Migrate from Real-Debrid to TorBox or Usenet
Legal Responsibility
This guide covers the technical mechanics of migrating between cloud storage providers and downloaders. Users are solely responsible for ensuring all content accessed, stored, or streamed through any of these setups is legally obtained and complies with applicable copyright laws and the terms of service of Real-Debrid, TorBox, and any Usenet provider. ElfHosted provides hosting infrastructure only and does not provide, curate, or facilitate access to copyrighted content. See our Acceptable Use Policy for details.
Real-Debrid has had a rough year. The May 2026 infringing-file filter quietly broke unservable items across most libraries, account-purge waves keep happening, and the single-IP rule makes operating an arr stack (or even a normal household) against RD increasingly fragile. A lot of ElfHosted users want to move off, but they've built a library worth of Radarr / Sonarr history pointing into the RD mount, and a hard cut leaves them with a shelf full of broken symlinks.
This guide walks the soft-migrate path: keep the existing library intact, swap the storage backend, and let the arrs re-populate the parts that don't carry across, without ever leaving your media server with a dead-symlink hole in the middle of a cutover.
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Why move off Real-Debrid in 2026?
Four overlapping problems, each one enough to push some users off; the combination is what's driving the current migration wave.
What is the May 2026 "infringing_file" filter?
In May 2026, Real-Debrid began filtering "infringing" content out of its cache, returning an infringing_file error (surfaced as HTTP 451 + error_code: 35 on POST /unrestrict/link) for affected items. The torrent still reports status: "downloaded" on the /torrents list, so the breakage is invisible until you press play. Most of the impact lands on WEB-DL, WEBDL, WEB-Rip, and WEBRip releases, plus releases bearing scene group tags (rarbg, rartv, eztv, YTS, and similar). The filter is filename-based, applied on top of the existing hash-based DMCA blocklist, and Real-Debrid has acknowledged false positives. Renaming files sometimes works around it; sometimes it doesn't.
This is the same pattern that began in November 2024 under pressure from the FNEF (French Federation of Film Distributors), then expanded in May 2026. Community framing for the May wave has settled on "rug-pull": libraries that worked the previous evening returned infringing_file errors the next morning, with no advance notice, no migration window, and no way to tell which items were affected without probing every torrent individually. LitterBox (the cleanup tool referenced in the soft-migrate steps below) automates that probe.
The single-IP ban risk
Real-Debrid's terms allow you to use your account from any public IP address, but not from more than one IP at the same time. In practice this means:
- Forgetting to disconnect a VPN before launching Stremio / Kodi can trip the limit.
- Your partner watching on a phone outside Wi-Fi while you stream at home will trip it.
- An arr stack that grabs from one location while you watch from another will trip it.
Repeated violations result in temporary suspensions, then permanent bans. TorBox's Essential and Pro tiers allow concurrent streams from multiple IPs (5 and 10 respectively) without the ban risk; Usenet has no equivalent concept (Usenet bills per byte / per month from your provider, not per stream). For a household of more than one human, the per-IP-binding is on its own often the trigger to migrate.
Account-purge waves and "Real-Debrid down" days
Beyond the filter, Real-Debrid has had recurring account-purge events where large numbers of users find their library counts dropped overnight as cached entries are removed. The May 12 2026 outage spike alone saw 1,500+ user reports filed against Real-Debrid's status across the major outage trackers within 24 hours; "is Real-Debrid down" / "Real-Debrid not working" search volume hits weekly peaks.
The structural fragility for arr stacks
The combination above means that operating a Radarr / Sonarr stack with Real-Debrid as the storage backend now requires:
- A monitoring layer to detect when previously-cached items have become unservable.
- A cleanup layer to prune dead torrents and broken symlinks.
- A re-search layer to refill what was removed.
- A discipline of never running RD from more than one location, which conflicts with how most households actually use a media server.
TorBox (via CatBox) and Usenet (via NzbDAV) both eliminate at least three of those problems by design. Combined, they cover the fourth.
Pick a target
Three viable destinations, each with a different shape:
| Target | What it gets you | What carries across from RD | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|
| TorBox via CatBox | Lazy-materialised debrid, unlimited library size, no IP-binding ban risk | The subset of your RD library that's also cached on TorBox imports virtually with one click | Users staying in the "torrent-backed cloud library" world but tired of RD's instability |
| Usenet via NzbDAV | On-demand article streaming, no per-IP bans, ~5 year retention on most providers, no cache-retention games | Nothing imports directly (Usenet has no equivalent of a cached-hash check), but Cleanuparr / a re-search will refill most of the library from NewsNab indexers | Users who want to leave debrid entirely and prefer Usenet's predictability |
| Hybrid (TorBox + Usenet, recommended) | Both backends running side-by-side, so any item missing from TorBox's cache can be picked up from Usenet and vice versa | TorBox import covers the cached subset, Usenet re-search backfills the rest | Users with large, long-tail libraries who want the highest coverage and the most resilience |
The hybrid path is the strongest result and is what most users land on after migrating. Start with one of the single-target guides below; you can layer the other one in afterwards, the two stacks coexist cleanly.
The soft-migrate principle
The naive cutover, delete Real-Debrid, switch downloader, hope for the best, leaves you with a media-server library full of broken symlinks for several hours to several days while the arrs re-grab everything from the new backend. Playback fails, Plex / Jellyfin / Emby cache thumbnails for items that no longer resolve, and users notice.
Soft-migrate avoids that by doing the work in this order:
- Stand the new backend up in parallel. Add CatBox (for TorBox) or NzbDAV (for Usenet) alongside the existing Decypharr / Zurg / RD setup. The new path doesn't claim any of the existing symlinks yet, it just exists.
- Import what's importable (TorBox path only). CatBox's
RealDebrid importUI reads your existing hashlist from Decypharr or Zurg, cross-checks it against TorBox's global cache, and virtualises the matching subset. Then it repoints existing symlinks from the RD mount to the new TorBox-backed virtual paths. No new TorBox usage at this point, the import is preview-first and re-runnable. Usenet has no equivalent step; that path skips ahead. - Swap the downloader in the arrs. New grabs route through the new backend. Existing library entries still resolve via the (now repointed for TorBox, or still RD-mounted for Usenet) symlinks.
- Purge the dead content from RD using LitterBox. RD's May 2026 filter and account-purge waves left libraries full of items that report
downloadedbut don't actually play. LitterBox signs in via Real-Debrid OAuth (token stays in your browser, no server-side storage), counts the broken / filtered / error-state torrents, and offers a one-click bulk-delete. Do this before the next step so the cleanup is reflected in the symlink scan. - Delete the now-broken symlinks with ElfBot. After the LitterBox purge, every symlink that pointed at a purged RD item is dangling. ElfBot's "Broken Symlink Report" finds them, "Delete Broken Symlinks" removes them in one step.
- Let the arrs re-search. With the broken symlinks gone, Radarr / Sonarr see the items as missing and re-grab from the new backend. Cleanuparr can drive this automatically on a schedule; manually you can use the "Search Missing" button per arr.
- Run hybrid for a few days. RD continues serving items the new backend hasn't picked up yet. Watch a few things, sanity-check that the new playback path works, fix any per-arr quality profile drift before the final cutover.
- Cut over. Switch your personal media stack subscription from the RD-based bundle to the TorBox-based (or Usenet-based, or both) bundle. RD mounts disappear, any remaining RD-pointed symlinks break, Cleanuparr / a final re-search backfills them. The hybrid step before this means there shouldn't be many.
Each step is independent. If something looks off at any point you can stop, investigate, and resume; nothing in the soft-migrate path is destructive in a way you can't un-do by re-running an arr search.
What to expect during migration
- No downtime for the library as a whole. Individual items may briefly fail to resolve during the symlink-repoint step (on TorBox) or between LitterBox purge and arr re-search (on either path), but the library never goes dark.
- TorBox-cached coverage lands on day one for the subset of your RD library that's also in TorBox's global cache, which is typically the majority of mainstream movies and recent TV.
- Long-tail coverage comes back over hours to days as the arrs re-search and grab fresh releases from indexers. Older / rarer items may need a manual nudge.
- Watch state is preserved. Plex watch state is account-bound. Jellyfin / Emby keep their own databases, which stay intact across this migration.
Storage and bandwidth
Storage paths don't change during this migration: /storage/symlinks/... is still the library root the arrs and your media server work against. What changes is where those symlinks resolve:
- Before:
/storage/symlinks/movies/Foo (2024)/...→/storage/realdebrid-zurg/__all__/Foo (2024).../foo.mkv - After (TorBox): same symlink →
/storage/torbox/Foo (2024).../foo.mkv - After (Usenet): new symlink →
/storage/nzbdav/Foo (2024).../foo.mkv
ElfHosted's storage layer is the same in all three cases; only the downloader and the mount target change.
Frequently asked questions
Is Real-Debrid down? Why aren't my streams working?
Most of the "Real-Debrid down" reports in 2026 aren't full outages, they're the infringing_file filter returning errors for previously-cached items. The torrents still report status: "downloaded" on the /torrents list, so the breakage is invisible until playback. If a sample of WEB-DL / WEBRip releases in your library fails to play, you're almost certainly seeing the filter, not an outage. LitterBox's fast-pass scan diagnoses this in seconds.
Can I get banned from Real-Debrid for using two devices at once?
Yes. Real-Debrid permits use from any single public IP address but not two at the same time. Streaming from home Wi-Fi while a family member streams on cellular, or having a VPN connected on one device while another is direct, both trip the limit. Repeated violations escalate from temporary suspension to permanent ban. TorBox doesn't have this restriction (Essential and Pro tiers allow 5 / 10 concurrent IPs respectively), and Usenet doesn't have an equivalent concept at all.
What's the infringing_file error specifically?
infringing_file is the error string Real-Debrid's API returns for items its filename-based filter has flagged. On POST /unrestrict/link it surfaces as HTTP 451 + error_code: 35. The filter pattern targets WEB-DL, WEBDL, WEB-Rip, WEBRip releases plus scene-tagged releases (rarbg, rartv, eztv, YTS, and similar). Filename-based and applied on top of the hash-based DMCA blocklist that already existed.
Do I lose my watch state?
For Plex: no, watch state is bound to your Plex account, not the server. Jellyfin and Emby keep watch state in their own server databases, which stay intact during a backend migration (you're swapping the downloader and the mount, not the Jellyfin / Emby database).
Can I migrate without taking down Real-Debrid first?
Yes, that's the point of the soft-migrate path. Real-Debrid stays running through most of the steps. The final cutover is when you actually drop RD; everything before that runs both backends in parallel.
Will my Radarr / Sonarr history be preserved?
Yes. The arrs keep their full grab history through the migration. What changes is the download client they grab against and, for TorBox, the mount the existing library symlinks resolve to.
How long does the migration take?
Active work: a couple of hours for the TorBox path, less for Usenet. The hybrid period (RD still running while the new backend backfills) is up to you, most users keep it for a few days to a week before fully cutting over.
Can I migrate back to Real-Debrid if I don't like TorBox / Usenet?
Yes. The arrs are downloader-agnostic; you can re-add Decypharr at any point and continue grabbing against RD. The CatBox virtual-library and Usenet virtual-library both coexist with a Decypharr setup without conflict.
What about my custom quality profiles, indexers, and lists?
All Radarr / Sonarr / Prowlarr config is unchanged by this migration. Only the download-client connection (and for TorBox, the addition of CatBox as a Torznab indexer) changes.
What if items are missing on both TorBox and Usenet?
This is rare for mainstream content. For long-tail items that aren't on either, you can add them to TorBox directly (TorBox will cache them and CatBox can then virtualise them), or grab them as .nzb from a specialty indexer. Hybrid setups have the highest coverage by far; single-backend setups occasionally need a manual grab.
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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I self host and share a fully automated ‘arr stack with Plex. Been doing so for around 4 years. Also recently got into real debrid and hosting a Comet and Annatar for Stremio. The amount of time and head banging I’ve put into it is in the hundreds to thousands of hours. From setting it up to keeping it running smoothly. Let’s not forget the cost of my server and how much it cost to keep it running.
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(responding to a Reddit thread re the cost of ElfHosted vs mainstream streaming / self-hosting):
I didn't know that the goal of this project was to compete with large companies running/renting entire DCs. I was under the impression that the goal of this project was to manage the updating of almost selfhosted applications on a shared platform with other users. Basically, be my sysadmin for me.
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I know how much my time is worth, does that reddit poster know how much their time is worth? Without knowing what you are worth, you can't make effective capital expenditures with respect to the time it will take to recoup the capital.
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