Providers#

Providers supply title identity, IDs, descriptions, dates, people, ratings, artwork, subtitles, and trailers. MetaTana can use your own provider keys, or Skyhook (Pro), MetaTana's hosted metadata service that needs no keys of your own. You can mix the two: Skyhook for some providers and your own keys for others.

Add your own keys in Settings › Providers › Your keys; see API keys. Settings › Providers › Source priority sets which provider fills each field. For Skyhook, see Hosted metadata.

Provider roles#

Your own keys work on Free and Pro. Hosted Skyhook uses MetaTana's own provider keys for Pro accounts, for providers that are turned on and cleared for hosted use. Those keys never reach the app.

Where values come from#

Each provider-backed field records where its value came from. That answers:

• which provider supplied this value?
• did this value come from a local NFO?
• did you edit it?
• is this a hosted Skyhook result?
• should a later refresh replace it?

When a provider is down#

MetaTana tells an outage apart from a real "no match". If a provider can't be reached, is limiting requests, or has a missing or rejected API key, the item names the provider and the problem, for example "Couldn't reach TMDb. MetaTana will try again." Nothing is marked "No match found", and AI Vision is not used, so an outage never spends AI credits. Autopilot retries these titles up to 3 times. A manual search names the provider that failed and offers Retry. A key problem needs fixing in Your keys first; waiting won't help.

Gaps#

No provider covers everything. MetaTana leaves missing data empty instead of filling it with guesses. For example, an artwork provider may have logos but no discart for a title. See Artwork not loading when a provider has nothing for a slot, and Rescrape keeps a bad value for per-field provider order.

Subtitles#

Subtitle search and fetches need Pro. That covers fetching one subtitle by hand, queued and bulk fetches, the subtitle step after an arrival is filed, and subtitles picked while applying a scrape. On Free, nothing is queued. Subtitle fetches queued before an account lost Pro stay in Activity (Show: Fetches) as waiting with "Upgrade to Pro to use Subtitles." and run after you upgrade.

Settings › Providers › Subtitles sets the sources (OpenSubtitles and SubDL), languages, and the forced and SDH preferences. Subtitle file names are in Settings › Files › Sidecar files. If no subtitle source is set up, MetaTana says so instead of returning empty results.

A failed subtitle fetch in Activity offers Retry, and Try OpenSubtitles or Try SubDL when you saved a key for the other source. A fetch that can't be retried offers Set up subtitles, which opens Settings › Providers › Subtitles.

Trailers#

Trailers are stored as a link or fetched as a file next to the media, depending on Trailers, Trailer source, and Trailer quality in Settings › Providers › More sources. MetaTana keeps the source, quality, and language of a trailer where the provider gives them. Trailer fetches don't need Pro, but trailer lookups through Skyhook may use hosted metadata credits.

Bulk trailer fetches show a preview of the titles first. Titles that already have a local trailer, have no usable trailer link, are already queued, point at a missing item, or cannot be written to stay in the preview with their reason instead of being queued.

Check a subtitle or trailer#

1. Check ActivityUnder Show: Fetches, the fetch row shows the outcome and the file it wrote.
2. Check the titleThe Files section on the title's page lists the linked subtitle and trailer files.
3. Open the fileOn disk, next to the media file (or in a subfolder, if your naming settings use one). Open a subtitle in a text editor to check its encoding and text, and play a trailer.

If a fetched file doesn't land on disk, see Sidecar didn't appear.