Orphan Scan

Finds and removes files in your download directories that aren't associated with any torrent.

How It Works

1. Scan roots are determined dynamically - qui scans all unique SavePath directories from your current torrents, not qBittorrent's default download directory
2. Files not referenced by any torrent are flagged as orphans
3. You preview the list before confirming deletion
4. Empty directories are cleaned up after file deletion

danger

If multiple qBittorrent instances share the same download directory, files from other instances will be flagged as orphans. Use separate directories per instance or add shared paths to ignore paths.

Docker: Local Filesystem Access

Several qui features require access to the same filesystem paths that qBittorrent uses (orphan scan, hardlinks, reflinks, automations).

Mount the same paths qBittorrent uses - paths must match exactly:

volumes:
  - /config:/config
  - /data/torrents:/data/torrents  # Must match qBittorrent's path

After mounting, enable Local Filesystem Access on each instance in qui's Instance Settings.

Important: Abandoned Directories

Directories are only scanned if at least one torrent points to them. If you delete all torrents from a directory, that directory is no longer a scan root and any leftover files there won't be detected.

Example: You have torrents in /downloads/old-stuff/. You delete all those torrents. Orphan scan no longer knows about /downloads/old-stuff/ and won't clean it up.

Settings

Setting	Description	Default
Grace period	Skip files modified within this window	10 minutes
Ignore paths	Directories to exclude from scanning	-
Scan interval	How often scheduled scans run	24 hours
Max files per run	Limit results to prevent overwhelming large scans	10,000
Auto-cleanup	Automatically delete orphans from scheduled scans	Disabled
Auto-cleanup max files	Only auto-delete if orphan count is at or below this threshold	100

Workflow

1. Trigger a scan (manual or scheduled)
2. Review the preview list of orphan files
3. Confirm deletion
4. Files are deleted and empty directories cleaned up