How to Build Your Personal Netflix: Automating Plex with Sonarr, Radarr, and Your Seedbox

Remember when you had to manually hunt down every episode of your favorite show, download it, rename the files, organize them in folders, and then finally watch it? Yeah, those days are over. With the right setup, your seedbox can work like your own personal Netflix—automatically grabbing new episodes the moment they're available, organizing everything perfectly, and serving it all up through a gorgeous streaming interface.

The secret sauce? Combining Plex Media Server with automation tools like Sonarr (for TV shows) and Radarr (for movies). Once you've got this stack running on your SonicBit seedbox, you'll literally never manually download media again. Let's build it.

What You're Building

Think of this as your personal streaming empire with four main players:

Plex Media Server: Your streaming frontend (the pretty part you watch)

Sonarr: TV show automation (monitors, downloads, renames, organizes)

Radarr: Movie automation (same deal, but for films)

qBittorrent/Deluge: Your download engine (grabs the actual files)

Prowlarr (bonus): Indexer manager that feeds search results to both Sonarr and Radarr

When these apps work together, here's what happens: You add "Breaking Bad" to Sonarr. Sonarr searches your indexers, finds episodes, sends them to qBittorrent, waits for the download to complete, renames and organizes the files into your Plex library, and tells Plex to refresh. Boom—new episodes appear in Plex automatically.

Step 1: Deploy Your Apps on SonicBit

Here's where SonicBit makes life ridiculously easy. Instead of wrestling with Docker configs and reverse proxy settings, you're literally three clicks away from deployment.

Deploy the Core Stack

Log into your SonicBit dashboard

Navigate to the Apps section

Deploy these apps with one click each:

- Plex Media Server
- Sonarr
- Radarr
- qBittorrent (or Deluge if you prefer)
- Prowlarr (highly recommended)

SonicBit automatically handles the Docker containers, sets up Traefik reverse proxy routing, and provisions SSL certificates. Each app gets its own subdomain like plex.yourusername.sonicbit.net with automatic HTTPS.

Give it 60 seconds for everything to spin up, then access each app through the provided URLs in your dashboard.

Step 2: Configure Plex Media Server

First things first—set up your streaming frontend.

Initial Plex Setup

Open your Plex app URL from the SonicBit dashboard

Sign in with your Plex account (create one if needed)

Name your server something cool like "The Fortress" or "Cloud Palace"

Create your libraries:

- Add a Movie library pointing to /data/media/movies
- Add a TV Show library pointing to /data/media/tv

These paths are where Sonarr and Radarr will organize your downloaded content. Plex will automatically scan these folders and add new media.

Optional but Awesome

Enable "Empty trash automatically after every scan" in Settings → Library. This keeps your database clean when files get upgraded or removed.

Step 3: Configure Your Download Client

Both Sonarr and Radarr need to talk to your torrent client, so let's set that up first.

qBittorrent Configuration

Open qBittorrent from your SonicBit dashboard

Go to Tools → Options → Web UI

Note your username (usually admin) and password

Under "Downloads," set your default save path to /data/downloads

You'll use these credentials to connect Sonarr and Radarr to qBittorrent.

Step 4: Set Up Prowlarr (Your Indexer Hub)

Prowlarr is the glue that connects your indexers to both Sonarr and Radarr. Configure it once, and both apps get access.

Add Indexers to Prowlarr

Open Prowlarr → Indexers → Add Indexer

Add your preferred torrent indexers (public or private)

For each indexer, enter your credentials if needed

Test the connection to make sure it works

Connect Prowlarr to Sonarr and Radarr

Go to Settings → Apps → Add Application

Select "Sonarr"

Set the Prowlarr Server to http://localhost:9696

Get the API key from Sonarr (Settings → General → Security)

Enter the Sonarr URL: http://sonarr:8989

Test and save

Repeat for Radarr (it runs on port http://radarr:7878).

Now both Sonarr and Radarr can search all your indexers through Prowlarr.

Step 5: Configure Sonarr for TV Shows

Time to automate your TV watching.

Add qBittorrent as Download Client

Open Sonarr → Settings → Download Clients → Add → qBittorrent

Enter the details:

- Host: qbittorrent (Docker network magic)
- Port: 8080
- Username and password from qBittorrent setup

Set Category to tv

Test connection and save

Set Up Root Folders and Quality

Go to Settings → Media Management

Add Root Folder: /data/media/tv

Enable "Rename Episodes" (trust me on this)

Set your episode naming format (or use the default—it's good)

Under Profiles → Quality Profiles, choose your preferred quality (1080p Web is a solid default)

Add Your First Show

Click Series → Add New

Search for a show (try "The Office")

Select quality profile, set monitoring options (all episodes? latest season?)

Click "Add Series"

Sonarr immediately starts searching for episodes. Watch the Queue section to see downloads appear in qBittorrent, then move to Plex when complete.

Step 6: Configure Radarr for Movies

Radarr is basically Sonarr's movie-loving sibling. Same setup flow.

Add Download Client

Radarr → Settings → Download Clients → Add → qBittorrent

Same connection details as before

Set Category to movies

Test and save

Configure Media Management

Settings → Media Management

Add Root Folder: /data/media/movies

Enable "Rename Movies"

Choose your quality profile (1080p Bluremux? 2160p if you're fancy?)

Add Your First Movie

Movies → Add New

Search for something timeless like "The Shawshank Redemption"

Select quality, click "Add Movie"

Radarr searches, downloads, organizes, and notifies Plex

Step 7: Level Up with Remote Upload

Here's where things get really slick. Use SonicBit's Remote Upload feature to automatically sync your downloaded media to Google Drive, OneDrive, or Dropbox.

Why This Matters

Backup: Keep copies of your media safe in the cloud

Space management: Upload and delete from seedbox to free space

Accessibility: Access your entire library from anywhere

Set up a Remote Upload destination in your SonicBit dashboard, then configure Sonarr/Radarr to trigger uploads after import using custom scripts (or manually sync folders from My Drive).

The Magic Happens

Once everything's configured, your workflow is:

Add a show to Sonarr or movie to Radarr

Go do literally anything else with your life

Get a notification that new content is ready

Open Plex and watch

New episodes? They appear automatically. New seasons? Already downloaded. That movie you added? Waiting for you in Plex.

Pro Tips for Power Users

Lists: Connect Trakt or IMDb lists to auto-add trending content

Overseerr: Add this app to let family request content through a beautiful interface

Tautulli: Track viewing stats and get insights on your Plex usage

Quality upgrades: Set Sonarr/Radarr to automatically replace 720p with 1080p when available

Troubleshooting Quick Hits

Nothing downloading? Check Prowlarr connections and indexer status

Files not appearing in Plex? Verify root folder paths match between apps

Permissions errors? SonicBit handles this automatically, but double-check folder paths

Slow indexer searches? Add more indexers to Prowlarr for better results

Your Netflix, Your Rules

You've just built something streaming services can't match: a completely automated, fully customizable media server that works exactly how you want it to. No ads, no licensing restrictions, no "this content isn't available in your region" nonsense.

The best part? This runs 24/7 on your SonicBit seedbox with zero maintenance. Add shows, forget about them, and they just appear when new episodes drop. That's the dream, and you're living it.

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