I have little previous experience with Linux and am learning on the fly here but I have come to a point where I am not sure what exactly is wrong about my setup. I have made a list of all the steps i've taken (some of which have come from looking here for answers), but I'm at a loss now and any help would be greatly appreciated! From a fresh install of Debian, here are the steps I took: ssh user@ipaddress sudo -i sudo apt update && sudo apt upgrade -y && sudo apt install -y curl ntfs-3g curl -fsSL https://get.tomsparkbox.com/install.sh | sudo bash Dashboard Setup Install File Browser app sudo rm -f /opt/sparkbox/state/filebrowser-initted && sudo /opt/sparkbox/scripts/filebrowser-init.sh sudo cat /opt/sparkbox/state/filebrowser-admin-password.txt Install Media Center w/ Surfshark Wireguard private key lsblk -f sudo mkdir -p /mnt/usb-media sudo mount -t ntfs-3g -o uid=1000,gid=1000,umask=022 /dev/sdb1 /mnt/usb-media sudo nano /etc/fstab UUID=6E76B28176B24A1B /mnt/usb-media ntfs-3g uid=1000,gid=1000,umask=022,nofail 0 0 sudo nano /opt/sparkbox/.env MEDIAROOT=/mnt/usb-media/sparkbox-media sudo /opt/sparkbox/sparkbox up systemctl daemon-reload sudo umount /mnt/usb-media sudo mount -a df -h | grep usb sudo reboot df -h | grep usb exit sudo mkdir -p /mnt/usb-media/sparkbox-media/{torrents/{movies,tv,music},media/{movies,tv,music}} sudo chown -R $(id -u):$(id -g) /mnt/usb-media/sparkbox-media sudo chmod -R 775 /mnt/usb-media/sparkbox-media sudo reboot Following all of this, I loaded up prowlarr and added some indexers. Then I opened radarr and changed the media management settings and profile settings as advised in the radarr setup portion of the full document. When trying to download Night of the Living Dead I am getting errors. Here are the logs from Radarr: 2026-05-17T15:53:11.082729886Z [Info] AddMovieService: Adding Movie [Night of the Living Dead (1968)][tt0063350, 10331] Path: [/data/Movies/Night of the Living Dead (1968)] g2026-05-17T15:53:11.190467871Z [Info] RefreshMovieService: Updating info for Night of the Living Dead s2026-05-17T15:53:11.353823263Z [Info] AddMovieCollectionService: Adding Collection Living Dead Collection[261590] j2026-05-17T15:53:11.379326864Z [Info] RefreshCollectionService: Updating info for Living Dead Collection j2026-05-17T15:53:11.585514740Z [Warn] DiskScanService: Movie's root folder (/data/Movies) doesn't exist. 2026-05-17T15:53:11.587971017Z [Info] MovieScannedHandler: [Night of the Living Dead] was recently added, performing post-add actions 2026-05-17T15:53:11.667699709Z [Info] MediaCoverService: Downloading Poster for [Night of the Living Dead (1968)][tt0063350, 10331] https://image.tmdb.org/t/p/original/rb2NWyb008u1EcKCOyXs2Nmj0ra.jpg Z2026-05-17T15:53:11.769566494Z [Info] MovieSearchService: Performing search for 1 movies 2026-05-17T15:53:11.786222064Z [Info] ReleaseSearchService: Searching indexers for [Night of the Living Dead]. 2 active indexers 2026-05-17T15:53:12.058411745Z [Info] MediaCoverService: Downloading Fanart for [Night of the Living Dead (1968)][tt0063350, 10331] https://image.tmdb.org/t/p/original/5KtmBSqFtHY3I9t8lgH27Mc0bqY.jpg T2026-05-17T15:53:13.377576706Z [Info] DownloadDecisionMaker: Processing 4 releases p2026-05-17T15:53:13.867196518Z [Info] MovieSearchService: Completed search for 1 movies. 0 reports downloaded. v2026-05-17T15:53:16.474778943Z [Info] MetadataService: Movie folder does not exist, skipping metadata image creation Apologies for the long post, I'm trying to include as much info as possible so I don't leave out something important that I thought irrelevant. Please let me know if you have any advice or need any more info to go off of. Thank you in advance, and I really appreciate this project as a whole!! It's been a hell of a time trying to learn to get this kind of thing setup from scratch lol.
9 replies
tomspark wrote:
Good news — this isn't you, it's our docs. The folder layout you made (media/movies, torrents/movies) came from an outdated part of our media guide. SparkBox expects Movies, TV, Music directly under your media root — that's why Radarr says /data/Movies doesn't exist (on your drive it's .../sparkbox-media/media/movies, not .../sparkbox-media/Movies). Run this: sudo mkdir -p /mnt/usb-media/sparkbox-media/{downloads/incomplete,Movies,TV,Music} sudo chown -R 1000:1000 /mnt/usb-media/sparkbox-media sudo /opt/sparkbox/sparkbox arr-bootstrap That creates the names SparkBox wants, fixes ownership, and re-runs the wiring (safe to repeat). Your NTFS mount options are fine — leave them; the old media/ and torrents/ folders you can ignore or delete. Just fixed the guide so the next person doesn't hit this. You're on v1.6.115 — yell back if Radarr still errors after that.
tomspark wrote:
Great debugging — the USB/downloads side is fully fixed now. This new failure is a real bug on our side and it's exact: Seerr is telling Radarr to use quality profile id 1 ('QualityProfileExistsValidator: Quality Profile Id 1 does not exist' = the 400). Our Seerr seed falls back to id 1 when it runs before the curated quality profiles are created, and id 1 isn't guaranteed to exist on your Radarr — so every request bounces. 30-second manual fix: in Seerr go to Settings - Services - Radarr - click your Radarr server - set the Quality Profile dropdown to a real one (e.g. 'HD Bluray + WEB', or 'Any' if that's all that's listed) and confirm Root Folder is /data/Movies - Save. Do the same on the Sonarr entry (pick a real Quality Profile). Re-request Night of the Living Dead and it'll go through. Logging the seed bug so this stops needing a manual step. Ignore the earlier 'container can't see USB mount' note — that wasn't accurate for where you are now. You're on v1.6.115.
tomspark wrote:
Awesome — glad it's flowing end to end now. The Seerr quality-profile seed bug is logged so the next person won't need that manual step. Enjoy the setup, and shout if anything drifts once your library fills in.
Unsigned5559 wrote:
Thanks for the quick reply! I tried running those commands and here was the response: [arr-bootstrap] Already bootstrapped at 2026-05-17T15:08:45Z. Running re-runnable self-heal passes before exit. [arr-bootstrap] self-heal: sb-flaresolverr is live but Prowlarr proxy isn't registered. Registering now. [arr-bootstrap] self-heal: FlareSolverr proxy registered. Tag indexers with 'flaresolverr' to route via the bypass. [arr-bootstrap] self-heal: sonarr: in-app 'update available' UI suppressed (updateMechanism=docker). [arr-bootstrap] self-heal: radarr: in-app 'update available' UI suppressed (updateMechanism=docker). [arr-bootstrap] self-heal: prowlarr: in-app 'update available' UI suppressed (updateMechanism=docker). Tried rescanning and Update all, Refresh & Scan, and Search movie in Radarr and it did not work. I rebooted after as well and same thing. I am now seeing this error in Radarr system status: You are using docker; download client qBittorrent places downloads in /data/downloads but this directory does not appear to exist inside the container. Review your remote path mappings and container volume settings. Here are the logs: m2026-05-17T16:21:26.711575872Z [Info] ManagedHttpDispatcher: IPv4 is available: True, IPv6 will be disabled g2026-05-17T16:21:59.117337776Z [Info] RefreshMovieService: Updating info for Night of the Living Dead �2026-05-17T16:21:59.800355676Z [Warn] DiskScanService: Movie's root folder (/data/Movies) is empty. Rescan will not update movies as a failsafe. Z2026-05-17T16:22:01.182799321Z [Info] MovieSearchService: Performing search for 1 movies �2026-05-17T16:22:01.197629845Z [Info] ReleaseSearchService: Searching indexers for [Night of the Living Dead]. 2 active indexers T2026-05-17T16:22:03.100578977Z [Info] DownloadDecisionMaker: Processing 4 releases p2026-05-17T16:22:04.705792392Z [Info] MovieSearchService: Completed search for 1 movies. 0 reports downloaded. 2026-05-17T16:23:08.800373522Z [Warn] RadarrErrorPipeline: Invalid request Validation failed: e2026-05-17T16:23:08.800400508Z -- Path: Path '/data/Movies' is already configured as a root folder g2026-05-17T16:23:38.586523658Z [Info] RefreshMovieService: Updating info for Night of the Living Dead �2026-05-17T16:23:38.809016540Z [Warn] DiskScanService: Movie's root folder (/data/Movies) is empty. Rescan will not update movies as a failsafe. g2026-05-17T16:23:41.747438212Z [Info] RefreshMovieService: Updating info for Night of the Living Dead �2026-05-17T16:23:41.831622147Z [Warn] DiskScanService: Movie's root folder (/data/Movies) is empty. Rescan will not update movies as a failsafe. g2026-05-17T16:23:44.545335411Z [Info] RefreshMovieService: Updating info for Night of the Living Dead �2026-05-17T16:23:44.626607413Z [Warn] DiskScanService: Movie's root folder (/data/Movies) is empty. Rescan will not update movies as a failsafe. Z2026-05-17T16:23:45.290775263Z [Info] MovieSearchService: Performing search for 1 movies �2026-05-17T16:23:45.301855361Z [Info] ReleaseSearchService: Searching indexers for [Night of the Living Dead]. 2 active indexers T2026-05-17T16:23:45.840869079Z [Info] DownloadDecisionMaker: Processing 4 releases p2026-05-17T16:23:45.870278336Z [Info] MovieSearchService: Completed search for 1 movies. 0 reports downloaded.
tomspark wrote:
Real progress — Radarr went from '/data/Movies doesn't exist' to 'is empty / already configured as a root folder', so the root folder itself is now fixed. That 'empty, rescan failsafe' line is normal until media actually downloads — ignore it. The real blocker now is the new one: Radarr says /data/downloads doesn't exist inside the container. That almost always means the containers started before your USB drive was mounted, so Docker bound the empty folder underneath the mount instead of the USB itself. Do this: 1. Check the USB is actually mounted: df -h /mnt/usb-media — it should show /dev/sdb1, not your root disk. 2. Then restart the media stack so it re-binds with the USB present: sudo /opt/sparkbox/sparkbox restart media That should clear the /data/downloads warning and downloads will start landing. If step 1 shows your root disk instead of /dev/sdb1, the USB didn't auto-mount on boot — tell me and we'll sort the fstab/mount order. You're on v1.6.115.
Unsigned5559 wrote:
Thank you so much! That seemed to do the trick. I verified that it all works as intended afterwards and everything seems to work fine up until seer. when I tried to request through seer it failed and gave these logs: �2026-05-17T16:57:00.538749851Z 2026-05-17T16:57:00.538Z [[32minfo[39m][Media Request]: Sent request to Radarr {"requestId":5,"mediaId":5} �2026-05-17T16:57:00.544180382Z 2026-05-17T16:57:00.543Z [[32minfo[39m][Notifications]: Sending notification(s) for MEDIAAUTOAPPROVED {"subject":"Night of the Living Dead (1968)"} �2026-05-17T16:57:00.896522902Z 2026-05-17T16:57:00.896Z [[31merror[39m][Radarr]: Failed to add movie to Radarr. This might happen if the movie already exists, in which case you can safely ignore this error. {"errorMessage":"Request failed with status code 400","options":{"profileId":1,"qualityProfileId":1,"rootFolderPath":"/data/Movies","title":"Night of the Living Dead","tmdbId":10331,"year":1968,"monitored":true,"tags":[],"searchNow":true},"response":[{"propertyName":"QualityProfileId","errorMessage":"Quality Profile does not exist","attemptedValue":1,"severity":"error","errorCode":"QualityProfileExistsValidator","formattedMessageArguments":[],"formattedMessagePlaceholderValues":{"propertyName":"Quality Profile Id","propertyValue":1}}]} �2026-05-17T16:57:00.910113321Z 2026-05-17T16:57:00.909Z [[33mwarn[39m][Media Request]: Something went wrong sending movie request to Radarr, marking status as FAILED {"requestId":5,"mediaId":5,"radarrMovieOptions":{"profileId":1,"qualityProfileId":1,"rootFolderPath":"/data/Movies","title":"Night of the Living Dead","tmdbId":10331,"year":1968,"monitored":true,"tags":[],"searchNow":true}} �2026-05-17T16:57:00.915101481Z 2026-05-17T16:57:00.914Z [[32minfo[39m][Notifications]: Sending notification(s) for MEDIAFAILED {"subject":"Night of the Living Dead (1968)"} I2026-05-17T16:57:01.575339334Z 2026-05-17T16:57:01.575Z [[34mdebug[39m][API]: Failed to retrieve request. {"errorMessage":"Could not find any entity of type \"MediaRequest\" matching: {\n \"where\": {\n \"id\": 4\n },\n \"relations\": {\n \"requestedBy\": true,\n \"modifiedBy\": true\n }\n}"} Any ideas on what's wrong here and how to fix it? Seer isn't a necessity for me so I can do without if needed but it would be nice to have working if at all possible.
tomspark wrote:
The issue is the container can't see your USB mount — Radarr inside the container runs as root, but its /data/downloads path isn't bind-mounted to your /mnt/usb-media. Check your .env for MEDIAROOT= and make sure it points to /mnt/usb-media/sparkbox-media, then run sparkbox restart media to recreate the containers with the right mounts.
Unsigned5559 wrote:
Requests are still failing immediately in Seerr. I did confirm MEDIAROOT=/mnt/usb-media/sparkbox-media root@debian:~ sparkbox restart media [INFO] Restarting module: media (recreating to pick up .env changes) WARN[0000] Found orphan containers ([sb-filebrowser sb-npm sb-portainer sb-homepage sb-dashboard]) for this project. If you removed or renamed this service in your compose file, you can run this command with the --remove-orphans flag to clean it up. [+] up 11/11 ✔ Container sb-seerr Started 7.5s ✔ Container sb-bazarr Started 7.5s ✔ Container sb-jellyfin-media Started 7.5s ✔ Container sb-deunhealth Started 7.2s ✔ Container sb-gluetun Healthy 13.0s ✔ Container sb-qbittorrent Started 12.3s ✔ Container sb-prowlarr Started 12.3s ✔ Container sb-sabnzbd Started 12.1s ✔ Container sb-radarr Started 12.2s ✔ Container sb-sonarr Started 12.1s ✔ Container sb-flaresolverr Started 12.1s Seerr logs: �2026-05-17T17:11:23.313635202Z 2026-05-17T17:11:23.313Z [[32minfo[39m][Notifications]: Sending notification(s) for MEDIAAUTOAPPROVED {"subject":"Night of the Living Dead (1968)"} �2026-05-17T17:11:23.317576039Z 2026-05-17T17:11:23.317Z [[32minfo[39m][Media Request]: Sent request to Radarr {"requestId":6,"mediaId":6} �2026-05-17T17:11:24.249337502Z 2026-05-17T17:11:24.249Z [[31merror[39m][Radarr]: Failed to add movie to Radarr. This might happen if the movie already exists, in which case you can safely ignore this error. {"errorMessage":"Request failed with status code 400","options":{"profileId":1,"qualityProfileId":1,"rootFolderPath":"/data/Movies","title":"Night of the Living Dead","tmdbId":10331,"year":1968,"monitored":true,"tags":[],"searchNow":true},"response":[{"propertyName":"QualityProfileId","errorMessage":"Quality Profile does not exist","attemptedValue":1,"severity":"error","errorCode":"QualityProfileExistsValidator","formattedMessageArguments":[],"formattedMessagePlaceholderValues":{"propertyName":"Quality Profile Id","propertyValue":1}}]} �2026-05-17T17:11:24.261850470Z 2026-05-17T17:11:24.261Z [[33mwarn[39m][Media Request]: Something went wrong sending movie request to Radarr, marking status as FAILED {"requestId":6,"mediaId":6,"radarrMovieOptions":{"profileId":1,"qualityProfileId":1,"rootFolderPath":"/data/Movies","title":"Night of the Living Dead","tmdbId":10331,"year":1968,"monitored":true,"tags":[],"searchNow":true}} �2026-05-17T17:11:24.265829864Z 2026-05-17T17:11:24.265Z [[32minfo[39m][Notifications]: Sending notification(s) for MEDIAFAILED {"subject":"Night of the Living Dead (1968)"} I2026-05-17T17:11:24.744126586Z 2026-05-17T17:11:24.743Z [[34mdebug[39m][API]: Failed to retrieve request. {"errorMessage":"Could not find any entity of type \"MediaRequest\" matching: {\n \"where\": {\n \"id\": 5\n },\n \"relations\": {\n \"requestedBy\": true,\n \"modifiedBy\": true\n }\n}"} �2026-05-17T17:11:27.129453494Z 2026-05-17T17:11:27.129Z [[32minfo[39m][Media Request]: Sent request to Radarr {"requestId":6,"mediaId":6} �2026-05-17T17:11:27.136260972Z 2026-05-17T17:11:27.135Z [[32minfo[39m][Notifications]: Sending notification(s) for MEDIAAPPROVED {"subject":"Night of the Living Dead (1968)"} �2026-05-17T17:11:27.226457029Z 2026-05-17T17:11:27.226Z [[31merror[39m][Radarr]: Failed to add movie to Radarr. This might happen if the movie already exists, in which case you can safely ignore this error. {"errorMessage":"Request failed with status code 400","options":{"profileId":1,"qualityProfileId":1,"rootFolderPath":"/data/Movies","title":"Night of the Living Dead","tmdbId":10331,"year":1968,"monitored":true,"tags":[],"searchNow":true},"response":[{"propertyName":"QualityProfileId","errorMessage":"Quality Profile does not exist","attemptedValue":1,"severity":"error","errorCode":"QualityProfileExistsValidator","formattedMessageArguments":[],"formattedMessagePlaceholderValues":{"propertyName":"Quality Profile Id","propertyValue":1}}]} �2026-05-17T17:11:27.324391611Z 2026-05-17T17:11:27.324Z [[33mwarn[39m][Media Request]: Something went wrong sending movie request to Radarr, marking status as FAILED {"requestId":6,"mediaId":6,"radarrMovieOptions":{"profileId":1,"qualityProfileId":1,"rootFolderPath":"/data/Movies","title":"Night of the Living Dead","tmdbId":10331,"year":1968,"monitored":true,"tags":[],"searchNow":true}} �2026-05-17T17:11:27.327980675Z 2026-05-17T17:11:27.327Z [[32minfo[39m][Notifications]: Sending notification(s) for MEDIAFAILED {"subject":"Night of the Living Dead (1968)"}
Unsigned5559 wrote:
That did the trick, thank you for all the help!