Last updated Jul 1, 2026
Troubleshooting#
Sonarr or Radarr is not importing completed downloads#
This is almost always a path or permission issue.
Check paths. Sonarr/Radarr and SABnzbd must see the same download directory. Inside their containers, /downloads must point to the same physical path on disk. If SABnzbd sees /mnt/media/downloads but Sonarr sees /downloads, the import will fail silently.
Verify in each service:
- SABnzbd: Config → Folders → Temporary Download Folder — should be inside
/downloads - Sonarr/Radarr: Settings → Download Clients → SABnzbd — check the Remote Path Mappings if needed
Check permissions. All services run as PUID=1000 PGID=1000. The download directory on the host must be writable by that UID. Check with:
ls -la /mnt/media/downloadsFix ownership if needed:
chown -R 1000:1000 /mnt/media/downloadsNothing downloads after a request in Seerr#
Check that Seerr sent the request. Go to Seerr → Requests and confirm the request appears with a status other than "Pending".
Check Sonarr or Radarr for the item. Open the movie or series in Radarr/Sonarr and check the History tab. If there is a search attempt with no result, the indexers returned nothing for that quality profile.
Loosen the quality profile. In Sonarr or Radarr, go to Settings → Quality Profiles and check whether the profile is too restrictive. If only 4K releases are allowed but none are indexed, nothing will download.
Check Prowlarr indexers. Go to Prowlarr → Indexers and run a manual search. If an indexer shows errors, your API key may have expired or the indexer site may be down.
Plex does not see new files#
Check library paths. In Plex, go to Settings → Libraries and confirm the library is pointing to the correct path (/mnt/media/movies or /mnt/media/tv).
Trigger a manual scan. Click the three dots next to a library and select Scan Library Files. If the file shows up after a manual scan but not automatically, check that the plex user in the LXC has read access to the storage path.
Check that Sonarr/Radarr is notifying Plex. In Sonarr, go to Settings → Connect and verify the Plex connection is configured and tested successfully. Radarr has the same setting.
SABnzbd downloads are stuck or failing#
Check your provider connection. Go to Config → Servers and click Test Server. If it fails, your provider may be having issues or your credentials changed.
Check your download speed. If speeds are unexpectedly low, reduce the number of connections and test again. Some providers throttle when too many connections are opened simultaneously.
Check available disk space. SABnzbd will pause downloads when disk space runs low. Check with:
df -h /mnt/media/downloadsA container is crashing or not starting#
Check logs with:
docker logs <container-name>For Plex in the LXC:
journalctl -u plexmediaserver -n 50Most startup failures are caused by a config volume that is owned by root instead of PUID=1000.
Imports are slow (copying instead of moving)#
For Usenet downloads, Sonarr and Radarr use a move (rename) during import — not hard links. Hard links are a torrent-only feature, used to keep the original file in place for seeding.
If /downloads and /mnt/media are on different filesystems, even a move falls back to copy+delete. This doubles disk I/O during import and is noticeably slower. The fix is to keep both paths on the same filesystem.
To verify how files are being handled: after a successful import, check the inode of the file in /mnt/media:
stat /mnt/media/movies/SomeMovie/SomeMovie.mkvIf the file was moved (same filesystem), the inode matches the original. If it was copied (cross-filesystem), it has a new inode.