Sonarr v4 has been out long enough that the old v3 tutorials are actively misleading. The default custom-format approach changed, the quality profile UI was rewritten, and Radarr's release-rejection logic has moved on too. This is the configuration I actually deploy on QuickBox Pro in 2026, with the reasoning for each setting.
Installing Sonarr, Radarr, and Prowlarr
All three are one-click installs from the App Management catalog. Find each app in the catalog and click Install. The dashboard streams live install logs so you can see exactly what is happening.
For CLI power users:
qb install sonarr -u username
qb install radarr -u username
qb install prowlarr -u username
Sonarr supports two optional install flags:
- ●
--4k: installs Sonarr4K as a separate Sonarr instance for 4K content, running alongside your standard Sonarr - ●
--nightly: installs the nightly (develop) branch instead of the stable release
# 4K instance alongside standard Sonarr
qb install sonarr -u username --4k
# Nightly branch
qb install sonarr -u username --nightly
Radarr supports the same flags: --4k for a Radarr4K instance and --nightly for the nightly branch.
Full lifecycle commands for all three (use the dashboard App Management page or CLI):
# Sonarr
qb update sonarr -u username
qb reinstall sonarr -u username
qb remove sonarr -u username
# Radarr
qb update radarr -u username
qb reinstall radarr -u username
qb remove radarr -u username
# Prowlarr
qb update prowlarr -u username
qb reinstall prowlarr -u username
qb remove prowlarr -u username
See the full documentation for each app:
The Big Three Decisions
Before you touch any setting, decide:
- ●What quality do you actually watch? 1080p covers 95% of households. 2160p (4K) costs you 4-5x the disk and is a noticeable step up only on a calibrated TV with proper HDR.
- ●Are you on a slow disk or fast disk? Slow disks should prefer x265 to save space. Fast disks with a Plex/Jellyfin client that does not Direct Play x265 well should prefer x264.
- ●How aggressive is your churn? If you watch shows once and let them go, your retention can be small. If you keep everything, plan storage accordingly.
The default profiles in Sonarr v4 do not know any of this. You configure it.
Sonarr v4: Quality Profiles
Navigate to Settings > Profiles > Quality Profiles. Create a profile called Standard 1080p (or whatever names you like).
Allowed qualities (from worst to best, all checked):
- ●WEBDL-1080p
- ●HDTV-1080p
- ●WEBRip-1080p
- ●Bluray-1080p
Upgrades allowed: yes.
Upgrade until: Bluray-1080p.
Cutoff: Bluray-1080p.
This profile says: download anything 1080p, but keep upgrading until you get a Bluray-1080p source. Stop there.
For 4K, mirror the same logic with the 2160p tier and Bluray-2160p as the cutoff. Do not mix 1080p and 2160p in the same profile. Sonarr will pick whichever the indexer offers first.
Sonarr v4: Custom Formats
This is where v4 changed the most. Custom Formats let you score release groups, codecs, audio formats, and HDR types so Sonarr picks the right 1080p instead of the first 1080p.
Go to Settings > Custom Formats and import the TRaSH Guides preset for Sonarr v4 (the community-maintained set is at trash-guides.info; paste the JSON exports for the formats you want).
At minimum, score the following:
| Format | Score | Why |
|---|---|---|
| HDR10+ | +500 | If you have an HDR display |
| Dolby Vision | +700 | Same, and DV is rarer |
| x265 / HEVC | +200 (or 0) | +200 if you want to save space; 0 if your client transcodes x265 badly |
| Repack/Proper | +5 | Always prefer corrected releases |
| Internal | +1 | Marginal, but useful as a tiebreaker |
| Bad-codec groups | -1000 | Auto-rejection |
The scores compound. A WEBDL-1080p from a preferred group with HDR10+ will outscore a Bluray-1080p from a bad group.
Tip
If you find yourself constantly manually rejecting releases, your custom format scores are wrong. The rejection rate should be low. Sonarr should pick correctly the first time.
Indexers and Prowlarr
Sonarr v4 does not require Prowlarr, but Prowlarr is the right answer if you have more than two indexers. It centralizes indexer management and pushes config to all your arr apps.
Install Prowlarr from the App Management catalog or via CLI:
qb install prowlarr -u username
In Prowlarr, add your indexers (Newznab for Usenet, Torznab for torrents). Then under Settings > Apps in Prowlarr, add Sonarr and Radarr as managed apps. Prowlarr now syncs indexer config bidirectionally.
If you have one or two indexers, just add them directly in Sonarr and skip Prowlarr.
Download Client
Settings > Download Clients: add your torrent or Usenet client.
For torrents on QuickBox Pro:
- ●Host:
localhost - ●Port: your client's port (qBittorrent default 8080, ruTorrent via SCGI socket)
- ●Category:
tv-sonarr(Sonarr will create it) - ●Use SSL: only if your client requires it; localhost-to-localhost does not
For Usenet (NZBGet/SABnzbd), same idea. The QuickBox Pro install puts the client on localhost with sensible defaults.
Critical: set the Remote Path Mappings so Sonarr's view of /downloads/ matches the actual filesystem path. This is the single most common reason imports fail silently.
Radarr: The Same Pattern
Radarr's UI is structurally identical to Sonarr's. Mirror the same approach:
- ●One quality profile per resolution tier
- ●Custom formats from TRaSH Guides for movies (HDR10+, DV, codec preferences, group bonuses/penalties)
- ●Same Prowlarr setup for indexers (or direct add)
- ●Same download client wiring
The one Radarr-specific knob worth tuning: Movie Folder Naming. Set it to {Movie CleanTitle} ({Release Year}) and {Movie CleanTitle} ({Release Year}) {Quality Full} for files. Plex and Jellyfin will pick this up cleanly.
Extending the Stack
Sonarr and Radarr are the core of the arr stack, but QuickBox Pro supports the full ecosystem:
- ●Lidarr for music
- ●Readarr for books and audiobooks
- ●Bazarr for subtitles (integrates directly with Sonarr and Radarr)
Install any of them from the App Management catalog or with qb install lidarr -u username, qb install readarr -u username, or qb install bazarr -u username.
Verification
Add a series in Sonarr you have never tracked before. Watch the Activity > Queue tab. Within a few minutes you should see:
- ●Indexer search hits, scored against your custom formats
- ●The highest-scoring release sent to your download client with category
tv-sonarr - ●After download, Sonarr imports the file into your library structure
- ●Plex/Jellyfin picks it up on the next library scan
If any step in that pipeline fails, the History tab will tell you which one and why.
What People Get Wrong
The most common mistake is making the quality profile too greedy and the custom formats too aggressive. You end up with Sonarr endlessly upgrading from one perfectly good release to a marginally-different one, burning indexer hits and bandwidth.
The second most common mistake is leaving Radarr's Minimum Availability on "Announced" and you will get cam-quality 1080p uploads of in-theater films. Set it to Released unless you actively want pre-release content.
Keep your profiles focused, score your custom formats based on your real watching setup (not somebody else's recommendations), and let the system run. Sonarr and Radarr in 2026 are extremely good at this if you tell them what you want.