Files Download and Unrar then Disappear in OSX

[Neil]

Version:    0.4.8
OS:    OSX Leopard
Install type:    OSX application
Firewall:    whatever is on by default in Leopard and the Airport Extreme router
IPV6:    I have no idea what that is.
Is this issue reproducible?    yes


I see that my downloads folder has a sub folder called "incomplete" and one called "complete," but they are empty.
I can see in my connections tab that I have files downloading, but I don't see any files in the incomplete folder.  I can see files have been downloaded, par checked, and unrarred, but I don't have any files in my complete folder.  I did a spotlight search for one of the files that I downloaded, but got zero results. 

Initially, I tried to download my files to an external drive, but changed back to the default location for both complete and incomplete files after I saw I was having problems.  Also, the config field for the nzb backup location was blank, but I later filled in the word "backup" there in case that was the problem.  Still, I see new files in my history, but nothing in the complete folder.  Any suggestions?  Thank you.

[Neil]

~/downloads/incomplete
and
~/downloads/complete

[Neil]

Also, my watch folder doesn't seem to work.  I end up going back to the home tab to manually add the nzb.  The watch folder is /Downloads

[switch]

Try visiting the path you specified for your external drive in finder, if the path was wrong, or the drive was not mounted sabnzbd will still try and create the folder in /Volumes/blah which will actually be situated on your internal hard drive.

If you want to change the incomplete folder, make sure to do it when the queue is empty. For your other problems, I am not sure maybe try resetting to default settings (delete sabnzbd.ini from ~/.sabnzbd/

[Neil]

try:
downloads/incomplete
downloads/complete

and for your watch folder:
downloads

Thank you!  That seemed to do something.  I see a bunch of files now in the "incomplete" folder.  The reason I initially added the "/" at the beginning was because the folder config tab said:

In "/Users/neil"

Notice, the slash is missing after the username. There should be one between the username and the next folder in the path.  I also tried it without the slash at some point but my que might have all been in categories, so I had a different problem.  I figured that out just now when I saw that my current job, the one that has files in the incomplete folder, has "none" set for category. 

So, I guess I can solve my category problem by changing "/Volumes/TV\ 2009" to "Volumes/TV\ 2009".    BTW, I got the path by droping a file from that volume into the Terminal window.  The volume is really named "TV 2009", but Terminal added the backslash.  I copied the entire path from Terminal and pasted it into the category config tab field for it. That is why I didn't think I had any mistake there.  I read the wiki, but the examples were only for Windows: "d:/Movies".

So, bottom line, it looks like when SABnzb is set to copy a file to a new folder and then delete it from the incomplete folder, it will do the deletion even when the copy failed, right?  That would explain whey the files downloaded but don't exist anymore.

[shypike]

Do not use "\ " in the entry boxes, this will cause probems.
Spaces are perfectly acceptable in SABnzbd Config screens.

Any path starting with a "/" is an absolute path.
If a category path does not start with a "/", it will be prepended with the "complete" folder you set in Config>Folders.
Config->Folder will show you what the starting path for non-absolute paths is.

[Neil]

Try visiting the path you specified for your external drive in finder, if the path was wrong, or the drive was not mounted sabnzbd will still try and create the folder in /Volumes/blah which will actually be situated on your internal hard drive.

I did find a folder called "~", and it had a couple small test files.  The TV shows I downloaded should have shown up in a Spotlight search if they still existed anywhere on my Mac.

If you want to change the incomplete folder, make sure to do it when the queue is empty. For your other problems, I am not sure maybe try resetting to default settings (delete sabnzbd.ini from ~/.sabnzbd/

Yes, that is a good point.  Kudos to the developers on this point because SABnzbd wont let me save the change unless the que is empty, and they give me an error message explaining exactly what happened in plain English.  That was actually more user friendliness than I expected in an open source app geared to power users.  I can see that once I get this app set up properly, it will rock with Plex.

BTW, it looks like the incomplete folder now works properly.  I'll fiddle with categories now.  Thank you both for your assistance. 

[Neil]

Do not use "\ " in the entry boxes, this will cause probems.
Spaces are perfectly acceptable in SABnzbd Config screens.

Ok, I'll delete the backslash.

Any path starting with a "/" is an absolute path.

If a category path does not start with a "/", it will be prepended with the "complete" folder you set in Config>Folders.
Config->Folder will show you what the starting path for non-absolute paths is.

It sounds like I need to keep the slash at the beginning of the path.  So, should I write this:
"/Volumes/TV 2009"
in order to save the files to an external drive called "TV 2000"?  Thanks.

EDIT: That did it.  The file now ends up on that drive.  Thanks.

[Neil]

OK, now my files are showing up on the external drive
...but I'm not getting the folder structure that I got when the file downloaded to home directory.  I downloaded a test file and SABnzbd created a folder called "Dancing with the Stars" and then a subfolder called "Season 8" where the test file finally landed.  That was sweet because that is exactly what my media player, Plex, wants.  So, what do I have to configure so that happens on my external drive too?   Many thanks.

EDIT:  I still have "Enable TV Sorting" checked.  Maybe I need the TV show name in the filename of the nzb.  The nzb I downloaded had a funny name bacause I went back to Binsearch to get the show that didn't download before.  I'll try again with a better named nzb.  What exactly tells SABnzbd that a file is a TV show?

[switch]

The name of the nzb file, see http://sabnzbd.wikidot.com/folder-sorting

[Neil]

The name of the nzb file, see http://sabnzbd.wikidot.com/folder-sorting

That is good news because henceforth I'll get my nzbs automatically from tvnzb.com.  They will have the right filenames.  Thank you all very much for creating this powerful app and for all your patient and helpful replies.