SABnzbd Tips and Tricks

High speed Downloading

If you are not experiencing the download speeds expected please try the following:

1. Use a wired network connection, not wireless wherever possible.

2. If you did a custom installation make sure sabyenc is installed by checking the first page of the Config. If you used the installers on Windows, macOS or a repository/pre-built package, this will be already be present and you will not need to search for this. 

3. Depending on your available RAM you can set the Article Cache Limit in Config->General. This setting speeds up the process by keeping files in memory instead of writing them to disk, saving time and processing power. 

4. Verify that logging is set to only Errors/Warning in the Status window. The +Debug setting writes very frequently tiny bits of data to the disk. and increases CPU load. To change this setting click on the wrench icon to access the Status settings. The dropdown option in the lower right should be set to “+info”. If it is set to “+Debug” please change it.  

5. The “Only Get Articles for Top of Queue” setting in Settings->Config->Switches, will reduce the amount of CPU power required for large queues.

6. Investigate your connection count in Config->Servers. While it is counter intuitive  sometimes more connections can slow down your speeds if you’re on a slower connection or older computer. If you’re encountering speed issues we suggest to start at the max allowed connections and slowly lower your count until you max out your speed.

7. Power users can try changing the SSL Ciphers. This can lower encryption strength but can greatly increase download speeds. SABnzbd has a guide on this process. 

Additional settings for high-speed downloading

If your focus is on pure high-speed downloading itself, you should let SABnzbd focus on downloading only (and not any simultaneous processing), and the following settings will help (in order of importance):

1. SSD drives are suggested for both complete and incomplete download folders. Slower drives such as NAS and HDD may slow down processing. 

2. Turn on "Pause Downloading During Post-Processing". This can be found in Settings ->Switches in the Post Processing section .  SABnbd will download the files completely before it begins processing. 

3. Turn off DirectUnpack. This can be found in Settings->Switches in the Queue section. 

4. Turn off Unwanted Extensions and Encrypted Downloads, These can also be found in Settings->Switches in the Queue section.