Filter And Search Your Library#

Once your library has more than a hundred titles, scrolling stops working. The Library page has layers of filters: chips for common lists, a search box for free text, field filters, and saved views for lists you'll reuse. This recipe walks the layers in the order you'll usually use them.

Step 1: Open Library#

Select Library in the sidebar. The page opens on All, in grid view, sorted by Recently added, with titles grouped by the day they were added. Sort changes the order.

Step 2: Pick a media type#

The first chips are All, Movies, Shows, and Anime, each with a count. This is the broadest filter, so pick it before anything else.

Step 3: Use a quick filter for a common list#

Next to the type chips are the quick filters. Select one to apply it; select it again to clear it.

• Unscraped and Unwatched chips, each with a count.
• Needs attention, a menu of problems with counts (Missing artwork, Duplicates, Failed fetches, Check matches, NFO out of date, Scrape conflicts, Broken provider links). Each opens its list with the fix in the header above the grid.
• More filters, which opens Has extras, Has editions, 4K HDR, Needs work, and Needs review, plus the structured filters in Step 4.

Step 4: Filter by structured field#

More filters has filters for these fields:

Active filters become chips above the grid. Select the × on a chip to clear that one filter, or Clear filters to reset. The end of the chips row shows how many titles match, such as 12 titles or 1 title. When nothing matches, the grid says No titles match and offers Clear filters, which keeps the media type and view.

Filters can also match any one of several values. With two or more filters active, the chips row shows Match all / Match any:

• Match all (the default): a title must match every chip.
• Match any: a title can match any chip. The chips are joined by or, and filters you add next join the same group.

The same choice is in the filter string that API and CLI callers use: , separates filters that must all match, and | separates alternatives where any one may match. For example, genre:contains:Drama|genre:contains:Comedy,year:gte:2000 means Drama or Comedy, from 2000 on.

Step 5: Free text search#

Search titles in the filter row searches across:

• Titles (movie, show, episode, season)
• Cast and crew names
• Studios, networks, production companies
• External IDs (paste a tt1234567 or tmdb:603 to jump to that title)

Search combines with every other filter, so "Tom Hanks" plus Drama, the 1990s, and 4K works.

Punctuation in the search is fine: Ocean's, Monsters, Inc., and AC/DC find those titles instead of failing.

Step 6: Save the query#

Once you have a list worth keeping:

1. Select Save viewIt sits in the header above a filtered list, next to the list's name and count.
2. Name it and select Savee.g. "Anime needing artwork", "Movies missing IMDb ID", "Tom Hanks 1990s 4K". The view keeps the media-type tab, search, filters, and sort.

Browse by › Saved in the filter row lists your saved views, with a count beside Saved. Select one to apply it; the delete button removes it. Saved views can't be renamed; save a new one and delete the old one.

Saved views are stored in the library database, so they work in any browser that opens this MetaTana and are included in database backups.

What success looks like#

• The grid shows only the titles matching your active filters
• The filter chips above the grid match what you intended
• Browse by › Saved has your view in it for next time
• The title count matches what the chips describe

Going deeper#

• Triage what needs your attention: Home and Needs attention open filtered Library lists
• Work through the metadata tasks queue: the task lists behind Needs attention › Show all
• Metadata and scraping: what's actually indexed for search and filter
• Reference: API: API callers can use the same filter language in the filter query parameter