Last updated on 8 January 2025
Important or Recent Updates
| Historic Updates | Date |
|---|---|
| Fresh new guide by popular demand | 28/09/2023 |
| Updated with new steps to obtain and change WebUI password | 21/11/2023 |
| Issue with passwords has been fixed in 4.6.2 so removed tty line from yaml | 29/11/2023 |
What is qBittorrent?
qBittorrent is a torrent downloader used to both manage torrent downloading and seeding.
If you are looking to combine a VPN with this set up see the GlueTUN guide on the left Menu
Let’s Begin
In this guide I will take you through the steps to get qBittorrent up and running in Docker
In order for you to successfully use this guide, please complete the three preceding guides
- Docker Package, SSD and Memory Recommendations
- Step 1: Directory Setup Guide
- Step 2: Setting up a restricted Docker user
- Step 3: Setting up a Docker Bridge Network (synobridge)
Folder Setup
Let’s start by getting some folders set up for the containers to use. Open up File Station create the following.
/docker/projects/qbit-compose
/docker/qbittorrent
Container Manager
Next we are going to set up a ‘Project’ in Container Manager, a project is used when you want one or more to all be loaded together and uses Docker Compose to do this.
Open up Container Manager and click on Project then on the right-hand side click ‘Create’
In the next screen we will set up our General Settings, enter the following:
| Section | Setting |
|---|---|
| Project Name: | qbit-project |
| Path: | /docker/projects/qbit-compose |
| Source: | Create docker-compose.yml |
Next we are going to drop in our docker compose configuration copy all the code in the box below and paste it into line ‘1’ just like the screenshot
services:
qbittorrent:
image: linuxserver/qbittorrent:latest
container_name: qbittorrent
environment:
- PUID=1234 #CHANGE_TO_YOUR_UID
- PGID=65432 #CHANGE_TO_YOUR_GID
- TZ=Europe/London #CHANGE_TO_YOUR_TZ
- WEBUI_PORT=8090
volumes:
- /volume1/docker/qbittorrent:/config
- /volume1/data/torrents:/data/torrents
ports:
- 9854:9854/tcp # Forwarded Port on Router TCP
- 9854:9854/udp # Forwarded Port on Router TCP
- 8090:8090/tcp # port for qbittorrent webui
network_mode: synobridge
restart: alwaysEnvironment Variables
We are now going to amend some key variables to make sure the container has access to our folders and also knows where we are in the world. Don’t change any other settings other than those I mention.
| Variable | Value |
|---|---|
| PUID | (required) The UID you obtained in the user setup guide |
| PGID | (required) The GID you obtained in the user setup guide |
| TZ | (required) Your timezone wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_tz_database_time_zones |
Ports
Nothing to change here, the webui will run on port 8090 and the ports we will be using for the torrent protocol will be 9854 for TCP and UDP.
Volumes
By default, I have assumed you have your config files stored on /volume1 if these are located on another volume amend this line accordingly.
Click ‘Next’
You do not need to enable anything on the ‘Web portal settings’ screen click ‘Next’ again
On the final screen click Done which will begin the download of the container images and once downloaded they will be launched!
The images will now be downloaded and extracted. You should see ‘Code 0’ when it has finished.
You will now see your qbit-project running with a green status on the left-hand side.
Firewall Exceptions
(Skip if you don’t have the Firewall configured)
If you have the Synology Firewall enabled please see this additional guide for further info on exceptions and correct set up.
Changing the default WebUI login and password
If you skip this step you won’t be able to log in.
Now the container has started open it in the Docker UI by clicking the qbittorrent container select ‘details’ and then view the ‘log’ tab. Within the logs you will see the login details.
Now before doing any more of the guide go to the Web UI by going to the IP of your NAS followed by port 8090 and log in. Then on the WebUI tab change the defaults to your own and save them.
Now continue on..
Router Port Forwarding
As you can imagine there are thousands of possible router configs out there, so you will need to check the manual for your own.
Essentially you need to Port Forward port 9854 TCP and UDP to your NAS IP address. This will make you connectable for all peers. Most routers support UPnP or NAT-PNP which will automatically set up ports however it’s usually more secure to turn these off and do it manually.
Final qBittorrent Setup
Changing the default WebUI login and password
If you skip this step you won’t be able to log in.
Now the container has started open it in the Docker UI and go to the Log tab. Within the logs you will see the login details
Now before doing any more of the guide go to the Web UI by going to the IP of your NAS followed by port 8090 and log in. Then on the WebUI tab change the defaults to your own and save them.
As we have used /data/torrents as the mount point for our downloads we need to make sure qBittorrent uses this same file path. Open the settings and edit the following paths and save.
| Option | Original Value | New Value |
|---|---|---|
| Default Save Path | /downloads | /data/torrents/completed |
| Keep incomplete torrents in | /downloads/incomplete | /data/torrents/incoming |
| Monitored Folder (optional) | blank | /data/torrents/watch |
In prior versions of this guide I had a command to unzip RAR and ZIP files, I have removed this as it is not reliable, check out Unpackerr from the menu.
Connection Settings
The last step is to tell qBittorrent to use the correct port for communication enter 9854 in the Listening Port.
I am not going to walk through all the other settings as you can customise these as you wish.
That’s it.
FAQs
Q: I am getting the ‘errored’ status for all my torrents
This is very likely a permissions issue, go to the User and Group guide and see the permission fixes towards the bottom.
Q: Everything seems to be connected but nothing is downloading.
Try grabbing the Ubuntu torrent as that is a sure fire way of testing as generally it has over 3k seeds.
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If you are struggling with any steps in the guides or looking to branch out into other containers join our Discord community!
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I had followed your guide in the past and had Qbit working but noticed I wasnt getting the latest version. So I deleted it, kept qbittorrent folder in, reinstalled using this compose you suggest. Now it opens but all my torrents have error. When I try to change the file location I get ” “Cannot make save path” know what is causing this?
If you just swapped the container and kept the underlying /docker/qbittorrent folder then the paths should still match.. Double check they show as per the last section in relation to paths. Oh and also make sure your PUID/PGID are correct!
Given the recent update to Qbit, where the basic temp password, no longer works, and if you had changed it, is there a way to downgrade the image in container manager, to another tag, that you can still sign into – and thus modify the password?
You just need to add the additional tty line I have added to the yaml this will trigger the new temp password in the log as shown in the guide.
I have qBittorrent and the Arr’s media project set up on my Synology NAS as per the guides, the none of the apps can see qBitTorrent. They just say “Unable to connect to qBitTorrent”, and DevTools shows the request returning 400. Is there a step I’ve missed do you reckon? The synobridge network is all set up correctly.
What IP address are you using to connect between them? The bridge IP should work of 172.20.0.1
Yeah, I’m using 172.20.0.1, each of the Arr’s can see each other, but qbittorrent – or any other client I’ve tried – returns Receive Failure, or sometimes Connection Refused. I’m not a strong networking guy, but it all seems straightforward enough. I don’t get why the Arr’s can’t see anything but each other.
OK – Do you have the Firewall configures and if so added the various exceptions as per the guides..
Failing that I would do a reboot of the whole NAS as I have seen far to many times that the IPTables within DSM failed to update and a reboot sorts things out. Had it today with someone on Discord.
Got it working! I reinstalled qBitTorrent with GluTUN and it still wouldn’t work until I changed the configs to call QB over port 8090, with the admin creds. All looking good now. Thanks for the awesome site!
I noticed the image exposed ports are 6881/tcp & udp and 8080/tcp but you configure the container as 9843/tcp &udp and 8090/tcp. Are ports 6881 and 8080 also used? I ask this because the Download Station use 6881, I don’t know if there are conflicts if I use both at the same time on my NAS.
Hey – I moved the ports around to avoid the conflict with Download Station, so roll with the ones suggested in the guide and you won’t have any issues.
I am gettin permission denied on any torrent i try, from magnetics links to torrents, followed all previous guides, i hate coding but i am good at browsing and following orders
OK – Double-check your PUID and PGIDs are the correct way around that is the most common cause of this issue.