First run

The first time you open a new server in a browser — http://<your-server>:8080 — it sends you to Set up your server, a short wizard with four steps: Administrator, Libraries, Metadata and Finish. Nothing in it is final; everything can be changed later under Settings.

The wizard skips any step the server already has an answer for. If you seeded an administrator in the server’s configuration, for example, it starts at Libraries after you sign in.

1. Create the administrator

The administrator is the account that runs the server: it sees every library, changes every setting, and invites everyone else.

Choose a Username and a Password of at least 12 characters, and type it again under Confirm password. Tick Remember me on this device if you want to stay signed in, then press Create administrator. You are signed in straight away.

Caution

There is no way to reset this password without the account itself, so keep it somewhere safe.

Anyone who can reach the server before you finish this step could claim it, so complete it as soon as the server is up — especially if it is reachable from outside your home network.

2. Add your libraries

A library is one kind of media — Movies, TV Shows, Anime or Games — and the folders it lives in. For each library, fill in:

• Name — whatever you want it called in the app, such as “Films” or “Kids’ shows”.
• Type — Movies, TV Shows, Anime or Games. A Games library also asks which System it holds: NES, SNES, Nintendo 64, Game Boy, Game Boy Color or Game Boy Advance.
• Folders — one or more absolute paths on the server. Type a path or press Browse… to pick one from the server’s own disks. Add the outermost folder of each collection, never a folder inside another.

Press Create library. The server starts scanning it immediately. Add as many as you like with Add another library, then press Continue — or Skip for now and add them later under Settings → Server → Libraries.

Running in Docker?

The folder is the path inside the container. If you followed the installation guide and mounted your media at the same path on both sides, it is the same path you use on the host.

How you name folders and files decides how well they match. See Adding libraries, Naming films and Naming shows and anime.

3. Fetch artwork and details

This step lists the metadata sources for the kinds of library you added, each with its own fields. Fill in what you want and press Save and continue, or Skip for now — every field here can be filled in later under Settings → Server → Metadata.

TMDB (films, shows and anime) gives posters, synopses and cast. It is free, but needs a token of your own:

1. Create an account at themoviedb.org and sign in.
2. Open your account’s Settings → API page (themoviedb.org/settings/api) and request an API key if you have not already.
3. Copy the API Read Access Token — the long one, not the shorter API key.
4. Paste it into TMDB read access token.

Without a token everything still plays, but films and shows appear under their file names with no artwork.

ScreenScraper (games) works without any setup — Credenza comes with its own developer account. Adding your free screenscraper.fr username and password raises your daily quota.

IGDB (games) is an optional second source, matched by title; it needs a Twitch application’s client id and secret. See Organising ROMs.

The step does not appear if every source your libraries use is already set up.

4. Finish

The last page sums up what you have: who you are signed in as, how many libraries are scanning, and whether artwork is set up. Press Go to the dashboard to start browsing, or Open settings.

Posters and details arrive over the next few minutes as each scan works through your files.

What to do next

• Check the scan. Settings → Server → Libraries shows each library’s count and how its last scan went. Scan now on a library’s row starts another. See Scanning.
• Fix anything that did not match. See Fixing matches.
• Choose how often each library is rescanned under Settings → Server → Scanning.
• Invite people. Other people get in through invite links under Settings → Server → Invites — see Accounts and access.
• Set up hardware transcoding if your server has a GPU — see Hardware acceleration.
• Put it behind a domain. If you reach the server through a reverse proxy or a tunnel, set Public address and Behind a reverse proxy under Settings → Server → General — see Configuration.