SABnzbd Forums

I use three categories and all three have "completed" folders on separate physical volumes. I've just switched to sabnzbd from nzbget. With nzbget I found that I got better performance with regard to CPU and disk io if I made the category temp download folder reside on the same volume as the completed folder.

With sabnzbd I don't see a way to have different temporary/incomplete folders per category. Is that not a feature of sabnzbd or have I just missed where it can be configured?

Indeed we don't support that, in all those years I also have never had anyone request it. So must not have been a heavily used feature of former nzbget users.

safihre wrote: ↑December 31st, 2023, 4:28 pm Indeed we don't support that, in all those years I also have never had anyone request it. So must not have been a heavily used feature of former nzbget users.

OK. Thank you for your reply.

Apologies for necroing this thread.

safihre wrote: ↑December 31st, 2023, 4:28 pm Indeed we don't support that, in all those years I also have never had anyone request it. So must not have been a heavily used feature of former nzbget users.

Oddly enough I was looking for this feature as well. I know it's unlikely to be implemented but as an Unraid user having different disk shares and user shares, this feature would actually be useful because of the way atomic moves/instant moves work in Docker.

Noted! If it's requested a lot, we can reconsider.

safihre wrote: ↑July 24th, 2024, 5:31 pm Noted! If it's requested a lot, we can reconsider.

I appreciate you being open to it. It’s such a rare problem to solve due to a limitation of docker and/or Unraid and not a limitation of SABnzbd but appreciate it nonetheless.

Just chiming in to say that I just set up SABnzbd for the first time and immediately looked for how to set up category-specific incomplete folders, since I also use Unraid and have separate shares for things. I'm also using SAB in a container, so I think my use case is identical to the previous request. For now I will use a separate "downloads" share as SAB's complete/incomplete folder, and hopefully atomic moves will work ok across shares. But adding category-specific incomplete folders would greatly reduce risk/uncertainty about how this works.

From my understanding, atomic moves breaks when moving from different shares, only works within a share.

sab_fan444 wrote: ↑December 8th, 2024, 4:15 pm From my understanding, atomic moves breaks when moving from different shares, only works within a share.

Yeah I did a little more reading before starting up and found that info. For now I will just use one share as the main one and have slow moves for files on the other share.

aletaziar wrote: ↑December 8th, 2024, 5:37 pmYeah I did a little more reading before starting up and found that info. For now I will just use one share as the main one and have slow moves for files on the other share.

That’s exactly what I am currently doing myself.

safihre wrote: ↑July 24th, 2024, 5:31 pm Noted! If it's requested a lot, we can reconsider.

Wanted to know if this was under consideration. Thanks.

jumbonzb wrote: ↑September 13th, 2025, 4:51 pm

safihre wrote: ↑July 24th, 2024, 5:31 pm Noted! If it's requested a lot, we can reconsider.

Wanted to know if this was under consideration. Thanks.

Curious what OS you are using? By any chance also Unraid?

I use Debian with SnapRAID and Docker. SnapRAID works with JBOD and snapshots, but since it’s not a live RAID system it’s best suited for media servers with Write Once Read Many (WORM) files that don’t change often.
I also use Radarr and Sonarr, which depend on hard links. Because SnapRAID doesn’t pool disks, each HDD has to be managed individually.

Thanks to Docker, I can run a separate SABnzbd instance per HDD, so the temporary download folder resides on the same disk as the final storage location. This avoids filling up my smaller OS drive, reduces constant SSD writes, and lets me benefit from atomic moves.

For users not running Docker, it seems they can only use one SABnzbd instance, which forces everything into a single temporary folder on a single drive. This makes me think it would be really useful if SABnzbd supported category-specific temporary folders, so downloads could stay on the same disk as their completed location.

Usadbzn wrote: ↑September 28th, 2025, 1:00 pm Thanks to Docker, I can run a separate SABnzbd instance per HDD, so the temporary download folder resides on the same disk as the final storage location.

Why are you running multiple SABnzbd instances?

OneCD wrote: ↑September 28th, 2025, 1:44 pm

Usadbzn wrote: ↑September 28th, 2025, 1:00 pm Thanks to Docker, I can run a separate SABnzbd instance per HDD, so the temporary download folder resides on the same disk as the final storage location.

Why are you running multiple SABnzbd instances?

I think he is saying that by running multiple instances of SABnzdb, he can get around the current limitation. Basically a "hacky" way of solving the issue.