Jellyfin + TorBox — unlimited library with Radarr, Sonarr, and CatBox
Legal Responsibility
This guide demonstrates technical integration between cloud storage services and media server software. Users are solely responsible for ensuring that all content accessed, stored, or streamed through this setup is legally obtained and complies with applicable copyright laws and the terms of service of TorBox and other third-party services. ElfHosted provides hosting infrastructure only and does not provide, curate, or facilitate access to copyrighted content. See our Acceptable Use Policy for details.
Most guides for running Jellyfin with TorBox use .strm files — small text files containing a TorBox streaming URL that Jellyfin follows on playback. TorBox ships an official Docker tool for this, TorBox Media Center, and for a small manually-curated library it covers the basics. Add Radarr, Sonarr, and Prowlarr and two problems emerge that STRM files alone can't solve.
The arr stack and STRM don't integrate cleanly at scale. When Radarr or Sonarr grabs a release, it needs a download client to add content to TorBox. Every item the arrs add then lives in your TorBox account — and as Jellyfin probes each item for metadata, those probes reset TorBox's 30-day expiry timer. TorBox's cache is designed to eventually expire unused content; an arr-managed library with Jellyfin probing prevents that from ever happening. The bigger your library grows, the more your TorBox account fills with files that should have expired months ago. The official TorBox Media Center tool currently has 25 open GitHub issues with no code updates since January 2026.
CatBox was built for exactly this. It virtualizes your entire library — Jellyfin gets full metadata for every item — without adding anything to TorBox. Probes are answered from crowdsourced data shared across all CatBox tenants; TorBox never sees them. Only an actual play event adds the item to your TorBox account, and it's removed when playback ends. Your library can grow without bound. Your TorBox account stays lean.
The stack described below is available in our personal media stacks on the TorBox-bundled tiers, with $1, 7-day trials available on the entry bundles.
Get your $1, 7-day free trial!
Requirements
- TorBox account and API key (TorBox Essential or Pro). Some ElfHosted bundles include this.
- An ElfHosted personal media stack configured with Jellyfin, TorBox, CatBox, and Radarr / Sonarr.
How does it work?
Here's a diagram (it's not as complicated as it looks!), followed by some explanations:
- The user adds items to lists (TMDB list, MDBList, Trakt, etc.), which feed into a request manager (such as Seerr, or its predecessors Overseerr / Jellyseerr) or directly into Radarr / Sonarr
- Or, the user adds items directly to Radarr / Sonarr, or via their request manager
- Radarr / Sonarr search Prowlarr for releases matching your size, quality, and language preferences
- When an appropriate release is identified, Radarr / Sonarr submit it to CatBox via its qBittorrent-compatible API. Nothing is added to your TorBox account at this point. CatBox virtualizes the item: a symlink in your library points into a virtual WebDAV path. When the media server later probes the file for codec / resolution / runtime metadata, CatBox serves synthetic or crowdsourced probe data, so the probe completes without ever re-fetching from TorBox.
- Radarr / Sonarr import the (virtual) file from CatBox's symlink tree into the intended root folder. Jellyfin's realtime filesystem monitoring picks up the new symlink and adds the item to your library automatically.
- When you press play, Jellyfin reads the symlink, which resolves to a virtual path under
/storage/torbox/.... CatBox materializes the item: adds it to your TorBox account, fetches a presigned URL, and proxies the stream. - The bytes flow from TorBox through CatBox's WebDAV proxy to Jellyfin to your client.
- After playback, CatBox removes the item from your TorBox account. The symlink and library entry remain (so the item still appears in your library), but TorBox no longer holds the item against your account. Your TorBox cache retention reflects only what you actually play, never your full library.
The result: your media server sees a complete library of any size, with full metadata for every item. TorBox only ever holds items you have actively played recently, well within the 30-day cache retention policy.
DirectStream bandwidth boost
Use CatBox DirectStream when your client can direct-play
When Jellyfin direct-plays a TorBox-backed item, CatBox can redirect the playback request to a signed TorBox CDN URL. That sends the heavy media bytes directly from TorBox's CDN to your client instead of routing them through ElfHosted's infrastructure, which is usually faster and lighter for everyone. You can compare your route with TorBox's speed test at torbox.app/speedtest.
If Jellyfin needs to transcode, remux, or serve HLS segments, CatBox falls back to normal proxying through Jellyfin so playback still behaves like a regular Jellyfin stream.
How to set it up
Full setup guide
The step-by-step setup is available to logged-in customers. Sign in to continue →
How do I get help?
- For general use of the individual tools, refer to each app's upstream site
- For specific support re your ElfHosted configuration, see the ElfHosted support options
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