Drop A Folder Or Files#

Drop a folder (or a few files) on MetaTana and it checks what is there before it changes anything. You get one page for that drop: posters by Movies, TV Shows and Anime, a short list of files to check, the files it left out, and one Rename button. Nothing on your disk changes until you press it, and Undo this drop puts the files back afterwards.

Drop or choose a folder#

• Desktop app: drop a folder or files on any page, open them with MetaTana from Finder or Explorer, or use Choose a folder or file (macOS) or Choose a folder and Choose a file (Windows and Linux) on the first-run screen. Add folder on Home, Folders and the Library opens the same picker.
• Docker (MetaTana in a browser): the first-run screen reads Add a folder. Choose a folder there, or Add folder on Home, Folders and the Library, opens a list of the Mounted folders in the container. Select one to open it, go down to the folder you want, and select Use this folder. See Docker: mounted folders.

Each folder you drop is its own drop. Drop several at once and the first one opens; each has its own row in the Inbox. Several files from one folder are one drop of those files only. A file has to sit inside a Library folder you already have; a file anywhere else says Drop its folder instead.

The drop opens at Inbox › Drops. Home's Inbox card shows up to three drops, and every drop keeps its own row in the Inbox until it leaves (see When a drop leaves the Inbox).

The first look#

First MetaTana takes a quick look at the folder, which reads it and changes nothing. A few folders end there:

Otherwise the page shows Looking at Videos: the titles found so far, how many files it has read, and how long is left. Video files stay on this computer while it looks. You can leave the page; the check keeps going.

Stop ends a drop that is still looking and keeps nothing: the titles, files and matches this drop added are removed ("Stopped. Nothing kept."). Titles you had before the drop are never touched. For a drop that only reused folders you already have and added nothing, Stop says "Stopped. Nothing added." Later, ⋯ › Remove from MetaTana does the same for a drop that has not renamed anything. Your files stay either way.

Read the drop page#

Good matches go into your Library while MetaTana checks: titles matched with high confidence, from your NFO files or an ID in the file name, and titles you pick. They show in the Library right away, but any action there that would change their files says "In the Videos drop. Rename it there." Titles that were already in your Library are listed under Already in your Library and the drop leaves them alone.

• Posters shows the titles by Movies, TV Shows and Anime. Select a poster to compare its file: Before and Proposed, how it was matched ("Matched from your NFO"), Fix ("Wrong title?") and Reject ("Don't touch this file").
• Files lists every file Rename will change, with where it is now and where it goes.
• The header counts the drop: "Just added · 112 titles", or "14 new · 6 already in your Library" when you dropped into a folder you have.

Answer what is left to check#

To check lists what MetaTana would not decide alone, one file at a time ("1 of 3"). Later moves on without answering.

With more than 20 files for one reason the list is grouped: "310 likely matches · Accept all", "140 possible extras · Reject all", "The Office: 2005 or 2001? · Use 2005", "700 no match · Start". Accepting or rejecting more than 50 at once asks first.

On Pro, Find the title also offers AI Scrape, which sends a few frames from the file to identify it and shows its credit cost first. Background work never spends credits. See AI Vision.

Reject sets a file aside: it is never renamed, moved or written, and later scans skip it. The toast "The Matrix rejected" has Undo. Rejected files are listed in Inbox › Ignored ("Rejected in Videos") with Restore. A file that was already renamed cannot be rejected; use Fix or Undo this drop.

Left out lists the files MetaTana did not include, "Never renamed, moved or written". Skipped is MetaTana's: samples, extras, clips that are too short, duplicates ("Duplicate of Movie (2).mkv"), and videos loose beside your Library folders ("Outside your Library folders"). Rejected is yours. Check it moves a skipped or rejected file to To check (not a video outside your Library folders, which has no folder to scan it in).

Rename#

The Rename files card says what Rename will do: "Rename 211 files", what else it writes ("Also 111 NFO files and 222 images"), and "3 to check will wait · You can undo". Files still to check, left out or already in your Library are not renamed.

NFO and artwork for · None opens Rename and sort:

• Files are sorted into Movies/, TV Shows/ and Anime/ inside the folder you dropped, and the sheet says what moves ("Moves 40 out of Kids/ Christmas/"), how many subtitles move with them, and which emptied folders it removes. A drop into a Library folder you already have follows that folder's own naming instead.
• NFO and artwork for: None (the default: names only, "Tidies names only"), Jellyfin, Kodi, Plex or Emby. Picking a player writes its NFO and artwork files and uses its naming, and Proposed changes to match.
• With a media server connected, it says the server refreshes once renaming finishes.

Select Rename N files. On a phone, Rename in the bar at the bottom opens the card first. A rename that would move more than 1,000 files out of your own folders asks once ("Move 2,310 files out of Old/ and Misc/?").

While it runs the card shows "Renaming 84 of 211". You can leave the page. If MetaTana closes while renaming, the drop shows "Stopped at 120 of 211" with Finish renaming and Undo what was done.

A file that is still being copied or is playing when its turn comes waits and is tried again on its own a few times. MetaTana does not ask you again.

A title you answer after the Rename asks Rename this file? with Rename 1 file or Not now. That file joins the drop's Undo.

Don't rename#

Don't rename keeps every file where it is: "112 titles are in your Library. Nothing on your disk changed." Change brings the Rename card back until you rename. New files in a folder the drop created are added to your Library and stay where they are; change that in Folders.

A folder that is already organized for a player (player-style names or NFO files with IDs) is treated this way from the start. Its settings read Rename files · Never and NFO and artwork · Keep yours.

Done#

Done shows what really happened: the titles, "Renamed 211 files · 111 NFO files · 222 images", and where the files are, with Show in Finder (macOS), Show folder (Windows and Linux) or Copy path (Docker).

Files that could not be renamed are listed with the reason and Try again: In use by another app, No permission, Disk full, Still copying, Can't move between drives (MetaTana never copies a file between drives to rename it), Can't reach the folder, or A file with that name is already there. Links take you to what is still to check or left out. Open Library opens the Library.

New files in this folder#

For a folder the drop created, Done asks what happens to new files that land there later, under Autopilot:

• Rename them the same way: new files are renamed, and get NFO files when you picked a player, without asking. Done says so in one line, "Change it in Folders."
• Ask me first (picked unless you choose): new files are added and their renames wait in Inbox › Renames; the folder's first NFO write waits in Files to write.

Leaving Done without answering counts as Ask me first. A Library folder the drop only reused keeps the settings it had. MetaTana starts watching a folder the drop created once the drop is done, kept or undone, never while you are still checking it.

Undo this drop#

Undo this drop (on Done, the drop page and its Inbox row) shows what it will do first: "Puts back 211 files", "Removes 111 NFO files and 222 images".

• Every file Rename moved goes back to where it was, and the empty folders the Rename made are removed.
• NFO and artwork files the Rename wrote go to MetaTana's trash. NFO or images the Rename replaced come back until the date the sheet shows (your trash retention in Settings › General).
• Titles stay in your Library. Undo changes files on disk only.
• A file changed or moved since the Rename stays where it is, and the sheet names it ("Changed since Rename", "Moved since Rename"). So does a disc folder ("Disc folders don't move back") and a replaced file whose saved copy is gone.
• A connected media server refreshes again after Undo; the refresh it already did cannot be undone.

When every file went back, the drop reads "Undone · Put back 18 files". Files that were still to check now wait in Inbox › Review or Duplicates ("12 still need a look in the Inbox"). The folder the drop created is kept as a folder that never renames; change it in Folders.

When some files could not go back, the drop stays done and says why: "Put back 18 of 20 · 2 couldn't go back: No permission". When the reason can pass (the folder was offline or read-only, the disk was full, or a file was in use), fix it and select Try again.

A drop's renamed files go back only through Undo this drop. Undo on one of its files in Activity or on the title page says "Renamed by the Videos drop. Undo it there." Activity shows the drop as Drop renamed: Videos and, after Undo, Drop undone: Videos.

When something blocks Rename#

When a drop leaves the Inbox#

A drop row leaves the Inbox and Home 30 days after the drop closed (done, kept with Don't rename, or undone). Undo this drop is offered until then. A done or kept drop with a file still to check stays until you answer it. Activity keeps the drop's Rename and Undo after the row has gone. A stopped or removed drop never gets a row.

Copies of titles you already own that the drop added at new paths show up in Inbox › Duplicates once the drop closes.

Going deeper#

• Add your first folder: a first drop on a fresh install
• Inbox: the Drops section and Ignored
• Naming and organizing: naming patterns and players' naming
• NFO and artwork: what each player's files look like
• Recover from a bad rename: Undo for other renames