Readarr on a Seedbox: Automated Ebooks and Audiobooks

Readarr was retired in 2025

Before anything else: the Readarr project is over. The repository was archived on 27 June 2025, and the team's own notice reads "the Readarr project has been retired. This difficult decision was made due to a combination of factors: the project's metadata has become unusable, we no longer have the time to remake or repair it, and the community effort to transition to using Open Library as the source has stalled without much progress."

That last part is the bit that matters for the setup below. Readarr's author and book lookup ran on that metadata service, so "follow an author, get their bibliography" is exactly the workflow that broke. An install you already have keeps running and will still grab what your indexers return, but nothing about it is being fixed, and no security updates are coming either.

If you're starting from scratch today, don't start here. For audiobooks, go straight to Audiobookshelf: it handles the library and the playback and doesn't need anything in front of it. For ebooks, Ubooquity or Calibre will manage the library, and you add books yourself. For the job Readarr actually did, following an author and grabbing new releases as they land, the replacement is Bindery. It is a clean rewrite with metadata that works, it reads a Readarr database so you can bring your monitored authors across, and it installs from the panel in one click. Both install from the panel in one click, same as Readarr did.

The rest of this page is kept for people who already run it.

What Readarr Is

Readarr is the *arr-family app for ebooks and audiobooks. You follow authors or specific books, Readarr watches your indexers for new releases, and grabs them through your torrent or Usenet client. The same Sonarr workflow, applied to books instead of TV.

The audiobook side hands off well to Audiobookshelf for playback. The ebook side hands off to Calibre or Ubooquity.

Why Run It on a Seedbox?

Readarr needs to be reachable from your indexers and run scheduled searches. A seedbox is the natural home:

• 24/7 uptime so monitored authors get checked on schedule
• One-click install in the panel
• Sonarr, Radarr, Prowlarr alongside
• 10 Gbit so big audiobook releases come down quickly
• EU servers in Luxembourg, France, and Netherlands

Installing Readarr

Open the Bytesized Panel, find Readarr in the app catalog, click install. Panel sets up the binary, the reverse proxy, the HTTPS URL.

Click "Open" to land on the dashboard.

First-Run Setup

Same shape as Sonarr or Radarr:

1. Add a download client. Settings > Download Clients. qBittorrent, Deluge, rTorrent, SABnzbd, NZBGet all work.
2. Add indexers. Either through Prowlarr (the clean way) or manually. Readarr supports both Torznab and Newznab indexers.
3. Set quality profiles. Defaults differ for ebooks and audiobooks. EPUB and MOBI are the standard ebook formats; M4B is the audiobook standard.
4. Set root folders. Standard Bytesized layout is ~/files/ebooks and ~/files/audiobooks.

Once that's wired, search for an author you like. Readarr will show their bibliography; click the books you want and Readarr starts monitoring.

Pairing With Audiobookshelf

For audiobooks, the chain is:

1. Readarr finds and grabs new audiobooks.
2. Readarr renames and sorts them under ~/files/audiobooks in the format Audiobookshelf likes (Author > Series > Book).
3. Audiobookshelf scans the folder and surfaces the new books in its UI.

If you are building this chain today, build it with Bindery instead of Readarr; it keeps ebooks and audiobooks in separate slots per title, which is the part Readarr never handled cleanly. Either way, set the audiobook quality profile to prefer M4B over MP3 where possible; M4B is one file per book, which Audiobookshelf handles cleanly.

Pairing With Ubooquity or Calibre

For ebooks:

1. Readarr grabs new ebooks in EPUB or MOBI.
2. They land in ~/files/ebooks under Author > Book.
3. Ubooquity scans the folder and presents them in its web UI. Calibre is the alternative if you want a heavier library manager.

Common Gotchas

No indexers connected. Readarr is one of the *arr apps best served by Prowlarr; the manual indexer-by-indexer flow is tedious. Set up Prowlarr once, sync to Readarr.

Author bibliography incomplete. Readarr pulls from a metadata service the maintainers say became unusable, which is why the project was retired. If a book's missing, refresh the author or hit "Search" manually.

Audiobooks split into chapter files. Some releases come as one file per chapter, which Audiobookshelf handles fine but is messier. The quality profile can be set to prefer single-file releases.

Readarr import not finding files. Check the root folder permissions and that the download client is using the right category. Readarr expects books-readarr or audiobooks-readarr by default.

FAQ

Is Readarr free? Yes, and it always was. It's also unmaintained as of June 2025, so read the notice at the top before you install it.

Does it find audiobooks too? Yes. Separate library type from ebooks. Same workflow.

Will it work with Audiobookshelf? Yes. Readarr handles the grabbing; Audiobookshelf handles the playback.

Can it convert ebook formats? No, not directly. Calibre is the right tool for format conversion; Readarr just grabs whatever the indexer has.

Is it as smooth as Sonarr? Almost. The book metadata side (Goodreads dependence) has more rough edges than Sonarr's TheTVDB-backed model, but the core workflow is solid.

Ready to Set It Up?

Browse Appbox plans, install Audiobookshelf for audiobooks or Ubooquity for ebooks, and point your download client at the right folders.