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MetaTana

These docs are for MetaTana 2.0, coming soon

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Add Your First File Or Folder

You installed MetaTana and want to see your media show up in the app. This recipe goes from a fresh install to a filled Library in about a minute, depending on how many files you point it at.

Before you start Have your email ready and choose one representative movie, TV, or anime folder. On desktop, you can start with one media file instead. Pro includes hosted metadata. On Free you add your own TMDb key, and you can scan first and add the key later.

Step 1: Sign in

When MetaTana opens, it shows Sign in to MetaTana. Enter your email and select Send code. Type the six-digit code from the email, then select Verify and continue. If the code does not arrive, select Link this device instead, or see Install and sign-in problems.

Step 2: Make metadata ready

On a fresh install, Home shows one card with Choose a folder. It opens the folder picker right away, then takes you to the Add folder screen in Step 4. The Library's setup wizard asks the same questions as steps: Choose a plan, then Add your first folder.

  • Pro: uses hosted metadata. You don't need a metadata key, and you don't see this step.
  • Free: the key is optional. Before the first scan, the Add folder screen shows Add a TMDb key now so posters appear right away:
    • Select Add TMDb key to open Add a free TMDb key. It links to TMDb sign-up and API settings, tells you which value to copy (the API Key or the API Read Access Token), and checks the value with TMDb as soon as you paste it. It saves the key only when TMDb accepts it. See API keys: guided TMDb key setup.
    • Select Later to scan with file and folder names only. Library then shows N titles need posters and details with Add a free TMDb key (2 minutes). Once the key is saved there, MetaTana scrapes the unscraped titles on its own.

No TMDb key yet? Create a free TMDb account, then request an API key on TMDb's API settings page. Extra providers can be added later in Settings › Providers › Your keys.

Step 3: Keep the first pass safe

Keep the defaults on the Add folder screen: Leave files where they are and None for your player. With those, the first scan reads your media and stores results in MetaTana's database. It doesn't rename, move, or write NFO and artwork files.

Destinations, routing, imports, and extra providers can wait until you need them. Home's first-start card lists them under Advanced.

Step 4: Choose or drop a file or folder

Choose a folder path, use the folder picker on desktop, or drop a folder onto the window. The desktop app takes a folder or file dropped on any page and opens Library to handle it. Once you have folders, a dropped folder that isn't one of them opens this Add folder screen with the folder filled in; close it to skip the drop. On desktop you can also drop one media file.

MetaTana checks what is in the folder before it adds it and shows counts such as 212 movies · 14 shows (1,030 episodes) · 3 anime · 2 unsure. The folder is added as mixed, so each file is identified on its own, unless the check finds only one kind. To make every file one type, pick it under Advanced › Folder type (Mixed, Movies only, TV only, Anime only, or Home videos & other; the default is Detect from the files). A single type is stronger evidence than a filename guess. Pick Home videos & other for your own videos: nothing is looked up, each file's own NFO gives its title, year, and other fields (otherwise the file name is the title), MetaTana never rewrites that NFO, and the files go straight to your Library without waiting in the Inbox. Autopilot never renames or moves them; you can still scrape, rename, or move one yourself.

For a folder, Keep this folder updated automatically is on by default under Advanced. Turn it off if you want one scan only. A single dropped file always scans only that file and never watches its parent folder.

MetaTana reuses a matching folder instead of creating a duplicate. On desktop, a file you drop or open with MetaTana stays queued until its scan starts, even if you restart the app. A dropped folder waits while a file in it is still being copied. An empty or .part file left over from a copy that stopped more than 10 minutes ago doesn't hold the folder up: MetaTana skips it.

Every way to add a folder opens this same Add folder screen: Choose a folder or Add folder on Home, and Add folder on the Folders page. The full form (incoming folders, tags, NFO format, and every other setting) is under Advanced › More folder options. See Scanning and matching.

Step 5: Choose what happens to your files

Folder: Library folder (default) for media you keep, scanned where it is, or Incoming folder for a folder where new media lands first. New media from an incoming folder waits in the Inbox (Arrivals), and MetaTana sorts it into your library once you approve it. Sorted files go into your library folders unless you set other destinations. The two choices below apply only to a library folder, so they are hidden for an incoming one.

File handling:

  • Leave files where they are (default): nothing is moved or renamed.
  • Tidy into Movies and TV folders: Autopilot proposes renames, and they wait in Inbox › Renames until you approve them. Files already in your own Movies, Films, TV, or Anime folder stay there. See Naming and organizing.

For your player: Plex, Jellyfin, Emby, Kodi, or None (default). Picking a player writes that player's NFO and artwork files next to your media and uses its naming. The Inbox asks once before the first write (Files to write). None writes no NFO or artwork files.

You can change both later in the folder's Edit folder drawer on Folders (Tidy into Movies and TV folders and Write NFO files). For a first pass you want to check before anything touches disk, keep the defaults. If the folder is on a network share or a removable drive, also set This folder is on under More options in the same drawer, so a disconnected share or unplugged drive shows its titles as offline rather than missing.

Step 6: Scan

Select Scan folder. MetaTana adds the folder, scans it now, and then watches it with Autopilot on (unless you turned off Keep this folder updated automatically). For a single dropped file, it scans only that file. MetaTana parses names and folder context, reads local NFO and artwork files, looks up metadata, and saves the results in its database.

Anything MetaTana is unsure about waits in the Inbox. When you add a folder from Home or Folders, the dialog closes and says "Folder added. MetaTana is scanning it, and anything it is unsure about waits in the Inbox." Activity shows the scan while it runs.

Step 7: Review what landed

Your scanned titles appear as poster cards in Library. Needs attention in the Library counts titles with something to fix, such as missing artwork. Matches MetaTana wasn't sure about wait in the Inbox under Review, and Home's Inbox card counts them, so uncertain matches never disappear silently.

Library grid after the first scan: poster cards, the Movies, Shows and Anime chips, Needs attention, Unscraped and Unwatched along the top.
Library after the first scan

Home also updates: the top line says what came in, and Today lists the new titles.

What success looks like

  • Library shows your media as poster cards
  • Library › Browse by › Stats shows your totals
  • Folders lists your folder with its state: Scanning, then Watching · checked 14:02

If some titles are missing or wrong, that's normal for the first pass. The next recipe walks through reviewing and fixing them.

Going deeper