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+--- Thread: Explain how library scanning & presentation works (/t-explain-how-library-scanning-presentation-works)
Explain how library scanning & presentation works - hornakapopolis - 2025-03-26
I'm migrating from Plex and am now wondering what issues I've thought I've had when, in reality, it's just Jellyfin working differently.
As I start tweaking metadata and information from a library that was just created, I create the next library so that it's ready to go by the time I'm done. If it has an issue, I'll delete it so that I can start from scratch and make an effort to keep track of exactly what I did because my memory sucks.
It seems that the Photos library scans absolutely everything and does everything it needs to do before it shows a single entry in Jellyfin. After creation, I know I waited two days, but I'm pretty sure it was three before anything showed up. Since I was dealing with something else, I didn't bother deleting the library, but that's normally what I would have done... which I now see would have started the wait cycle all over.
While I can sort of see the point that this is all psychological, is there a reason Jellyfin doesn't show pics in the library as they're being processed? (And is this what my movie & TV show libraries did, as well?) Windows is showing a little less than 6300 files in that folder, which I guess is sort of a lot, but I know some people have huge media libraries and these are just pictures.
To be clear, I don't care about the time it took to finish, I just think there should be some visual indicator that something is happening. The circle showing the percentage on the library's tile went pretty quick and after that, for days, I was left with an empty library. There was nothing showing in the dashboard that anything was running, either. Of course, I refreshed every time I went in and found nothing there. I happened to check it again last before turning off the light and everything was in there. The first I saw of anything.
With the potential influx of people coming over due to the Plex changes, it might be worth considering to avoid a bunch of unnecessary questions being asked here.
RE: Explain how library scanning & presentation works - TheDreadPirate - 2025-03-26
Honestly, the photos library is a pretty jank and neglected library type. If photos are going to be a big use case, you might be better served with another app for photos. Immich used to be my go-to recommendation, but I don't like the direction their project is going on.
Check out this list.
https://github.com/awesome-selfhosted/awesome-selfhosted?tab=readme-ov-file#photo-galleries
RE: Explain how library scanning & presentation works - hornakapopolis - 2025-03-27
It's more about storage and a centralized location for older family members.
Just a clearer understanding of the process for someone going in is what I'm talking about. This is the simple use that we're looking for, but if you don't know nothing is going to show until everything is done, possibly days later, you're likely to think something is wrong.
I appreciate the reply!
RE: Explain how library scanning & presentation works - TheDreadPirate - 2025-03-28
The last time I tried using the home videos/photos library I recall that it did show stuff while the scan was still in progress. But that was 10.8.XX. So it was a while ago and I gave up because of other issues with the photos library.