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MetaTana

These docs are for MetaTana 2.0, coming soon

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Library

The Library is where you browse and edit. Every title MetaTana has filed appears here, in a grid or a list, and each title, show, and person opens as its own page with an editor. This page walks the controls.

Library: type tabs with counts, the sort and view controls, the filter row with Unscraped, Unwatched, Needs attention, More filters, search and Browse by, then a poster grid grouped by the day titles were added.
Library: the poster grid

The page

Header and filters

  • Type tabs: All, Movies, Shows, and Anime, each with a count.
  • Sort: Recently added is the default, and the grid groups titles by the day they were added. The other sorts are Title, Year, Rating, Resolution, and File size.
  • Grid view and List view, then Select to pick titles.
  • ⋯ holds Show files (one row per file instead of per title), Export…, and Library folders….

Under the header, the filter row has:

  • Unscraped and Unwatched chips with counts. Unscraped shows only while some titles are unscraped.
  • Needs attention, a menu with a count for each problem: Missing artwork, Duplicates, Failed fetches, and, under Files and matches, Check matches, NFO out of date, Scrape conflicts, and Broken provider links. Each opens that list with its fix in the header above the grid. Show all opens the full tools: Metadata tasks, Extras, and AI Insights.
  • More filters opens quick toggles (Has extras and Has editions with counts, 4K HDR, Needs work, Needs review) and the per-field filters.
  • Search titles.
  • Browse by: Saved, Collections, People, Tags, Editions, and Stats. Each opens in place in the Library. Editions lists every movie with more than one copy and shows the copies side by side: edition name, file name, quality, and size. Click a copy to open its page. Stats adds a chart of titles added per month over the last 12 months.

Header above a filtered list

A filtered list gets a header with its name, its count, Save view, and the action that fits it:

List Action
Unscraped Scrape all N and AI Scrape all N…
Missing artwork Fetch artwork for N
NFO out of date Rewrite files for N, or Ignore…. A Save in the editor puts a title here; in a folder where Write NFO files is Always, Save rewrites the NFO itself
Scrape conflicts Keep or replace values…
Failed fetches Retry in Activity
Duplicates Review in Inbox
Any other filter Rescrape all N…

Save view names the current type, search, filters, and sort. Saved views are listed under Browse by › Saved.

Select and act

Select titles with Select. The bar at the bottom shows how many are selected and offers Select all N when more titles match than the grid has loaded. It has Edit fields… (Quick edit), Mark watched, More, and Clear.

More holds Rescrape, AI Scrape…, Rename & organize…, Add to collection…, Write NFO, Fetch artwork, Run tool…, Export…, Delete…, and Other actions: Lock fields…, Edit tags…, Clean up names…, Rename files in place…, Rescrape episodes, Subtitle search, Fetch trailers, Lock artwork, Episode order…, and Anime settings….

Run tool… opens a drawer. Pick a tool to see the titles it runs on, the total files and size, and the command. A tool that replaces the original files needs the Replace originals tick before its red Run on N titles button works.

No folders

Removing your last folder keeps its titles in the Library and on Home. The Library shows No folders with Add a folder above the titles.

Titles waiting in the Inbox

A new title stays out of the Library while it waits in the Inbox. It shows up once you approve it. The counts on Home, the sidebar, and Stats follow the same rule. A show with one new episode waiting stays in the Library. An ignored file stays in the Library.

Title, show and person pages

A movie, episode, show, or person opens as its own page. A breadcrumb leads back to the Library.

Movie and episode page

A movie's page: backdrop and poster, title, year, runtime and rating, Edit, Play and the more menu, then the cast, the file, ratings, and the artwork and subtitles boxes.
A movie's page

The top of the page has Edit, Play, and ⋯: Rescrape…, Wrong match…, Rename & organize…, Write NFO, Artwork…, Fetch subtitles…, Tags…, Run tool…, Relink file…, Reload media info, Undo rename…, and Delete…. Mark watched sits beside the watched state.

Below are the cast, the file, ratings, and boxes for artwork and subtitles. Ratings keep their source name and score scale; an older rating with no known source is labelled Rating. When MetaTana is not sure about the match, a Check match box shows the confidence word and offers This is correct or Rescrape…, which opens Rescrape.

Editor

Edit opens the editor over the page, with these tabs:

The editor open over a movie's page on the Details tab: title, year, overview and other fields with a lock beside each, the tabs along the top, and Cancel and Save at the bottom.
The editor, Details tab
Editing Tabs
Movie Details, Artwork, Subtitles & trailer, People, Translations, Files
Show Details, Artwork, Trailer, People, Translations, Files
Season Details, Artwork, Files
Episode Details, Still, Subtitles, Files

The episode editor has Previous episode and Next episode. Pressing Escape with unsaved edits asks Discard unsaved changes? (Keep editing or Discard) instead of closing it. Escape closes only the top dialog or menu.

Show page

A show's page has Edit show, Play for the next episode (for example Play S01E04), and ⋯: Rescrape show…, Rename & organize…, Write NFO, Fetch season artwork, Episode order…, and Run tool…. Pick a season to see its episodes. The season's menu has Edit season…, Change season poster…, and Renumber season…. An episode's menu has Open episode, Edit episode…, Rescrape…, and the episode's other actions.

A season with more than 300 episodes loads its rows in chunks as you scroll. The show link in an episode page's breadcrumb opens the show at that episode's season and scrolls to its row.

The editor's Files tab on a show also lists linked files that still need an episode number. These files wait in the Inbox and do not appear as numbered episodes in the season list. Choose Set episode beside the file to enter its missing numbers, preview, and apply. The episode count on the show card counts distinct episodes: alternate versions count once, and a file with several episodes counts each one. The episode list keeps one row per file, including alternate versions, and labels its totals as files.

Person page

A person's page lists their titles under In your library, with Show in Library and ⋯: Merge with…, Image history, and Refresh person info….

Why this match

The full Why this match block is in All arrivals for each new file. On a title's page, Rescrape shows the match, its confidence word, and a short reason in its left column. The block says in plain sentences how MetaTana picked the match:

  • How it was found: for example "Matched from the NFO file next to the video, which has a TMDb ID.", "Matched from the IMDb ID in the folder name.", "Found by searching TMDb for the title and year in the file name.", "Identified by AI from a frame of the video, then confirmed by TMDb.", or "Read from the file name." For episodes: "Found by searching TMDb for the show folder's name." or "Matched to the show already in your library for this folder."
  • Evidence: whether the title and year match, a year that is really part of the title, whether a movie's runtime matches, and how many providers agree.
  • Other candidates: up to two other results and why they lost (different year, different title, different kind, or weaker match), or "It was the only result."
  • The source's type, when the source is set to Movies, TV shows, or Anime.
  • Confidence as Good match, Fair match, or Weak match. Good means MetaTana was sure enough to accept the match on its own; Weak means check it.
  • A review note when the match is waiting for review, for example "Two films share this title: … Pick one.", "No provider found a title that fits the file name.", or "The show is matched. Check which season and episode this file is."

A match you picked from Scrape, Rematch, or an Arrivals search reads You picked this match. Confirming a match in the review panel keeps MetaTana's reasons, removes the review note, and adds You confirmed this match.

Common workflows

Find a specific item Type in Search titles. It works together with every other filter. Titles with punctuation such as Ocean's Eleven, Monsters, Inc., or AC/DC search normally. See Filter and search.
Choose list columns The list view has a Choose columns button at the end of the header row. Pick from year, type, resolution, codec, HDR, audio, runtime, rating, certification, studio, genres, tags, added, file size, path, scraped, NFO, artwork, and watched; the choice is remembered in this browser. Click a column header to sort by it, and click again to reverse. Sorting covers the whole library, not only the rows on screen, and items with a blank value sort last.
Save a search Save view in the header above a filtered list saves the current type, search, filters, and sort, and Browse by › Saved lists your saved views. They are stored in the library database, so they are in database backups and follow the library to another browser. With two or more filters, Match all / Match any in the chips row chooses whether every filter or any one must match. See Filter and search.
Export a list ⋯ › Export… in the header opens Export Library. Choose Selected items, Current view, or Whole library; CSV, JSON, XML, HTML list, or one of your templates; and Download or A folder. Show first 5 items previews the file. See Backup and export.
Edit one item Click the poster, then Edit on the title's page. See Edit metadata.
Bulk edit many items Select in the header starts selecting. When more titles match your filters than the grid has loaded, Select all N selects every one of them. The selection stays after an action finishes, so you can run another. Clear empties it and Escape stops selecting.
Bulk toolbar actions The bar has Edit fields…, Mark watched, and More (see Select and act). Edit fields… opens Quick edit, which changes genres, tags, watched, certification, or the plot. Add field in Quick edit also sets or clears sort title, original title, year, studios, languages, countries, collection, edition, user rating, and tagline, and adds or removes list values. Locked fields are skipped for each item and counted as "skipped because locked" unless you tick Change locked fields too; Lock after editing locks what Quick edit writes (it is off unless you tick it). More › Other actions › Lock fields… sets any field and locks it so a Rescrape keeps your value. When a filter is active, Rescrape all N… in the header above the list rescrapes every title in the filter, including ones that already have metadata.
Bulk delete results After a bulk delete, a toast reports what happened, for example "Removed 12. 2 couldn't be removed." with the reason for each failure and a Retry button. Files moved to the trash can be put back with Undo on the same toast. Deleting a title also moves its own NFO, artwork, subtitles, and trailer to the trash. Files its folder shares with other titles, such as tvshow.nfo and season artwork, stay. Deleting a whole show card also moves the show's tvshow.nfo, show and season art, and actor photos, with its last episode. Undo puts them back with the video.
Keyboard shortcuts S scrapes, T tags, and O organizes the selection, or the focused title when nothing is selected. They also work on a title's page. J/K and Up/Down move focus between cards and scroll the focused card into view. The focus ring shows which item the shortcut will use. Library shortcuts pause while you type or use a menu or dialog. Press ? for every shortcut, or see the shortcut list.
Triage attention items Use the Needs attention menu, or Home's Inbox and Problems cards. See Triage attention items.

During a long scan

You don't have to wait for a scan to finish. While a scan adds files, the first page of the grid refreshes every few seconds, so new posters fill in as they are found. The refresh runs while you are on the first page of results; after you load more pages, the grid updates when the scan finishes.

If the next page of titles fails to load, the grid stops loading more and shows Couldn't load more titles. with Retry. Retry loads the same page, so no titles are skipped.

Common pitfalls

Filters stay on until you clear them A saved view or filter can make Library look empty if it excludes everything. Clear filters with the chip × or Clear filters. An empty filtered view says what is narrowing it, for example No titles match, and offers Clear filters. The count at the end of the chips row shows how many titles match, including 0.

Going deeper