2026-08-14, 11:47 AM
(This post was last modified: 2026-08-14, 11:52 AM by fredphoesh. Edited 2 times in total.)
Hello folks.
I've spent the last 5 days trying and failing to get Jellyfin Server to correctly supply metadata to third party apps like Kodi (via jellyfin for kodi) or Symfonium.
I know the problem is not with either the metadata with the media (artist.nfo files in the artist folder) nor is the problem with the 3rd party apps for these reasons.
1/when I look at Metadata Editor in the Jellyfin server, the artist biographies are all available for all artists... so the server "HAS" all the data it needs.
2/when I copy my music library to Google Drive (or any other place to host the media) and point Symfonium to that Google Drive, then ALL the Album Artists have the biography data visible.
3/ no matter how many times I delete the jellyfin Server's music library, refresh, start again, and do the same complete reset or uninstall-reinstall with Symfonium and Kodi, nothing helps, the same 90% of artists do not have biographies displayed.
There is clearly a problem with the Jellyfin API, even Google Gemini offers this comment... with a very sad conclusion, as I had primarily wanted to simply connect my PC to my Nvidia Shield on my home network, replacing the existing SMB with Jellyfin. Now it seems Jellyfin isn't up to the job...
Gemini said:
While Jellyfin's internal database correctly reads your artist.nfo files and displays the biographies in its own web dashboard, its API fundamentally breaks when trying to pass that data to third-party clients.
This is a heavily documented flaw that third-party developers have been fighting against. Tolriq, the developer of Symfonium, addressed this exact issue in April 2026, stating, "I can't fix their broken API and duplicated internal IDs that they refuse to address". He further explained that Jellyfin's API generates non-matching data between artists and albums, and attempting to force an app to make the multiple API requests needed to hunt down the missing biography data would make the synchronization process unbearably slow.
When you connected Symfonium to Google Drive, it bypassed the Jellyfin API entirely. Symfonium used its own internal parser, which is fully compatible with the Kodi standard for
artist.nfo files, to read your metadata directly from the folders.
Since the Jellyfin API refuses to hand over the metadata correctly, relying on a direct file connection is the only way to get your highly curated biographies to display. Because your music library is hosted locally on a Windows PC, you can bypass the broken API on your home network as well. Pointing Kodi on your Nvidia Shield—or Symfonium on your phone—directly to your Windows shared folder (via SMB) allows those apps to use their native parsers. They will read the artist.nfo files straight from the source, just as Symfonium did with Google Drive, and your biographies will load perfectly every time.
I've spent the last 5 days trying and failing to get Jellyfin Server to correctly supply metadata to third party apps like Kodi (via jellyfin for kodi) or Symfonium.
I know the problem is not with either the metadata with the media (artist.nfo files in the artist folder) nor is the problem with the 3rd party apps for these reasons.
1/when I look at Metadata Editor in the Jellyfin server, the artist biographies are all available for all artists... so the server "HAS" all the data it needs.
2/when I copy my music library to Google Drive (or any other place to host the media) and point Symfonium to that Google Drive, then ALL the Album Artists have the biography data visible.
3/ no matter how many times I delete the jellyfin Server's music library, refresh, start again, and do the same complete reset or uninstall-reinstall with Symfonium and Kodi, nothing helps, the same 90% of artists do not have biographies displayed.
There is clearly a problem with the Jellyfin API, even Google Gemini offers this comment... with a very sad conclusion, as I had primarily wanted to simply connect my PC to my Nvidia Shield on my home network, replacing the existing SMB with Jellyfin. Now it seems Jellyfin isn't up to the job...
Gemini said:
While Jellyfin's internal database correctly reads your artist.nfo files and displays the biographies in its own web dashboard, its API fundamentally breaks when trying to pass that data to third-party clients.
This is a heavily documented flaw that third-party developers have been fighting against. Tolriq, the developer of Symfonium, addressed this exact issue in April 2026, stating, "I can't fix their broken API and duplicated internal IDs that they refuse to address". He further explained that Jellyfin's API generates non-matching data between artists and albums, and attempting to force an app to make the multiple API requests needed to hunt down the missing biography data would make the synchronization process unbearably slow.
When you connected Symfonium to Google Drive, it bypassed the Jellyfin API entirely. Symfonium used its own internal parser, which is fully compatible with the Kodi standard for
artist.nfo files, to read your metadata directly from the folders.
Since the Jellyfin API refuses to hand over the metadata correctly, relying on a direct file connection is the only way to get your highly curated biographies to display. Because your music library is hosted locally on a Windows PC, you can bypass the broken API on your home network as well. Pointing Kodi on your Nvidia Shield—or Symfonium on your phone—directly to your Windows shared folder (via SMB) allows those apps to use their native parsers. They will read the artist.nfo files straight from the source, just as Symfonium did with Google Drive, and your biographies will load perfectly every time.