Frequently Asked Questions - Saber

1. Getting Started

Saber needs two things before it can download anything: an account with a Usenet provider, and an NZB file describing what to fetch. It does not find content for you.

Requirements

• macOS 14 Sonoma or later, on an Apple Silicon Mac
• An account with a Usenet provider that supports standard NNTP
• NZB files of your own

2. Connecting Your Provider

1. Open Settings from the gear icon in the toolbar, or press Command-comma
2. In the Providers section, click Add Provider
3. Give it a name you will recognise, then enter the Host your provider gave you, for example news.example-provider.com
4. Set the Port and leave Use SSL on. 563 is the usual encrypted port, 119 the unencrypted one
5. Enter your Username and Password, set Connections to whatever your plan allows, and click Add

• Host: the server hostname from your provider
• Port: 563 with SSL on, or 119 with SSL off
• Use SSL: on, unless your provider does not support it
• Connections: 20 by default, up to 50; match your plan

Saber keeps as many providers as you like, and uses them together. Connections belongs to each provider rather than to Saber, because a count that suits one plan will get you refused by another.

Using more than one provider

The switch beside each provider turns it on or off, and the menu beside that sets its tier: Primary or Backup.

• Primary providers are used together. Every enabled Primary provider opens its own connections, and all of them are pooled into a single download, so adding a second or third Primary genuinely increases speed rather than sitting idle behind the first.
• Backup providers are only ever asked for what the Primary pool could not supply. If your Primary providers had everything, a Backup is never even connected to.
• If every Primary provider is unreachable, Backup takes over for that session, used the normal way rather than only for gaps, so a lapsed subscription on your Primary providers does not stop the queue while a working Backup is available.

This is what makes it safe to add a block account, the kind sold by the gigabyte rather than by the month: set it to Backup, and it is spent only on the articles your Primary providers are missing, which is what the allowance is worth buying for.

Filling holes this way happens before Saber turns to the post's parity files, because bytes from another provider are cheaper than recovery data. A post that would otherwise fail for want of a few recovery blocks may need none at all once a Backup provider has answered.

Your password is stored in the macOS Keychain, not in the app's preferences, and is only ever sent to the server you configure here. Each provider has its own entry.

3. Searching

Saber can search a Usenet indexer and queue a result without you ever handling the .nzb file yourself. It has no index of its own and no built-in provider: you supply the indexer and its API key, exactly as you supply the news server.

Adding an indexer

1. Open Settings and find the Indexers section
2. Add an indexer, choosing one of the presets or Custom Newznab for anything else
3. Paste in the API key from your indexer account
4. If you have more than one, the active indexer is the one search uses

The API key is kept in your Mac's Keychain, not in Saber's preferences. Nothing about what you search for is ever sent anywhere; see Search History below for the one thing Saber can optionally keep on your own Mac.

The active indexer can also be switched from the results header, above the list, without opening Settings. Switching there reruns the current query against the newly chosen indexer straight away, which is the quick way to run the same search past a second indexer to compare what each returns.

Running a search

Click the magnifier in the toolbar and it expands into a field. Type a query and press Return. Results show the release name, its size, how old the post is, its category and which indexer it came from.

Click any result to queue it. Saber fetches the NZB from your indexer in the background and the download starts as though you had added the file by hand. The indexer and category travel with it into the queue, so the download row still says where a release came from once it has left the results list behind.

The Search button, the one with the list icon, opens Search directly: with a previous query in hand it brings those results back without asking the indexer again, and with none yet it opens straight to the results header, useful for loading a saved search without running a throwaway one first. Nothing is re-fetched until you submit a new query, so returning to your results costs nothing.

The query shown in the results header can be edited in place, so narrowing or correcting a search is a small edit and a Return rather than reopening the toolbar's field, which always starts blank, and retyping the whole thing.

Saving a search

The bookmark button in the results header saves the current query under a name you choose, so you can come back to it later without retyping it. A saved search remembers only the query, not which indexer or category it was run with, so loading one runs it against whichever indexer is active at the time. The same saved search can be tried against a different indexer just by switching indexers first and loading it again.

The same button opens the list of searches you have already saved, where each one can be renamed or removed.

Search History

Off by default, in Settings under Search: turn on Save Search History and Saber keeps your last 12 queries, offered as a dropdown the next time you click into the search field in the results header. Picking one fills in the field rather than searching straight away, so you can adjust it first if you want to.

This is separate from saving a search: history is kept automatically for anything you search, saved searches are the ones you have deliberately chosen to keep. Turning the setting off stops anything new being added but does not erase what is already there; Clear Search History, beside the toggle, does that.

Narrowing by category

An indexer returns a limited number of results for a query, usually a hundred. A broad search spends all of them on whatever the indexer happened to return first, so choosing a category is often the difference between finding a release and not.

The category button sits to the left of the search field. It lists the categories your indexer actually offers, read from the indexer itself, with subcategories nested underneath their parent.

• Click a category to select it. Selected categories carry a checkmark, and a parent carries one when anything inside it is selected
• Click a selected category again to unselect it. The entries toggle, so the same click both adds and removes
• All Categories clears the whole selection at once
• Show All, in the bar above the results, does the same thing without opening the menu

The button names what is selected while the names fit and counts them when they do not, and the bar above the results lists them all. Your choice is remembered for each indexer separately, so it survives quitting Saber. It is worth glancing at before a search that returns nothing you expected: a category left selected from last time is the usual reason.

Changing the category runs the search again, since it is a different question.

Watching a feed

Most indexers publish an RSS feed: of a category, of a saved search, or of a list you have put together yourself. Saber can watch those feeds and queue anything new that appears in them, so a release you added to a watchlist turns up as a download without you going back to look.

1. Open Settings and find the Feeds section
2. Add a feed, give it a name, and paste in the address from your indexer
3. Choose whether the items already in the feed should be queued now, or whether the feed should start from this moment
4. Set how often feeds are read. Every two hours by default

Every item a feed offers is queued the first time it is seen, and never again: Saber keeps a record per feed of what it has already taken, so restarting the app does not fetch the same releases twice.

The switch beside each feed stops and starts it without deleting it, and the circular arrow beside that reads that one feed straight away. In the main window, the broadcast icon in the toolbar reads every feed at once, which is what you want after adding something to a watchlist rather than waiting for the next scheduled read.

A feed address contains your API key, so Saber keeps the whole address in your Mac's Keychain and never shows it again after you have entered it.

Saving a feed somewhere else. In the feed's settings, turn on Use a different download folder and choose a folder. Everything the feed queues is saved there instead of the destination in Settings, and Change Destination… on a single download still overrides it. A folder icon beside the feed's name shows it has one.

Filtering a feed. Turn on Enable filtering and add rules. A Match rule lets in titles that contain all of its words, and a Reject rule keeps out titles that contain all of its words. An item is queued when it matches any Match rule and no Reject rule; with only Reject rules, everything else is queued. The words can be in any order, capitals are ignored, and dots, underscores and dashes count as spaces, so `show name 1080p` matches `Show.Name.S01E02.1080p.WEB`. Check Against Feed reads the feed and shows what the rules would do with each item before you save them, and its Queue button adds any one item straight away, whatever the rules say. Items a filter keeps out are remembered like everything else, so changing the rules later only affects new items.

Starting a feed over. Reset Feed… makes Saber forget what a feed has already offered and read it again, queuing everything still in it that passes its filter. Anything already in the download list and not yet finished is skipped, so nothing arrives twice. It is in the feed's settings, and in the menu you get by right-clicking the feed.

A feed points at whatever you aim it at. A watchlist or a saved search is a handful of releases. A whole category is thousands, and Saber will queue every one of them. If you are pointing at something broad, turn off "Queue items already in the feed" when you add it, so it starts from now rather than downloading the backlog.

4. Downloading

Adding an NZB

• Double-click the .nzb file in Finder
• Drag it onto the Saber window or the app icon
• Or use the + button in the toolbar
• Or let Saber watch a folder and pick them up on its own
• Or search an indexer from the toolbar and click a result
• Or let Saber watch an RSS feed and queue what appears in it

The download starts straight away. Each row shows the name, a progress bar, and a line beneath it reading how much has arrived and which file is being fetched. The speed, and the totals for the whole queue, are along the bottom of the window.

Watching a folder

Saber can watch a folder and queue any NZB that appears in it, so you never have to open the app to start a download. Point your browser's download folder at it and saving an NZB is enough to begin.

1. Open Settings and find the Watch Folder section
2. Turn on "Add NZB files from a folder automatically" and confirm the warning
3. Choose the folder to watch. Saber offers the picker straight away the first time
4. Drop an .nzb in, and it appears in the queue within a second or two

Watched NZB files are moved to the Trash. Every .nzb the watch folder picks up is queued and then moved to the Trash. This is not optional: a file left in place would be found again every time Saber launched. Point the watch at a folder you use for this and nothing else, rather than at your whole Downloads folder. Saber waits until each file has finished being written before it acts, so copying a large NZB in is safe.

The toolbar

• +: add an NZB file
• Pause / Play: stops or restarts everything at once
• Clear finished: removes completed rows from the list; the files stay where they were saved
• Remove: removes the selected downloads from the list, and deletes what they had fetched
• Folder: opens the folder finished downloads are saved to
• Speed Chart: shows or hides the transfer speed chart along the bottom of the window
• Inspector: shows or hides the panel with a selected download's details
• Read Feeds: reads every RSS feed now, rather than at the next scheduled check
• Downloads: returns to the queue from a search (Command-1)
• Search: opens Search, showing the last results without searching again if there are any (Command-2)
• Category: limits a search to particular categories
• Magnifier: expands into the search field
• Gear: Settings

Escape returns to the queue from anywhere. Switching indexer and saving a search are done from the results header once you have searched, not from the toolbar: see Searching above.

Right-click the toolbar to switch between icons alone and icons with their names, or to choose Customize Toolbar… and rearrange it.

Along the bottom, a status line counts what the queue is doing and totals the current download speed.

Each download

• Pause keeps everything already downloaded, so resuming asks only for the segments still missing
• Try again appears on a failed download and picks up where it stopped
• Start over discards the partial download and begins again
• Remove takes the download off the list and deletes what it had fetched
• Show in Finder opens the finished file

Select a single download and click the info button to open its inspector. It shows the download's progress, size, password, where it came from, and an article map. Each box in the map is an article the release is made up of: complete, being fetched right now, or still to come. The yellow band shows the parity volumes held in reserve. On large posts a box can stand for many articles at once, so the map always fits the panel.

Right-click a download for the same controls and a few more. With several downloads selected, right-clicking one of them acts on them all.

• Change Destination… saves this download to a folder you choose instead of the one in Settings, and the inspector shows it under Save to. You can change it until the finished files start moving. If its incomplete files are already being kept on another drive, the finished download is copied across at the end instead of moved instantly. Use Destination from Settings puts it back
• Move to Top and Move to Bottom reorder the queue without dragging
• Show NZB in Finder shows the .nzb the download came from, while it is still on disk
• Copy Name copies the release's name, and Copy Error the full text of a failure

Changing the order

Downloads run one at a time, from the top of the list down. Drag a row up or down to change what runs next, and a gap opens where it will land, or right-click it and choose Move to Top or Move to Bottom. Moving a waiting download above the one that is running pauses the running one and starts the new one; nothing already downloaded is lost, and it picks up again when its turn comes back round.

What happens after the download

1. Articles are fetched in parallel and each one is checked against its checksum
2. The complete file is reassembled in a working folder
3. The post's par2 is fetched and the download is checked against it
4. Anything missing or damaged is rebuilt
5. Any archive is unpacked, repeatedly if the release is packed more than once
6. The finished payload is moved to your chosen folder and the working folder is deleted

If an article arrives damaged, Saber asks the server for it again, up to three times. If it cannot be had at all, the download carries on and the gap is filled from the post's parity volumes.

Every post that carries parity also carries a small file listing what the release should contain, and that one always comes down: the finished download is checked against it before anything is unpacked, and nothing damaged is ever delivered. The recovery volumes themselves are only fetched if that check finds something to rebuild, and then only as many as the damage needs, so a healthy release does not pay the five to fifteen per cent that parity would otherwise add.

Some files are filtered out by default, with no setup needed. Saber never delivers .par2, .sfv, .srr, .srs, .nfo, .txt, .diz or .url files, or sample, proof or screenshot folders: what lands in your chosen folder is the release itself, not the parts it was posted in. This happens automatically, for everyone, and cannot be turned off. Turn on Filter Extra Unwanted Files in Settings and add to its list if you want more left behind.

Quitting is safe. The queue and everything downloaded so far are kept between launches. Close Saber mid-download and it picks up where it stopped when you reopen it; a download you paused stays paused until you start it again.

Finding the finished file. A release holding one file is delivered under the release's name, keeping the file's own extension, because posters often store the payload under a scrambled name and the release is what you recognise. It keeps the date stored in the archive rather than the time you downloaded it, so it will not be at the top of a folder sorted by date. Use Show in Finder rather than hunting for it.

5. Settings

• Save to: where finished downloads land, whether the Downloads folder, the same folder as the .nzb, or a folder you choose
• Download directly into the destination folder: shown when Save to is a folder you choose. Keeps incomplete downloads on that folder's drive instead of your Mac's internal drive, so a large download does not fill your Mac and finishing it is instant. Off by default; see Downloading straight to another drive below.
• Theme: Light, Dark, or follow the system appearance
• Unpack archive after download: extracts the finished archive and saves what was inside instead of the archive parts. On by default.
• Filter Extra Unwanted Files: leaves out files with certain extensions, such as .exe, when delivering a finished download, rather than saving them alongside the rest. Off by default, with a comma-separated list of extensions pre-filled for when you turn it on.
• Remove original NZB after adding: moves the .nzb to the Trash once its contents are queued. Off by default.
• Remove completed downloads from list: clears a finished download from the list as soon as it completes. The downloaded file is not affected, and failed downloads always stay so you can read the error.
• Keep Mac awake while downloading: stops the Mac going to sleep while anything is downloading, repairing, unpacking or moving, so downloads carry on while you are away. The display still sleeps as usual, closing the lid or choosing Sleep still sleeps the Mac, and once the queue is idle the Mac sleeps on its own schedule again. On by default
• Allow Notifications: tells you when a download finishes or fails. Off by default; how the notifications appear is set in System Settings under Notifications.
• Add NZB files from a folder automatically: watches a folder you choose and queues any .nzb that appears in it, then moves it to the Trash. Off by default; see Watching a folder above.

Notifications name the download. A notification saying which release finished stays in Notification Centre until it is cleared, where anyone at your Mac can read it. That is worth knowing before turning them on, and it is the reason they are off to begin with.

Saving beside the NZB. macOS only grants Saber access to files you open and to your Downloads folder. If the .nzb sits somewhere else, saving beside it is refused, and the download is written to your Downloads folder instead.

Downloading straight to another drive. Normally a download is assembled on your Mac's internal drive and copied to the folder you chose at the end, which takes a while when that folder is on an external drive. With Download directly into the destination folder turned on, the incomplete files sit in a hidden .saber-incomplete folder inside the folder you chose instead, and the finished release is moved into place instantly. Downloading and repairing can be slower on an external hard drive, and the drive needs to stay connected: if it is disconnected, Saber stops that download and keeps what it has. Once the drive is back, press the play button on its row to carry on from where it stopped.

6. If Something Goes Wrong

The download fails with a checksum error

An article arrived damaged, and asking the server again did not produce a good copy. If the post carries parity volumes, Saber rebuilds the damaged parts from them on its own. If it does not, or if more is missing than the parity covers, the download fails and says how many blocks were missing against how many were posted, which means the post itself is incomplete on your provider and no client could have finished it. Look for a better-seeded post rather than trying again.

Unpacking failed

The downloaded files are still delivered to your Downloads folder, and the row explains why unpacking did not work. A wrong or missing archive password is the usual cause.

Nothing happens when I double-click an NZB

Another application is probably registered for .nzb files. Right-click the file, choose Open With → Other, pick Saber, and tick Always Open With.

It cannot connect

Check the host, port and SSL setting against what your provider published; a port mismatch with SSL is the most common cause. Then confirm your username and password by signing in on your provider's website.