff. You can set a delay if you want it to wait a bit instead of downloading multiple copies. Once it finds a file that meets the cutoff, it will ignore the delay profile and immediately download. This means you could set the delay to 2 weeks to avoid WebDLs for imminent Bluray releases, while still getting the bluray encodes immediately since it will bypass the delay. This is also good for Sonarr, to avoid downloading HDTV just to re-download WebDL.
Lists. Radarr can pull movies from lists; IMDB, Trakt, and other sources are available. StevenLu is also a very good list, it's a bot that uses an algorithm to find the best movies in the cinema, so you'll automatically be on top of the hottest releases. Movies added via lists will be searched for automatically upon adding if enable sync is set to yes. Trakt also has some good lists, such as top watched by week, box office, etc.
Don't just automate downloading movies, automate which movies get downloaded! Pretty awesome.
They also support many different types of notifications, so you can get notifications directly to your phone/discord/etc for all, or just a choice few. I notify with all movies since that's not all that frequent, and use tags to notify for certain TV shows to make sure I don't miss it.
So what would your flow look like? Simple, you have lists like StevenLu's, TraktTopWatchedByWeek with ratings limit that automatically add movies to be monitored/searched, Radarr downloads it when available, renames, moves it, Emby/Plex pick it up and add it to your library along with metadata and images. And you even get a push notification to your phone when it's available, all you need to do is watch it.
Extra Apps:
These are apps that are not necessary, but solve various issues, and help you go above and beyond. If you want to, start small, setup the above, and as time goes on, add these in to streamline your experience.
Kodi - example
Is a great interface that presents your media in a pleasing way. Greatly customizable, and relatively simple to setup.
Plex/Emby - example
Kind of similar to Kodi, it allows for an amazing interface, along with apps available on most devices, but does so much more. Centralized metadata management, synced watched status, streaming outside the home, transcoding if the device can't handle the media, you can even setup your family with accounts to watch your stuff from their place.
Unraid/FreeNAS - example
File server software, if you want to run a homemade NAS, this is your jam. I run Unraid, all these apps are running in docker containers there. It's nice to get all the apps that need to run 24/7 off your main computer. Also some redundancy for the inevitable drive loss.
Ombi/PlexRequests - example
A simple, easy to use interface that allows for others to request content which is directly added to Radarr/Sonarr, you just need to approve it, auto-approve is also available. Even has suggestions, and a report issue function! Much cleaner solution than giving people access to Radarr directly, or bugging you personally about some random movie. I even use this for myself, it's faster and less clicks than Radarr.
Jackett - example Api key is fake
Allows for the addition of many more tracker sites to Radarr/Sonarr, even has a lot of the info pre-filled out for you. Also supports manual searches, very handy for searching all trackers for a specific file at once.
Hydra2 - example
Similar to Jackett, but for usenet indexers. Also supports Jackett, and has many features like statistics I've found pretty handy in my time. Can also strip redundant tags like postbot/obfuscated if you add the group name to your files like I do, it took a long time for Sonarr to strip postbot for example, it was very annoying.
NZB360 - Example
Amazing Android app, goes beyond usenet manager and supports radarr, sonarr, some torrent clients, nzbget/sabnzbd, browsing indexers, etc. Honestly would consider this a must have.
OpenVPN-AS - example (many alternatives)
Running a VPN to your home network means you can access all these services on the go, just like you are on your own network. No more using note apps, or taking pictures for later, just add them straight to radarr from your phone, and have it ready when you get there. Extremely secure, with support for SSL, certificates, and more. Free, limited to 2 connections. If you need more, a reverse proxy may be a better solution.
Organizr - example
See the tabs on the left? This is basically a landing page, keeps everything nice and contained within one window, so no more having a dozen tabs open for everything. It also does reverse proxies, this is a bit more complicated, but allows you to access your services from anywhere. Not quite as secure as a VPN, but relatively secure. You can further increase security using fail2ban and auth. Has multiple user classes so you can fine tune who has access to what, just Ombi, everything, or anything in between. Or just use it to replace all your tabs.
Bazaar - example
This is a subtitle manager. It has multiple configuration options, I try to ensure I have embedded subtitles in all my files, if not this will sync and download them automatically and place them in the same location as the media file. It even connects to Sonarr and Radarr to get the original file name if you rename your files.
Requestrr - example
This is a discord bot, it can connect to Radarr/Sonarr directly, or just Ombi. This allows you to do requests through a discord channel. Handy way to add requests on the go, and will dm you when it's been added.
I haven't personally used the below, but added on recommendation.
Additional tips:
There are torrent containers already setup for Docker that support VPN. This means the VPN will not affect the rest of your programs, like Plex which would be annoying. You can also be assured that it will not leak, and you don't need to worry about turning it on and off just to grab a file. Binhex has 2 for rtorrent and Deluge. There are others. I can't help you with setting these up, In unraid it's literally just 2 clicks and fill out a couple fields, maybe add an ovpn file to the directory.
Automating torrent management can be done with ratio groups and ratio rules. Here's an example of a ratio group that will delete a torrent after 1.5 ratio or 5 days.
Here's the ratio rule, that will put any torrent from a particular tracker into that 5 day ratio group.
Here's another that will do it by label, keep in mind both Radarr and Sonarr support adding labels to their downloads.
Using these, I have a set amount of torrents that I permaseed for private trackers, anything new that gets added gets put into ratio groups depending on tracker or label, and automatically removed after x days. I seed for way longer than 5 days, I just used that as an easy example.
These will minimize or eradicate the amount of time you spend managing torrents and your space.
Did I miss anything? Any other tools you all feel are necessary or can help? Any tips to add?
Edit: Clarified Sonarr intervals, Added Pulsarr/Lidarr/Bazarr. Added tips for automating torrents over the long term.
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