I click on the qbittorrent app and it goes to load to the webUI but it wont connect? all the other apps seem to be working.
14 replies
MonkeyMan wrote:
Anyone with this issue run this command in sparkbox terminal sudo ufw allow 8089/tcp
mackbook45 wrote:
this is the log from the app, it says it should be working?
Chris wrote:
Hey — you haven't broken anything, this is a common one with qBittorrent specifically. qBittorrent is one of the few apps that sits behind your VPN, so its page can fail to connect while everything else looks fine — even when the app itself is running, which is what your log is showing. Quickest way to sort it: open your terminal and run sparkbox urls — it prints every app with its real address. Open the qBittorrent one (ends in :8089) straight in your browser. If it still won't load, run sudo sparkbox doctor and paste what it says, and I'll take it from there.
mackbook45 wrote:
SparkBox Doctor Running diagnostics... [Install location] [OK] SparkBox is installed at: /opt/sparkbox [OK] Settings file (.env): /opt/sparkbox/.env [OK] Media library folder (MEDIAROOT): /opt/sparkbox/data/media [Docker] [OK] Docker daemon is accessible [OK] Docker version: Docker version 29.7.2, build a7dcaa6 [OK] Docker Compose: 5.4.0 [Docker Socket] [OK] Docker socket exists at /var/run/docker.sock [OK] Docker socket is readable [User IDs] [INFO] Current user: root (UID=0, GID=0) [OK] PUID=1000 (containers run as UID 1000) [OK] PGID=1000 (containers run as GID 1000) [Container Egress] [OK] Apps can reach webhook.tomsparkbox.com over sbproxy (their real network) [OK] Docker's default bridge can reach tomsparkbox.com (dashboard Update button) [Port Conflicts] [OK] Port 80: in use (Docker -- likely SparkBox) [OK] Port 443: in use by SparkBox (sb-npm) [OK] Port 8443: in use by SparkBox (sb-dashboard) [OK] Port 9000: in use by SparkBox (sb-portainer) [Portainer Auth] [ERROR] sb-portainer IS listening on 127.0.0.1:9000, but the connection timed out instead of connecting — that's Windows/WSL2's 'mirrored' networking mode blackholing loopback traffic, not a Portainer problem The tell: a genuinely closed port refuses instantly; this one hangs for several seconds because a Hyper-V firewall rule (or the mirrored-loopback bug itself) is silently dropping the connection instead of rejecting it. This blocks every app on this box the same way, not just Portainer — the dashboard and qBittorrent too. Fix from an administrator PowerShell: Set-NetFirewallHyperVVMSetting -Name '{40E0AC32-46A5-438A-A0B2-2B479E8F2E90}' -DefaultInboundAction Allow wsl --shutdown Still blocked? Switch back to NAT mode in %UserProfile%\.wslconfig: [wsl2] networkingMode=nat then run 'wsl --shutdown' from PowerShell and reopen your WSL distro. Full walkthrough: https://tomsparkbox.com/guides/run-sparkbox-on-windows-wsl [VPN Tunnel] [OK] Gluetun tunnel is healthy [Hardware Transcoding] [WARN] Hardware Transcoding is set to 'auto' but this host has NO /dev/dri -- there is no GPU for SparkBox to pass through, so everything transcodes in software This is a HOST setting, not a SparkBox one. On a generic Debian/Ubuntu install the Intel driver may not be loaded: lsmod | grep -c i915 0 means the driver is not loaded sudo apt install firmware-misc-nonfree intel-media-va-driver-non-free sudo modprobe i915 && ls -l /dev/dri On a NAS, enable GPU passthrough for Docker in the NAS settings. If this box genuinely has no usable GPU, set Hardware Transcoding to 'none' in Settings so the dashboard stops implying it is active. [Media Storage] [OK] MEDIAROOT=/opt/sparkbox/data/media exists [OK] MEDIAROOT is writable [OK] Your apps (user id 1000) can read your media library [INFO] Free space at MEDIAROOT: 925GB [System Resources] [INFO] Total RAM: 7584MB [INFO] Available RAM: 4866MB [OK] RAM looks sufficient for 4 enabled modules [INFO] Free disk at SBROOT: 925GB [NAS-Specific] [INFO] NAS type: generic [INFO] Install directory: /opt/sparkbox [WARN] Install directory is on system partition -- consider moving to a data volume There is no one-shot move command. The supported route is: 1. sudo sparkbox backup 2. copy the archive somewhere off this partition 3. re-install with: --install-dir <path on your data volume 4. sudo sparkbox restore <archive Restore now rewrites SBROOT in the settings file to the new location. [Container Health] [OK] All SparkBox containers are running and passing their health checks [Tailscale Inbound Path] [OK] Tailscale's inbound path reaches the dashboard (127.0.0.1:8443 from inside sb-tailscale) — phones on your tailnet can get through [Tailscale Reachability] [OK] Dashboard reachable on the LAN IP (172.17.0.1:8443) — no Tailscale route shadow [Windows (WSL) Networking] [WARN] Windows (WSL) box: 172.17.0.1 only works on this PC — phones, TVs and consoles cannot reach it Windows keeps its built-in Linux on a private network of its own, so the addresses above resolve from this PC and nowhere else. Anything else on your home Wi-Fi will fail to connect no matter what is typed in. It is not a wrong password, a bad user account or a Jellyfin fault — the device never gets there. Best fix — put SparkBox on your home network (needs Windows 11 22H2 or newer). On Windows, save a file called .wslconfig in your user folder (C:\Users\<you) containing exactly: [wsl2] networkingMode=mirrored Then in PowerShell (right-click, Run as administrator): wsl --shutdown Set-NetFirewallHyperVVMSetting -Name '{40E0AC32-46A5-438A-A0B2-2B479E8F2E90}' -DefaultInboundAction Allow Reopen Ubuntu, run 'sudo sparkbox up', then 'sparkbox urls' again. The addresses will change to your PC's normal home-network address and every device in the house can use them. On Windows 10, or mirrored mode won't stick? Forward the ports from Windows instead — once per app you want on the TV, in an administrator PowerShell (Jellyfin's 8096 shown; repeat with each port listed above): netsh interface portproxy add v4tov4 listenaddress=0.0.0.0 listenport=8096 connectport=8096 connectaddress=172.17.0.1 New-NetFirewallRule -DisplayName 'SparkBox 8096' -Direction Inbound -Protocol TCP -LocalPort 8096 -Action Allow Then point the TV at your PC's home-network address (PowerShell: ipconfig), not at 172.17.0.1. Heads-up: 172.17.0.1 is reassigned every time Windows restarts, so the forwarding has to be redone when it changes — mirrored mode does not. Full walkthrough: https://tomsparkbox.com/guides/run-sparkbox-on-windows-wsl ============================================ 3 issue(s) found. Review warnings above and fix as needed. ============================================
Chris wrote:
That doctor output is your answer, and the good news is it is not qBittorrent at all. The [Portainer Auth] ERROR line is the tell: you are running SparkBox inside Windows/WSL2, and Windows' 'mirrored' networking mode is silently swallowing loopback traffic — so every app (dashboard, qBittorrent, Portainer) times out while each is actually healthy. The fix is one command. In PowerShell run as administrator, paste: Set-NetFirewallHyperVVMSetting -Name '{40E0AC32-46A5-438A-A0B2-2B479E8F2E90}' -DefaultInboundAction Allow then wsl --shutdown. Reopen Ubuntu, run sudo sparkbox up, then sparkbox urls and open the qBittorrent address (ends in :8089). If it still will not connect, tell me and I will walk you through the NAT-mode fallback.
mackbook45 wrote:
it still wont connect
mackbook45 wrote:
I can now access jellyfin on my phone but still not qBitTorrent
Chris wrote:
That Jellyfin reach on your phone means the networking fix landed, so we're one app away. qBittorrent is the odd one out because it's the app that runs behind your VPN — that's the only real difference from Jellyfin here. One quick check will tell us which side is stuck: in the Ubuntu terminal run and paste what comes back. If it hangs or times out, the port is still stuck on the Windows/WSL side. If the first line starts with HTTP, qBittorrent itself is fine and it's just the address your browser is using. Paste the result and I'll take the next step.
MonkeyMan wrote:
Im having the same issue been trying for 4+ hours to get it to load but nope refuses tried 3 different vpns too
Chris wrote:
Hey MonkeyMan — four hours is a long time to be fighting this, so let's find it. The key detail: qBittorrent is the app that lives inside the VPN's network (that's by design — it's always routed through your VPN connection), so its page can refuse to open even while Jellyfin and the dashboard work fine. That usually points at tunnel health, not the provider name. Start with two checks: run sparkbox urls and open the qBittorrent address (it ends in :8089), then run sudo sparkbox doctor and tell me what it reports for gluetun and qBittorrent. That will show whether the VPN side is the blocker or something else on your box.
MonkeyMan wrote:
i got the same error as our good friend mackbook45 after he ran sparkbox doctor my issue is almost identical
MonkeyMan wrote:
Mackbook45 i managed to fix the issue its to do with the port you just gotta add the rule for both and it works i used chatgpt to speed run it.
clodd wrote:
doing this finally worked for me on windows sudo ufw allow 8089/tcp sudo ufw allow 9000/tcp
Olorin wrote:
@macbook45 If you have qBittorrent running behind Gluetun, you more than likely have the qBittorrent WebUI being pushed to a different port through Gluetun. Check to see if theres a port exposing the qBittorrent WebUI (something like 8081 or similar). It would be in the Gluetun config files probably. Could also try typing the actual IP Address instead of "localhost", that could sometimes be an issue with Gluetun routing through a VPN (worth a shot anyways).