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Cross-Seed Rules

Configure matching behavior in the Rules tab on the Cross-Seed page.

Matching

  • Find individual episodes - When enabled, season packs also match individual episodes. When disabled, season packs only match other season packs. Episodes are added with AutoTMM disabled to prevent save path conflicts.
  • Size mismatch tolerance - Maximum size difference percentage (default: 5%). Also determines auto-resume threshold after recheck.
  • Skip recheck - When enabled, skips any cross-seed that would require a recheck (alignment needed, extra files, or disc layouts like BDMV/VIDEO_TS). Applies to all modes including hardlink/reflink.
  • Skip piece boundary safety check - Enabled by default. When enabled, allows cross-seeds even if extra files share torrent pieces with content files. Warning: This may corrupt your existing seeded data if content differs. Uncheck this to enable the safety check, or use reflink mode which safely handles these cases.
note

Disc layouts (BDMV/VIDEO_TS) are treated more strictly: they only auto-resume after a full recheck reaches 100%.

Categories

Choose one of three mutually exclusive category modes:

Category Affix (default)

Adds a configurable affix to the matched torrent's category. Prevents Sonarr/Radarr from importing cross-seeded files as duplicates. AutoTMM is inherited from the matched torrent.

Affix Mode:

  • Suffix (default): Appends the affix to the category (e.g., moviesmovies.cross)
  • Prefix: Prepends the affix to the category (e.g., moviescross/movies)

Affix Value: The text to add (default: .cross). Common examples:

  • .cross using suffix mode → tv.cross, movies.cross
  • cross/ using prefix mode → cross/tv, cross/movies
tip

Prefix mode with a trailing / creates nested categories1 in qBittorrent, making it easy to group all cross-seeds under a parent category. Filtering by cross returns all cross-seeds (cross/movies, cross/tv, etc.).

warning

Avoid using a leading / in suffix mode (e.g., /cross-seed). This creates the cross-seed as a child of the original category1, so setting your category to movies in Radarr would also return movies/cross-seed torrents, potentially causing conflicts.

Use prefix mode instead if you want nested categories.

1 Nested categories require subcategories to be enabled (Instance Preferences → Files → Enable Subcategories).

Use indexer name as category

Sets category to the indexer name (e.g., TorrentDB). AutoTMM is always disabled; uses explicit save paths.

Custom category

Uses a fixed category name for all cross-seeds (e.g., cross-seed). AutoTMM is always disabled; uses explicit save paths.

Source Tagging

Configure tags applied to cross-seed torrents based on how they were discovered:

Tag SettingDescriptionDefault
RSS Automation TagsTorrents added via RSS feed polling["cross-seed"]
Seeded Search TagsTorrents added via seeded torrent search["cross-seed"]
Completion Search TagsTorrents added via completion-triggered search["cross-seed"]
Webhook TagsTorrents added via /apply webhook["cross-seed"]
Inherit source torrent tagsAlso copy tags from the matched source torrent-

External Program

Optionally run an external program after successfully injecting a cross-seed torrent.

Category Behavior Details

autoTMM (Auto Torrent Management)

autoTMM behavior depends on which category mode is active:

Category ModeautoTMM Behavior
Category AffixInherited from matched torrent
Indexer nameAlways disabled (explicit save paths)
CustomAlways disabled (explicit save paths)

When autoTMM is inherited (affix mode):

  • If matched torrent uses autoTMM, cross-seed uses autoTMM
  • If matched torrent has manual path, cross-seed uses same manual path

When autoTMM is disabled (indexer/custom modes), cross-seeds always use explicit save paths derived from the matched torrent's location.

Save Path Determination

Priority order:

  1. Base category's explicit save path (if configured in qBittorrent)
  2. Matched torrent's current save path (fallback)

Examples:

Suffix mode (default):

  • tv category has save path /data/tv
  • Cross-seed gets tv.cross category with save path /data/tv
  • Files are found because they're in the same location

Prefix mode:

  • movies category has save path /data/movies
  • Cross-seed gets cross/movies category with save path /data/movies
  • Nested cross/ parent in qBittorrent groups all cross-seeds together

Best Practices

Do:

  • Use autoTMM consistently across your torrents
  • Let qui create cross-seed categories automatically
  • Keep category structures simple
  • Use prefix mode with / (e.g., cross/) if you want all cross-seeds grouped under one parent category

Don't:

  • Manually move torrent files after adding them
  • Create cross-seed categories manually with different paths
  • Mix autoTMM and manual paths for the same content type