Documentation

Uploading and deleting

Add films, television, music, music videos and home videos to your library from any web browser, and remove them again safely.

Who can upload

Curators and the server's administrator. They'll see Uploads near the bottom of the sidebar in the web interface. Other accounts don't have it.

Each kind of media needs a library folder first. The administrator adds them in Settings → Library Folders → Add a Folder. Home videos also need switching on in Settings → Server → Home Videos.

Adding media

1. Open Uploads

   Choose Uploads in the sidebar.

2. Choose what you're adding

   Choose Movie, TV Show, Music, Music Video, Extras or Home Video.

3. Say where it belongs

   Choose the series and season, the artist and album, or the film the extra belongs to. If a kind has more than one folder, Put it on lets you choose a drive. The one with the most free space is suggested first.

4. Pick the files

   Use Choose Files…, or Choose Folder… to send a whole folder. Before anything is sent, you're told what's about to happen.

5. Let them run

   Uploads go one at a time and keep going while you browse. Closing the tab stops them. If one fails, press Try Again.

What happens to each kind

Films

Films go into your films folder and are matched straight away. The file is then renamed to agree with the match, like Harbour Lights (2019).mp4 becoming The Harbour Lights (2019).mp4.

• If the library already has the film, you're warned before a second copy is added.
• If the copy you have won't play, you're offered the chance to fix it with the new file instead.

Choose Folder… takes a film's whole folder, the way it came off the disc:

• The feature: the file named after the folder, or failing that the largest file.
• Other versions: files with an {edition-…} tag.
• Special features: files in folders like Trailers, Featurettes and Deleted Scenes, or files with a special-feature suffix.

The feature goes first. Everything else follows, named after wherever the film ended up, so renaming the film doesn't separate it from its versions and features. The film is given a folder of its own before its features arrive. Any subfolder that isn't a kind of special feature is listed, and you can add its contents as Other. Files that aren't video are left behind.

Television

Pick a series and season, or make a new one. Episodes go into the season's folder. A season you already have keeps its folder's spelling, so Season 01 doesn't gain a Season 1 beside it.

• For a new series, pick its whole folder. Each subfolder becomes a season, and episodes directly inside are season 1 unless their names say otherwise.
• To add one season to a series you already have, choose the series, then Choose Folder….
• If you pick a folder called Season 1 on its own, the series name is read from the episode file names.

If some episodes are already in the library, matched by the numbers in their names, you're asked what to do. Skip Those, Add the Rest sends only the new ones. Replace Where They Match or Replace the Files swaps in the new copies.

A replaced episode keeps its title, picture and watched history. It's renamed to the form Series - s01e01, and the old file goes to the Trash.

Music

Pick an artist and album, or make new ones. With the artist set to From the files, pick a whole album folder and the artist and album are read from the tracks' own tags. If the artist is already in your library, the existing spelling is used, so they don't appear twice. Each track's title, number and disc come from its tags. A second disc sent later joins the album it belongs to.

Music videos

Pick the artist and the kind of video. The title and year come from the file's tags or its name. The video is filed under the artist in your music videos folder as Title (Year)-kind, and linked to its album and song if you have them.

Special features

Choose what the feature belongs to (a film, a series or one season) and what kind it is. It's named the way other media servers read it:

• Beside a loose film: it takes the film's name plus a suffix.
• In a film's own folder: it keeps its own name plus a suffix.
• For a series or season: it goes in a folder named for its kind.

Sending a second feature of the same kind to a loose film moves the film into a folder of its own first, so both fit.

Other versions of a film

Upload a version as a Movie, with an {edition-…} tag in its name. Apart from the tag, the name must match the film's file on the drive exactly. That means the renamed version, if matching renamed it. If nothing matches, the file is added as a film of its own and a note says why. Uploading the film's whole folder takes care of this for you.

Home videos

For each video you're asked for a title and the date it was recorded. Leave the date blank to use the one the camera wrote into the file. Each video is filed by year, like 2024/2024-08-10 Road trip.mp4. A video with no date goes under Undated, and you can set the date later in Home Videos. If two videos would share a name, the second gets a number.

What's refused, and why

• The wrong type of file. Music must be audio, and everything else must be video.
• A file that can't be read. If it holds no playable video or audio at all, it isn't added. A file in a format nothing here can play, such as AVI, is added but marked as unable to play, with advice on converting it. Home videos are only refused if they hold no video at all.
• A name that's already taken. An upload never replaces a file. To swap one, use Replace File… on the film or episode instead. That checks the new file will play before the old one goes to the Trash.
• Not enough room. The drive's free space is checked before sending starts, with some to spare. If the drive gets nearly full partway through, the upload stops and the part already sent is thrown away.
• Anything outside your library folders. Names containing a slash or .., or starting with a dot, are refused.
• A folder you can't write to. If the folder you chose is disconnected or read-only, you're told. Your file isn't quietly put somewhere else.

There's no size limit apart from free space. Each file is streamed straight to the drive into a hidden temporary file beside where it's going, and moved into place once it's complete. A half-sent file never shows up in your library. Leftovers from a broken connection are cleared away after an hour.

New arrivals

Anything you upload is marked New for a month. Uploads and scans are marked separately, so you can clear one batch without the other: Settings → Library Maintenance → New Arrivals → Clear Upload Marks.

Deleting

Curators and the administrator can delete from an item's ⋯ menu (Delete, Delete Episode…, Delete Track…, Delete Album… or Delete Video…), then confirm with Move to Trash.

• Deleting an album or a series takes all of its files. You're told how many first.
• Deleting a film takes its other versions with it.

Nothing is destroyed at this point. The files move to a hidden Trash folder inside the same library folder, and the item disappears from the library. Because they're still on the drive, they still take up space until the Trash is emptied. You can see how much in Settings → Library Folders → Drives.

The Trash

Open Trash in the sidebar.

• Restore puts files back where they were, along with everyone's watch history, favourites, watch lists and collections. For an album or series, you can restore it all at once or one file at a time.
• If something new now sits where a file used to be, that file isn't restored. Everything else still is, and you're told which ones were skipped.
• Delete permanently, Delete selected permanently and Empty trash remove files from the drive for good. This can't be undone.