General Settings
The General Settings page is the largest settings page in the dashboard, containing nine sections that control your instance identity, appearance, and behavior. Each section is accessible via sidebar dot-navigation, so you can jump directly to the area you need.
General Settings requires admin privileges (admin.settings.read to view, admin.settings.update to modify). Navigate to Settings > General from the sidebar.
Sections overview
Instance Settings
Name your server, add an admin email, set the web root URL, and add a brief instance description
Timezone & Locale
Set the server timezone, date format, and locale for consistent timestamps across the dashboard
Display Preferences
Choose the default landing page for users and admins, and set the default dashboard theme
Additional Dashboard Settings
Disk mount, network interface, vnStat bandwidth tracking, and optional Redis telemetry
Uploads
Avatar and banner upload size limits, and toggle to allow or disable user avatar uploads
Branding
Custom logos, favicon, default avatar, and default banner with integrated image cropping
Auth Pages
Show or hide the logo on auth pages, and configure a custom markdown message for the login screen
Feature Flags
Enable or disable major features: maintenance mode, user registration, notification channels, web console, streaming, and mirror
Session timeout and cookie settings have their own dedicated page. The Sessions & Security section in General Settings shows only a shortcut link. See the Session Settings page for full configuration.
Instance settings
Configure the identity and basic information for your QuickBox Pro instance:
- Instance Name — A friendly name for your server, displayed in the dashboard header and browser title. Default:
QuickBox Pro - Admin Email — Contact email used for system notifications. Not displayed to regular users
- Instance Description — An optional short description shown in page titles and metadata. Default:
QuickBox Pro Dashboard - Web Root — The base URL for your dashboard (e.g.,
https://your-server.com). Leave empty for auto-detection
Timezone and locale
Set how dates and times are displayed throughout the dashboard:
- System Timezone — Select your server’s timezone from a grouped dropdown. All timestamps in the dashboard (logs, audit events, session info) use this setting. Default:
America/Chicago - Date Format — Choose how dates are formatted throughout the dashboard
| Format | Example | Notes |
|---|---|---|
Y-m-d H:i:s | 2024-01-21 13:00:00 | ISO — default |
D, M j, Y, g:i a | Sun, Jan 21, 2024, 1:00 pm | |
M j, Y, g:i a | Jan 21, 2024, 1:00 pm | |
d/m/Y H:i:s | 21/01/2024 13:00:00 | EU |
m/d/Y g:i a | 01/21/2024 1:00 pm | US |
M j, Y | Jan 21, 2024 | Date only |
Y-m-d | 2024-01-21 | Date only |
- Locale — Language preference for the dashboard interface
The Locale dropdown is visible but currently marked as coming soon and cannot be changed. Dashboard localization is under active development.
Sessions and security
Session timeout, cookie expiration, concurrency limits, and bulk session invalidation are all configured on the Session Settings page. The Sessions & Security section in General Settings displays only a redirect link — there are no editable fields here.
Display preferences
Control the default landing experience for users and admins:
- User Default Page — The page regular users see immediately after logging in
| Option | Destination |
|---|---|
User Profile | The user's own profile page (default) |
Application Dashboard | The application management grid |
- Admin Default Page — The page admin users see immediately after logging in
| Option | Destination |
|---|---|
Application Dashboard | The application management grid (default) |
System Dashboard | Server metrics and status overview |
User Management | The admin user list |
Streaming Dashboard | Only available when the WSDashboard feature flag is enabled |
- Default Theme — The theme applied to new users and users who have not chosen their own theme
| Theme | Style | Notes |
|---|---|---|
Spectre | Dark with green accents | Default |
Reel | Warm dark with amber accents | Plex-inspired |
Smoked | Dimmed dark with muted tones | |
Defaulted | Light with blue accents |
You can set the default theme from the command line with qb manage theme -o spectre (or any theme name).
Additional dashboard settings
Configure the infrastructure data sources the dashboard uses for disk, network, and bandwidth displays. This section contains four sub-panels:
Disk space
Select which mount point is used to calculate available disk space on the dashboard. The dropdown is populated from currently mounted filesystems on your server. Default: /
Network
Select the primary network interface used for live bandwidth statistics and system dashboards. A Show advanced interfaces toggle lets you include loopback, bridge, and virtual interfaces in the list — useful on servers with custom networking. The toggle state is persisted per instance.
Bandwidth (vnStat)
Configure how the dashboard displays historical bandwidth data:
- Bandwidth stats start date — The dashboard displays bandwidth statistics from this date onward
- Reset scope — Choose whether to reset statistics for the selected interface only or for all interfaces
- Reset bandwidth stats — Permanently clears vnStat statistics. The database path and current size are shown for reference. Requires typing
RESETto confirm
Resetting vnStat statistics permanently deletes historical bandwidth data. This cannot be undone.
Live telemetry (Redis)
Optional Redis connection that powers the scroll and zoom on live throughput charts. Redis is not required for the dashboard to function — it is only needed if you want this enhanced chart behavior.
Configuration fields:
- Redis URL — Full connection URL, e.g.
redis://:password@localhost:6379/0. When set, this overrides the host/port fields - Redis host — Used only when the URL field is empty
- Redis port — Default:
6379 - Redis password — Optional
Available actions:
- Check status — Tests the current Redis connection and reports whether it is reachable
- Diagnose — Scans for common Redis configuration problems and lists fixable issues
- Heal Redis — Automatically applies fixes for detected issues and restarts the Redis service. Shown only when diagnosable issues exist
- Provision Redis (systemd) — Installs Redis via system packages and starts it as a systemd service. Requires typing
PROVISIONto confirm
Uploads
Control file upload behavior for user profile media:
- Avatar Max Size (KB) — Maximum size allowed for user profile avatar uploads. Range: 256–10240 KB. Default:
2048KB - Banner Max Size (KB) — Maximum size allowed for user profile banner uploads. Range: 256–10240 KB. Default:
2048KB - Allow Avatar Uploads — Toggle to permit or block users from uploading custom profile avatars. When disabled, all users retain their default or assigned avatar
Branding
Customize the visual identity of your QuickBox Pro instance. Five asset slots are available, each with an integrated image cropper (except favicons, which are not cropped):
- Collapsed Logo — The compact logo shown in the sidebar when it is collapsed
- Full Logo — The expanded logo shown when the sidebar is open and on the login/registration pages (when logo display is enabled in Auth Pages)
- Favicon — The browser tab icon. SVG, ICO, and GIF files are accepted without cropping
- Default Avatar — The fallback avatar image used when a user has not uploaded their own
- Default Banner — The fallback banner image used on user profiles
All assets support PNG, JPG, and WEBP formats. Non-favicon assets trigger the image cropper before upload. Each asset can be reset to the system default independently.
Branding can also be managed from the Asset Management Center — its Brand Assets category uploads and crops every slot directly, and any image in the Local Assets library can be promoted into a branding slot with the “Set as brand asset” action.
Branding changes require the admin.branding.update permission or the broader admin.settings.update. Administrator-level accounts always have access. Note that admin.branding.update is not individually selectable in the role permission matrix today, so in practice branding is managed by Administrator-level accounts.
Auth pages
Control what users see on the login and registration screens:
- Show logo on login/register pages — Displays the full logo (if uploaded) or the letter logo on auth screens. Default: on
- Show login message — Shows or hides the custom welcome message area on auth pages. Default: on
- Custom login message — Markdown-formatted text displayed on the login screen. Leave empty to show the default welcome message. The field is disabled when the login message toggle is off. A live preview appears below the field while editing
The custom login message field supports standard markdown — headers, links, bold, lists, and inline code all render on the login page. Useful for server rules, welcome text, or maintenance announcements.
Feature flags
Enable or disable major dashboard features. Changes take effect immediately — users who are currently logged in will see the change on their next page navigation.
| Feature Flag | What it controls | Default |
|---|---|---|
Maintenance Mode | Shows a maintenance notice to non-admin users. Admin users can still access all pages. An optional custom maintenance message can be set | Off |
User Registration | Allows new users to register accounts. Disable to close registration while keeping the dashboard fully accessible to existing users | On |
Disable External Notification Channels | When enabled, only admins can manage Discord, Signal, and WhatsApp notification settings. Users cannot configure their own external notification channels | Off |
Web Console | Enables the browser-based terminal for admin users. No separate application installation is needed — this is a built-in dashboard module. When disabled, the Web Console page and sidebar item are hidden entirely | On |
WSDashboard (Streaming Monitor) | Enables the real-time streaming session monitor for Plex, Emby, and Jellyfin. The toggle is disabled if none of these servers are installed. When enabled, Streaming Dashboard becomes an option in the Admin Default Page selector | Off |
Playback Mirror | Allows admins to mirror active playback sessions in read-only mode via the streaming dashboard. Only available when WSDashboard is enabled | Off |
Playback mirror TTL
When Playback Mirror is enabled, additional TTL controls appear:
- Disable TTL — When on, mirror sessions run indefinitely until the admin manually stops them or the source playback ends. When off, mirrors auto-expire after the configured TTL
- TTL (seconds) — Duration before a mirror session auto-expires. Range: 10–600 seconds. Default:
120seconds. Only shown when Disable TTL is off
The WSDashboard toggle is automatically disabled if none of Plex, Emby, or Jellyfin is installed on the server. Install at least one media server before enabling this flag. The Web Console requires only the feature flag and the admin.system.console permission — no application installation needed.
CLI equivalents
| Dashboard Setting | CLI Command |
|---|---|
Default theme | qb manage theme -o <theme> |
Web root | qb manage webroot -o <domain> |
Most General Settings options are available only through the dashboard. The CLI covers theme and web root management, but branding, feature flags, auth page customization, and upload controls are dashboard-exclusive.
Best practices
Do
- Set a descriptive instance name and admin email so users know which server they are connecting to
- Configure the correct timezone before reviewing logs or audit events — all timestamps depend on this setting
- Enable only the feature flags you actually use — disabling unused features keeps the interface clean
- Upload a custom collapsed logo and full logo to give your instance a professional, branded appearance
- Set different default landing pages for users and admins if their workflows are different
- Use the bandwidth start date to anchor vnStat charts to when your current billing cycle began
Don't
- Don't enable maintenance mode without notifying your users first — they will be locked out of the dashboard immediately
- Don't click away without saving — the browser warns you about unsaved changes, but they are lost on navigation
- Don't enable the WSDashboard flag without Plex, Emby, or Jellyfin installed — the toggle is disabled automatically, but the check only runs at page load
- Don't reset vnStat bandwidth statistics unless you intend to permanently lose that history — there is no undo
- Don't set User Registration to off without first confirming all intended users already have accounts
FAQ
Related pages
Full session timeout, persistence, concurrency, and bulk invalidation
IP bans, username restrictions, and geo-blocking
Activation modes, quotas, and password policies
Configure Discord, Signal, and WhatsApp notification channels
Learn about the Streaming Dashboard before enabling the WSDashboard flag
Join the Community
Media server operators sharing configs, getting support, and shaping the future of QuickBox Pro.