Stream from Real-Debrid with Plex on ElfHosted
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 Real-Debrid 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.
This page describes how to integrate Real-Debrid cloud storage with your ElfHosted Plex instance for streaming your personal media library, without local storage and without local torrent clients.
The core architecture is the same regardless of which automation layer you pick:
- Real-Debrid stores the actual files in the cloud
- Zurg + rclone make Real-Debrid appear as a local mount at
/storage/realdebrid-zurg - Plex reads media files from a symlink mount at
/storage/symlinks - An automation layer (SeerrBridge or Radarr/Sonarr) discovers content, adds it to Real-Debrid, and creates the symlinks Plex sees
The automation layer is the choice you need to make.
Pick your automation layer
| Automation | How it gets content | Where to go next |
|---|---|---|
| SeerrBridge | Listens for requests in Overseerr, Jellyseerr, or Seerr, scrapes Debrid Media Manager, and adds matched releases to your Real-Debrid library. Simpler stack, no per-title quality profiles. | Plex + Real-Debrid + SeerrBridge guide |
| Radarr / Sonarr + Decypharr | Full Arrs stack: indexer searches via Prowlarr, per-title quality profiles, custom formats, TRaSH-Guides tuning. Accepts requests from Overseerr / Jellyseerr / Seerr, list imports from MDBList / Trakt, or manual additions. | Plex + Real-Debrid + Arrs guide |
If you mostly request content via Overseerr / Jellyseerr / Seerr and don't care about per-title quality control, SeerrBridge is the smaller, simpler stack. If you want full quality-tier control, profile-driven downloads, and the option to import from lists, the Arrs + Decypharr stack is the way.
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How does it work?
Both paths share the same Real-Debrid + Zurg + Plex backbone:
- The user adds content to their Plex Watchlist, Overseerr, Jellyseerr, MDBList, Trakt, or directly to Radarr / Sonarr
- The automation layer (SeerrBridge or the Arrs + Decypharr) finds a cached release on Real-Debrid and adds it to your account
- Zurg makes the Real-Debrid content appear at
/storage/realdebrid-zurgvia rclone - The automation layer creates a symlink at
/storage/symlinks/...pointing into the Zurg mount, then notifies Plex - Plex sees the symlink as a regular file, scans it into the library, and streams from the Real-Debrid cache when you press play
Common setup steps
Full setup guide
The step-by-step setup is available to logged-in customers. Sign in to continue →
Why this guide changed
If you arrived here from an older link or video, the original walkthrough used plex_debrid as the automation layer. That project is no longer the path we recommend, so the guide now covers the current options: SeerrBridge for simple setups, or Radarr / Sonarr + Decypharr for full quality control.
The Real-Debrid + Zurg + Plex parts of the architecture are unchanged.
Beware Real-Debrid IP bans
Real-Debrid states:
You can use your account from any public IP address but you can't use your account from more than one public IP address at the same time.
If you use Real-Debrid outside of ElfHosted at the same time as your ElfHosted instance, your account may be warned or banned.
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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(responding to a discussion 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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