How to set up Readarr on SonicBit

If you've already got Sonarr handling your TV shows and Radarr managing your movies, your media server is in decent shape. But what about books? If you're the type who likes to keep an ebook library alongside your video collection, Readarr is the missing piece—and setting it up on SonicBit takes about five minutes.

Readarr is a book and audiobook manager that works the same way Sonarr and Radarr do. You add an author, pick the books you want, and Readarr hunts them down, downloads them, and organizes everything into a clean folder structure. No more manually renaming files or digging through messy download folders.

In this guide, I'll walk you through installing Readarr on SonicBit, connecting it to a download client, adding your first author, and getting books flowing into your library automatically.

What You'll Need Before You Start

Readarr isn't a heavy app, but it works best when paired with a download client and an indexer. Here's what I recommend having ready:

• A SonicBit account — the Free plan works for testing, but you'll want at least the Starter plan ($2.45/month) for a practical setup. It gives you 50GB of storage and 3 basic app slots.
• A torrent or Usenet download client — qBittorrent, Deluge, or NZBGet all work well. You can deploy these from the SonicBit dashboard in one click.
• An indexer — Jackett or Prowlarr will handle this. Both are available as one-click apps on SonicBit.

If you haven't set up a download client yet, deploy qBittorrent first—it's the most straightforward option for beginners.

Step 1: Deploy Readarr from the SonicBit Dashboard

This is the easy part. SonicBit handles all the Docker configuration, reverse proxy setup, and SSL certificates automatically.

1. Log in to your SonicBit dashboard.
2. Navigate to the Apps section.
3. Find Readarr in the app catalog (it's under the Media category).
4. Click Install.
5. Wait about 30-60 seconds for the deployment to complete.

!Readarr app in the SonicBit dashboard

Once it's deployed, you'll see Readarr listed in your apps with a URL to access it. Click that URL and you're in.

Step 2: Initial Readarr Configuration

The first time you open Readarr, it will walk you through a setup wizard. Here's what to pay attention to:

Authentication

Readarr will prompt you to set up authentication. Do this. Your Readarr instance is publicly accessible via HTTPS, and you don't want random people adding books to your queue. Set a username and password—something you'll remember.

Download Client Setup

After authentication, you'll configure your download client. This is where Readarr connects to qBittorrent (or whatever client you deployed earlier).

For qBittorrent:

1. In Readarr, go to Settings → Download Clients → Add.
2. Select qBittorrent from the list.
3. Fill in the details:

• Host: This is your qBittorrent app URL on SonicBit (you can find it in your dashboard under the qBittorrent app).
• Port: Usually 443 (SonicBit routes everything through HTTPS).
• Username/Password: The credentials you set for qBittorrent.

1. Click Test to verify the connection. You should see a green checkmark.

!Connecting Readarr to qBittorrent

If the test fails, double-check your qBittorrent credentials and make sure qBittorrent is actually running.

Indexer Setup

Next, you need an indexer so Readarr knows where to search for books. If you're using Prowlarr or Jackett:

1. Open your Prowlarr/Jackett app from the SonicBit dashboard.
2. Add some book-friendly indexers (1337x, The Pirate Bay, or any Usenet indexers if you have them).
3. Copy the API key from Prowlarr/Jackett.
4. Back in Readarr, go to Settings → Indexers → Add → Torznab (for Prowlarr) or Torznab/Newznab (for Jackett).
5. Paste the API key and the indexer URL.
6. Test the connection.

Root Folder

The last critical setting is your root folder—this is where Readarr will store and organize your books. On SonicBit, your storage is mounted at a specific path. The default root folder is typically /storage/books or similar. You can create a new folder if you want to keep things tidy:

/storage/books

Or if you want to separate ebooks and audiobooks:

/storage/books/ebooks
/storage/books/audiobooks

Readarr will create author folders and rename files automatically once you point it to the right place.

Step 3: Add Your First Author and Books

Now for the fun part—actually getting some books.

1. Click Library → Add New in Readarr.
2. Search for an author by name. Let's say you want to add Brandon Sanderson.
3. Select the author from the results.
4. Choose your root folder and quality profile.
5. Choose which books you want to monitor. You can monitor all books, just future releases, or pick specific titles.

!Adding an author in Readarr

Once you add an author, Readarr will start searching for monitored books based on your indexer and download client settings. If everything is connected properly, you should see books appearing in your download client within minutes.

Step 4: Fine-Tuning Your Setup

Here are a few settings worth tweaking to make Readarr work better on SonicBit:

Quality Profiles

Readarr has default quality profiles, but you can customize them. For ebooks, file size isn't a huge concern—even large EPUBs are only a few MB. For audiobooks, however, you might want to set minimum and maximum file sizes to avoid getting low-bitrate rips.

Go to Settings → Profiles and adjust accordingly.

Download Handling

Make sure Completed Download Handling is enabled under Settings → Download Clients. This tells Readarr to automatically import completed downloads from your download client and move them to your root folder. Without this, you'll be manually moving files around.

Remote Path Mappings

If Readarr and your download client are on different paths (which can happen with Docker setups), you may need to configure remote path mappings. On SonicBit, this is usually handled automatically, but if you see "No files found are eligible for import" errors, check Settings → Download Clients → Remote Path Mappings and add the appropriate mapping.

Readarr vs. Manual Book Management: Quick Comparison

Common Issues and Quick Fixes

Books aren't downloading:

• Check that your indexer is returning results (test it in Settings → Indexers)
• Make sure the author is actually monitored
• Verify your download client connection is working

Files download but don't import:

• Check Completed Download Handling is enabled
• Look at Remote Path Mappings
• Check the Readarr logs (System → Logs → Files)

Readarr can't find a specific book:

• Try adding more indexers—ebooks are less common on some trackers
• Search manually in your download client and import the files to Readarr

What's Next?

Once Readarr is running smoothly, you might want to pair it with other apps to complete your media automation stack:

• How to set up Sonarr on SonicBit — automate TV show downloads
• How to set up Radarr on SonicBit — same thing for movies
• How to set up Prowlarr on SonicBit — manage all your indexers in one place

You can also explore Lidarr for music if you want to round out your media library beyond books and video.

Get Your Book Library Automated Today

Readarr on SonicBit is a straightforward way to keep your ebook and audiobook collection organized without touching the command line or fiddling with Docker configs. The one-click deployment means you spend your time picking books, not troubleshooting infrastructure.

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