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MetaTana

These docs are for MetaTana 2.0, coming soon

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Move Or Restore A Library

Use this when your media moved (a new drive, a renamed share, a new mount point) or when you restore a MetaTana backup on another computer. MetaTana keeps every title, edit, lock, and watch state; you only tell it where each folder is now.

What happens when a folder moves

When MetaTana can't find a library folder where it was, the folder's row on Folders shows Offline (or Not responding for a share that is too slow to answer). While a folder is offline:

  • nothing in it is removed from the Library, and a scan prunes nothing
  • scans, scrapes, renames, and NFO or artwork writes for that folder wait
  • titles on a network share or removable drive show Source offline instead of File missing

MetaTana never guesses that a similar path, such as /Volumes/Media-1 on a Mac, is your missing drive. You choose the new place.

Step 1: Try Check again

If the drive was only unplugged or the share disconnected, connect it at the same path and select Check again on the folder's row. It only checks access; when the folder is back online, select Scan now.

Step 2: Reconnect the folder at its new place

  1. Open FoldersFind the folder that shows Offline.
  2. Select Reconnect folder…It is in the row's ⋯ menu, and in the folder's Edit folder drawer.
  3. Choose the folder at its new placePick the same folder, for example the Movies folder on the new drive. MetaTana checks that it can read it, then shows Reconnected and the folder's name.
  4. Select Scan nowReconnect doesn't start a scan. The next scan finds the same titles once, not a second copy of each.

Reconnect keeps the folder as it was: every title, your edits and locks, watch state, and Activity history. Undo on earlier renames and other file changes in Activity keeps working at the new place.

Reconnect is offered only while a folder is offline. If you copied the media and the old copy is still there, disconnect the old drive or share first so the folder shows Offline, then reconnect it. Scripts can change a folder's path through the local API instead; on an offline folder that does the same as Reconnect.

In Docker, MetaTana sees the paths inside the container. If you moved media on the host but the container still mounts it at the same container path (for example /media/movies), nothing changes in MetaTana; update the volume and restart the container. If the container path changed, reconnect each folder to its new container path.

Step 3: Restore a backup on another computer

To move MetaTana itself to a new computer, or between macOS, Windows, Linux, and Docker:

  1. Install MetaTana on the new computerUse the same version or a newer one. A backup made by a newer version is refused.
  2. Copy the backup fileCopy a database backup from the old computer's backups folder (see Back up your library) into the backups folder of the new install, keeping its file name, for example metatana-20261015T101500000Z-manual-v242.db.
  3. Restore itIn Settings › Maintenance › Backups, select Restore…, pick the backup, select Restore on restart, then restart MetaTana.
  4. Reconnect each folderThe restored library still has the old computer's folder paths, so each folder shows Offline. Use Reconnect folder… (Step 2) for each one, then Scan now.

Every title, edit, lock, and watch state comes over. A backup from another kind of computer works the same way: when a Mac's /Volumes/Media/Movies folder is restored on Windows, or D:\Media\Movies on a Mac, Linux, or Docker, Reconnect moves the folder to its new path. Activity Undo for changes made on the old computer then refuses and moves nothing, so make any Undo you need before you move.

Step 4: Enter saved keys again

A library backup or a copy of the app data folder from a desktop app holds saved keys only in encrypted form, and they open only on the computer that saved them. On the new computer:

  • Settings › Providers says Saved keys can't be opened on this computer and lists them. Paste each key again, or select Clear saved keys to remove the ones this computer can't open. There is no Undo.
  • Media servers on Sync ask for their token, API key, or password again, and Trakt needs to be reconnected.
  • Your local API key is replaced with a new one. Scripts and MCP clients need the new key.

Keys saved by Docker, or by a desktop app without a system keychain, are plain text and keep working. See API keys for the details.

Step 5: Check media server paths

If a media server sees your files under paths that changed, update its path mappings in the server's settings on Sync. See Connect a media server.

What success looks like

  • Every folder on Folders is online, with no Offline rows
  • Library counts match what you had before, with no second copy of each title
  • Your edits, locks, and watched state are still there on a few titles you check
  • Settings › Providers lists no keys it can't open

Going deeper