Sonarr & Radarr Tagging Format Incompatibility
Having trouble with your media servers, specifically Sonarr and Radarr, not playing nicely with Overseerr's tagging system? You're not alone! Many users have encountered an issue where the tagging format, particularly when it includes spaces like [ID] - [PLEX_ACCT], causes requests to fail. This incompatibility arises because Sonarr and Radarr, by default, don't play well with spaces in their tag names. This article will delve into the nitty-gritty of this problem, explore why it happens, and most importantly, provide actionable solutions to get your automated media management back on track.
Understanding the Core Problem: Spaces in Tags
The tagging format used by services like Overseerr often includes identifiers that are convenient for humans but problematic for machine parsing. In this specific case, the format [ID] - [PLEX_ACCT] is designed to be informative, showing both a unique identifier and the associated Plex account. However, the inclusion of spaces and the hyphen (-) can be a stumbling block for applications like Sonarr and Radarr, which have stricter rules about what characters are allowed in their internal tagging systems. These applications often expect tags to be simple, single words or alphanumeric strings without special characters or spaces. When Overseerr attempts to create or apply a tag with these forbidden characters, Sonarr or Radarr rejects it, leading to the dreaded failure in your request pipeline. The log snippet [Warn] RadarrErrorPipeline: Invalid request Validation failed: -- Label: Allowed characters a-z, 0-9 and - clearly indicates that the system is flagging the tag format as invalid because it contains characters outside the allowed set, even though a hyphen is listed as allowed, it seems the combination with spaces is the issue. This points to a validation rule that is perhaps too strict or not anticipating the common use case of descriptive tags. It's a classic case of usability versus strict technical constraints.
Why This Tagging Format Matters for Automation
For users who rely on Sonarr and Radarr for automated media downloading and organization, tagging is a crucial feature. Tags can be used to categorize content, assign specific download clients or quality profiles, or even trigger custom scripts. For instance, you might want to tag all requests from a specific user with their username so you can easily track what they've asked for, or perhaps tag certain types of content (like 4K movies) to ensure they go to a specific download location. When Overseerr successfully integrates with Sonarr and Radarr via tags, it streamlines the entire process. A new request is made, Overseerr tags it, and Sonarr/Radarr automatically picks it up and starts the download based on the tag's predefined rules. However, when the tagging format itself becomes the bottleneck, this entire automated workflow grinds to a halt. The failure isn't just an inconvenience; it directly impacts your ability to keep your media library up-to-date with the content your users are requesting. It means that manual intervention is likely required to fix the tags or initiate downloads, defeating the purpose of automation. The error logs clearly show that the validation is failing at the point of label creation or application within Radarr, indicating that the communication between Overseerr and Radarr is breaking down due to the malformed tag. This underscores the importance of ensuring that any data passed between these services adheres to the expected format. The desire for an informative tag like [ID] - [PLEX_ACCT] is understandable, but if it breaks the automation, a simpler, compatible format must be adopted to maintain functionality. This highlights a common challenge in integrating different software systems: ensuring that data structures and naming conventions align.
Troubleshooting Steps: Fixing the Incompatibility
So, how do we get your Sonarr and Radarr tagging to work seamlessly with Overseerr again? The good news is that there are a few straightforward solutions you can implement. The primary goal is to modify the tagging format in Overseerr to something that Sonarr and Radarr will accept. Based on the error message indicating
