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FAQ

Short answers to the most common questions. For details, each answer links to the full coverage.

Sonarr, Radarr, and the other *arr apps monitor RSS feeds for new releases as they appear on your indexers. RSS does not re-search content that was already available before you set up your current indexers or changed your quality profile.

Each app has a "Search All Missing" button, but it fires every missing item at once. With a large backlog, that floods your indexers with hundreds of simultaneous requests and can get you rate-limited or banned. Per-item manual search works but is tedious at the scale of hundreds of entries.

Houndarr fills the gap by working through your wanted lists automatically in small, rate-limited batches. Common situations where it helps: adding a new indexer, changing quality profiles, recovering after downtime, or setting up a new server with a large existing library. If your current setup already grabs everything and handles upgrades automatically, you do not need Houndarr.

I have 500 monitored movies. Why did Houndarr only search 3?​

Monitored does not mean wanted. Most of your library is already downloaded and meeting your quality cutoff, so those items never appear in a wanted list. Of the items that are wanted, cooldowns, post-release grace windows, and hourly caps filter out most of the rest.

See How Houndarr Works for the full funnel.

Why is Houndarr skipping so much?​

Each skipped row logs a reason string that tells you why. A high skip count with zero errors is the engine pacing itself. Errors are the signal that something is wrong; skips are not. See Skip Reasons for what each reason string means.

Does Houndarr decide whether my file meets cutoff?​

No. Your *arr instance maintains the Wanted -> Cutoff Unmet list based on your quality profiles. Houndarr reads that list and schedules searches for items on it. If something should be on the cutoff list but is not, check the quality profile in your instance directly.

Does Houndarr search my whole library?​

It searches items from wanted/missing and wanted/cutoff, rotating through the list over time so every item gets evaluated even when the first pages are on cooldown. With upgrade search enabled, it also re-searches library items that already meet cutoff, rotating through your library with a separate offset. Everything else is untouched. See Search Order for the rotation mechanics.

Why is Houndarr searching so slowly?​

The defaults ship with batch size 2, hourly cap 4, and a 14-day cooldown. With a large backlog, clearing it takes weeks. You can raise throughput gradually; see Increase Throughput.

What is upgrade search? How is it different from cutoff?​

Cutoff search targets items your *arr instance flags as below your quality cutoff (they do not meet your minimum standard). Upgrade search targets items that already meet cutoff but might have better releases available based on quality profiles and custom format scoring.

Upgrade search reads the full library rather than the wanted/cutoff list, and the engine enforces hard caps: batch capped at 5, cooldown floored at 7 days (default 90), hourly cap capped at 5. Enable it only after missing and cutoff backlogs are stable. When an upgrade search triggers, your *arr instance evaluates the results against your quality profile and custom format scores; Houndarr does not influence that decision.

Can Houndarr search for things that aren't in my *arr instance yet?​

No. Houndarr only triggers searches within your *arr instances for items already tracked there. For request workflows, use Overseerr or Jellyseerr alongside your *arr stack.

I deleted files to free up space. Will Houndarr re-download them?​

If the items are still monitored in your *arr instance, yes: they will appear in the wanted/missing list and Houndarr will eventually search for them. To prevent re-downloads, unmonitor the items in your *arr instance before or after deleting the files. Houndarr only acts on what your *arr instance reports as wanted.

Does Houndarr respect custom format scores?​

Houndarr does not evaluate quality, custom formats, or release attributes. It only triggers search commands. Your *arr instance handles all quality evaluation, custom format scoring, and download decisions. When your quality profile and custom formats are set up, Houndarr's searches produce results that satisfy them. If you want help building, testing, and deploying quality profiles and custom formats across your stack, Profilarr is a community tool built for that.