Configuration

Retired

Notice, this guide has been retired. Please see the current guide here.
Once you have launched the main SABnzbd+ page you should have a left hand column with Home, Queue, History, DualView1/2, and Config. This is where we will spend the rest of our time in SABnzbd+.

Note: A lot of these settings depend heavily on your personal preferences and how your computer system is configured. I will provide some of the settings I use and offer recommendations based on my experiences, but you may need to adjust to taste. When in doubt reference the SABnzbd+ Wiki and Forums or post a question at SpaceMonkeyNet.org.

I will also provide links to the pages in question, these links are for the standard install as described above (non-HTTPS). So, if you’re using HTTPS, installed to a different system, or something else you’ll need to navigate manually.

General

Retired

Notice, this guide has been retired. Please see the current guide here.
On the General Config tab, I change the Web Interface to smpl – black as the white just about blinds me (I save this and restart SABnzbd+ before moving on). This is also where you can change to the Classic or Plush themes for testing.

Toward the bottom, under Tuning, for Article Cache Limit I set this to either 128M or 256M as my system has 4GB of ram and ram is much faster than the hard drive. If you have significantly less ram (less than 1GB or so) leave this blank or set to a lower value (having something here though should help to reduce the strain on the hard drive you download too).

While on the general tab be sure to note the API Key. While we will not be using it directly in this guide, it is needed for any application that interfaces with SABnzbd+ (such as Sick Beard, Couch Potato, or nzbdStatus).

If you’re finding your internet browsing speeds are hosed while SABnzbd+ is downloading and you’re regularly throttling it’s connection speeds consider setting a Download Speed Limit. Even setting this to, say 90-95% of your connection speed should prevent connection saturation and allow for a much smoother browsing experience.

The Cleanup List can help in keeping your downloaded files from getting cluttered (if you’re manually managing your downloads). But what you may want to filter all depends on what you download (and what you archive).

When in doubt I would leave this blank, or try something minimal like

.nzb, .sfv

With programs such as Sick Beard and Couch Potato this section has become less important. If need be, add the extensions of any files that you find in your downloads that you don’t want so you don’t have to manually erase them regularly.

And that’s all I do under General. Check the Wiki to see if there’s anything else you want to change. Once done, hit the Save Changes button and, if you’ve changed your theme, Restart SABnzbd+ (middle of left column). Then move on to the next section.

Folders

Retired

Notice, this guide has been retired. Please see the current guide here.
How you configure the Folders depends heavily on how your hard drives and partitions are set up. For example, I have a specific hard drive to download to. This prevents my archival disks from being overloaded while downloading and also helps to increase their reliability and dependability as I limit the amount of writing I do to them (thus reducing the chance of catastrophic errors).

Within my download’s drive I set the incomplete folder to be out of the way or hidden. You can create a hidden folder simply by putting a period in front of the folder name.

So, for example I set the Temporary Download Folder to /home/USER/Downloads/.hidden/incomplete. I then set the Completed Download Folder to /home/USER/Downloads as I have setup Ubuntu to mount my download drive in my home folder in the default Downloads location.

For the Minimum Free Space for Temporary Download Folder entry I recommend setting this to about equal to the biggest file you download. For example, if you download 20 gigabyte files regularly, set this to 20G. If you only download 5 or 10 gigabyte files then set this to 5G or 10G.

If you have a smallish Temporary Download Folder then you may get annoyed with SABnzbd+ frequently pausing. However, this is far less of an annoyance than having a large download fail on extraction due to insufficient space (at least to me).

For the Permissions for completed downloads I generally set this to 777 (which means everyone with access has read, write, and execute permissions for all downloaded files). Though, if you’re concerned with security or privacy you may want to read about filesystem permissions in octal notation and set it appropriately for your needs.

While we won’t be using it now, the Post-Processing Scripts field is where, if you’re using a program like Sick Beard, you would put in the path to the Sick Beard post processing folder (for example /home/USER/.sickbeard/autoProcessTV). See my Sick Beard guide for more information.

Note: For ease of access and keeping everything in one place you may want to consider placing your log and cache folders in the same directory as your incomplete folder. Having all three of these in a hidden directory can be really nice.

If you’re regularly manually downloading NZB files you may also wish to set the Watched Folder:. I simply set this as my default download directory (/home/USER/Downloads).

Though, now that Newzbin is directly supported in both SABnzbd+ and Sick Beard again, and now that I’m using Couch Potato, this has not seen much of any use recently.

I was about to say that, I don’t configure anything else on this page, but that’s just about all there is to configure here. For the remaining couple, be sure to check the Wiki if you might want to adjust them, Save Changes, and move on to the next section.

Switches

Retired

Notice, this guide has been retired. Please see the current guide here.
On the Switches tab I have disabled Skip par2 checking in an effort to reduce some of the CRC errors I was seeing for a while. I have nothing other than anecdote to go off of here, but to err on the side of caution I leave this disabled.

Now, we can skip down to the Extra PAR2 Parameters. Here we have a couple options (if we installed the muli-threaded par2 utility above). Putting in t+ will use multi-threaded checking and repair. While t0 will use single-threaded checking, but multi-threaded repair. Using t0 might reduce stress on your Temporary Download Folder (and the underlying partition/disk).

Since I use a dedicated download partition (on a disk I don’t care about) I use t+.

If you’re using the JCFP PPA uncheck the Check for New Release box as you’ll have the new releases about as fast as they come out.

Note: If JCFP is behind a day or few (or even a week or two) please don’t hassle him about it. He’s generally very fast at releasing as soon as possible, and most releases are minor fixes/improvements these days anyway. Please be patient and thank him for the work he does (voluntarily, and for very little recognition)!

While we’re here, verify that the Launch Browser on Startup box is clear. If it has a check mark in it it will cause SABnzbd+ to load your system’s default browser every time you reboot the computer.

If you don’t use samples change the Ignore Samples to Delete after download. This will prevent samples from causing unnecessary repairs and also prevent you from having to manually delete them.

That’s all for the Switches tab, check the Wiki if you want to adjust anything else and take a breather, as we’re over the hump here! The rest of the pages are pretty straight forward. Save and lets move on.

Servers

Retired

Notice, this guide has been retired. Please see the current guide here.
Unless you have an additional server to add, or need to correct any thing you put in during the Quick-Start Wizard we should be able to skip the Server tab.

Scheduling
RSS
Email

Retired

Notice, this guide has been retired. Please see the current guide here.
I do not use any of these features. Which is not to say that they are not useful. Hit up the Wiki and read about them for yourself. If you dig them, configure them, save, and move on.

Index Sites

Retired

Notice, this guide has been retired. Please see the current guide here.
Thankfully SABnzbd+ now supports Newzbin again. To use this integration you simply need to sign up for an account and put in your login credentials under Newzbin Username and Newzbin Password here (being a Premium member is also suggested).

And, now that we have our proper download folders setup, we can enable Bookmark Processing for a truly streamlined process. In Newzbin, just bookmark any report you’re interested in and SABnzbd+ will automatically begin downloading it within the Checking Interval time frame (which I leave at 60 to mitigate unnecessary load on the Newzbin servers) or when you click on Get Bookmarks (left hand column below Config).

Make sure to check the Un-Bookmark If Download Complete option so your Newzbin bookmarks don’t become cluttered with already snatched reports.

To use the other index site which SABnzbd+ integrates with, NZBMatrix, you will need to be a VIP member at that site. You will then need to put in your NZBMatrix user name (whatever you login with) and then your API key. The API key can be found here (if you’re signed in as a VIP member).

You do need to be a paid member to use NZBMatrix with SABnzbd+, Sick Beard, or Couch Potato so this may be a worthwhile investment.

If you’re not sure which one to use, I recommend Newzbin over NZBMatrix.

However, the more the merrier. I recommend becoming a paid member to all the sites that offer such “premium” or “VIP” type memberships, as most are super cheap, or one time only purchases and will only serve you from here on out.

If you’ve changed anything here, Save, and we’ll move on.

Categories

Retired

Notice, this guide has been retired. Please see the current guide here.
On the Categories tab you can change the default post-processing, directory, and other settings on a per category basis. This page is handy if you use Sick Beard or want a specific type of download to be automatically moved to a different folder.

If you change anything here, be sure to hit the easy to miss Save buttons per row at the far right hand side.

Sorting

The sorting features of SABnzbd+ are awesome. If you’re not going to be using Sick Beard you will likely want to Enable TV Sorting. Make sure to select at least tv from the list of Affected Categories (though you may want to also select Anime).

Make sure also to select a Sort String that fits your preferences. If you are not sure what to use here I recommend using the 1×05 Season Folder one.

If you are going to be using Sick Beard do not Enable TV Sorting as Sick Beard will take care of the sorting (and in a more robust manner, which I whole heartily recommend).

The Generic Sorting options are recent additions to SABnzbd+ (as of 0.5.0) and can be really nice for cinematic and miscellaneous content. If nothing else I recommend Enabling Movie Sorting (hit the check box) and then selecting the Affected Categories. Use at least movies, but you may also want to select misc and unknown (to select multiple entries hold down the control key and click on each entry one at a time).

However, if you’re using Couch Potato you may no longer need this either!

For the Sort String I recommend using the No folders option, but it’s purely a personal preference. Under the Multi-part label you may wish to change CD%1 to

 Part%1

Note the leading space. This naming convention is supported by media center applications like XBMC and is more fitting with the times than the CD%1 label is (I mean, unless you are still using Video CDs?).

I skip over the Date Sorting feature, see the Wiki if you might want to use it. Be sure to hit that last Save button and you’re golden!