*arr stack

The *arr stack is  a suite of self-hosted apps to automate and manage your media library (eg Plex/Jellyfin).

Features

  • Manage media library
  • Import existing media library
  • Add new content
  • Track newly released content
  • Find missing content
  • Upgrade low quality content

Apps

  • qBittorent
    • Torrent client, manages the download of your content
    • ALWAYS use a VPN when torrenting. A VPN with port-forwarding (like AirVPN) is recommended if you are joining private trackers
    • Docker compose
  • Prowlarr
    • Manages indexers for all your apps
    • Indexer = torrent site
    • Some are public (eg 1337x, YTS), some are private and require an account (eg DigitalCore, ULCX)
    • Some, like 1337x, require a “flaresolver” to bypass Cloudflare authentication 
  • Sonarr
    • Automates the collection of TV Shows
    • Uses the RSS feeds from trackers, compared to the status of your content. If a missing/better quality file is found, it is grabbed
    • Note: you can force Sonarr to search for content (eg Specific show/episode, all missing, cutoff unmet), but it will not do so automatically, only the RSS feed. So you may want to trigger manual scans periodically, especially if you have a lot of missing/low quality files or older content that isn't getting new updates)
  • Radarr
    • Automates the collection of Movies
    • Operates exactly like Sonarr
  • Lidarr
    • Automates the collection of Musical Artists
    • Operates exactly like Sonarr/Radarr
  • Bazarr
    • Automates subtitles download and sync
    • Connects to Radarr/Sonarr to manage subtitles for content in those 2 apps
    • Manages its own sources, does not use Prowlarr
  • Lidatube
    • Companion to Lidarr
    • Gets list of content missing in Lidarr, searches and downloads via YouTube instead of Torrent
    • Honestly torrenting is meh for music, so this helps fill in the gaps 
    • Docker Compose
  • Overseer
    • User friendly requests page
    • Connect to Radarr/Sonarr
    • Allows users to request new movies/tv that will automatically be added to Radarr/Sonarr (and then Plex)
  • Declutarr
    • Manages stalled/rejected downloads 
    • If a torrent is stalled for too long, it will automatically remove it and trigger your app (Radarr/Sonarr/Lidarr) to search for a new source
    • If a download is refected by Radarr/Sonarr/Lidarr, it will remove the file from the import queue and trigger a new search
    • Cool settings include: 
      • REMOVE_TIMER: how often to check downloads. If a download is stalled when checked, it gets a “strike”
      • PERMITTED_ATTEMPTS: how many “strikes” a stalled download gets before it is considered “dead” and removed
      • RUN_PERIODIC_RESCANS: trigger a manual scan for all content (as opposed to waiting for RSS)
      • FAILED_IMPORT_MESSAGE_PATTERNS: patterns in the error msg of failed imports from Radarr/Sonarr/Lidarr. Any failed import matching these patterns will be remove, other patterns will be kept (you need to manage the kept ones manually, can be useful for situations like Lidarr not matching the album automatically and needing manual matching)
    • Docker Compose 
  • Tdarr
    • Automates re-encoding of video files
    • A common use case (and what I use it for) is compressing all video files to HEVC/h.265, in order to free up storage space without losing quality 
    • HEVC can store the same quality as h.264 but uses only half the storage space
  • Wizarr
    • Share access to your plex server with friends
    • Create an invite link and invite code that friends can use to adopt your plex server to their plex account
    • Docker Compose

Profiles/Quality Settings

Quality of content in your *arr apps is determined by the profiles. Profiles are collections of acceptable quality formats. When a monitored item (eg movie) is assigned a profile, the app will only download a file if it's quality settings are included in the profile. You can also set your profile to “upgrade until”, meaning if a better quality setting file becomes available later, the app will replace your existing file with the better one, up to your limit. 

Here are the profiles I use in my apps (qualities listed best→worst):

  • Radarr/Sonarr
    • Prfile: Any (upgrade until WEB 1080p): default
      • Bluray-1080p
      • WEB 1080p
      • HDTV-1080p
      • Bluray-720p
      • WEB 720p
      • HDTV-720p
      • Bluray-576p
      • Bluray-480p
      • WEB 480p
      • DVD-R
      • DVD
      • SDTV
    • Profile: HD-720p (upgrade until WEB 720p): for older/animated shows, to save space
      • Bluray-720p
      • WEB 720p
      • HDTV-720p
      • Bluray-576p
      • Bluray-480p
      • WEB 480p
      • DVD-R
      • DVD
      • SDTV
    • Profile: Ultra-HD (upgrade until WEB 2160p): for important content I want in 4k
      • Bluray-2160p
      • WEB 2160p
      • HDTV 2160p
      • Remux-1080p
      • Bluray-1080p
      • WEB 1080p
      • HDTV-1080p
  • Lidarr
    • Profile: Any (upgrade until High Quality Lossy): default
      • Lossless (FLAC)
      • High Quality Lossy (MP3 320 kb/s or higher)
      • Mid Quality Lossy (MP3 256 kb/s)
      • Low Quality Lossy (MP3 192-224 kb/s)
  • Bazarr
    • Subtitles do not have “quality”, they either match the content or not
    • In Bazarr, profiles refer to the languages it will find subtitles for
    • Profile: Mixed
      • EN (English)
      • FR (French)
      • EA (Spanish, Latin America)
  • Lidatube
    • Lidatube does not have profiles, as it downloads all content from YouTube
    • I have found most of the files it adds fall under Lidarr's “High Quality Lossy” quality setting, so plenty good enough
  • Tdarr
    • Tdarr uses “flows” to determine what is does to your content
    • My flow (in order):
      • Drpeppershaker Extract Embedded Subtitles
      • Migz Remove Image Formats From File
      • Lmg1 Reorder Streams
      • Migz Transcode Using CPU & FFMPEG
      • New File Size Check
    • Walkthrough of flow:
      • Extract embedded subtitles to external .srt files so they don't get lost during re-encode
      • Re-encode to hevc using CPU (GPU is faster, but quality is noticeably lower and the files are not much smaller than the source, so it's not worth it IMO)
      • Replace original file
    • Additional settings:
      • Resolutions to skip: 480p,576p
        • lower resolution content will not benefit, and the files are small anyway 
        • I used to also skip 720p, but then Survivor started downloading 720p episodes that were 4gb each, which is ridiculous for that small of a resolution (5+gb is normal 4k episode, 1-2gb 1080p in my opinion)
      • Codecs to skip: av1,hevc
        • AV1 is already more efficient than hevc, so it does not need to be re-encoded
        • Obviously don't waste time on files that are already hevc

Others

There are other apps/tools in the *arr ecosystem, but I am not using these for some reason or another. 

  • Readarr
    • Same as Sonarr/Radarr/Lidarr, but for books
    • Does not work well at all. Frankly it's garbage
    • Getting books through torrents is not easy, matching books to downloads is not easy, the whole thing is a mess
    • Honestly just go to libgen and search/download epub files manually, it's easier
  • Whisparr
    • Same as Sonarr/etc but for porn
    • Bruh what who needs to automate local porn collections??
  • Autobrr
    • Allows *arr apps to get new torrents from IRC instead of RSS
    • In theory this is faster/better than RSS, but not all torrent sites/trackers provide IRC, and I was not able to get it working for the ones I have that do support it
  • Jellyseer
    • Overseer but for Jellyfin instead of Plex
  • WicklowWolf
    • creator with a ton of useful *arr companion apps (LidaTube is one I use from this dev)
    • Github
  • Etc
    • There are many more apps that use the *arr naming, but the ones on this page are the ones that I use/am aware of