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+--- Thread: [SOLVED] TV Show Library Empty in Jellyfin – Caused by Duplicate Folder Path in Libra (/t-solved-tv-show-library-empty-in-jellyfin-%E2%80%93-caused-by-duplicate-folder-path-in-libra)
[SOLVED] TV Show Library Empty in Jellyfin – Caused by Duplicate Folder Path in Libra - Flambers - 2025-08-10
I wanted to share an issue I just solved in case it helps other Jellyfin users whose TV Show library appears empty even though their files are correctly named and located.
System setup:
Server: Raspberry Pi running Jellyfin (latest stable build as of Aug 2025)
OS: Raspberry Pi OS (Debian-based)
Library type: Shows
Metadata providers: TheTVDB and TMDb enabled, TheTVDB set first
Folder structure:
/path/to/media-stack/tv/
Fallout (2024) [tmdbid-106379]
Season 01/
Fallout S01E01.mkv
...
[*]Jellyfin plugins installed: TVmaze, TheTVDB, TMDb Box Sets, Kitsu, Open Subtitles, VGMdb, LrcLib
[*]FFmpeg path:
/usr/lib/jellyfin-ffmpeg
The problem
- My Shows library was completely blank — no posters, no episodes — even after running full library scans.
- Oddly, the same TV show appeared normally when added to a Mixed Movies and Shows library type, and posters would show there.
- Logs showed Jellyfin scanning the files with ffprobe, so the files were being seen, but the Show library still showed nothing.
Troubleshooting steps that didn’t help
- Verified file naming matched Jellyfin’s official naming guide (Series Name (Year)/Season 01/Series Name S01E01.mkv).
- Confirmed permissions were correct for thejellyfin user to access all media folders.
- Changed hyphens to spaces in filenames (based on naming recommendations).
- Cleared cache, optimized database, cleaned logs, and removed image cache.
- Tried forcing metadata refresh and reordering metadata providers.
The actual cause
Checking the logs more carefully, I found lines like this:
Found duplicate path: "/path/to/media-stack/tv/_test_"
Turns out I had two library entries pointing to overlapping paths.
One was the main
/path/to/media-stack/tv
folder, and another was a test library pointing to
/path/to/media-stack/tv/_test_.
Even after removing the extra library from the Jellyfin dashboard, the duplicate folder remained in the filesystem and was still interfering with scans.
The fix
- Remove the duplicate folder from the filesystem.
- Remove any extra/duplicate libraries from Dashboard → Libraries so only the correct folder path remains.
- Clear metadata for the affected show (optional, but helped in my case).
- Run a full library scan.
After this, the Shows library repopulated immediately with posters, episode lists, and correct metadata from TheTVDB.
If your TV Show library is blank in Jellyfin:
- Check your logs (jellyfin.log) for Found duplicate path messages.
- Remove any duplicate or overlapping library folder paths.
