Sync Behavior

When you run recyclarr sync, Recyclarr processes your configuration through five pipelines— independent stages that each handle a specific type of data. Understanding how these pipelines work helps you interpret sync output and diagnose issues.

Pipelines

• Custom Formats - Syncs custom format definitions from the TRaSH Guides
• Quality Profiles - Syncs quality profile settings and assigns custom format scores
• Quality Sizes - Syncs quality definition size limits (min/max/preferred). Does not run on Sonarr v5, which stores sizes on each quality profile; Quality Profiles syncs them instead
• Media Naming - Syncs file and folder naming formats
• Media Management - Syncs media management settings like Propers and Repacks handling

Dependencies and Failure Handling

Quality Profiles depends on Custom Formats - scores can only be assigned to custom formats that exist. The other pipelines are independent.

When a pipeline does not fully succeed, Recyclarr skips any pipelines that depend on it but continues with independent ones. For example, if any custom format fails to sync, Quality Profiles is skipped, but Quality Sizes and Media Naming continue normally.

Progress Table

During sync, the progress table shows status for each instance and pipeline:

Symbol	Color	Meaning
✓	green	Succeeded with no changes
Number	green	Succeeded; the number of items changed
~	yellow	Partial: some items synced and some did not
✗	red	Failed: no items synced
--	grey	Not run (blocked by a dependency, or not needed)

The row prefix shows the overall status of the instance. If it shows ~ or ✗, check Sync Diagnostics after the progress table for details.

Example

Here's output from a sync where one custom format could not be synced to the radarr instance:

Legend: ✓ ok · ~ partial · ✗ failed · -- not run

           Custom  Quality Quality  Media Media
          Formats Profiles   Sizes Naming  Mgmt
✓ shows         1        ✓       ✓      ✓     ✓
✓ sonarr        1        ✓      --      ✓     ✓
~ radarr        ~       --       ✓      ✓     ✓

The radarr instance shows:

• Custom Formats shows ~ (partial): some custom formats synced, but one did not
• Quality Profiles shows -- (not run): it depends on Custom Formats, which did not fully succeed
• Quality Sizes, Media Naming, and Media Management show ✓: they don't depend on Custom Formats, so they ran and had nothing to change

The shows and sonarr instances each updated one custom format. Quality Sizes shows -- for sonarr because that instance runs Sonarr v5, where Quality Profiles syncs the sizes instead.

The row prefix ~ on radarr means something did not sync. Check Sync Diagnostics for details:

╭─Sync Diagnostics─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────╮
│ Errors                                                                       │
│ ──────                                                                       │
│ • [radarr] Custom Format '3D' (b8cd450cbfa689c0259a01d9e29ba3d6) matches     │
│   multiple service formats: '3D' (ID 67), '3d' (ID 68)                       │
│ • [radarr] Quality Profiles blocked by Custom Formats                        │
╰──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────╯

Radarr has two custom formats whose names differ only in case, so Recyclarr cannot tell which one to update. Delete or rename one of them in Radarr, then sync again. See Ambiguous Matches for details.