Drone Factory is Deprecated [unrar]

WOW.

why would you do this BEFORE implementing a solution to auto-extract .RARs?

Those of use using torrents and on windows, rely on the drone factory!

MOOOOOMmmmmmmmm!

Have you read the wiki page for the health check? https://github.com/Sonarr/Sonarr/wiki/Health-checks#drone-factory-is-deprecated

The problem with Drone Factory (and why it will be removed) is new users, find it use it then have issues, items stuck in queue, seeding torrents being removed being the top reasons. We understand some people are relying on it, but with the ability to trigger the same functionality through the API, a small script and task scheduler/cron can replace the functionality.

Auto extracting of RARs is still something we plan to do, but it’s not a reason to keep Drone Factory around.

Drone Factory will be removed in v3 of Sonarr, which does not have an ETA, but we want to give ample notice that it will be removed and avoid the common pitfall for new users that set it up.

Markus,

Yes, of course, I read the wiki. And I agree, the drone factory should not be used under normal circumstances. This scenario is exactly where is should be used. And it’s perfectly reliable.

It just blows my mind you would remove such a critical feature for us Windows users.

I KNOW I can manually import at any time, but unfortunately, about 10% of my downloads are RARed. I (and some other users) spend A LOT of time to create a workaround for this - an automated feature around having to manually import by using the drone factory. In fact, to my knowledge there is NO WAY to automatically extract torrents and import them automatically without using the drone factory.

Thanks for the notice, but I respectfully request you consider this.

thx,

SV

That’s quite a knee-jerk reaction :slight_smile: The periodic Drone Factory scan has been deprecated since early 2015, it’s nothing new, but it was high time we started to advertise that more aggressively.
Aa permanent health check warning will do just that. We’ve been telling people about it on countless occasions, on the forum, reddit, our IRC channel, etc. For example this reddit post with a somewhat verbose explanation.

There are practically zero use cases where you need the Drone Factory. People have been misusing it for way too long, unaware of the consequences, and end up making support requests when stuff inevitably goes wrong. So hopefully this persistent Health Check warning will ensure that users are aware of it and start migrating away.

The wiki says: "For custom external imports such as after transcoding, use the API to signal Sonarr to scan a specific directory using the DownloadedEpisodesScan command."
This is what’s applicable in your scenario.
Don’t rely on Sonarr to scan some directory somewhere periodically, tell Sonarr when unrar is completed by calling that api, it’s vastly more reliable than the Drone Factory scan. Event-driven is the magic word.

The decision to remove the periodic Drone Factory was made years ago, and is not debatable, regardless of any other planned feature.
It won’t be automatically removed/disabled since it’s scheduled for v3, not any v2 release. But please, stop using it.

“There are practically zero use cases where you need the Drone Factory”

Except for ALL the windows users who are using torrents and trackers that serve up .rar content.

““For custom external imports such as after transcoding, use the API to signal Sonarr to scan a specific directory using the DownloadedEpisodesScan command.””

Yeah, I got this…soooooo…if you can’t point me to a solution where I can make an API call after a rar has been extracted. I"m all ears.

For reference, I wrote this a while back…as since I"m sure you’re aware…one of the BIGGEST complaints of sonarr/radarr is that there is no auto-extract feature (I see AT LEAST 2-3 posts on reddit a week from users who are trying to figure this out) That’s why I wrote this… This tutorial I wrote is still valid and works, but depends on the drone factory. I’d love for your guys’ input. Like I’ve said, I’ve seen no other solution to auto-extract .rar files using torrents.

I do LOVE you guys. I really appreciate your work. I’m a developer myself, but I’m SO sick of us Windows people being left out of all the open source stuff…it’s like “oh yeah, THOSE guys” …

Respectfully, I’m sure you’re aware that 75% of the world is still using Windows. Yes, I know that stat doesn’t apply to the majority of users who are using your software, but give us a break.

There is no difference between Windows or Linux when it comes to the Drone Factory, so I’m wondering where you’re getting the idea that we’re singling out Windows. Also, Sonarr started out as Windows-only, with still almost 50% of our userbase being on Windows. If anything, we’re getting occasionally bashed by linux users coz we use the .Net Framework. Anyway…

The DownloadedEpisodesScan can be POSTed on the API, and has been around for like forever, although the wiki is somewhat lacking on examples. There are quite a few posts about it on the forum.
On windows you could use PowerShell to make the api call, it’s a bit tricky to get the POST payload right on PS but it’s certainly possible.
Ideally the script should be used in conjunction with a torrent client that’s capable of triggering the script after a download.

On the windows issue - so why on earth would you remove the drone factory IF most of your users rely on it to supplement a feature that (Respectfully) sonarr SHOULD have already?

API Call issue -
Okay, assume I can make my torrent client run a script in PowerShell to make an API call…Long shot, but ok, got it.

However, Sonarr will only SCAN the directory correct? It won’t post-process them right?

So, the torrent client would also have to not only make that API call, but then copy the extracted files (which it doesn’t do) and THEN move it to final directory in the naming convention Sonarr requires so that Sonarr picks it up after the API call is made?

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The ‘unrar’ thing isn’t specific to Windows, and it doesn’t need the Drone Factory. I suspect that the fact that you happen to be using Windows heavily skews your perception of the problem. ‘Windows’ is utterly irrelevant in this discussion and I very much prefer we move beyond that.

It will definitely post-process them. It allows you to tell Sonarr “I’ve got a temporary directory here, please import.”. So in that sense the DownloadedEpisodesScan is the Drone Factory, just without the periodic scan.
The difference is that you can tell it which directory, how to import (move vs copy) and which Download it was for (hash), and most importantly when to import. That way you can ensure Sonarr doesn’t try import files that are still being downloaded, unrarred, transcoded, etc.
If the infohash is specified it also allows Sonarr to understand which download (Completed Download Handling) the import is for and will automatically consider it ‘imported’.
This is what I meant with ‘event-driven’ since it allows an external process tell Sonarr that downloading finished, and that it should now import.

So your process should be:

  • have torrent client invoke your script
  • Script should unrar to a new temporary directory, preferably named by the torrent name.
  • Script should then invoke the Sonarr API, path=temporary directory, importMode=Move, and optionally downloadClientId=Infohash.
  • Sonarr will asynchroneously scan the specified path, parse the file/folder name, and attempt to import the result into the series folder (renaming the files if renaming is enabled)
  • Optionally Sonarr will also mark the grabbed release as ‘imported’ if the Infohash is specified.

The same process should be followed for any kind of ‘pre-processing’ such as transcoding.

PS: The command that scans the series folder is the RescanSeries command, which takes an optional series ID. But you don’t need that one.

Okay, got it.

I’ll check it out.

Really do appreciate you taking the time.

I am a recent convert to CDH. I cannot believe I had missed it for so long. Once you realize that you let Sonarr run the show, you are much better off. I was wasting time trying to get VideoSort to work within nzbget. BOOM Sonarr does it all and even places content in different directories, such as tv and kids_tv.

I cannot think of any circumstance in which I wouldn’t always use Sonarr to get TV shows and Radarr to get movies. Why mess with any other way than pure CDH?

My caddy easily facilitates remote access with its reverse proxy skills. No need to use NZB360 nor unity. I just use Sonarr and Radarr for eveything.

It works perfectly for usenet since both sab & nzbget have excellent post-processing scripting support. But for torrents it’s a bit more complicated, due to limitations in a lot of the download clients.

Please dont take Drone Factory away! My current setup with it is perfect and requires no interaction.

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It’s gonna happen, that’s absolutely beyond discussion, so deal with it. Use the alternatives.

3 posts were split to a new topic: Import not working without Drone Factory

So, I get that Drone Factory needs to be removed. I won’t argue that point. I am curious, though is there a way to call the API through a batch file (currently have one written that extracts RARed files and moves them (or copies files if they are not compressed), then converts them to MP4, then Moves them to a specific folder. It would be great if I could just add a few lines to invoke the API, but if this is not possible, I can convert to PowerShell. Would just be easier if I didn’t have to rewrite the whole thing.

Thanks!

On a side note. It would just make things so much easier, if you could select the folder for Sonarr to search, in lieu of the folder where the downloads go initially. If this sounds like (or is basically exactly like, lol) Drone Factory, then forget what I just said. :slight_smile:

I guess I just wanted to say I’ve really enjoyed using sonarr (and radarr) since I got it a couple months ago. I only use torrents and all the private trackers I’m apart of do use .rar for most tv and movies. The deluge extractor has been broken for a long time and only works sometimes and even if it did work I guess it wouldn’t delete the unrard file after being copied by sonarr. I’m on Windows 10 and I’ve spent around 8 hours straight for the last two nights trying to automate the unrar process and also would like the unrard video file to be deleted after being copied by sonarr and haven’t been able to do it. I don’t really know how to code n write scripts and things that advanced. I mean I can run sonarr radarr jackett with deluge n plex n share with my friends so I’m not like retarded.

I just wish there was a nice option inside sonarr (and radarr) where I just enable unrar and it unrars and deletes the extra video file. I just don’t think it should be this hard and it seems like it’s easier for you guys to do something than the torrent clients unraring and some how deleting the extra file after its copied.

Anyways I’ve given up for now unless I can get seanvree’s method working sometime and then I’ll be screwed once the drone factory is gone I guess? Unless somebody can point me to step by step instructions for somebody on windows 10 to create and run these scripts because I haven’t found any guides that will unrar and delete the extra video file other than seanvree’s.

TLDR
Plz add support in sonnar to unrar and delete the extra video file after being copied to sonarr.

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You’d just need something that can make the call to the API, such as curl or even have the batch file call powershell to make the call.

That’s off topic for this thead, but covered by

Well it’s not exactly off topic seeing as that is why I’m using a drone folder…

In that case no, but that wasn’t clear (to me at least), but regardless, it’s on our radar, thought nothing planned on when it will be worked on.

Yea sorry it’s kinda of rambley and not clear I’m running on 4 hours of sleep in the last 2 days. Thanks for you time <3

edit: kinda of… see what i mean lol

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