Slow NZBGet Speeds? Here’s How to Fix It

If your NZBGet setup is running slower than expected, this guide will help Slow NZBGet speeds are a common frustration—but they’re usually easy to fix once you identify the bottleneck.

Whether you’re seeing download speeds well below your Internet plan or NZBGet seems to hang mid-transfer, this guide will walk you through practical steps to troubleshoot and improve performance.

1. Check Your Usenet Provider Plan

Before tweaking NZBGet, confirm that your Usenet provider isn’t the limiting factor.

• Some accounts (especially free trials or basic plans) are speed-capped.
• Some providers offer different speed tiers.
• Check the plan details on your provider’s website.

2. Increase or Decrease Connection Count

NZBGet splits downloads across multiple connections. Too few = underutilized bandwidth. Too many = server or local congestion.

Steps:

• Open the NZBGet web interface
• Go to Settings > News-Servers
• Adjust the Connections value for your active server

Suggested starting points:

Test different values and see what performs best. More isn’t always faster.

3. Test Server Locations

Most providers offer multiple endpoints (e.g., US and EU). Speed can vary drastically depending on your location.

• In Settings > News-Servers, try switching:
  • From news.provider.com to us.provider.com or eu.provider.com

Tip: Use ping or traceroute to find the lowest-latency server.

4. Enable DirectWrite for Fast Storage

NZBGet can write data directly to disk instead of buffering it in RAM.

Good for: SSDs and local storage
Bad for: Network shares (like NAS mounts)
Not possible: on HFS+ (default file system on OSX)

To enable:

• Go to Settings > Download Queue
• Set DirectWrite to yes

Tip: If you decide to disable DirectWrite, make sure that ArticleCache is big enough to hold all articles of one file (usually it’s 200 - 500 MB)

5. Reduce Article Cache on Low-Memory Systems

If you’re on a system with limited RAM or CPU (e.g., Raspberry Pi, older NAS), large ArticleCache may hurt more than help.

To configure:

• Go to Settings > Download Queue
• Reduce ArticleCache or set it to 0 to disable

This reduces memory usage and CPU overhead.

Best option: use both - ArticleCache and DirectWrite. This will allow you to effectively use small cache like 50MB

6. Fix Unpack Slowdowns

Unpacking large sets of articles can choke your system and make NZBGet appear “stuck” or slow.

Steps:

• Go to Settings > Unpack
• Check:
  • UnrarCmd = unrar
  • SevenZipCmd = 7z

Set UnpackPauseQueue to no to allow downloads during unpacking
(UnpackPauseQueue - yes is recommended only for slow CPUs)

7. Avoid Wi-Fi Bottlenecks

Wi-Fi (especially 2.4GHz networks) can introduce instability and speed loss.

Fix:

• Switch to a wired Ethernet connection
• Or use 5GHz Wi-Fi close to the router

8. Disable Security Software Temporarily (For Testing)

Some antivirus tools and firewalls throttle or inspect Usenet traffic, especially when running over SSL.

Try this (for testing only):

• Pause your antivirus firewall or VPN
• Run a test download
• If speeds improve, whitelist NZBGet or adjust VPN settings

Always restore protection after testing.

9. Monitor Logs for Warnings

NZBGet’s logs can reveal what’s slowing things down—timeouts, retries, bad server responses, or failed writes.

• Open Messages in the Web UI
• Or check nzbget.log in your install directory

Look for the following errors, as they often point to the root cause:

• Connection timed out
• Disk write error
• Authentication failed

10. Update to the Latest NZBGet Version

Outdated versions may have bugs or compatibility issues with newer servers or protocols.

To update:

• Visit nzbget.com for the latest release
• If using Docker: docker pull nzbgetcom/nzbget:latest