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====== Sonarr – General Configuration Guide ======

**Purpose:**  
Sonarr manages automated TV series acquisition and lifecycle management in this environment. The goal is not cinephile perfection or archival remuxes, but **efficient, reliable, highly watchable media** that scales cleanly across large libraries.

This environment prioritizes:
  * Reasonable file sizes
  * Broad playback compatibility
  * Minimal manual intervention
  * Predictable automation behavior

High quality is important — **excess is not**.

---

===== Installation Overview =====

Sonarr is installed **natively on the Automation / Acquisition VM**.

  * Installed from official Sonarr repositories
  * Runs as a dedicated service user
  * Integrated with Prowlarr for indexers
  * Integrated with qBittorrent for downloads

Containerization is intentionally avoided to keep filesystem paths simple and predictable.

---

===== Media Management =====

**Enable:**
  * Rename Episodes
  * Replace Illegal Characters
  * Episode Title Required: Always
  * Analyse Video Files
  * Use Hardlinks Instead of Copy
  * Propers and Repacks: Prefer and Upgrade
  * Rescan Series Folder After Refresh: Always
  * Unmonitor Deleted Episodes

**Disable:**
  * Create Empty Series Folders
  * Delete Empty Folders
  * Import Extra Files
  * Skip Free Space Check

**Minimum Free Space:**  
  * 100 MB

---

===== Naming Configuration =====

All naming formats are intentionally simple and Plex-safe.

==== File Naming Convention ====

**Standard Episodes:**  
%%{Series Title} - {Air-Date} - {Episode Title} {Quality Full}%%\\ 
**Daily Episodes:**
%%{Series Title} - {Air-Date} - {Episode Title} {Quality Full}%%\\ 
**Anime Episodes:**
%%{Series Title} - S{season:00}E{episode:00} - {Episode Title} {Quality Full}%%\\ 

==== Folder Naming Convention ====

**Series Folder:**
%%{Series Title} ({Series Year})%%\\ 
**Season Folder:**
%%Season {season}%%\\ 
**Specials Folder:**
Specials
\\ 
\\ 
**Multi-Episode Style:** Prefixed Range
\\ 
\\ 

This structure ensures:
  * Plex compatibility
  * Easy human readability
  * Safe upgrades and replacements

---

===== Quality Philosophy =====

This environment explicitly avoids:
  * Remuxes
  * Disc images
  * Full UHD pipelines
  * Upscaled or padded releases

A clean 1080p WEB or Bluray encode is the **practical upper bound**.

---

===== Quality Profile =====

**Create ONE profile only. Remove all others.**

**Profile Name:**  
  * All Acceptable

**Upgrades:**  
  * Enabled  
  * Upgrade Until: HDTV-1080p

---

===== Enabled Qualities =====

^ Quality ^ Enabled ^
| Bluray-1080p | Yes |
| WEB 1080p | Yes |
| HDTV-1080p | Yes |
| Bluray-720p | Yes |
| WEB 720p | Yes |
| HDTV-720p | Yes |

---

===== Disabled Qualities =====

^ Quality ^ Enabled ^
| Bluray-2160p Remux | No |
| Bluray-2160p | No |
| WEB 2160p | No |
| HDTV-2160p | No |
| Bluray-1080p Remux | No |
| DVD | No |
| SDTV | No |
| Raw-HD | No |
| Unknown | No |

---

===== Quality Size Limits =====

These limits are **critical** to enforcing efficiency.

^ Quality ^ Max Size ^
| 720p HDTV / WEB | 600 MiB per hour |
| 1080p HDTV / WEB | 1.4 GiB per hour |
| 1080p Bluray | 1.4 GiB per hour |
 see
All 4K and Remux qualities are effectively blocked by both **quality disablement** and **custom format penalties**.

---

===== Custom Format Scoring =====

Scoring is based on information from TRaSH Guides, though the scores are intentionally modified to fit our use case in lieu of building archive quality libraries.

**Positive Scores:**
  * **WEB Tier 01:** 1000
  * **WEB Tier 02:** 750
  * **WEB Tier 03:** 500
  * **WEB Scene:** 400
  * **Repack v3:** 100
  * **Repack v2:** 75
  * **Repack / Proper:** 50

**Negative / Blocked Scores:**
  * **LQ:** -100
  * **LQ (Release Title):** -100
  * **BR-DISK:** -10000
  * **Extras:** -10000
  * **Upscaled:** -10000

**Minimum Custom Format Score:**  
  * **500**

---

===== Release Profile =====

**Single hard-block release profile:**

  * Name: Hard Block
  * Enabled: Yes
  * Must Not Contain: MeGusta
  * Indexer: Any

This acts as a final safety net against known low-quality encodes.

---

===== Indexers =====

Sonarr does **not** manage indexers directly.

  * All indexers are provided by **Prowlarr**
  * Jackett supplements unsupported edge cases
  * Sonarr indexer logic remains minimal by design

---

===== Download Client =====

qBittorrent is recommended.

**Completed Download Handling:**
  * Enable: Yes
  * Redownload Failed: Yes
  * Redownload Failed (Interactive): Yes

---

===== Operational Notes =====

  * Unmanic is responsible for post-download optimization.
  * Size limits and scoring are intentional, not conservative.
  * This configuration is designed to run unattended for long periods.

If Sonarr is drawing your attention frequently, something upstream is misconfigured.

---

This page documents a **real-world, production Sonarr configuration**, not a theoretical ideal.