Movies/TV

Phase 14

Prerequisite: BitTorrent

This is where media automation starts to feel like an actual system instead of a collection of unrelated containers.

For movies and TV, the core pieces are:

Sonarr for TV
Radarr for movies
optional Prowlarr for indexer management
optional Jellyseerr for user-friendly requests

You do not need every component on day one, but Sonarr and Radarr are the center of gravity here.

Folder Layout Matters

Before deploying anything, make sure your media paths are sensible.

I recommend:

/mnt/nas/media/tv
/mnt/nas/media/movies
/mnt/nas/media/downloads

These are important because Sonarr and Radarr need stable, predictable paths for:

completed downloads
library import
renaming and organizing files

If the download client sees a path that the automation stack does not, you will get confusing import failures later.

Create Directories

mkdir -p /mnt/nas/media/{tv,movies,downloads}
mkdir -p ~/docker/appdata/{sonarr,radarr,prowlarr,jellyseerr}
mkdir -p ~/docker/compose/media

Create the Compose File

Create ~/docker/compose/media/movies-tv.compose.yml:

services:
  sonarr:
    image: lscr.io/linuxserver/sonarr:latest
    container_name: sonarr
    environment:
      - PUID=1000
      - PGID=1000
      - TZ=America/New_York
    volumes:
      - /home/<your-user>/docker/appdata/sonarr:/config
      - /mnt/nas/media/tv:/tv
      - /mnt/nas/media/downloads:/downloads
    ports:
      - "8989:8989"
    restart: unless-stopped
    networks: [proxy]

  radarr:
    image: lscr.io/linuxserver/radarr:latest
    container_name: radarr
    environment:
      - PUID=1000
      - PGID=1000
      - TZ=America/New_York
    volumes:
      - /home/<your-user>/docker/appdata/radarr:/config
      - /mnt/nas/media/movies:/movies
      - /mnt/nas/media/downloads:/downloads
    ports:
      - "7878:7878"
    restart: unless-stopped
    networks: [proxy]

  prowlarr:
    image: lscr.io/linuxserver/prowlarr:latest
    container_name: prowlarr
    environment:
      - PUID=1000
      - PGID=1000
      - TZ=America/New_York
    volumes:
      - /home/<your-user>/docker/appdata/prowlarr:/config
    ports:
      - "9696:9696"
    restart: unless-stopped
    networks: [proxy]

  jellyseerr:
    image: fallenbagel/jellyseerr:latest
    container_name: jellyseerr
    environment:
      - TZ=America/New_York
    volumes:
      - /home/<your-user>/docker/appdata/jellyseerr:/app/config
    ports:
      - "5055:5055"
    restart: unless-stopped
    networks: [proxy]

networks:
  proxy:
    external: true

Start the Stack

docker compose -f ~/docker/compose/media/movies-tv.compose.yml up -d

Access the services at:

Sonarr: http://<nixos-ip>:8989
Radarr: http://<nixos-ip>:7878
Prowlarr: http://<nixos-ip>:9696
Jellyseerr: http://<nixos-ip>:5055

First-Time Configuration Order

The cleanest setup order is:

Configure qBittorrent first and confirm it downloads successfully
Configure Prowlarr with your indexers if you plan to use it
Connect Sonarr and Radarr to Prowlarr
Add qBittorrent as the download client in Sonarr and Radarr
Set root folders:
- Sonarr: /tv
- Radarr: /movies
Trigger a test download and confirm it imports automatically

The key is to verify the full chain, not just that each web UI opens.

Path Consistency Is Not Optional

This is one of the most common failure points.

If qBittorrent downloads to one path and Sonarr/Radarr expect another path that does not line up inside the containers, imports will fail or require ugly remote path mapping workarounds.

You want the paths to make intuitive sense from the start.

That is why this guide keeps /downloads mounted into all of the relevant containers directly.

Keep It Private

Like the torrent client, these services are usually best kept private:

LAN only
or Tailscale only

Especially the admin UIs.

If you later want a polished request portal for family, Jellyseerr is the first service in this group that arguably makes sense to expose more widely, but do that intentionally, not by accident.

Next Steps

Now that you can acquire and organize media, the next step is actually consuming it cleanly.

Proceed to Jellyfin.

Last updated: March 2026

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