Sonarr Settings Explained: Every Option, Tuned for a Seedbox
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This is a setting-by-setting reference for Sonarr v4 as installed on an EvoSeedbox: every tab under Settings, what each option does, its default, and the value that makes sense on a seedbox where Sonarr, rTorrent and Plex share one disk and one home directory. Labels and help text were taken from the running app (with Show Advanced on) so they match what you see. If you have not connected Sonarr to rTorrent and Prowlarr yet, start with the Sonarr setup guide; this page is for tuning it afterwards.
Two conventions below. “Default” is what a fresh install ships with. “Seedbox” is our recommendation for the EvoSeedbox layout, where downloads live in /home/USERNAME/downloads, the media library is a subfolder of it, and nothing is transferred over a network.
Media Management
Episode Naming
| Setting | What it does | Default | Seedbox |
|---|---|---|---|
| Rename Episodes | Rename files on import using the formats below. Off keeps the release name. | On | On. Plex and Jellyfin match renamed files far more reliably. |
| Replace Illegal Characters | Swap characters a filesystem rejects (: ? *) for safe ones instead of deleting them. |
On | On. Windows SFTP clients choke on the raw characters. |
| Colon Replacement | Which character replaces a colon: delete, dash, space-dash, space-dash-space, or smart. | Smart Replace | Space Dash Space, so “Show: Subtitle” becomes “Show – Subtitle”. |
| Standard Episode Format | Token template for normal series. Tokens in braces; the preview under the field updates live. | {Series Title} - S{season:00}E{episode:00} - {Episode Title} {Quality Full} |
Add {MediaInfo VideoCodec} and [{Custom Formats}] if you want the codec and formats visible in the name. |
| Daily Episode Format | Template for date-based series (talk shows, news). | {Series Title} - {Air-Date} - {Episode Title} {Quality Full} |
Keep. |
| Anime Episode Format | Template for series set to type Anime; supports {absolute:000}. |
Standard plus absolute number and {Release Group} |
Keep. Absolute numbers are what anime players and Plex’s anime agents expect. |
| Series Folder Format | Folder created for a new series. | {Series Title} |
{Series TitleYear}. The year disambiguates remakes for Plex and Jellyfin. |
| Season Folder Format | Subfolder per season. | Season {season:00} |
Keep. |
| Specials Folder Format | Folder for season 0. | Specials |
Keep. |
| Multi Episode Style | How a file holding several episodes is numbered: Extend (S01E01-02), Duplicate, Repeat, Scene, Range, Prefixed Range. | Extend | Extend. |
Folders and Importing
| Setting | What it does | Default | Seedbox |
|---|---|---|---|
| Create Empty Series Folders | Make the series folder as soon as a series is added, even with no files. | On | On. Plex sees the show immediately. |
| Delete Empty Folders | Remove empty series and season folders after deletes and rescans. | On | On. |
| Episode Title Required | Hold an import for up to 48 hours when the naming format includes the title and TheTVDB still lists it as TBA. | Always | Only for Bulk Season Releases. Otherwise a new episode sits unimported while the title is missing. |
| Skip Free Space Check | Ignore free-space detection failures on the root folder. | Off | Off. Quotas report correctly on our servers. |
| Minimum Free Space (MB) | Refuse an import that would leave less than this free. | 100 | 20000. Leaves room for rTorrent to finish other downloads and for Plex transcodes. |
| Use Hardlinks instead of Copy | Import a still-seeding file as a hardlink, so the library copy costs no extra disk and seeding continues. | On | On, always. This is why the library must be a subfolder of the same home directory: hardlinks cannot cross filesystems. |
| Import Using Script | Run a script instead of copying, for example to transcode. | Off | Off. |
| Import Extra Files | Bring subtitle, nfo and other sidecar files along with the episode. | Off | On with srt,sub,idx if you rely on bundled subtitles; leave off if Bazarr handles subtitles. |
File Management
| Setting | What it does | Default | Seedbox |
|---|---|---|---|
| Unmonitor Deleted Episodes | Stop monitoring an episode whose file was deleted from disk outside Sonarr. | On | Off if you delete watched episodes to save space but want re-downloads later; On if a delete should be final. |
| Propers and Repacks | Whether a PROPER or REPACK re-release replaces the existing file: Prefer and Upgrade, Do not Upgrade Automatically, Do not Prefer. | Prefer and Upgrade | Do not Prefer if you score releases with custom formats, so the score decides. |
| Analyse video files | Read resolution, codec and runtime from the file on import. | On | On. Needed for MediaInfo naming tokens and custom formats that match on media info. |
| Rescan Series Folder after Refresh | Whether a metadata refresh also rescans the disk: Always, After Manual Refresh, Never. | Always | After Manual Refresh. A full rescan of a large library every 12 hours is disk work for nothing. |
| Change File Date | Set the file’s modified date to the air date or the UTC air date. | None | None, unless a player sorts by file date. |
| Recycling Bin | Folder that receives deleted files instead of permanent deletion. | Empty | /home/USERNAME/downloads/.recycle. Deleted files count against your quota until cleanup. |
| Recycling Bin Cleanup (days) | Age at which bin contents are purged; 0 disables. | 7 | 3. Quota is the scarce resource. |
Permissions (Set Permissions, chmod Folder, chown Group) should stay off. All apps on your seedbox run as your own user, so there is nothing to fix, and a wrong chmod here is a classic way to make Plex unable to read a folder.
Root Folders: keep them inside /home/USERNAME/downloads. A second root folder is useful for a separate anime or kids library; a root folder on a cloud mount breaks hardlinks and makes every import a full copy.
Profiles
| Setting | What it does | Seedbox |
|---|---|---|
| Upgrades Allowed | Whether Sonarr replaces a file when a better quality or score appears. | On, with a cutoff below (Upgrade Until), otherwise it never stops. |
| Upgrade Until | The quality at which upgrading stops. | Bluray-1080p for HD, WEBDL-2160p for 4K unless you have several TB free. |
| Minimum Custom Format Score | A release below this total is rejected outright. | 0 to start; raise it after you have negative formats for cams, dubs and bad groups. |
| Upgrade Until Custom Format Score | Stop score-based upgrades once this total is reached. | The sum of the formats you actually care about, typically 100 to 200. |
| Qualities | Tick the allowed qualities and drag to rank; qualities dragged into one group count as equal. | Group WEBDL and WEBRip of the same resolution so Sonarr does not re-download for no gain. |
| Language (release profile) | Language filter for releases. | Original unless you want dubs. |
Delay Profiles let you wait a number of minutes before grabbing, so a better release has time to appear, and prefer Usenet or torrents when both exist. On a torrent-only seedbox set Preferred Protocol to Torrent with 0 delay; if you also run SABnzbd or NZBGet, prefer Usenet with a 60-minute torrent delay to give the faster source first chance. Release Profiles hold must-contain and must-not-contain words and were the pre-v4 way to prefer release groups; new setups should express those preferences as custom formats instead. The copy-ready profiles are in the quality profiles guide.
Quality
Each quality has a minimum, preferred and maximum size in megabytes per minute. A release outside the range is rejected even if the profile allows the quality, which is the usual reason Sonarr “ignores” a good release. Seedbox values that work: 720p 10 to 50, 1080p 20 to 120, 2160p 50 to 250, Remux qualities 100 and up. Push the 1080p maximum down to 80 on a 1 TB plan.
Custom Formats
| Setting | What it does | Seedbox |
|---|---|---|
| Name | Label shown in profiles and, optionally, file names. | Match the community (TRaSH) names so imported JSON lines up. |
| Include Custom Format when Renaming | Adds the format to the {Custom Formats} naming token. |
On only for formats you want visible, such as HDR type. |
| Conditions | Release title regex, source, resolution, language, release group, size, indexer flag, quality modifier. Each can be negated or made required. | Import the TRaSH JSON for HDR, audio and unwanted formats rather than typing regexes. |
Formats do nothing until a profile gives them a score. The scoring rules and a starter set are in the quality profiles guide.
Indexers
| Setting | What it does | Seedbox |
|---|---|---|
| Enable RSS / Automatic Search / Interactive Search | Which of the three search paths may use this indexer. | All on. Turn RSS off for a slow or rate-limited tracker and leave searches on. |
| Categories / Anime Categories | Torznab category IDs the indexer is asked for. | Managed by Prowlarr. Empty anime categories means no anime from that indexer. |
| Minimum Seeders | Reject releases with fewer seeders. | 3 for public trackers, 1 for private. |
| Seed Ratio / Seed Time / Season-Pack Seed Time | Per-indexer seeding targets passed to rTorrent; empty uses the client default. | Set the private tracker’s rule (for example ratio 1.0 or 72 hours) so Sonarr never asks rTorrent to stop early. |
| Reject Blocklisted Torrent Hashes While Grabbing | Re-check blocklisted hashes at grab time. | On. |
| Indexer Priority | 1 (highest) to 50; tiebreaker between otherwise equal releases. | Private trackers 10, public 30. |
| Maximum Single Episode Age | During a full season search only allow season packs when the last episode is older than this many days; 0 disables. | 30. Older seasons come as packs; singles are for currently airing shows. |
| Download Client / Tags | Pin this indexer to one client or to tagged series. | Empty unless you run two rTorrents. |
Options: Minimum Age (minutes) and Retention (days) apply to Usenet only. Maximum Size (MB) is a global ceiling; 0 is unlimited, and a value around 15000 stops a stray remux from filling a small plan. RSS Sync Interval defaults to 15 minutes; do not go below 10, private trackers ban aggressive RSS polling.
Download Clients
| Setting | What it does | Seedbox |
|---|---|---|
| Host, Port, Use SSL, Url Path | Where rTorrent’s XML-RPC endpoint lives. | Your server name, 443, SSL on, /rutorrent/plugins/httprpc/action.php. |
| Category | Label rTorrent applies to Sonarr’s torrents. | tv (or sonarr). Keeps ruTorrent views and Autotools rules clean. |
| Post-Import Category | Label switched on after import; torrents with it are never removed by Sonarr. | tv-imported if you want seeding torrents visibly separated. |
| Directory | Override rTorrent’s download directory for this client. | Empty; rTorrent’s default is already inside your home. |
| Recent Priority / Older Priority | rTorrent priority for episodes aired within 14 days versus older ones. | Recent High, Older Normal. |
| Add Stopped | Add torrents paused. | Off. It breaks magnet links. |
| Client Priority | 1 to 50, round-robin between equal clients. | 1. |
| Setting | What it does | Seedbox |
|---|---|---|
| Enable (Completed Download Handling) | Import finished downloads automatically. | On. |
| Remove Completed | Remove the torrent from rTorrent after import. | Off. Removing kills seeding and breaks tracker ratio; hardlinks already give the library its copy. |
| Check For Finished Downloads Interval | How often the queue is polled, in minutes. | 1. |
| Failed Download Handling: Redownload | Grab another release when one fails. | On. |
| Remove (failed) | Remove failed torrents from the client. | On. |
Remote Path Mappings stay empty when both apps run on the seedbox. They are needed only for Sonarr running at home or on a NAS; see remote path mapping explained.
Import Lists
Lists add series automatically from Trakt, IMDb, Plex watchlists, Simkl, Sonarr’s own lists or another Sonarr. Each list sets its own quality profile, root folder, monitor mode and series type; keep those the same as your manual defaults. Clean Library Level decides what happens when a series drops off a list: Disabled (keep), Log Only, Keep and Unmonitor, or Keep and Tag. Use Keep and Unmonitor; never let a list delete files on a seedbox. Import List Exclusions is where a series you removed by hand goes so the list cannot re-add it.
Connect
Each connection fires on chosen events: On Grab, On Import, On Upgrade, On Rename, On Series Delete, On Episode File Delete, On Health Issue, On Application Update. The useful ones on a seedbox are Plex Media Server (updates the library section instantly after import, so you do not wait for a scan), Discord or Telegram for grabs and imports, Custom Script for anything you automate yourself, and Webhook for the Dashboarr backend or Liteflow. Tick Include Health Warnings on one connection so indexer failures reach you.
Metadata
Kodi/Emby writes tvshow.nfo, episode NFOs and images next to the files; Roksbox and WDTV are legacy. Enable Kodi/Emby only if Jellyfin, Emby or Kodi read your library; Plex ignores NFOs and the extra files count against quota. Under Metadata Source you can set the TheTVDB language.
Tags
A tag is a label applied to series, and every indexer, download client, connection, release profile and import list can be restricted to tagged series. Auto Tagging applies tags by rule: series type, genre, root folder, original language, status or year. Typical seedbox use: tag anime by series type and route it to an anime-only indexer and a separate root folder.
General
| Setting | What it does | Seedbox |
|---|---|---|
| Bind Address / Port Number | Interface and port Sonarr listens on inside its container. | Leave. The installer maps the port and the HTTPS address in your client area depends on it. |
| URL Base | Path prefix for reverse proxies. | Empty. Our proxy gives each app its own port, not a subpath. |
| Instance Name | Browser tab title and syslog name. | “Sonarr 4K” on a second instance so tabs are distinguishable. |
| Application URL | External URL used in notifications and by Seerr links. | Your HTTPS app address from the client area. |
| Enable SSL | Sonarr’s own TLS. | Off. TLS terminates at our proxy. |
| Setting | What it does | Seedbox |
|---|---|---|
| Authentication | Forms (login page) or Basic. | Forms. |
| Authentication Required | Enabled everywhere, or disabled for local addresses. | Enabled. “Local” is meaningless behind our proxy. |
| Username / Password | The web login. | Set by the installer; change it here after changing your seedbox password. |
| API Key | The key Prowlarr, Bazarr, Seerr and Dashboarr use. | Regenerate if it ever leaks, then update every app that holds it. |
| Certificate Validation | How strictly HTTPS certificates of indexers and clients are checked. | Enabled. Our certificates are publicly trusted. |
| Setting | What it does | Seedbox |
|---|---|---|
| Proxy | Route Sonarr’s outbound traffic through an HTTP or SOCKS proxy. | Off. |
| Log Level / Log Size Limit | Verbosity and rotation size. | Info, 1 MB. Switch to Debug only while diagnosing, then back; logs live on your quota. |
| Send Anonymous Usage Data | Analytics to Sonarr’s developers. | Your choice. |
| Updates: Branch / Automatic / Mechanism | Release branch and self-update. | main, Automatic off, Docker. Updates come with the container image; use the client area’s update action. |
| Backups: Folder / Interval / Retention | Where and how often Sonarr zips its database and config. | Backups, 7 days, 28 days. Download one from System → Backup before big changes. |
UI
First Day of Week and Week Column Header shape the calendar; Short and Long Date Format and Time Format follow your locale; Show Relative Dates shows “Yesterday” instead of a date. Theme offers Auto, Light and Dark, and Enable Color-Impaired Mode changes the status colours. UI Language changes the interface only, not metadata language, which lives under Metadata.
Settings that are not under Settings
- Series → Edit / Mass Edit: quality profile, series type, season folders and root folder per series; changing a profile here is what makes the new profile take effect.
- System → Tasks: intervals for RSS sync, refresh and housekeeping, with a run-now button.
- System → Backup: manual backup and restore.
- Activity → Blocklist: releases you never want again; a bad release is blocklisted from the queue with “Blocklist and Search”.
FAQ
Which settings should every seedbox user change from the defaults?
Series Folder Format to include the year, Minimum Free Space to a few GB, Rescan Series Folder to After Manual Refresh, a Recycling Bin with a short cleanup, Episode Title Required to Bulk Season Releases only, and Remove Completed left off.
Does changing a setting affect existing files?
Naming changes apply on the next rename (Series → Rename Files); profile changes apply after you assign the profile and search. Nothing is re-downloaded by merely saving a setting.
Where is the config file?
config.xml in Sonarr’s config folder holds the port, URL base, API key and authentication; everything else is in the SQLite database. Both are included in the automatic backups.
Related: Sonarr setup on a seedbox · Quality profiles and custom formats · Remote path mapping · Sonarr in Dashboarr
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Put this into practice
EvoSeedbox ships with one-click app installs and up to 10 Gbps per box.
