4.2 KiB
Media Library Organization
1. Goal
This guide gives a clean folder and naming system for movies, shows, music, books, and other media. A good library should be readable by humans and easy for media apps to scan.
The main rule: make filenames boring, consistent, and searchable.
2. Top-Level Layout
Start with clear categories:
Media/
Movies/
Shows/
Music/
Books/
Podcasts/
Stand-Up/
Documentaries/
Unsorted/
Use Unsorted as a temporary inbox, not a permanent home.
3. Recommended Apps
The best tools depend on whether you want manual control or automation.
- Jellyfin: self-hosted media server for browsing and streaming your organized library.
- FileBot: strong paid renamer for movies, shows, and anime when you want fast batch renaming.
- MusicBrainz Picard: best first stop for tagging and renaming music.
- Calibre: best general ebook library manager.
- MediaInfo: quick way to inspect files before deciding where they belong.
- MKVToolNix: useful when you need to fix tracks, subtitles, language labels, or container metadata without re-encoding.
- Radarr / Sonarr: advanced automation tools for movie/show library management. Only connect them to sources and indexers you are legally allowed to use.
Official links:
- Jellyfin:
https://jellyfin.org - Jellyfin movie naming docs:
https://jellyfin.org/docs/general/server/media/movies/ - FileBot:
https://www.filebot.net - MusicBrainz Picard:
https://picard.musicbrainz.org - Calibre:
https://calibre-ebook.com - MediaInfo:
https://mediaarea.net/MediaInfo - MKVToolNix:
https://mkvtoolnix.download - Radarr:
https://radarr.video - Sonarr:
https://sonarr.tv
4. Movies
Recommended format:
Movies/
Movie Title (Year)/
Movie Title (Year).mkv
Examples:
Movies/
Heat (1995)/
Heat (1995).mkv
Alien (1979)/
Alien (1979) - Director's Cut.mkv
Keep extras in a separate folder:
Movie Title (Year)/
Movie Title (Year).mkv
Extras/
Behind the Scenes.mkv
5. Shows
Recommended format:
Shows/
Show Name/
Season 01/
Show Name - S01E01 - Episode Title.mkv
Examples:
Shows/
Example Show/
Season 01/
Example Show - S01E01 - Pilot.mkv
Example Show - S01E02 - The Second Episode.mkv
Use two digits for season and episode numbers. It keeps sorting clean.
6. Music
Recommended format:
Music/
Artist/
Album (Year)/
01 - Track Title.flac
Examples:
Music/
Artist Name/
Album Name (2024)/
01 - Opening Track.flac
02 - Second Track.flac
Keep album art in the album folder as:
cover.jpg
7. Books and Audiobooks
Books:
Books/
Author Name/
Book Title (Year)/
Book Title - Author Name.epub
Audiobooks:
Audiobooks/
Author Name/
Book Title (Year)/
01 - Chapter Title.m4b
For series:
Author Name/
Series Name/
01 - First Book/
02 - Second Book/
8. Metadata IDs
When a media app keeps matching the wrong movie or show, add a metadata provider ID to the folder name when supported.
Examples:
Movies/
Movie Title (Year) [imdbid-tt0000000]/
Movie Title (Year) [imdbid-tt0000000].mkv
Shows/
Show Name (Year) [tmdbid-000000]/
Season 01/
Show Name - S01E01 - Episode Title.mkv
Use IDs sparingly. They are most useful for remakes, duplicate titles, anime, specials, and titles with regional naming differences.
9. Cleanup Rules
Before adding files to the library:
- remove release tags that do not help you;
- keep edition labels that do help you;
- normalize capitalization;
- remove duplicate copies;
- keep subtitles beside the video file if they are external;
- avoid dumping loose files into top-level folders.
Useful edition labels:
Director's CutExtendedRemasteredTheatricalUnrated
10. Maintenance Routine
Once a month:
- Empty
Unsorted. - Fix duplicate folders.
- Check failed metadata matches in your media app.
- Remove partial downloads.
- Back up new additions.
A media library gets messy when intake is faster than cleanup. Keep the intake folder small.