How to set up Lidarr without Docker

Grabs new music from artists you follow, automatically. Cresdock runs it on a server you own, from a catalogue, with no Docker and no reverse proxy to configure.

What Cresdock does for you with Lidarr

• Its configuration is written before the container ever starts — including the web address it lives at, so Lidarr generates correct links from the first page load instead of half-working behind a prefix.

• Reached through your panel login. There is no second password to invent for Lidarr and no port to open on your firewall.

• Your Downloads and Media folders are already mounted, and they are the SAME folders your other apps see — so files land where the rest of your setup expects them, with no path mapping to work out.

• Install a download client — qBittorrent, Deluge, Transmission or SABnzbd — and Lidarr is introduced to it for you, in whichever order you install the two. ruTorrent is the exception, and stays yours to add.

• Prowlarr keeps Lidarr's list of search sites up to date on its own, and Lidarr searches through Jackett or NZBHydra2 if you run one of those instead. Install Unpackerr and it opens anything that arrives packed up, so Lidarr can file it away.

• Albums Lidarr files away turn up in Navidrome by themselves — it plays the same music folder, so there's nothing to connect.

• Telling Plex, Jellyfin or Emby that new albums have landed is the step left to you: it needs a key made inside your media server after you've created your account there, so there is none to hand over beforehand.

Why run Lidarr yourself

The whole point of these tools is that they run unattended. On a desktop that gets shut down, they simply miss things.

What kind of server Lidarr needs

These are small, patient programs. They spend most of their time asleep and wake up to check for something new, so 1 GB of memory covers several of them at once. What they need is to be running when you aren't watching.

Cresdock itself is undemanding — it runs on a small rented server, an old desktop or a mini PC, on Ubuntu or Debian. Everything it installs shares that machine, so the honest question is not "will this app run" but "how much am I going to put on here in total".

Where to run Lidarr

Lidarr runs wherever Cresdock runs, and the choice is about the machine, not the app:

• At home, on hardware you already own. A mini PC, an old desktop or a NAS that can run Debian. Cresdock works behind a home router with no port forwarding and no domain, so Lidarr is reachable on your own network first and from outside only if you choose.
• On a rented server. A small VPS is enough for most apps and is the usual answer when Lidarr should be reachable from anywhere. The setup guide covers the specs and the one-command install.
• Through a provider that runs Cresdock. Hosting companies deploy Cresdock workspaces for their customers, so Lidarr can come with a server you rent rather than one you set up — ask your provider, or see how providers offer it.

Installing Lidarr

1. Put Cresdock on a server

   One line on any Ubuntu or Debian machine — a rented VPS, a spare PC, a home server. It sets itself up.

2. Pick Lidarr from the catalogue

   Click Install. The panel pulls the image, writes the configuration, gets a certificate and starts it.

3. Open it from your dashboard

   Its address and any login details are on its card. Start, stop, update, roll back or remove it from the same place, any time.

What this replaces

Doing it by hand means writing something like this, then keeping it working:

services:
  lidarr:
    image: lscr.io/linuxserver/lidarr:3.1.0.4875-ls36
    restart: unless-stopped
    ports:
      - "8686:8686"
    environment:
      - PUID=1000
      - PGID=1000
      - TZ=Etc/UTC
    volumes:
      - ./lidarr/config:/config
      - ./downloads:/downloads
      - ./media:/media

And that is the easy half. Still to do:

• Install a reverse proxy and write a server block for it

• Get a TLS certificate and set up automatic renewal

• Create the folders above with the right ownership, or it will not start

• Repeat all of it for the next app, and again on every server rebuild

On Cresdock, Lidarr is one click and none of the above exists.

Looking for what Lidarr itself can do? That lives in its own documentation — this page is only about running it.

Pairs well with: Mylar  ·  Prowlarr  ·  linkding  ·  how Lidarr connects to your other apps

Before you start: where to rent a server  ·  what it needs to run  ·  Cresdock vs QuickBox  ·  the seedbox panel in full  ·  sell workspaces to your customers