plungarrCleanuparr, Decluttarr, plungarr
All three watch the arr queues and remove downloads that are going nowhere. The difference is what happens to a download that could still be imported, and which download client the tool was built around. Reviewed against both projects' documentation and source in September 2026; corrections welcome as issues.
The one-line difference
Cleanuparr and Decluttarr are queue cleaners: they decide a download is bad and remove it. plungarr also finishes the import when the only problem was a technicality, distinguishes the reasons a download is stuck and applies a policy per reason, and was built around SABnzbd.
What plungarr does that they do not
| plungarr | Cleanuparr and Decluttarr | |
|---|---|---|
| “Matched by ID, manual import required” | Verifies each file maps to the grabbed series or movie, then force-imports | A message you can choose to remove on. Neither has a manual-import code path. |
| Policy per reason | Not-an-upgrade, archive, dangerous file, and sample each take replace, discard, or notify | One pattern list for failed imports; every match gets the same outcome (remove, blocklist, re-search) |
| Per-file reasons | Reads the rejection on each file, so a row that says “matched by ID” whose file says “not an upgrade” is handled as not-an-upgrade | See only the queue row's message |
| SABnzbd | Stall watcher built for it: dead posts at the head of the queue, missing-article thresholds, orphan checks across every configured arr | Cleanuparr's FAQ says native Usenet support will not be added. Decluttarr queries SABnzbd only to measure speed. |
| Library and history review | Chronic-failure list from grab history; report-only suspect-file review, each file reported once | Not offered |
| Digests | Cadence per category, reminders for items still waiting on you, summary totals | Per-event notifications on strike and removal |
Where they are ahead
- Torrents. Private-tracker handling, protected tags, seeding cleanup, “downloading metadata” and slow-speed strikes. Cleanuparr integrates qBittorrent, Deluge, Transmission, µTorrent and rTorrent; Decluttarr integrates qBittorrent. plungarr has no torrent-client integration; its import handling still works for torrent users because it operates on the arr side.
- More arrs. Both support Lidarr, Readarr and Whisparr; Cleanuparr adds Sportarr and LazyLibrarian. plungarr supports Sonarr and Radarr.
- Cleanuparr has a web UI, a community blocklist of known-bad files, missing-content and unmet-cutoff searching, and more notification targets including Notifiarr, Telegram and Pushover.
- Decluttarr removes orphaned, unmonitored and missing-file downloads and can detect deletions in the media folders.
Where all three agree
- Multiple arr instances in one container.
- A dry-run or test mode.
- Remove, blocklist and search again as the default outcome for a bad download. Their strike counters and plungarr's two-sighting age gate are the same idea.
Which to use
Torrent-first, or you want buttons: Cleanuparr. Usenet-first, or your pile is mostly “manual import required” rows that only needed finishing: plungarr. They do not conflict, but do not point two tools at the same queue with overlapping rules.