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+--- Thread: Is it possible to use hardlinks/symlinks to media on Windows? (/t-is-it-possible-to-use-hardlinks-symlinks-to-media-on-windows)
Is it possible to use hardlinks/symlinks to media on Windows? - Pandorica-Opens - 2024-05-14
Hi all,
I have a tv show that I've collected for years, organised in a certain way. I originally wanted to keep it as it and use the music video library to manually deal with all the metadata. But now I'm wondering if there's a way to keep the original files as they are, but use symlinks to make a separate library folder, which I can then organise and rename to suit Jellyfin's needs. I just realised it would be much more convenient to let Jellyfin do most of the legwork and manually adjust the metadata within the Jellyfin web client if I need to.
I downloaded a program called HardLinkShell to help with this, and the program is capable of both symlinks and hard links, but when I try either nothing is detected by Jellyfin. I should clarify I'm only linking the media files themselves, not the whole folder (I've just created new folders).
So, is what I'm after possible? Or is the only way to keep both organisations to actually copy the files, which will be impossible to do as its TBs of data!
I'm on the latest Windows server 10.9.1.
RE: Is it possible to use hardlinks/symlinks to media on Windows? - TheDreadPirate - 2024-05-14
Not sure about Windows, but in Linux I use symlinks for my kid's library. Make a separate library and curate what shows she can watch via symlinks.
So I don't see why Jellyfin in Windows would behave differently for your use case.
RE: Is it possible to use hardlinks/symlinks to media on Windows? - Pandorica-Opens - 2024-05-16
Hi,
I figured it out, here was the issue. The test library I made was accidently within another library's folder, so it was appearing in one library but not the other. Doh!
Once I'd brought the test library out of the other's folder it started to detect the hardlinks. Symlinks still don't seem to work (and in fact seemed to cause the webclient to hang? But that might have just been bad luck).
So TLDR, Hardlinks work within windows, just make sure you aren't creating a library within another!