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Enable real downloads

Channel Vault NAS can check and register a channel without starting any media transfer. The app arms the worker when you click Start automatic backup.

Turn on the worker

The simplest path is the UI: open a channel, choose All-channel check interval and Per run, then click Start automatic backup. It turns on real downloads, metadata sync, and the scheduler immediately (see Channel backup → Step 2). To arm the NAS globally instead, set these runtime env values:

CVN_DOWNLOAD_WORKER_ENABLED=true
CVN_YTDLP_BINARY=yt-dlp
CVN_FFPROBE_BINARY=ffprobe

The channel button and Settings tab hot-apply these worker/scheduler values; no container restart is required. Restart only when you edit .env manually.

Add the values to .env (or .env.runtime) and restart the api service:

docker compose -f compose.release.yml restart api

Export the flag and restart uvicorn:

CVN_DOWNLOAD_WORKER_ENABLED=true \
CVN_DB_MIGRATE_ON_STARTUP=true \
uvicorn app.main:app --host 127.0.0.1 --port 8000

Do it from the UI

Open Settings → Technical settings → Runtime tools → Env guide. The Runtime env manifest drawer shows the active values and pending overrides. See the Settings tour.

The pass is always bounded

Worker passes are intentionally capped so an accidental click can't saturate your NAS or your network:

  • Automatic backup claims only your Per run batch size each time it runs — never the whole channel at once.
  • The advanced Manual one-pass test runs up to that same batch size once, behind a confirmation modal.
  • API run-once limits are capped.
  • Per-channel policy can pause worker claims.
  • New uploads may still be discovered and added to the waiting list while a channel is paused; they are not downloaded until you resume it.
Automatic download schedule
Choose the interval and per-run limit, then select Start automatic backup. Each scheduled pass claims only the configured batch size.

Verify before you expose

Enabling downloads does not expose your NAS. Keep the raw API loopback-bound, set an access token, and publish only the web tier through a trusted reverse proxy or VPN.