homelab-optimized/docs/services/individual/download-priority.md

Download Priority: NZB-First / Torrent Fallback

Overview

Sonarr and Radarr are configured to exhaust all Usenet (NZB) sources before falling back to torrents. A torrent is only used if:

1. No working NZB is found, and
2. 120 minutes have elapsed since the item was first wanted

This prevents noisy torrent grabs when a perfectly good NZB exists but takes a moment to be indexed.

How It Works

Delay Profile (both Sonarr and Radarr)

Setting	Value	Reason
preferredProtocol	usenet	SABnzbd is tried first
usenetDelay	0 min	Grab NZBs immediately
torrentDelay	120 min	Wait 2 hours before allowing torrent grabs
bypassIfHighestQuality	false	Never skip the torrent delay, even for top-quality releases

bypassIfHighestQuality: false is critical. Without it, any torrent matching the highest quality tier would bypass the 120-minute wait entirely.

Download Clients

Client	Protocol	Priority	Service
SABnzbd	Usenet	1 (highest)	Sonarr + Radarr
Deluge	Torrent	50 (lower)	Sonarr + Radarr

Lower priority number = higher precedence. SABnzbd at priority 1 always wins when both protocols are eligible.

End-to-End Flow

Item goes Wanted
    │
    ▼
Sonarr/Radarr searches indexers immediately
    │
    ├─ NZB found? ──► SABnzbd downloads it ──► Done
    │
    └─ No NZB found
           │
           ▼
       Wait 120 min (torrent delay)
           │
           ▼
       Search again → Torrent found? ──► Deluge downloads it ──► Done

Failed download handling is enabled on both services: if SABnzbd reports a failed download (missing blocks, password-protected, etc.), the *arr app marks it failed and re-searches, eventually falling through to Deluge after the delay.

Configuration Details

Deluge

Deluge runs inside the gluetun VPN container (network_mode: service:gluetun), so all torrent traffic is routed through the VPN.

• Host: gluetun (Docker service name, shared network with gluetun)
• Port: 8112
• Config on Atlantis: /volume2/metadata/docker2/deluge/
• Default password: deluge (linuxserver/deluge image default)

SABnzbd

• Host: 192.168.0.200
• Port: 8080
• Categories: tv (Sonarr), movies (Radarr)

Adjusting the Torrent Delay

To change the 120-minute torrent delay via API:

Sonarr:

curl -X PUT "http://192.168.0.200:8989/api/v3/delayprofile/1" \
  -H "X-Api-Key: "REDACTED_API_KEY" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"id":1,"enableUsenet":true,"enableTorrent":true,"preferredProtocol":"usenet",
       "usenetDelay":0,"torrentDelay":120,"bypassIfHighestQuality":false,
       "bypassIfAboveCustomFormatScore":false,"minimumCustomFormatScore":0,
       "order":2147483647,"tags":[]}'

Radarr:

curl -X PUT "http://192.168.0.200:7878/api/v3/delayprofile/1" \
  -H "X-Api-Key: "REDACTED_API_KEY" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"id":1,"enableUsenet":true,"enableTorrent":true,"preferredProtocol":"usenet",
       "usenetDelay":0,"torrentDelay":120,"bypassIfHighestQuality":false,
       "bypassIfAboveCustomFormatScore":false,"minimumCustomFormatScore":0,
       "order":2147483647,"tags":[]}'

Replace 120 with any value in minutes (e.g. 0 to disable the wait, 60 for 1 hour).

Verifying the Configuration

# Check delay profiles
curl -s "http://192.168.0.200:8989/api/v3/delayprofile" \
  -H "X-Api-Key: "REDACTED_API_KEY" | python3 -m json.tool
curl -s "http://192.168.0.200:7878/api/v3/delayprofile" \
  -H "X-Api-Key: "REDACTED_API_KEY" | python3 -m json.tool

# Check download clients
curl -s "http://192.168.0.200:8989/api/v3/downloadclient" \
  -H "X-Api-Key: "REDACTED_API_KEY" | python3 -m json.tool
curl -s "http://192.168.0.200:7878/api/v3/downloadclient" \
  -H "X-Api-Key: "REDACTED_API_KEY" | python3 -m json.tool

Expected results:

• Both delay profiles: torrentDelay=120, bypassIfHighestQuality=false
• Sonarr clients: SABnzbd enable=true priority=1, Deluge enable=true priority=50
• Radarr clients: SABnzbd enable=true priority=1, Deluge enable=true priority=50

Scope

This configuration applies to Sonarr and Radarr only. Lidarr and Whisparr are out of scope.