Instruction 08-radarr-quality-profiles-searching-and-importing: Reading

Radarr separates the decision to look for a movie from the decision to accept a particular release. A movie must first be known to Radarr, assigned a root folder and quality profile, and usually be monitored. A quality profile defines the qualities that are allowed, their relative preference, whether upgrades are enabled, and the point at which the desired quality has been reached. Quality definitions are related but separate: they place size boundaries on named qualities. A release can therefore use an allowed quality and still be rejected because its reported size falls outside the configured definition.

Custom formats add preference information that basic source and resolution labels cannot express. They can recognize attributes such as codec, audio format, release group, edition, HDR variant, or an unwanted naming pattern. Each profile assigns scores to matching custom formats. A negative score does not universally mean an automatic rejection; rejection depends on the resulting total and the profile's minimum custom-format score. Likewise, a high score does not override every hard rejection. A release may still be rejected because the quality is not allowed, the movie is not a match, the size is invalid, the indexer is unavailable, a required term is missing, or another policy condition fails. Operators should read the rejection explanations shown by interactive search instead of assuming that the highest visible score always wins.

An automatic search asks configured indexers for available releases and lets Radarr choose according to its rules. Interactive search asks the same broad question but exposes candidates and rejection reasons to the operator. Feed processing is different: it evaluates newly announced releases and does not search all historical indexer content. Enabling monitoring does not immediately guarantee a search, and assigning a stronger profile does not itself download a replacement. A separate search, a new feed announcement, or another configured trigger must present a candidate.

Importing is a distinct stage from searching and downloading. Radarr must associate the completed download with a known movie, identify a usable movie file, infer or receive its quality, and access both the download location and library destination. Completed Download Handling commonly uses download-client history and the category assigned to Radarr. If the client reports a path that Radarr cannot see, the import fails even though the download completed successfully. Container deployments frequently expose this problem when two applications mount the same storage under different internal paths. Consistent paths are preferable; remote path mappings should be used only when the client genuinely reports a different path namespace.

A successful import can use a hardlink, copy, or move depending on configuration and download type. Hardlinks require source and destination to reside on the same filesystem. They are especially useful when a seeding torrent must remain in the download directory while the organized library also presents the file. If a hardlink cannot be created, an application may copy instead, increasing storage consumption. Permissions must allow Radarr to traverse the source path, read the file, create entries in the destination, and apply the intended naming behavior. Granting broad permissions is not a substitute for aligning service users, groups, ownership, and directory modes.

Manual import is appropriate for pre-existing media, downloads that lost their client association, or ambiguous files requiring operator review. The operator should verify the matched movie, year, edition, quality, language, and destination before approving an import. Samples, trailers, extras, and unrelated videos should not be mistaken for the main feature. An ambiguous filename should be mapped explicitly rather than accepted based only on a partial title. The most reliable troubleshooting sequence follows the pipeline: confirm the movie is monitored and available, inspect the quality profile, inspect search rejection reasons, confirm the download-client category and history entry, verify the path visible to Radarr, check permissions, and finally review the proposed import mapping.