NFO Format#

NFO files are XML sidecars that travel next to your media. They make metadata portable: MetaTana reads them on scan, writes them after edits, and downstream tools (Plex, Jellyfin, Kodi, Emby) read them on their own scans. This page is the field-level reference.

Sample: movie NFO#

Big Buck Bunny (2008)/Big Buck Bunny (2008).nfo:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" standalone="yes"?>
<movie>
  <title>Big Buck Bunny</title>
  <originaltitle>Big Buck Bunny</originaltitle>
  <year>2008</year>
  <plot>A short open-source animated film from the Blender Foundation.</plot>
  <runtime>10</runtime>
  <mpaa>PG</mpaa>
  <genre>Animation</genre>
  <genre>Short</genre>
  <studio>Blender Foundation</studio>
  <country>NL</country>
  <premiered>2008-05-10</premiered>
  <uniqueid type="tmdb" default="true">10378</uniqueid>
  <uniqueid type="imdb">tt1254207</uniqueid>
  <rating name="tmdb" max="10" default="true">
    <value>7.0</value>
    <votes>1234</votes>
  </rating>
  <art>
    <poster>poster.jpg</poster>
    <fanart>fanart.jpg</fanart>
    <clearart>clearart.png</clearart>
    <clearlogo>logo.png</clearlogo>
  </art>
  <actor>
    <name>(public-domain demo content)</name>
    <role>Self</role>
    <order>1</order>
  </actor>
  <playcount>2</playcount>
  <lastplayed>2026-04-15 21:30:00</lastplayed>
  <dateadded>2026-04-01 10:00:00</dateadded>
</movie>

Sample: TV show + episode NFOs#

Caminandes/tvshow.nfo:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" standalone="yes"?>
<tvshow>
  <title>Caminandes</title>
  <originaltitle>Caminandes</originaltitle>
  <plot>A short demo show used in docs screenshots.</plot>
  <genre>Animation</genre>
  <mpaa>NR</mpaa>
  <studio>Blender Foundation</studio>
  <premiered>2013-01-01</premiered>
  <status>Ended</status>
  <uniqueid type="tvdb" default="true">300000</uniqueid>
  <art>
    <poster>poster.jpg</poster>
    <fanart>fanart.jpg</fanart>
    <banner>banner.jpg</banner>
  </art>
</tvshow>

Caminandes/Season 01/Caminandes S01E01.nfo:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" standalone="yes"?>
<episodedetails>
  <title>Llama Drama</title>
  <showtitle>Caminandes</showtitle>
  <season>1</season>
  <episode>1</episode>
  <aired>2013-01-02</aired>
  <plot>Demo episode metadata.</plot>
  <runtime>3</runtime>
  <uniqueid type="tvdb" default="true">300001</uniqueid>
  <thumb>Caminandes S01E01-thumb.jpg</thumb>
</episodedetails>

Field reference#

MetaTana reads and writes these fields. The "Read" column says whether MetaTana pulls the value out of an NFO during scan. The "Write" column says whether MetaTana emits the value when writing a sidecar.

Movie + show common fields#

Movie-only#

Show-only#

Episode-only#

Playback / progress#

Overwrite behavior#

There is no overwrite switch. An explicit NFO write replaces the fields MetaTana manages, keeps unknown or hand-added XML, and skips the write when the output would be byte-identical. To write a clean file from current metadata only, use the Clean NFO policy in Library's bulk sidecar actions.

NFO file settings#

Flavour in Settings › Files › NFO files chooses the format: Kodi (default), Emby, Jellyfin, Plex, or MediaPortal. Its More options are Lock data (Emby only), Include stream details, Write a short outline, Write artwork URLs, and Single studio. A folder can use its own format instead (Edit folder on the Folders page).

Sidecar file names follow the media file:

Kodi, Jellyfin, and Emby all read this layout. Plex needs a local-NFO agent or plugin to read NFO files.

Kodi reads movie.nfo only when the library folder is set to one movie per folder. Otherwise it reads a multi-part movie's NFO by the parts' shared name, so for Dune.1984.cd1.avi and Dune.1984.cd2.avi the Kodi format also writes Dune.1984.nfo. When the parts share a folder with other movies, only Dune.1984.nfo is written. Rename gives it the new name with the parts, and Delete moves it to the trash with them.

Which files get an NFO:

• Scrape on a show writes tvshow.nfo in the show folder, next to the episode NFOs.
• Write NFO on a show's episodes also writes the show's tvshow.nfo when the show folder has none. It never replaces a tvshow.nfo that is already there, and writes none in a folder that holds episodes of other shows or at the top of a library folder.
• An episode NFO carries the episode's own IDs in , never the show's IDs.
• An episode with no season or episode number (an absolute-numbered anime file that is not mapped yet, for example) gets no NFO until it is mapped to a season and episode.
• Samples, trailers, and extras get no NFO.
• Save in the metadata editor marks the title's NFO as out of date, and it appears under Library › Needs attention › NFO out of date. In a folder where Write NFO files is Always, Save also rewrites the NFO MetaTana wrote.

Per-format details:

• Emby and Jellyfin: after , the NFO also has a flat (the default rating, 0 to 10) and (Rotten Tomatoes, 0 to 100). Without them, Jellyfin could show the last row, often a 0 to 100 score, as the community rating.
• Kodi, Emby, and Jellyfin: in stream details is a decimal such as 1.777778, taken from MediaInfo's display aspect ratio when there is one.
• Season art names depend on the format. See Reference: file layout.
• Plex gets its own poster, episode image, and subtitle names (poster.jpg and fanart.jpg in show and movie folders, .jpg, Movie.en.sdh.srt), and Kodi-style formats get discart.png, landscape.jpg, and extrafanart/fanart1.jpg. See Reference: file layout.

Differences from upstream Kodi NFO#

MetaTana follows the Kodi NFO spec where possible. Notable extensions and constraints:

• uniqueid with type="mal" for MyAnimeList is MetaTana-specific; Kodi clients ignore it gracefully
• lockedfields is not currently emitted (lock state is DB-only); future versions may add it
• art paths are written as relative names (poster.jpg), not absolute paths, so the layout survives a folder move

Going deeper#

• NFO and artwork: the conceptual sidecar guide
• Lock fields: protecting NFO-derived values from rescrape
• Sync: the NFO repair, pull, and create modes
• Reference: file layout: sidecar layout on disk
• Troubleshooting: sidecar didn't appear: when writes don't land