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Getting started · Chapter 7

Connecting download clients.

nexcrate does not download itself, it passes the jobs on to a download client. For Usenet that is SABnzbd or NZBGet, for torrents qBittorrent, Transmission or Deluge. nexcrate fetches the NZB or torrent file from the indexer itself and hands over only the file, so no client ever sees an indexer key. It keeps its downloads apart under a category of its own, nexcrate out of the box.

Adding a client

  1. “Add client”

    Open “Settings › Download clients” and choose “Add client”. If you have Radarr, Sonarr or Lidarr, “Fetch from Radarr, Sonarr or Lidarr” sits next to it. That takes address and settings from the connection. Keys and passwords are not handed out by those programs, so you type them yourself.

  2. Program and address

    Choose the “Program”, give it a “Name” and enter the “Address” where you open it in the browser, with port, such as http://sabnzbd.example.com:8080.

  3. Credentials

    Depending on the program an “API key”, or “User name” and “Password”. What each program needs is further down.

  4. Category and priority

    Leave the “Category” at nexcrate. nexcrate creates it if it does not exist yet. The “Priority” runs from 1 to 50: with several clients for Usenet or for torrents, nexcrate asks the one with the lowest number first.

  5. Save

    When you save, nexcrate tests the connection and creates the category. Afterwards the card says “Ready” or, if something is wrong, “Error” and the last error in plain words.

Settings › Download clients
The download clients as cards, with the retention nexcrate read from the news servers on SABnzbd and NZBGet
Every client has a card. For Usenet it shows the retention nexcrate read by itself.

For Usenet, nexcrate reads the retention of the news servers from SABnzbd and NZBGet. A release older than the longest retention is left out. You enter nothing for that.

What each program needs first

  • SABnzbd needs the API key, not the NZB key. You find it in SABnzbd under “Config, General”. If SABnzbd refuses the host name nexcrate uses to reach it, add that name in SABnzbd under “Config, Special” to host_whitelist, or use the IP address.
  • NZBGet needs user and password from its settings under “Settings, Security”, that is ControlUsername and ControlPassword. NZBGet takes any category and files downloads below its destination folder under that name.
  • qBittorrent needs the user name and password of the web interface. After five failed logins qBittorrent blocks the address. So nexcrate only logs in again when you save or test. If it has happened anyway, release nexcrate's address in qBittorrent again.
  • Transmission only lets in addresses from its rpc-whitelist. Add nexcrate's address there or switch the list off. Without a login, leave user name and password empty.
  • Deluge knows only the password of the web interface, no user name. nexcrate switches on the Label plugin that comes with it itself and adds the label.

When the client sees the folders differently

Your download client may see the same folder under another path than nexcrate, such as /data instead of /media. That is the rule with containers. nexcrate notices at the first finished download and asks you once.

  1. The download waits

    The first finished download is under “Downloads” in the tab “Problems”, with the path the client reports (“SABnzbd reports”).

  2. Choose the mapping

    If nexcrate found the folder in one place below its own folders, it suggests the mapping. If it finds it in several places, it lists them all under “Found in these places”, and you take the right one with “This one”. If the search stopped before it had looked through all folders, you choose the folder yourself.

  3. Found nowhere

    Then the download folder is most likely not mounted in the nexcrate container. Add it as a volume in the compose file, restart the container and try again. When the files come later, from a seedbox for example, nexcrate looks again every few minutes for two days and files them once they are complete.

The mapping then applies to every further download of that client. On the card it stands under “Path mappings” (“nexcrate looks under” on one side, what the client reports on the other), and from there it can be removed again. The chapter Downloads goes into the problem cards in more detail.

Removing finished torrents

A torrent stays in the client for as long as it is shared. The goal for that is set at the indexer, see Indexers. The switch “Remove finished torrents” on the client says what happens afterwards, and it is on for every new torrent client.

Once a torrent is imported and has reached its seed goal, nexcrate removes it from the client together with its files in the download folder. The file in your library stays, because it is a hardlink, and nothing inside a media folder is ever deleted. If you would rather tidy up yourself, switch the switch off on the client. The card then says “stay in the client”.

Good to knowIf your qBittorrent removes torrents at its own limit (Settings, BitTorrent, Seeding Limits), a torrent can be gone before nexcrate imported it. Set the action in qBittorrent to “Stop torrent” and let nexcrate remove them. In that case nexcrate stops its own torrents so the import loses nothing, and says so on the card.

Testing and switching off

“Test connection” on the card asks the client and shows the version and category. If you switch a client off (untick “Switched on”), it gets no new downloads. Removing it works once it has no open download left: none in the client, none being imported and none under “Problems”. Nothing changes in the client itself, and the category stays too.

The media server, which should hear about new files, comes next: Media servers.