Manually editing TV Show metadata file

[kaitco]

I've got a number of shows and series whose metadata is continually incorrect. For example, I've got a folder of several BBC & ITV mini-series that Jellyfin considers as a single show under my "BBC-ITV" folder and then mislabels everything. In another example, I've got Star Trek TOS, TAS, and TNG all under their own subfolders in my Star Trek folder, and Jellyfin will only recognize TOS and then labels TAS and TNG as additional seasons of TOS despite the naming conventions.

From what I've read, it seems the only way to quickly fix this would be to create .nfo files for each episode, and/or change my organization into Show>Season>Episodes folders for everything. The .nfo file creation for every single episode sounds extremely tedious and changing my media organization isn't really an option due to other sharing, and shouldn't be necessary since Jellyfin properly identifies other folders perfectly since all my files are in Show - SeasonEpisode - Name format (e.g., Star Trek TOS - 108 - Miri).

TL;DR: What I'd like to do instead is to manually edit the metadata file(s) directly to basically "force" these files into different shows and then I can manually assign their IMDB data and go from there.

I recognize that I risk jacking up everything and having to delete and rebuild the Jellyfin library, but I'm willing to take that risk as some things just aren't even watchable. Like, my Star Trek TAS episodes are labeled for and have thumbnails for TOS, so I can't even just throw them all onto a Playlist and watch from there.

What files would I need to edit? I've been digging into the ProgramData>Jellyfin>Server folders, but the metadata folder seems to just have a lot of images or they are empty. The Show metadata has to be feeding from somewhere, so I just need some help understanding where to go and what to edit.

Or, if there's a better way to go about this (that doesn't require creating .nfo files for each episode or changing the folder organization,) I'd be open to the options.

[TheDreadPirate]

... all under their own subfolders ...

If you've got shows nested under an over arching folder, this will not work.  The only valid nested folders are seasons, extras, or specials.

https://jellyfin.org/docs/general/server/media/shows/

BAD
Shows > Star Trek > Star Trek TNG > Season## > s##e##.mkv
                           > Star Trek TOS > Season## > s##e##.mkv


Good
Shows > Star Trek TNG > Season## > s##e##.mkv
Shows > Star Trek TOS > Season## > s##e##.mkv

If you MUST organize it this way, you can use NFO files and Jellyfin will read those in and not use external metadata.

https://jellyfin.org/docs/general/server/metadata/nfo/

[kaitco]

Yes, I'm aware that the current file structure isn't working.

My question is how to directly edit the metadata file that is feeding Jellyfin's information, i.e., what file that lives on my server is supplying Jellyfin with what I see when I'm looking at the metadata within the application?

If I'm using .nfo files, does every single episode require its own .nfo file? Or, is there a way to make one file for each folder?

[TheDreadPirate]

There is no file that feeds Jellyfin. Jellyfin automatically queries online metadata sources like The Movie DB and TVDB. When Jellyfin constructs the query to send to the online sources the parameters are based on the expected and documented folder structure and file names.

You can have per show or per episode NFO files. Whichever suits your needs.

Additional documentation for creating NFOs.

https://kodi.wiki/view/NFO_files/Creating

[kaitco]

There is no file that feeds Jellyfin.

So, I kept digging and digging and found the actual server database. Jellyfin's database is holding all of the info that gets scrapped from the various online sources and my folders. That said, I know just enough about SQLite and databases in general to know when I'm in over my head.

What I've decided to do is go with the NFO file route and allowing Jellyfin to create all the files. I've copied the original library.db file and the deleted the old file to allow Jellyfin to recreate the entire database, this time choosing the NFO option. It's not perfect, but it's something...at least until I'm ready to start digging into directly editing the database file.

[TheDreadPirate]

My bad. I've never heard the jellyfin database described as a "file that feeds jellyfin". I was thinking in relation to retrieving new metadata.

That sounds like a good plan.

[mpeter]

I think you don't need to edit the database manually.
When you are logging in with an admin account, the web ui allows editing the metadata of the items, including the shows.
If on the main page you open the library that has this show, and click the 3 dots icon in the corner of the show's card, there is an option to edit the metadata of the show.

If you have a little programming experience, and if you want to do this in a higher volume for a longer time, it may be more practical to make a plugin that accepts a csv or json file or something like that (something you can edit more comfortably), and sets the correct metadata for the movies.
Actually I'm kind of surprised there is no such plugin yet, as it sounds quite useful, and also there are a ton of metadata plugins, but all draws from an online source.