I’m looking at ND after having used SB for a while. My work flow is to download an episode via Sab and it gets converted to an mp4, meta data added and moved to another directory (by series and a subdirectory for each season). The original files get deleted. The downloaded episodes end up under “missing”. Is there a way to prevent this?
What type of Metadata is added, does drone ever see the file as downloaded?
This is how you should setup sorting with Sab + drone: https://github.com/NzbDrone/NzbDrone/wiki/Sorting-and-Renaming
I’ve looked all over for a step by step setup guide and I can’t find one. I have the TV series download folder set to F:\ZBDrone. I have the Drone Factory set to S:\Complete. This is the same directory as SAB uses. The program that I use to convert the MKV to MP4 looks there for files. When done, it moves it to my NAS and deletes the MKV. How can I set NZBDrone to work in this environment and not grow the missing files section.
Since you’re converting from mkv to mp4 you need a more advanced setup.
You can have SAB download to S:\\Complete
then the mkv to mp4 conversion will run and should drop the converted files off in another folder, something like S:\\Converted
. The drone factory folder should be set to the same folder as the converted output (S:\\Converted
in my example).
Your TV show folders should then be configured to be the final folders you want the files stored in on the NAS (enable Season Folders in you want them sorted in to season folders).
What you currently have setup completely skips the drone factory import process and even if it worked wouldn’t put the files on the NAS.
If you don’t want to use sorting in drone you would still need to have it pointed at the shows on the NAS, not some random folder, but episodes would remain “missing” in drone until the disk was rescanned (every 12 hours).
Since you’re using a NAS to store files this is probably applicable: https://github.com/NzbDrone/NzbDrone/wiki/FAQ#wiki-why-cant-nzbdrone-see-my-files-on-a-remote-server
I already ran into the run as a service problem so I’ve changed that. Using the example of “S:\Converted” above. The program I use to convert and move the MP4 (IVI on a Mac) puts them in a Series folder followed by a season folder. So the TV show “The Blacklist” would be something like S:\Converted\The Blacklist\Season 1\The Episode Name S01E01.MP4. So if I point the drone factory to “S:Converted” it will find this file and show it as downloaded?
If you point drone factory at S:\\Converted
it would then move (sort) the file to: F:\zbDrone
, which likely isn’t what you want. AT some point drone will need to see the files in the file sorted location or sort them itself (preferred).
I think I’m probably going to stick with SB. NZBDrone seems to want to have final say over where the file ends up. I just need it to find it and tell SAB to download load it. My other software will move it around. Too bad, I really like the ND interface.
It doesn’t need to move it, it just needs to see the file as downloaded, otherwise it will never know that the download completed. I suggested a couple ways to do it, if you don’t want drone to move files then don’t setup the drone factory. If they get moved after drone sees them then you will need to enable “Ignore deleted episodes”.
I don’t think the behavior of drone is any different than SB’s, as it still needs to know where the files are, at least briefly to know it was downloaded successfully.
I’ll have to play around with it some more. Ideally, after SAB downloads the file I want it put into s:\downloaded\complete\TV and left there for IV to complete the process. I get “ignore deleted episodes”. Would I set s:\downloads\complete\TV as the series download folder as well as the drone factory?
You never want to set drone factory to the same folder as your shows (warnings in the UI to that effect).
You can do one of a couple things (depending if you want episode files to be tracked by NzbDrone on the NAS or not, and for getting propers.
Option 1 - NzbDrone sees mp4’s in final location:
- Set the drone factory to an empty folder
- Set the series folders in drone to the location on the NAS
It will take up to 12 hours for an episode that was sent to SAB to be seen as downloaded in drone. Drone could download propers/upgrades in this scenario, but your sorting tool would have to handle that.
Option 2 - Drone moves files then they are converted
- Have SAB drop files in s:\downloaded\complete\TV
- Set drone factory to s:\downloaded\complete\TV
- Set Series folders in drone to use: s:\downloaded\temp_sorted\TV
- Disable renaming and do not use season folders
- Have IV pickup files from s:\downloaded\temp_sorted\TV
- Enable “Ignore Deleted Episodes”
Drone will see files as downloaded and will ignore them when they get moved and will not download propers/upgrades.
I think I got it. Thanks for the help. I’ll let it run for a week or so and hit that “donate” button.
This really doesn’t apply to this thread but it probably doesn’t warrant a thread of its own. I have access to a Windows 7 virtual machine and a Ubuntu linux 13.10 virtual machine. I was able to install ND on both pretty easily. Are there any compelling reasons to use one OS over the other?
Windows is probably better (purely for drone) because of the benefits of using .net over mono, mono does work really well, its just not 100% the same as .net and there can be issues.
Auto-updating is also Windows only (at least for the time being). If you do opt for Ubuntu, you should install mono 3.2 (not in the official repo, but worth it): http://stackoverflow.com/a/13384233
Summary:
Windows for stability and updating ease.
My Nas is unraid and so I build a vm using windows 7 just for drone. I like drone very much and I’m going to move to it eventually. Drone has some nuances that I need to get use to but it does a great job. Markus did me a solid to fix an issue in SB that I’ve had for months while helping me setup drone. I’m building a small setup for a family member using windows 8.1. Drone and either nzbget or sab