Home

In arr stack how to pick indexers?

$$5680
https://lemmy.zip/u/troubling087 posted on Mar 1, 2026 14:04

I had a small media library for myself, and wanted to automate it a bit more, so implemented arr stack (prowlarr, radarr, lidarr), it seems to work but I’m not sure how to pick indexers. I have no experience with it, and I initially just picked a public one, but it barely ever seems to download something.

I’m a bit confused about it, should i just pick as many as I can? Or join a private one? But no idea where to start there.

Any advice or push in the right direction would be appreciated.

https://lemmy.zip/post/59986445
Reply
$$5686
https://lemmy.world/u/non_burglar posted on Mar 1, 2026 14:23
In reply to: https://lemmy.zip/post/59986445

Indexers and downloaders are distinct for newsgroups.

Public indexers are not good for Linux isos, you need a paid service now. They’re cheap and well worth it. Easynews and nzbgeek are good ones.

https://lemmy.world/comment/22413528
Reply
$$5688
https://lemmy.world/u/muxika posted on Mar 1, 2026 14:25
In reply to: https://lemmy.zip/post/59986445

Since you’re using prowlarr, I recommend adding as many as you can. You’ll get some stall, but that’s the price you (don’t) pay. If you have the time, choose several baseurls for the failing indexers so you can get as many as possible.

https://lemmy.world/comment/22413551
Reply
$$5692
https://lemmy.dbzer0.com/u/UnrefinedChihuahua posted on Mar 1, 2026 14:30
In reply to: https://lemmy.zip/post/59986445

I got away with using public indexers for years with very few issues. The occasional .lnk or .exe, but that was of no issue to my Linux Mint host other than having to manually mark the release as failed and find another.

Recently transitioned to a free private tracker after an invite and zero false positives since. Mostly downloading new releases for TV/Movies, often within hours of release.

https://lemmy.dbzer0.com/comment/24695724
Reply
$$5684
https://moist.catsweat.com/u/originalucifer posted on Mar 1, 2026 15:08
In reply to: https://lemmy.zip/post/59986445

youll have the best luck by adding a nzb indexer.. ive enjoyed nzbgeek

its cheap and has decreased by time-to-mediacenter drastically… the public torrent indexers kinda pale in comparison.

i like to have them all in there, but the usenet/nzb stuff seems to flow the fastest as theres generally more likely a matching file of %quality.

https://moist.catsweat.com/m/selfhosted@lemmy.world/t/2427968/-/comment/12627808
Reply
$$5712
https://lemmy.world/u/zewm posted on Mar 1, 2026 15:33
In reply to: https://moist.catsweat.com/m/selfhosted@lemmy.world/t/2427968/-/comment/12627808

The downside is that you also have to pay for a Usenet host. So someone trying to just go the $0 cost route, this wouldn’t apply to.

https://lemmy.world/comment/22414560
Reply
$$5726
https://lemmy.world/u/warbond posted on Mar 1, 2026 15:56
In reply to: https://lemmy.zip/post/59986445

I started by picking a lot of indexers, trying to cover my bases, but every search would take forever because it sifts through every match to find the best one for your criteria. In the end I pared it down to just to just a couple big ones that even I’ve heard of and it’s been fine 98% of the time.

I’ve always heard the private indexers are best, but I don’t have experience with them.

https://lemmy.world/comment/22414953
Reply
$$5736
https://fedia.io/u/fonix232 posted on Mar 1, 2026 16:13
In reply to: https://lemmy.world/comment/22414953

I wish Prowlarr supported having a pool of generic indexers that are regularly speed tested and only the top X are used for actual queries (one random query an hour to check response time shouldn’t hurt, and external searches can also provide for this statistic), either based on count/percentage or maximum response time.

That would alleviate the long queries on a very dynamic approach.

https://fedia.io/m/selfhosted@lemmy.world/t/3525759/-/comment/14232758
Reply
$$5761
https://sh.itjust.works/u/Bronzie posted on Mar 1, 2026 17:20
In reply to: https://lemmy.dbzer0.com/comment/24695724

Same story here.

Have two private trackers now, but started with just using the ones I had heard of, and removed a few that kept coming up short.

It works fine, but torrents died quite fast as most people don’t bother seeding there.
For new stuff it worked fine

https://sh.itjust.works/comment/24044666
Reply
$$5746
https://moist.catsweat.com/u/originalucifer posted on Mar 1, 2026 17:46
In reply to: https://lemmy.world/comment/22414560

sure but usenet access is stupidly cheap. i think im payin like 1$/month.

i spend more on stickers.

https://moist.catsweat.com/m/selfhosted@lemmy.world/t/2427968/-/comment/12629954
Reply
$$5827
https://lazysoci.al/u/B0NK3RS posted on Mar 1, 2026 20:12
In reply to: https://lemmy.zip/post/59986445

I would start by adding a couple more indexers but don’t go overboard. 3 or 4 should be good and then swap them out as needed. Also something to note is make sure you aren’t just “hit n run” on everything and seed properly.

https://lazysoci.al/comment/21915221
Reply
$$5849
https://lemmy.world/u/Petraa posted on Mar 1, 2026 20:46
In reply to: https://lemmy.dbzer0.com/comment/24695724

How does one get an invite to a private tracker is it based on seeding or something?

https://lemmy.world/comment/22419782
Reply
$$5853
https://lemmy.ml/u/meathappening posted on Mar 1, 2026 20:47
In reply to: https://lemmy.world/comment/22413528

Paying to pirate things is wild. You absolutely don’t need to pay for anything. Get on private trackers, which have literally existed for decades at this point.

https://lemmy.ml/comment/24265131
Reply
$$5864
https://lemmy.world/u/non_burglar posted on Mar 1, 2026 21:06
In reply to: https://lemmy.ml/comment/24265131

I used to do that until about 2015.

Even private trackers don’t come close to the coverage of newsgroups. Plus, nzb has the concept of releases, so you don’t have to guess at the quality.

I don’t have an issue with paying, I have an issue with paying for something I don’t want.

https://lemmy.world/comment/22420058
Reply
$$5876
https://lazysoci.al/u/lazynooblet posted on Mar 1, 2026 21:18
In reply to: https://lazysoci.al/comment/21915221

I was confused about this. Then I remembered that torrenting exists in the *arr world.

https://lazysoci.al/comment/21916371
Reply
$$5898
https://lemmy.world/u/AbidanYre posted on Mar 1, 2026 21:46
In reply to: https://lemmy.dbzer0.com/comment/24695724

There seem to be more and more .exes and .scrs lately.

https://lemmy.world/comment/22420604
Reply
$$5908
https://lemmy.wtf/u/Ibuthyr posted on Mar 1, 2026 22:03
In reply to: https://lemmy.ml/comment/24265131

If time is worthless to you, sure.

Here I am, paying next to nothing, automated everything, living a life free from American fuckhead companies.

https://lemmy.wtf/comment/20204450
Reply
$$5918
https://lemmy.dbzer0.com/u/UnrefinedChihuahua posted on Mar 1, 2026 22:19
In reply to: https://lemmy.world/comment/22420604

RarBG was the worst for .scr

https://lemmy.dbzer0.com/comment/24703675
Reply
$$5920
https://lemmy.dbzer0.com/u/UnrefinedChihuahua posted on Mar 1, 2026 22:21
In reply to: https://lemmy.world/comment/22419782

It was actually from https://lemmy.dbzer0.com/c/OpenSignups if I remember correctly.

https://lemmy.dbzer0.com/comment/24703713
Reply
$$5924
https://lemmy.dbzer0.com/u/dditty posted on Mar 1, 2026 22:27
In reply to: https://moist.catsweat.com/m/selfhosted@lemmy.world/t/2427968/-/comment/12629954

What usenet provider are you getting such a good deal on?

https://lemmy.dbzer0.com/comment/24703808
Reply
$$6019
https://lemmy.ml/u/meathappening posted on Mar 2, 2026 02:41
In reply to: https://lemmy.wtf/comment/20204450

Erm, same? Do you think this isn’t available without paying someone else?

https://lemmy.ml/comment/24270584
Reply
$$5992
https://moist.catsweat.com/u/originalucifer posted on Mar 2, 2026 02:47
In reply to: https://lemmy.dbzer0.com/comment/24703808

just checked, i paid ‘frugal usenet’ 35$/year… bit more than i remember at just under 3.00/month.

thats scented sticker money

https://moist.catsweat.com/m/selfhosted@lemmy.world/t/2427968/-/comment/12637302
Reply
$$6260
https://lemmy.wtf/u/Ibuthyr posted on Mar 2, 2026 15:36
In reply to: https://lemmy.ml/comment/24270584

Hunting for torrents, begging to get into specific private trackers is quite time-consuming. I highly value my time.

https://lemmy.wtf/comment/20218198
Reply
$$6336
https://reddthat.com/u/howmuch posted on Mar 2, 2026 19:21
In reply to: https://lemmy.zip/post/59986445

Having a few public indexers shouldn’t hurt. However you probably don’t want to add a ton otherwise you will likely end up being overloaded by duplicates.

But really you should invest in getting into private trackers. Even an entry to mid-tier tracker will get you far better and more reliable results than public. Also the content will generally be much better seeded and more reliable.

https://reddthat.com/comment/25110657
Reply
$$6391
https://lemmy.world/u/x00z posted on Mar 2, 2026 21:48
In reply to: https://lemmy.zip/post/59986445

I use Prowlarr with Flaresolverr.

Setup the Flaresolverr indexer proxy in Prowlarr: - Tags: flaresolverr - Host: http://flaresolverr:8191/ (or whatever host+port your flaresolv

And then I use these: - 1337x (Add Tags: flaresolverr) - TorrentDownload - Knaben

It’s not the best and Knaben is mostly just TPB + Rutracker. But this setup gets me everything I need. Everything wrong is filtered as I made my setup look for HEVC with specific bit rate ranges. Invalid file extensions are filtered out.

For actual downloading I use RDT Client with the TorBox debrid service.

Sometimes some indexing services time out but I’ll get the content later.

In my experience, with this setup, I really don’t need Usenet or private torrent trackers.

https://lemmy.world/comment/22439685
Reply