Directory Structure

multilinguarr requires a three-tier directory structure. This is the most important concept to understand before setting up.

The three tiers

/srv/media/
  downloads/          ← arr download clients write here (temporary)
  storage/            ← arr moves completed files here (permanent)
    radarr-fr/
    radarr-en/
    sonarr-fr/
    sonarr-en/
  library/            ← multilinguarr manages this (symlinks/hardlinks)
    movies/fr/
    movies/en/
    tv/fr/
    tv/en/

Tier	Who manages it	What's in it
downloads/	Download client (qBittorrent, etc.)	Temporary files being downloaded
storage/	Radarr/Sonarr	Completed, organized media — one directory per arr instance
library/	multilinguarr	Symlinks/hardlinks organized by language — media server reads from here

Why not downloads → library directly?

Most arr setups use two tiers: downloads → library (with hardlinks or moves). This works fine for single-language setups. But multilinguarr needs the middle storage/ tier because:

1. Each arr instance owns its storage — Radarr-FR manages storage/radarr-fr/, Radarr-EN manages storage/radarr-en/
2. multilinguarr never touches real files — it only creates/removes links in library/
3. Language routing happens at the link level — the same file in storage/radarr-fr/Movie (2024)/ can appear in both library/movies/fr/ and library/movies/en/ via symlinks

Migration from a flat setup

If you currently have a single Radarr with downloads/ → movies/:

1. Create the new directory structure: storage/radarr-fr/, library/movies/fr/, etc.
2. Move your existing media from movies/ into storage/radarr-fr/
3. In Radarr, update the root folder to storage/radarr-fr/
4. Set up multilinguarr and run a regeneration to create the library links

WARNING

Back up your media database before moving files. Radarr tracks files by path — changing the root folder requires a library refresh.

Docker volume mapping

All services (arr instances, multilinguarr, media server) must see the same paths. The simplest approach:

volumes:
  - /srv/media:/srv/media

Mount the entire media tree at the same path in every container. This ensures webhook file paths match what multilinguarr and Jellyfin see on disk.

TIP

If you use hardlinks, storage/ and library/ must be on the same filesystem. Symlinks work across filesystems.