Approvals and request allowances
Decide what people can request, when approval is needed, and how rolling limits are counted.
Use Settings > Request Settings for defaults, then the user’s request settings for exceptions. Check both layers when one person sees a different request flow.
Approval rules
Section titled “Approval rules”You can require approval for new requests globally or per user. Pending approvals appear in the administrator’s approval queue. The request is already saved while awaiting a decision.
Review the exact title, target library, seasons or book formats, and selected quality before approving. A delivery outage is separate from approval. Approved requests can wait for service recovery without re-entering the approval queue.
Request history
Section titled “Request history”Open Approvals > History to see saved requests from everyone on the server, including requests accepted without manual approval. If Approvals is hidden in the navigation menu, open Settings > Approvals, then choose History.
Search by title or filter by requester, media type, and decision. The list starts with the newest saved request; Load older requests reads the next page. Shared book requests also appear when filtering by a subscriber.
Select a row to see the target library, requested seasons or book formats, recorded reviewer and decision date, and any denial reason. Older or automatic requests can have no reviewer or decision date recorded. A missing value is shown explicitly.
An approval records a decision, not proof that a file is available now. Choose View title to check current availability in the requested library. Historical books or albums without a usable identity or library have no title link. Removed files do not erase decisions, but this screen cannot recover request records already deleted from the server.
If history cannot load, use Retry. A refresh failure keeps the last successful results visible with a warning. An older server without this endpoint prompts you to update it.
For Radarr, Sonarr, Chaptarr, and Lidarr libraries with requester tagging enabled when a request was submitted, each row also shows tagging status. Open the row to inspect a failure or use Retry tag. This retries only the tag and preserves the request’s decision and delivery. Refresh History to check completion. Tag applied is a saved receipt, not a live check of tags in the library. Shared book requests show each requester and format separately. Sonarr tags the series, Lidarr tags the artist, and Chaptarr tags the author for the requested format, so those tags also cover other content under that parent. Enable Tag requests with requester in the instance editor; existing tags remain and old requests are not backfilled.
Season and quality choices
Section titled “Season and quality choices”Choose whether users may select TV seasons and quality profiles. If choice is disabled, the configured defaults apply. Quality profiles come from the relevant library manager; their names and behavior are not universal between instances.
In Request Defaults > Quality, Default Radarr quality and Default Sonarr quality list profiles from the server’s default instance of each service, or its first configured instance when no default is selected. These lists load even when Let users choose quality is off. Server default leaves selection automatic: a new title without a valid configured profile uses the first profile returned by its target instance.
TV specials are a separate scope. For a series whose TMDB and TVDB season organization differs, correct the identity mapping before approving the wrong season. See TV matches.
Rolling allowances
Section titled “Rolling allowances”Allowances can cover these categories independently:
| Category | What is counted |
|---|---|
| Movies | Accepted new movie requests |
| TV | Newly requested ordinary seasons |
| Ebooks | Newly requested ebook formats |
| Audiobooks | Newly requested audiobook formats |
| Albums | Newly requested music releases |
Choose a rolling 1-, 7-, or 30-day window. All allowances start unlimited. Kids inherit ordinary User defaults. Administrators are exempt.
Accepted work counts even when it is pending approval. Duplicate requests, delivery retries, and already available or fully monitored work do not charge again. TV specials are excluded from the ordinary season allowance. Selecting both book formats must fit both categories together.
A rolling window does not reset for everyone at midnight. Each accepted request ages out of its configured window. Users can inspect their own allowance in Account settings.
Avoid confusing approval with storage policy
Section titled “Avoid confusing approval with storage policy”An allowance limits requesting. It is not a disk quota, retention policy, or guarantee of delivery. External services still control their own search, download, and import behavior.
Cancelling a saved request does not mean an imported file was removed. Deleting a file in a media manager does not automatically erase the request history.
Review notifications and navigation
Section titled “Review notifications and navigation”Phone categories can notify administrators about requests needing review. Discord can post selected request events to a channel or thread, including decisions and availability. Automatically approved request alerts are a separate option. Users can opt in to personal mentions.
The Needs attention navigation group can hide an empty queue. Open it from Settings when needed, or change its device-local visibility choice. A hidden navigation entry does not disable approvals.