Usenet (Prowlarr and SABnzbd or NZBGet)

Usenet downloads need two parts:

Prowlarr searches your Usenet indexers. Connect it in Settings > Indexers.
SABnzbd or NZBGet downloads the results. Connect one of them in Settings > Download clients. You need only one.

Setup

Run Prowlarr with one or more Usenet audio indexers.
Run SABnzbd or NZBGet with a category for Aurral. The default category is aurral.
Mount the same media root in Aurral and SABnzbd or NZBGet, at the same container path, so that Aurral can read the completed files. See Filesystem and mounts.
Open Settings > Indexers.
Turn on Enable Prowlarr.
Enter the Prowlarr URL and API key.
Select Test connection.
Select Refresh indexers.
Turn on each indexer that Aurral can use, and set its priority.
Open Settings > Download clients.
Turn on Enable SABnzbd or Enable NZBGet.
Enter the URL and credentials.
Select Test connection.

Settings save automatically after each change.

Prowlarr

The Prowlarr card in Settings > Indexers has these fields:

Server URL: the Prowlarr URL that Aurral can reach, for example http://prowlarr:9696 in Docker.
API key: the Prowlarr API key.
Music categories: the Newznab audio categories. The default is 3000.
Result limit: the most results for one search.

After the connection test, Aurral lists the Usenet indexers from Prowlarr. Open each indexer and set its Priority. A lower number has a higher priority.

SABnzbd

The SABnzbd card in Settings > Download clients has these fields:

Server URL: the SABnzbd URL that Aurral can reach, for example http://sabnzbd:8080 in Docker.
API key: the SABnzbd API key.
Category: the SABnzbd category for Aurral jobs. The default is aurral.
Source priority: the order among download sources. The default is 20.
Add NZBs paused: sends jobs to SABnzbd paused.

NZBGet

The NZBGet card in Settings > Download clients has these fields:

Server URL: the NZBGet URL that Aurral can reach, for example http://nzbget:6789 in Docker.
Username and Password.
Category: the NZBGet category for Aurral jobs. The default is aurral.
Source priority: the order among download sources. The default is 20.
NZB priority: the queue priority that Aurral sends to NZBGet.
Delete leftover files: deletes a download’s folder once Aurral is done with it. Enabled by default.
Completed download path: the folder of finished downloads. Set it only when Aurral cannot find that folder by itself.
Add NZBs paused: sends jobs to NZBGet paused.

Aurral skips NZBGet’s duplicate check for the releases it sends. Upgrading tracks one at a time can grab the same album release more than once, and NZBGet would otherwise delete the repeat as a duplicate.

If NZBGet runs on Windows and reports host paths, mount the parent folder in Aurral. Then add a mapping in Settings > Download clients > Remote path mappings, with Applies to set to NZBGet.

Behavior

Aurral searches the way Lidarr does. If an indexer supports music search by artist and album, Aurral sends it one first. Then it searches all indexers for the artist and album as text. For a track, it also searches for the artist and track title, to find singles. That is at most three Prowlarr searches for each request.

Aurral cleans the text first: it drops a leading “The”, removes accents, and replaces punctuation with spaces, so AC/DC is searched as AC DC. A compilation is searched as VA with the album title, and then by the title alone.

A release matches when its title contains the artist and the album or track title. A compilation release needs only the album title. A single in another version, such as a remix or a radio edit, does not match the original track. A discography, box set, bootleg, tribute, or karaoke release does not match either, and an album does not match a live or greatest-hits release, unless the request names one. Aurral checks every downloaded file before it imports it.

Like Lidarr, Aurral downloads the NZB from Prowlarr itself and sends the file to SABnzbd or NZBGet, so the download client does not need to reach Prowlarr. If the indexer returns an error page instead of an NZB, for example at its daily limit, Aurral tries the next release.

Aurral watches SABnzbd or NZBGet for as long as the client holds the download, including while it is paused. If the download leaves the client without a history entry, Aurral tries the next release.

For an Aurral album, one NZB can fill several tracks. If the NZB leaves tracks unfilled, Aurral tries the next release for those tracks before it searches for them one by one. For other requests, Aurral imports the checked track into the Downloads Folder.

A release that fails to download, or that holds no file for the track, is not offered again for that track.

After Aurral imports a download, or the download fails, it removes the item from the client’s queue and history and deletes the files that Aurral did not import. For NZBGet, turn off Delete leftover files to keep those files. Aurral deletes only the folder NZBGet created for the download. If a post-processing script moved the files elsewhere, Aurral leaves them and the history item in place. When two NZBGet downloads have the same name, NZBGet puts both in one folder, and Aurral removes that folder only with the last of them.

If a file matches the requested track except for its length, or its title or artist only partly matches, Aurral holds it in Activity > Queue. You can preview, approve, or deny it. Aurral keeps the rest of that download until you approve, deny, or remove the song. See Track matching for the length rules.

Quality and upgrades

The quality profile in Settings > Download clients > Quality profile sets the accepted tiers and the cutoff. Aurral reads each downloaded file before it accepts its quality. A quality rejection does not go to Queue review.

Usenet can supply missing tracks and upgrades. See Track upgrades.

Download source priority and fallback

Aurral can use slskd, Usenet, deemix, and yt-dlp together. Each source has a Source priority, and Aurral tries lower numbers first. The defaults are:

Source	Default priority
slskd	`10`
deemix	`15`
SABnzbd or NZBGet	`20`
yt-dlp	`50`

If a source fails, Aurral tries the next source for the same track. To try another source first, give it a lower number.

For an Aurral album, Aurral first tries to download the whole release from slskd, Usenet, or deemix, in priority order. Tracks that the release does not fill continue one by one through all sources.

See Activity to follow the downloads.