Sonarr Nyaa - Indexer
Sonarr is a powerful tool for automating TV show management, but for anime fans, it requires a specific setup to work correctly. Because most anime is distributed via BitTorrent on specialized trackers, integrating Nyaa (the world’s most popular public anime tracker) is essential.
This guide covers everything you need to know about setting up a Sonarr Nyaa indexer to automate your anime library in high quality. Understanding the Role of an Indexer
In the world of automated media, Sonarr acts as the "brain." It knows which episodes you are missing, but it doesn't know where to find the files. An indexer acts as the bridge. It allows Sonarr to "search" websites like Nyaa to find the specific video files you want. Why Nyaa Requires a Proxy
Sonarr cannot talk to Nyaa directly "out of the box" because Nyaa does not use a standard API format that Sonarr understands. To fix this, you must use a proxy or a manager. 1. Prowlarr (Recommended)
Prowlarr is a modern indexer manager. It syncs with Sonarr and handles the connection to Nyaa automatically. Ease of use: High. Speed: Very fast.
Best for: Users running multiple "Arr" apps (Radarr, Lidarr). 2. Jackett
Jackett is the classic choice. It translates Nyaa’s website data into a format Sonarr can read. Ease of use: Medium. Stability: Very high. Best for: Users who prefer a standalone integration. Step-by-Step Setup Guide Step 1: Install Your Proxy Download and install either Prowlarr or Jackett. In Prowlarr: Click "Add Indexer" and search for "Nyaa."
In Jackett: Click "Add Indexer," find Nyaa, and click the "+" icon. Step 2: Copy the API Details
You will need two pieces of information from your proxy app: API Key: Found in the "Settings" or "General" tab.
URL: Usually http://localhost:9696 (Prowlarr) or http://localhost:9117 (Jackett). Step 3: Add to Sonarr Open Sonarr. Go to Settings > Indexers. Click the + button. Select Torznab (this is the format Nyaa uses via a proxy). Paste your URL and API Key. Under Categories, add 5070 (Anime). Click Test and Save. Essential Settings for Anime
If you don't configure your series correctly, Sonarr might fail to find Nyaa uploads even if the indexer is working.
Series Type: When adding a show, change "Series Type" from Standard to Anime. This tells Sonarr to look for absolute episode numbers (e.g., Episode 500) rather than Season/Episode numbers (e.g., S05E12).
Release Profiles: Nyaa has many uploaders. You can go to Settings > Profiles > Release Profiles to prioritize "Must Contain" terms like "Subs" or "Dual-Audio," or specific groups like "SubsPlease" or "Erai-raws." Troubleshooting Common Issues
No Results Found: Ensure the "Series Type" is set to Anime. If it's set to Standard, Sonarr will search for Season 1, which Nyaa uploaders rarely use.
Connection Refused: Check if your VPN is blocking local communication between Sonarr and Jackett/Prowlarr.
Cloudflare Errors: Nyaa sometimes uses DDoS protection. If you see "403 Forbidden" errors, ensure your proxy software is updated to the latest version to bypass these checks.
What operating system are you using (Windows, Linux, Docker)?
Do you prefer dual-audio (English/Japanese) or subtitles only? Are you currently using Jackett or Prowlarr?
I can provide the exact Release Profile tags you need to ensure you only get the highest quality releases.
To get Nyaa (specifically Nyaa.si) working properly with Sonarr, the "proper story" is that Sonarr's built-in Nyaa indexer is often considered legacy or broken because it was designed for the original (now defunct) Nyaa site. The Best Way: Use Prowlarr or Jackett
The modern standard is to use a proxy like Prowlarr or Jackett. These tools provide a Torznab feed that Sonarr can parse more reliably.
Install Prowlarr or Jackett: Add Nyaa.si as an indexer within that app. Add to Sonarr: In Sonarr, go to Settings > Indexers > Add (+). Select Torznab (Custom). Copy the URL and API Key from Prowlarr/Jackett.
Categories: For anime, use categories like 5070 (Anime). In Jackett, you often need to manually specify these numbers. Critical Configuration Fixes
If you are already using Nyaa but it isn't finding anything or is failing, check these common pitfalls:
Series Type: You must set the "Series Type" to Anime for each show in Sonarr. If it's set to "Standard," Sonarr will look for S01E01 formatting, whereas anime on Nyaa often uses "Absolute" numbering (e.g., Episode 01), which causes a mismatch.
Additional Parameters: If using the built-in indexer, some users fix failures by adding &c=1_2&f=1 to the Additional Parameters field in settings to force the correct category filters.
Categories in Prowlarr/Jackett: Ensure you have selected the correct categories for Nyaa (usually Anime - English-translated) so Sonarr knows which results to request.
Incorrect language profile downloaded from nyaa · Issue #5411 sonarr nyaa indexer
Unlocking the Power of Sonarr and Nyaa Indexer: A Comprehensive Guide
For enthusiasts of television shows and anime, the quest for high-quality, reliable, and easily accessible content is a never-ending pursuit. Two tools that have gained significant attention and popularity among these enthusiasts are Sonarr, a popular open-source TV show indexer, and Nyaa, a renowned indexer for anime and other media. When combined, Sonarr and Nyaa Indexer offer an unparalleled experience in finding, monitoring, and downloading TV shows and anime. This article aims to provide a comprehensive overview of how to integrate and utilize Sonarr with the Nyaa Indexer, enhancing your media collection experience.
Pros:
Cons:
Sonarr prefers single episodes. However, Nyaa is known for massive season batches ([Group] Show - Complete S01 [BD 1080p]). To force Sonarr to use season packs:
This guide is for educational purposes. Nyaa indexes copyrighted content. Depending on your country (e.g., Germany, USA, Japan), accessing Nyaa without a VPN may lead to ISP warnings or fines.
Best Practices:
By following these steps, you should now have Sonarr configured with the Nyaa indexer, allowing you to search and download your favorite TV shows and anime. Happy watching!
Setting up as an indexer in is a bit unique because Sonarr doesn't support Nyaa natively. To bridge the gap, you need a "proxy" or "mediator" like 1. The Essential Tool: Prowlarr (Recommended) While Jackett is the classic choice,
is generally preferred today because it syncs automatically with Sonarr. Install Prowlarr : If you don't have it, install Prowlarr alongside your Sonarr instance. Open Prowlarr and go to Search for Select your desired categories (usually Anime - English-translated Sync to Sonarr In Prowlarr, go to and select Enter your Sonarr Server URL (found in Sonarr under Settings > General
. Nyaa will now automatically appear in Sonarr's Indexers list. 2. The Manual Way: Jackett If you prefer , follow these steps: Add Nyaa in Jackett + Add Indexer , search for Nyaa, and click the green plus icon. Copy API Details : On the Jackett dashboard, click Copy Torznab Feed for Nyaa and take note of your (top right of the page). Add to Sonarr Open Sonarr and go to and select : Paste the Torznab Feed URL you copied. : Paste your Jackett API Key. Categories : Standard anime categories are 3. Crucial Sonarr Settings for Anime
Sonarr treats Anime differently than standard TV. For Nyaa to work correctly: Series Type : When adding a show to Sonarr, ensure the Series Type
. If it's set to "Standard," Sonarr will look for "S01E01" formatting, while Nyaa often uses absolute numbering (e.g., "Episode 01"), causing searches to fail. Categories
: Ensure the category IDs in your Torznab settings match what Nyaa uses (typically 4. Optional: Use "Nyaa Pantsu" If the main site is down or blocked, both Prowlarr and Jackett support NyaaPantsu as an alternative indexer. The setup process is identical. or setting up Download Clients to work with these indexers?
To integrate Nyaa into Sonarr, you must use a proxy like Prowlarr or Jackett. Sonarr does not support Nyaa as a native "built-in" indexer because Nyaa's search functionality requires specific translation that these external tools provide. Step 1: Set up a Proxy (Recommended: Prowlarr)
Prowlarr is the modern standard for syncing indexers to Sonarr. Install Prowlarr and go to Indexers > Add New (+). Search for Nyaa.si and click it.
Configure: Most settings can stay default for public trackers. Ensure the Anime category (usually 5070) is selected.
Save: Prowlarr will automatically "push" this indexer to Sonarr if you have linked them under Settings > Apps. Step 2: Alternative Setup (Jackett) If you prefer Jackett, follow these steps:
Add Indexer: In Jackett, click + Add Indexer and search for Nyaa. Copy Torznab Feed: Once added, click Copy Torznab Feed. Add to Sonarr: In Sonarr, go to Settings > Indexers > Add (+). Choose Torznab (Custom). Paste the Jackett URL and your Jackett API key. Step 3: Configure for Anime To ensure Sonarr actually uses Nyaa for your shows:
Series Type: When adding a show to Sonarr, set the Series Type to Anime. This tells Sonarr to look for absolute episode numbering (e.g., Episode 500) rather than standard S01E01 formatting.
Categories: Ensure the Indexer settings in Sonarr include category 5070 (Anime) so the search queries hit the right section of Nyaa.
GitHub - Sonarr/Sonarr: Smart PVR for newsgroup and bittorrent users.
The hum of the server was the only constant in Leo’s cramped apartment. It sat in the corner like a digital hearth, running Plex, Sabnzbd, and—most importantly—Sonarr. For two years, Sonarr had been his loyal lieutenant, automatically snatching episodes of Jeopardy! for his mom and obscure British panel shows for himself. But the old public indexers were getting skittish, taking down magnet links faster than he could refresh.
That’s when Leo discovered Nyaa.
He’d always dismissed Nyaa as “the anime place,” a chaotic bazaar of raw encodes and fansub groups with names like “Judas” and “AnimeTime.” But then he saw the other category: “Live Action.” Buried under mountains of seasonal waifus were Japanese dramas, J-dramas, and—his holy grail—the complete, untouched Blu-ray remuxes of the Midnight Diner series.
The problem? Sonarr didn’t speak fluent Nyaa.
The built-in Nyaa definition in Sonarr was basic. It treated Nyaa like any other Newznab indexer, and Nyaa was anything but standard. Search queries failed. Category mappings were wrong. Leo would manually find a perfect 4K release on Nyaa’s website, copy the torrent hash, and feel like a caveman dragging a file into his client. Sonarr is a powerful tool for automating TV
“No more,” he whispered at 2:00 AM, three energy drinks deep.
He opened the Sonarr settings. Indexers. Add Custom. His fingers flew. The URL: https://nyaa.si. API path: ?page=rss&q=SearchTerm. Categories: he mapped 5070 to “TV” and 5072 to “TV/HD.” He added the critical parameter: &filter=2—trusted releases only. No low-seed garbage. No passworded ZIPs.
He saved it. Held his breath.
In Sonarr, he clicked Search for a missing episode of Midnight Diner: Tokyo Stories. The log window flickered.
22:01:15 Info | Nyaa: Searching for 'Midnight Diner Tokyo Stories S02E03'
22:01:17 Info | Nyaa: Found 1 release. 'Midnight Diner - S02E03 - 1080p [Erai-raws]' (Seeds: 142)
22:01:17 Info | DownloadClient: Sending 'Midnight Diner - S02E03' to qBittorrent.
Leo punched the air. It worked. It worked.
For two glorious weeks, Sonarr and Nyaa danced. Every morning, Leo woke up to a fresh folder of content, renamed, sorted, and ready for Plex. He added rules: Must contain "1080p", Minimum seeds: 20, Preferred words: "Dual-Audio". He was a king on a throne of automation.
Then came the Evening of the Orphaned Episodes.
A new season of a niche Taiwanese period drama dropped—The Ghost Bride. It wasn’t on any Western indexer. But Nyaa had it, posted by a fansub group called “HentaiSubsAreSeriousBusiness.” Leo’s Sonarr rule was set to reject anything with “Hentai” in the name. He watched, paralyzed, as Sonarr ignored the only seedable release.
He tweaked the rule: Ignore words: "Hentai" EXCEPT when also containing "Ghost Bride". Not elegant, but functional.
Then the real chaos began.
One of Nyaa’s mirrors, nyaa.land, went down. Sonarr threw red errors: Unable to connect to Nyaa: The SSL connection could not be established. Leo scrambled, switching to nyaa.si in the URL. Then that one started rate-limiting his API calls because Sonarr, in its enthusiasm, was pinging every five minutes.
He learned to add a delay profile: Minimum interval: 15 minutes. He added a second backup indexer—a little-known Nyaa clone called Sukebei for the truly weird stuff.
Late one night, his phone buzzed. A Radarr notification? No, he didn't have Radarr for movies. He opened Sonarr.
It had done something incredible—and terrifying.
Sonarr had interpreted a badly named release of Midnight Diner: The Movie as Midnight Diner Season 4, Episode 0. It automatically downloaded, imported, and renamed a 12GB movie as a "special episode." Then, because the release included an .ass subtitle file for a completely different show, Sonarr decided that file belonged to Jeopardy! Season 41, Episode 102.
Leo stared at his Plex library. Jeopardy! now had a Thai subtitle track. Midnight Diner had a movie pretending to be an episode. And somewhere in his download history, a fansubber named Yasuko_san was laughing.
He didn't delete the mess. Instead, he opened a third monitor, pulled up the Sonarr source code on GitHub, and started writing a custom release profile regex to never match a movie as a season episode.
His girlfriend, Maya, padded into the room in her pajamas. “The server’s whining again.”
“It’s not whining,” Leo said, not looking away. “It’s learning.”
She glanced at the screen—a wall of green text, Nyaa logs, and a slowly populating queue of the most obscure television on Earth. “Did it get the new Taskmaster yet?”
Leo smiled. “It grabbed it four hours ago. While we were sleeping.”
Maya kissed the top of his head. “Good boy.” She pointed at the server rack. “Not you. The other good boy.”
The fan hummed. The logs scrolled. And somewhere in the digital dark, Sonarr quietly pinged Nyaa one more time—for no reason except that it could.
To integrate Nyaa.si as an indexer in Sonarr, you generally need a proxy service like
, as Sonarr does not have a native, built-in indexer for the modern Nyaa.si site. sonarr :: forums Setting Up Nyaa with Prowlarr (Recommended)
Prowlarr is the modern standard for managing indexers across the "Arr" suite. Add Indexer : In Prowlarr, go to Indexers > Add New and search for Configuration Cons: Sonarr prefers single episodes
: Use the default settings. If you want to avoid raw (unsubbed) releases, ensure you select the appropriate categories like Anime - English-translated (Category 5070).
: Prowlarr will automatically sync this indexer to Sonarr if they are linked. Setting Up Nyaa with Jackett If you prefer , use these steps to bridge the connection: Add Indexer : In the Jackett web interface, click + Add indexer and select Get Torznab URL : Copy the Torznab Feed URL and the from the top of the Jackett dashboard. Add to Sonarr : In Sonarr, go to Settings > Indexers > + (Add) > Torznab (Custom) : Paste the Torznab Feed URL from Jackett. : Paste the API key from Jackett. Categories : Standard anime categories are typically (English Subtitled) and sonarr :: forums Essential Sonarr Configurations for Anime
To ensure Nyaa results are found and downloaded correctly, you must adjust specific series settings within Sonarr: Anime Indexer since nyaa is gone? - sonarr :: forums
For anime fans, setting up the Nyaa indexer is the "holy grail" of automation, as Nyaa is the primary source for almost all anime content. To get this working flawlessly in Sonarr, follow this complete setup story. 1. The Direct Approach (Fastest)
Sonarr has built-in support for Nyaa, meaning you can often add it without extra software.
Step: Go to Settings > Indexers and click the + (plus) button. Selection: Choose Nyaa.si from the list. Configuration:
Set the Categories to include Anime - English-translated (usually code 1_2).
Crucial: Ensure Advanced Settings (bottom left toggle) is ON. If Nyaa doesn't return results, try changing the series type from Anime to Standard or vice versa in the specific series' settings, as some releases follow different naming conventions. 2. The Power-User Approach (Prowlarr/Jackett)
If the direct connection fails or you want better filtering, use a proxy like Prowlarr or Jackett. This is recommended because Nyaa's API can occasionally be temperamental with direct Sonarr requests.
The primary way to add as an indexer in is by using a proxy like
. Because Sonarr does not support Nyaa natively "out of the box," these tools act as a bridge to translate Nyaa’s specialized anime indexing into a format Sonarr understands. Core Implementation Methods Prowlarr (Recommended)
: This is the modern standard for indexer management. You add Nyaa once in Prowlarr, and it automatically syncs the settings to Sonarr. It handles the "Newznab" or "Torznab" translation seamlessly.
: An older but reliable alternative. You manually search for Nyaa in Jackett, copy the generated API Key and Torznab URL, and paste them into Sonarr’s Indexer settings. Built-in "Nyaa" (Deprecated/Limited)
: While some versions of Sonarr have a native "Nyaa" option, it is frequently broken or blocked by Cloudflare. Proxying through Prowlarr is significantly more stable. Step-by-Step Setup (via Prowlarr) Add Indexer : In Prowlarr, go to and search for "Nyaa". Configure Categories : Ensure the categories for Anime (usually ) are selected. Sync to Sonarr
in Prowlarr. Add your Sonarr instance using its IP address and API Key. Prowlarr will now push the Nyaa indexer directly into Sonarr. . You should see "Nyaa (Prowlarr)" listed. Ensure Enable RSS Enable Automatic Search are checked. Key Features of the Nyaa Indexer Integration Anime Specialized Mapping
: Nyaa uses unique tags (e.g., [SubsPlease], [Erai-raws]). Using a proxy ensures Sonarr correctly identifies the "Release Group" and quality (1080p, 720p). Automated Grab
: Once configured, Sonarr will monitor Nyaa’s RSS feed every 15–60 minutes. When a new episode from your "Monitored" list appears, it sends the magnet link to your download client (like qBittorrent) automatically. Custom Formats
: Because anime often has multiple subtitle versions, you can use Sonarr's Custom Formats
(under Settings > Profiles) to prioritize specific Nyaa uploaders like SubsPlease Troubleshooting Tips Categories : If Sonarr isn't finding episodes, check that the
IDs in the indexer settings match Nyaa's anime categories (typically for Torznab). Connection Errors
: If the indexer fails a "Test," it is likely due to your ISP blocking Nyaa. In this case, you may need to run your proxy (Prowlarr/Jackett) or Sonarr through a VPN. Custom Format strings to prioritize high-quality Nyaa release groups?
In the quiet hum of a server rack nestled in a corner of an enthusiast's apartment, a digital worker named Sonarr was restless. Its mission was simple but vital: ensure that every new episode of its user's favorite anime was found, downloaded, and perfectly organized. But Sonarr couldn't do it alone; it needed a scout to scan the vast, chaotic landscape of the internet. That scout was the Nyaa Indexer.
For years, they worked in perfect harmony. Nyaa was the legendary tracker, the primary source where anime subbing groups would first release their hard work. Sonarr would send a request—searching for the latest episode of a popular series—and Nyaa would return with the best torrents available.
However, the digital path was not always smooth. One day, the legendary site "Nyaa.se" vanished from the internet. The community held its breath, and Sonarr’s logs were suddenly filled with errors. But as the community rallied, a new beacon appeared: Nyaa.si.
Yet, even with a new home, challenges remained. Sometimes Sonarr would search but find nothing, even when a manual check showed the episodes were right there. The issue was often a matter of communication:
Sonarr, also known as NZBdrone, is an application that helps you manage and download TV shows. It integrates with various indexers and download clients to provide a seamless experience for users. Sonarr automatically searches for episodes, takes care of creating folders, and even renames files to make them more manageable and organized.
Setting up Nyaa as an indexer in Sonarr is straightforward. Users need to:
You can add Nyaa directly without extra software, but this is limited. You will not get search functionality (Sonarr can only see new items posted to the RSS feed; it cannot look back for old episodes).
Why Method A is better: It allows Sonarr to perform Searches (Manual and Automatic) for specific episodes, rather than just waiting for them to appear in a feed.
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