Prowlarr came back empty also

Posted by Bigmayes

My question: Prowlarr came back empty also SparkBox AI replied: That settles it — Prowlarr itself returning zero results on a manual search, with every indexer testing green and the VPN tunnel healthy, means the problem is upstream of Radarr/Sonarr entirely and I've ruled out everything I can see from here (VPN connection, Byparr crash-looping, indexer auth/test status, module restart). That's a genuine "I don't know" — not a config thing on your end, not something a restart fixes, and not something I can dig into further without seeing Prowlarr's own internals live. Hit Share to demox with what we've gathered: - All indexers test green in Prowlarr - gluetun healthy, WireGuard connected, public IP resolving fine - Byparr not actually restart-looping (RestartCount: 0), just cycling health checks - Prowlarr's own manual search returns zero results on every indexer - Worked last night, nothing changed on your end That's solid evidence for Tom to actually look at rather than me guessing further. What I still need help with: (describe what didn't work or what's still broken) The search function doesn't work any more. It worked last night, but today when I search for something all three said no search results (sonarr and radarr showed no results on the interactive search, and prowlarr showed it when I searched also

10 replies

Chris wrote:

Hi Bigmayes — let's narrow this down. Tom AI ruled out the VPN, indexer tests, and app state. The next step is to verify whether Prowlarr can actually reach the indexers. Go to Prowlarr → Settings → Debug → Logs, and grab the most recent search attempt (look for lines that mention one of your indexers by name). Reply with: 1. The exact timestamp of your last manual search 2. The first indexer name it tried 3. Any error message in the logs for that attempt This will tell us if Prowlarr is getting blocked, hitting a rate limit, or if the indexer itself is returning an error. Once we see those logs, the cause will be much clearer. If you don't see any log lines from your search at all, that's different — it means Prowlarr never tried to reach the indexers, which points to a different problem. Let me know either way.

Bigmayes wrote:

I don't see debug

Chris wrote:

No problem — let me point you to the right place. In Prowlarr: 1. Open the three-line menu (hamburger icon, top-left corner) 2. Look for System (it is at the bottom of that menu, in a separate section) 3. Inside System, click Logs Once you are in the Logs view, search for a recent entry (look for the timestamp of when you tried your last search). Filter or scroll to find any error messages. Let me know what you see there — the error message will tell us exactly what is blocking the search.

Bigmayes wrote:

Chris wrote:

Perfect — that answers it. Look at these lines from your logs: Indexer DOGnzb has performed 25 of possible 25 queries in last 24 hour(s), exceeding the maximum query limit. All four of your indexers hit their 24-hour query limit. Each indexer sets its own daily quota, and once you hit 25 queries (or whatever their limit is), they block searches until midnight UTC resets the counter. You have two options: 1. Wait for the daily reset (each indexer resets at a different time, usually around midnight UTC). 2. Check if your indexers offer higher query limits on their site if you have a paid account — some let you upgrade for more daily searches. Right now, Prowlarr is working fine, the VPN is healthy, and your indexers are responding — they are just rate-limited. Once the counters reset tomorrow, searches will work again. Let me know if searches start working after the reset, or if you want help checking whether your accounts have a higher tier available.

Bigmayes wrote:

So thats why all the apps in the launcher section have a yellow dot beside them and not green? Also my rate limit for the indexers are higher than 25. I set it to 25 in prowlarr

Chris wrote:

Ah that explains it. The yellow dots are Prowlarr health indicators. Here is what happened: you set Prowlarr limit to 25, so after 25 searches today, Prowlarr itself stops searching. The indexers have their higher limit available, but Prowlarr will not reach them. To fix this, go to Prowlarr Settings and find the query limit. Increase it to match or exceed your indexers limits. Once you do that, the yellow dots should turn green after the app health check runs again. Let me know if the dots turn green, or if you need help finding that setting.

Chris wrote:

Bigmayes — sorry, my last reply mixed two things up and I want to set it straight. The yellow dots in the SparkBox launcher have nothing to do with Prowlarr's search limits. SparkBox colours each tile from the app's own container health check: green means the check passed, yellow means the app is still starting or its health check has not come back healthy yet, and a dimmed tile means the check is failing. Prowlarr's rate-limit warning only shows inside Prowlarr (System → Status) and never changes those dots. The search problem itself is what your log says: Prowlarr stopped querying each indexer after the 25 searches you set, even though the indexers themselves allow more. That limit is per indexer, not under Settings: open Indexers, click an indexer, tick Show Advanced, and raise Query Limit to what that indexer allows (or clear it). Searches work again as soon as the limit is above today's count, or once the 24-hour window moves on. One check: if the dots stay yellow for more than ten minutes, run sudo sparkbox doctor and read the [Container Health] section — it names any app whose health check is failing and why. We have corrected what the assistant knows about green tests with empty results and about those launcher dots, so the next person is not sent to a log menu that does not exist or told a dot means something it does not. Sorry for the runaround.

Bigmayes wrote:

It's ok. I figured it out. The yellow dots were because of the background color change I did in the dashboard. I changed it back to default and the dots were green again which was weird. Far as the links not showing up when I made a search I changed the setting in profile and quality in both sonarr and radarr and the search started working again. I don't quite have the setting right to get results through the regular search but I can through the interactive search for now and I'm cool with that. I've been having issues with this putting in 10 hour days for the last 3 days and I tired. I'm ok with the results from today. I can log off now. Thank you for your help

Chris wrote:

Glad you sorted it\! Appreciate the update on the dashboard background color — that's useful to know. And nice work finding the profile/quality setting that got searches working through interactive search. Enjoy the rest and thanks for sticking with it.