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Maintenance

Keeping your stack healthy — updates, backups, logs, and common troubleshooting.

Updating Containers

All services use latest tags, so updating is straightforward:

cd /path/to/plex-arr-stack

# Pull latest images
docker compose pull

# Recreate containers with new images
docker compose up -d

# Clean up old images
docker image prune -f

Update a single service

docker compose pull sonarr
docker compose up -d sonarr

Checking current versions

docker compose ps

Or check each service's UI — most show their version in Settings → General or System → Status.

Backups

What to back up

Priority What Path Why
Critical *arr databases ${CONFIG_DIR}/sonarr/, radarr/, etc. Contains all your library metadata, history, settings
Important Compose + env docker-compose.yml, .env Recreate your stack
Nice to have Plex config ${CONFIG_DIR}/plex/ Watch history, playlists (can be large)
Skip Media files ${DATA_DIR}/media/ Can be re-downloaded; back up separately if important

Built-in *arr backups

Sonarr, Radarr, Lidarr, and Prowlarr create automatic backups:

  • Location: ${CONFIG_DIR}/<service>/Backups/
  • Schedule: Weekly (default)
  • Configure: Settings → General → Backups in each *arr

Manual backup script

#!/bin/bash
BACKUP_DIR="/opt/backups/plex-arr-stack"
CONFIG_DIR="/opt/plex-arr-stack/config"
DATE=$(date +%Y-%m-%d)

mkdir -p "$BACKUP_DIR"

# Stop services for consistent backup (optional but recommended)
# docker compose stop sonarr radarr lidarr prowlarr

# Backup configs
tar -czf "$BACKUP_DIR/configs-$DATE.tar.gz" \
  -C "$CONFIG_DIR" \
  sonarr radarr lidarr prowlarr qbittorrent bazarr tautulli autobrr

# Backup compose files
cp docker-compose.yml .env "$BACKUP_DIR/"

# Restart if stopped
# docker compose start sonarr radarr lidarr prowlarr

# Retain last 4 backups
ls -t "$BACKUP_DIR"/configs-*.tar.gz | tail -n +5 | xargs -r rm

echo "Backup complete: $BACKUP_DIR/configs-$DATE.tar.gz"

Automate with cron

# Run weekly on Sunday at 3 AM
crontab -e
0 3 * * 0 /opt/plex-arr-stack/backup.sh

Logs

View container logs

# Follow logs in real-time
docker logs -f sonarr

# Last 100 lines
docker logs --tail 100 radarr

# All service logs at once
docker compose logs -f

# Specific service, last hour
docker logs --since 1h qbittorrent

Log locations inside containers

Each *arr stores logs in its config directory:

  • ${CONFIG_DIR}/sonarr/logs/
  • ${CONFIG_DIR}/radarr/logs/
  • etc.

Useful log commands

# Check which containers are using the most disk
docker system df -v

# Check container resource usage
docker stats --no-stream

Common Troubleshooting

Container won't start

# Check logs for the error
docker logs <container_name>

# Check if the port is already in use
ss -tlnp | grep <port>

# Recreate the container
docker compose up -d <service>

Permission errors

# Check ownership of data directories
ls -la ${DATA_DIR}/
ls -la ${CONFIG_DIR}/

# Fix permissions
sudo chown -R $(id -u):$(id -g) ${DATA_DIR}
sudo chown -R $(id -u):$(id -g) ${CONFIG_DIR}

Disk space issues

# Check disk usage
df -h

# Find large files in data directory
du -sh ${DATA_DIR}/*

# Clean up Docker
docker system prune -a    # WARNING: removes all unused images
docker volume prune        # WARNING: removes unused volumes

Service can't reach another service

# Test connectivity from one container to another
docker exec sonarr curl -s http://qbittorrent:8080

# Check if containers are on the same network
docker network inspect plex-arr-stack_default

Remember: Plex uses network_mode: host, so other containers can't reach it by container name. Use your server's LAN IP instead.

Database corruption (rare)

If an *arr's database becomes corrupted:

  1. Stop the service: docker compose stop sonarr
  2. Check for backups in ${CONFIG_DIR}/sonarr/Backups/
  3. Replace the database file with a backup
  4. Restart: docker compose start sonarr

Reset a service completely

docker compose stop <service>
rm -rf ${CONFIG_DIR}/<service>
docker compose up -d <service>

This removes all config and starts fresh. You'll need to reconfigure the service from scratch.

Health Checks

Quick commands to verify everything is working:

# Are all containers running?
docker compose ps

# Check resource usage
docker stats --no-stream

# Test *arr API connectivity
curl -s "http://localhost:8989/api/v3/system/status?apikey=YOUR_KEY" | jq .version
curl -s "http://localhost:7878/api/v3/system/status?apikey=YOUR_KEY" | jq .version

# Check disk space
df -h ${DATA_DIR}

Docker Compose Cheat Sheet

Command Description
docker compose up -d Start all services
docker compose down Stop and remove all containers
docker compose stop Stop all (keep containers)
docker compose restart Restart all
docker compose pull Pull latest images
docker compose logs -f Follow all logs
docker compose ps Show running containers
docker compose up -d <svc> Start/recreate one service
docker compose exec <svc> bash Shell into a container

Next Steps