Files

kelinfoxy ef55974b50 Wiki major update

updated with recent documentation

2026-01-21 19:18:39 -05:00

14 KiB

Raw Blame History

Lidarr - Music Automation

Overview
What is Lidarr?
Why Use Lidarr?
How It Works
Configuration in AI-Homelab
Official Resources
Educational Resources
Docker Configuration
Initial Setup
Advanced Topics
Troubleshooting

Overview

Category: Media Management & Automation
Docker Image: linuxserver/lidarr
Default Stack: media-extended.yml
Web UI: https://lidarr.${DOMAIN} or http://SERVER_IP:8686
Authentication: Optional (configurable)
Ports: 8686

What is Lidarr?

Lidarr is a music collection manager for Usenet and BitTorrent users. It's the music equivalent of Sonarr (TV) and Radarr (movies), designed to monitor for new album releases from your favorite artists, automatically download them, and organize your music library with proper metadata and tagging.

Key Features

Automatic Downloads: New releases from monitored artists
Quality Management: MP3, FLAC, lossless preferences
Artist Management: Track favorite artists
Album Tracking: Monitor discographies
Calendar: Upcoming album releases
Metadata Enrichment: Album art, artist info, tags
Format Support: MP3, FLAC, M4A, OGG, WMA
MusicBrainz Integration: Accurate metadata
Multiple Quality Tiers: Lossy vs lossless
Plex/Jellyfin Integration: Library updates

Why Use Lidarr?

Never Miss Releases: Auto-download new albums
Library Organization: Consistent structure
Quality Control: FLAC for archival, MP3 for portable
Complete Discographies: Track all artist releases
Metadata Automation: Proper tags and artwork
Format Flexibility: Multiple quality profiles
Missing Album Detection: Find gaps in collection
Time Saving: No manual searching
Free & Open Source: No cost
Integration: Works with music players and servers

How It Works

New Album Release (Artist Monitored)
          ↓
Lidarr Checks RSS Feeds (Prowlarr)
          ↓
Evaluates Releases (Quality, Format)
          ↓
Sends to qBittorrent (via Gluetun VPN)
          ↓
Download Completes
          ↓
Lidarr Imports & Tags
          ↓
Library Updated
(/mnt/media/music/)
          ↓
Plex/Jellyfin/Subsonic Access

Configuration in AI-Homelab

Directory Structure

/opt/stacks/media-management/lidarr/config/    # Lidarr configuration
/mnt/downloads/complete/music-lidarr/        # Downloaded music
/mnt/media/music/                            # Final music library

Library Structure:
/mnt/media/music/
  Artist Name/
    Album Name (Year)/
      01 - Track Name.flac
      02 - Track Name.flac
      cover.jpg

Environment Variables

# User permissions
PUID=1000
PGID=1000

# Timezone
TZ=America/New_York

Official Resources

Website: https://lidarr.audio
Wiki: https://wiki.servarr.com/lidarr
GitHub: https://github.com/Lidarr/Lidarr
Discord: https://discord.gg/lidarr
Reddit: https://reddit.com/r/lidarr
Docker Hub: https://hub.docker.com/r/linuxserver/lidarr

Educational Resources

Videos

Articles & Guides

Concepts to Learn

Quality Profiles: Lossy vs lossless preferences
Metadata Profiles: What to download (albums, EPs, singles)
Release Profiles: Preferred sources (WEB, CD)
MusicBrainz: Music metadata database
Bitrate: Audio quality measurement
Lossless: FLAC, ALAC (no quality loss)
Lossy: MP3, AAC (compressed)

Docker Configuration

Complete Service Definition

lidarr:
  image: linuxserver/lidarr:latest
  container_name: lidarr
  restart: unless-stopped
  networks:
    - traefik-network
  ports:
    - "8686:8686"
  environment:
    - PUID=1000
    - PGID=1000
    - TZ=America/New_York
  volumes:
    - /opt/stacks/media-management/lidarr/config:/config
    - /mnt/media/music:/music
    - /mnt/downloads:/downloads
  labels:
    - "traefik.enable=true"
    - "traefik.http.routers.lidarr.rule=Host(`lidarr.${DOMAIN}`)"
    - "traefik.http.routers.lidarr.entrypoints=websecure"
    - "traefik.http.routers.lidarr.tls.certresolver=letsencrypt"
    - "traefik.http.routers.lidarr.middlewares=authelia@docker"
    - "traefik.http.services.lidarr.loadbalancer.server.port=8686"

Initial Setup

First Access

Start Container:
```
docker compose up -d lidarr
```
Access Web UI:
- Local: http://SERVER_IP:8686
- Domain: https://lidarr.yourdomain.com
Initial Configuration:
- Settings → Media Management
- Settings → Profiles
- Settings → Indexers (via Prowlarr)
- Settings → Download Clients

Media Management Settings

Settings → Media Management:

Rename Tracks: ✓ Enable
Replace Illegal Characters: ✓ Enable
Standard Track Format:
```
{Album Type}/{Artist Name} - {Album Title} ({Release Year})/{medium:00}{track:00} - {Track Title}
```
Example: Studio/Pink Floyd - The Dark Side of the Moon (1973)/0101 - Speak to Me.flac
Artist Folder Format:
```
{Artist Name}
```
Album Folder Format:
```
{Album Title} ({Release Year})
```
Root Folders:
- Add: /music

File Management:

✓ Unmonitor Deleted Tracks
✓ Use Hardlinks instead of Copy
Minimum Free Space: 100 MB
✓ Import Extra Files: Artwork (cover.jpg, folder.jpg)

Metadata Profiles

Settings → Profiles → Metadata Profiles:

Standard Profile:

Albums: ✓
EPs: ✓ (optional)
Singles: ✗ (usually skip)
Live: ✗ (optional)
Compilation: ✗ (optional)
Remix: ✗ (optional)
Soundtrack: ✗ (optional)

Complete Discography Profile:

Enable all types
For die-hard fans wanting everything

Quality Profiles

Settings → Profiles → Quality Profiles:

FLAC (Lossless) Profile:

Name: "Lossless"
Upgrades Allowed: ✓
Upgrade Until: FLAC
Qualities (in order):
- FLAC
- ALAC
- FLAC 24bit (if available)

MP3 (Lossy) Profile:

Name: "High Quality MP3"
Upgrade Until: MP3-320
Qualities:
- MP3-320
- MP3-VBR-V0
- MP3-256

Hybrid Profile:

FLAC preferred
Fall back to MP3-320

Download Client Setup

Settings → Download Clients → Add → qBittorrent:

Name: qBittorrent
Host: gluetun
Port: 8080
Username: admin
Password: Your password
Category: music-lidarr
Test → Save

Indexer Setup (via Prowlarr)

Prowlarr Integration:

Prowlarr → Settings → Apps → Add Lidarr
Sync Categories: Audio/MP3, Audio/Lossless, Audio/Other
Auto-syncs indexers

Verify:

Settings → Indexers
Should see synced indexers from Prowlarr

Adding Your First Artist

Click "Add New"
Search: Artist name (e.g., "Pink Floyd")
Select correct artist (check MusicBrainz link)
Configure:
- Root Folder: /music
- Monitor: All Albums (or Future Albums)
- Metadata Profile: Standard
- Quality Profile: Lossless
- ✓ Search for missing albums
Add Artist

Advanced Topics

Quality Definitions

Settings → Quality → Quality Definitions:

Adjust bitrate ranges:

MP3-320:

Min: 310 kbps
Max: 330 kbps

MP3-VBR-V0:

Min: 220 kbps
Max: 260 kbps

FLAC:

Min: 600 kbps
Preferred: 900-1400 kbps

Release Profiles

Settings → Profiles → Release Profiles:

Preferred Sources:

Must Contain: WEB|CD|FLAC
Must Not Contain: MP3|128|192 (if targeting lossless)
Score: +10

Avoid:

Must Not Contain: REPACK|PROPER (unless needed)
Score: -10

Import Lists

Settings → Import Lists:

Spotify Integration: (if available)

Import playlists
Auto-add followed artists

Last.fm:

Import top artists
Discover new music

MusicBrainz:

Import artist discography
Series/compilation tracking

Notifications

Settings → Connect:

Popular notifications:

Plex: Update library on import
Jellyfin: Scan library
Discord: New release alerts
Telegram: Mobile notifications
Last.fm: Scrobble integration
Custom Webhook: External services

Example: Plex

Add → Plex Media Server
Host: plex
Port: 32400
Auth Token: From Plex
Triggers: On Import, On Upgrade
Update Library: ✓
Test → Save

Custom Scripts

Settings → Connect → Custom Script:

Run scripts on events:

On Download
On Import
On Upgrade
On Rename
On Retag

Use Cases:

Convert formats (FLAC → MP3 for mobile)
Sync to music player
Update external database
Backup to cloud

Retagging

Automatic tag updates:

Settings → Media Management → Retagging:

✓ Write tags to audio files
Tag separator: ; or /
Standard tags: Artist, Album, Track, Year
Additional tags: Genre, Comment, AlbumArtist

Manual Retag:

Select album → Retag
Updates all file tags with correct metadata

Multiple Instances

Separate instances for different use cases:

lidarr-lossless.yml:

lidarr-lossless:
  image: linuxserver/lidarr:latest
  container_name: lidarr-lossless
  ports:
    - "8687:8686"
  volumes:
    - /opt/stacks/media-management/lidarr-lossless/config:/config
    - /mnt/media/music-flac:/music
    - /mnt/downloads:/downloads

Use Cases:

Separate FLAC library
Different quality standards
Genre-specific instances

Troubleshooting

Lidarr Not Finding Albums

# Check indexers
# Settings → Indexers → Test All

# Check Prowlarr sync
docker logs prowlarr | grep lidarr

# Manual search
# Artist → Album → Manual Search

# Common issues:
# - No indexers with music categories
# - Album not released yet
# - Quality profile too restrictive
# - Wrong artist match (check MusicBrainz ID)

Downloads Not Importing

# Check permissions
ls -la /mnt/downloads/complete/music-lidarr/
ls -la /mnt/media/music/

# Fix ownership
sudo chown -R 1000:1000 /mnt/media/music/

# Verify Lidarr access
docker exec lidarr ls /downloads
docker exec lidarr ls /music

# Check logs
docker logs lidarr | grep -i import

# Common issues:
# - Permission denied
# - Wrong category in qBittorrent
# - Format not in quality profile
# - Hardlink failed (different filesystems)

Wrong Artist Match

# Search by MusicBrainz ID for accuracy
# Find MusicBrainz ID on musicbrainz.org
# Add New → Search: mbid:XXXXXXXX-XXXX-XXXX-XXXX-XXXXXXXXXXXX

# Edit artist
# Library → Select Artist → Edit
# Search for correct match

# Check MusicBrainz link
# Ensure correct artist selected

Tagging Issues

# Check tagging settings
# Settings → Media Management → Retagging

# Manual retag
# Select album → Retag

# Check file tags
docker exec lidarr exiftool /music/Artist/Album/track.flac

# Common issues:
# - Write tags disabled
# - File format doesn't support tags
# - Permission errors

Database Corruption

# Stop Lidarr
docker stop lidarr

# Backup database
cp /opt/stacks/media-management/lidarr/config/lidarr.db /opt/backups/

# Check integrity
sqlite3 /opt/stacks/media-management/lidarr/config/lidarr.db "PRAGMA integrity_check;"

# Restore from backup if corrupted
docker start lidarr

Performance Optimization

RSS Sync Interval

Settings → Indexers → Options:

RSS Sync Interval: 60 minutes
Music releases less frequently

Database Optimization

# Stop Lidarr
docker stop lidarr

# Vacuum database
sqlite3 /opt/stacks/media-management/lidarr/config/lidarr.db "VACUUM;"

# Clear old history
# Settings → General → History Cleanup: 30 days

docker start lidarr

Scan Optimization