Bazarr — Automated Subtitle Manager for Sonarr and Radarr

Introduction

Bazarr is a companion application to Sonarr and Radarr that manages subtitle downloads. You define language preferences per series or movie, and Bazarr searches multiple subtitle providers, downloads the best match, and syncs timing automatically.

What Bazarr Does

• Scans your Sonarr and Radarr libraries for missing or outdated subtitles
• Searches 20+ subtitle providers including OpenSubtitles, Addic7ed, and Subscene
• Downloads and renames subtitle files to match your media naming conventions
• Synchronizes subtitle timing to the audio track using embedded or external tools
• Supports manual search and selection when automatic matching is insufficient

Architecture Overview

Bazarr is a Python application with a React frontend served on port 6767. It connects to Sonarr and Radarr APIs to discover your media library and track new imports. A background scheduler periodically searches configured subtitle providers for missing languages. Downloaded subtitles are post-processed with optional subsync for timing correction and stored alongside the media files.

Self-Hosting & Configuration

• Deploy with Docker using the linuxserver/bazarr image or install natively with Python 3
• Connect to Sonarr and Radarr by providing their URLs and API keys in settings
• Mount the same media directories used by Sonarr and Radarr into the Bazarr container
• Configure subtitle providers with your account credentials where required
• Set default languages and hearing-impaired preferences per series or globally

Key Features

• Integration with 20+ subtitle providers for broad coverage
• Automatic subtitle synchronization correcting timing drift
• Per-series and per-movie language profiles with fallback priorities
• Score-based ranking to select the highest quality subtitle match
• History and blacklist tracking to avoid re-downloading bad subtitles

Comparison with Similar Tools

• Sub-Zero — Plex plugin for subtitles, limited to Plex and less actively maintained
• Subliminal — Python CLI library for subtitle search, no web UI or scheduling
• FileBot — media renamer with subtitle support, commercial license required
• Subtitle Edit — desktop subtitle editor, not an automated downloader
• Sonarr/Radarr — handle media acquisition but do not manage subtitles

FAQ

Q: Which subtitle providers should I enable? A: OpenSubtitles.com and Addic7ed cover most content. Add language-specific providers for non-English subtitles. Each provider may require a free account.

Q: Does Bazarr fix out-of-sync subtitles? A: Yes. Bazarr can run subsync or ffsubsync after download to align subtitle timing with the audio track automatically.

Q: Can I use Bazarr without Sonarr or Radarr? A: Bazarr requires at least one of them to discover your media library. It reads the library structure and metadata from their APIs.

Q: How often does Bazarr check for new subtitles? A: The default schedule checks every 6 hours, but you can customize the interval or trigger manual searches from the web UI.

Sources

• https://github.com/morpheus65535/bazarr
• https://www.bazarr.media/