Readarr on a Seedbox: Automated Ebooks and Audiobooks

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.

Set Readarr's 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 Goodreads. 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. Free and open source.

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 Readarr, pair it with Audiobookshelf or Ubooquity, point it at your indexers.