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First launch

Managerr opens on a welcome screen until it has one service to talk to. This page covers what is on that screen, what each part of it leads to, and what changes the moment your first service saves.

The welcome screen

With no service configured, the app opens here instead of Home. The app mark sits at the top, under it the line “Your media. Unified together.”, and under that “Made for your media services.”

A full-width Add a Service button sits below that. Under the button is a grid of six tiles in setup order: Sonarr, Radarr, Lidarr, Prowlarr, Seerr, Tautulli.

The footer of the screen says the rest: “Connect your own servers. No account, subscription or ads.” and “Settings stay on this device.” There is no account, no sign-in, no email address and no welcome tour to sit through.

Choosing where to start

The button and the tiles lead to the same place. Each tile opens the service editor already set to that service, and the Service picker inside the editor can still be changed before you save, so a mis-tap costs you nothing.

Start with whichever server you have an API key for. One is enough: the welcome screen is gone as soon as a service saves, and everything else is added afterwards from Settings. Add a service goes through the editor field by field.

A gear in the top-right opens Settings even before any service exists. That is also the only way to reach the demo — it is deliberately not offered on this screen, so a new reader is led towards connecting their own server rather than a set of fictional ones. If you would rather look around before handing over a key, Explore the demo explains what it contains.

Restoring instead of starting over

If this device already holds a Managerr backup in Files, one extra line appears last, under the tiles: Restore from a backup, with the date and time of the newest one found. It opens the Backups screen.

On a genuinely fresh install that line is absent, because there is nothing to restore. When it is there, it is the shorter route — restoring is quicker than retyping six addresses and six keys. Backup and Reset covers backups themselves.

The local network prompt

iOS asks for Local Network permission the first time the app contacts an address on your local network, not at launch. The reason Managerr gives is exactly this: “Managerr connects to the media services you add on your local network.”

Allow it. Managerr needs it to reach a server on your own LAN, and it is asked once.

If that prompt was declined, servers on your local network cannot connect until it is allowed again in the iOS Settings app, under Managerr. The failure looks like a server that is down rather than a permission that is off, which is why it is worth ruling out first.

Nothing else is asked for on first run. Reaching your servers covers addresses, ports and remote access.

What happens next

Once the first service saves successfully, the welcome screen is replaced by the app proper, which opens on Home. You will not see that screen again while a service is configured.

Home is the landing choice the app ships with. It can be changed later in Settings → General → Open on — see General.

From there, add the rest of what you run from Settings → Services → Add a Service, including a second server of the same kind. Managerr keeps every server distinct, so a second Radarr for 4K films stays separate from the first.