Getting cross-seed working with qpit & gluetun

[moppylinglong]

Hi all,
L:ove the project, have managed to do the basics so far, now installing cross-seed and notifiarr which I previously had setup on a Windows server. I'm having some issues trying to get cross-seed to talk to qbit. Cross-seed (for those who are unaware) scrapes your indexers for files you may have already downloaded from a different tracker to upload to other trackers to improve your ratio without downloading new files.

Part of the config file for cross-seed looks like this:

Code: Select all

torrentClients: ["qbittorrent:http://admin:password@localhost:8081/"]

I understand that I can't keep it as localhost (since I have qbit running behind a VPN via gluetun as per the YAMS installer) but how do I configure this so it can still speak to qbit?

I am very new to all of this, so please do let me know if I'm missing something very simple

[moppylinglong]

As an update I have:

Followed the advice here and added network_mode: "service:gluetun" to the cross-seed config. I have then followed the example here and added the ports used by cross-seed to the gluetun config file.

When I run the cross-seed daemon, I get the error: Attempt 1/6 failed, retrying in 60s: [qbittorrent@gluetun:8081] qBittorrent login failed: fetch failed

I assume the problem is that cross-seed is somehow not on the same network as the remaining containers? If I run

Code: Select all

docker network inspect yams_network

I can see sonarr, watchtower, lidarr, bazarr, gluetun, radarr, portainer & prowlarr there but not qbit or cross-seed (nor notifiarr which I am also trying to get up and running, but one thing at a time!)

[rogs]

Hey @moppylinglong!

Try keeping cross-seed out of the gluetun network, and using gluetun instead of localhost as hostname for connecting to qBittorrent.

Cheers!

Roger.

[moppylinglong]

Hi Roger,

Unfortunately, that did not fix the error. I have double and triple checked the API keys for the arr stack and username & PW for qbit that I have input into the config file.

Code: Select all

terry@yams:~$ docker run -v /opt/yams/config/cross-seed:/config ghcr.io/cross-seed/cross-seed daemon
Configuration file already exists.
2025-08-13 13:28:44 info: cross-seed v6.13.1
2025-08-13 13:28:44 info: Validating your configuration...
2025-08-13 13:28:44 warn: If using Automatic Torrent Management in qBittorrent, please read: https://www.cross-seed.org/docs/v6-migration#new-folder-structure-for-links
2025-08-13 13:28:44 info: Creating linkDir: /srv/media/downloads/torrents/cross-seed-links
2025-08-13 13:28:45 error: Attempt 1/6 failed, retrying in 60s: [qbittorrent@gluetun:8081] qBittorrent login failed: fetch failed

Looking at the docker compose for cross-seed, looks like it doesn't support PUID & PGID and has user 1000:1000 instead. Looking at the yams env file, the PUID and PGID is 1000, so shouldn't that work fine?

cross-seed compose below

Code: Select all

version: "2.1"
services:
  cross-seed:
    image: ghcr.io/cross-seed/cross-seed:6
    container_name: cross-seed
    user: 1000:1000 # this must match your torrent client (cross-seed does not support using PGID and PUID)
    ports:
      - "2468:2468"
    volumes:
      - /path/to/config/folder:/config
      - # You will need at least one extra volume for your media drive if using https://www.cross-seed.org/docs/tutorials/linking
    command: daemon
    restart: unless-stopped

[rogs]

For PUID & PGID you can use the env variables available here: https://yams.media/advanced/add-your-ow ... variables-.

You should use the same permissions, but this doesn't look like a permissions issue. For some reason, your new container can't communicate with qBittorrent. This is a networking issue.

Are you sure this is correct?

Code: Select all

torrentClients: ["qbittorrent:http://admin:password@localhost:8081/"]

And have you checked that everything is on the same network? https://yams.media/advanced/add-your-ow ... p-address-

[dkplex]

Hey, I don't want to hijack the thread, but I was able to connect to qbit this way.

Code: Select all

  

  torrentClients: [
    "qbittorrent:http://username:userpassword@gluetun:8080"
  ],
  

I'm trying to set this up as well, but running into a different issue.
I'll keep an eye on this if you're able to get it working, If I find a solution I'll post it here.

I tried chatting with people at cross-seed and they just blamed gluetun and also seem to really hate it.

my current setup: https://pastebin.com/KA9Q3Ku3

Hope this helps