Fixing matches

Most of a library matches by itself. What’s left is either unmatched, because Credenza wasn’t sure enough to choose, or matched to the wrong entry. Both are fixed by telling Credenza which one it is.

You need to be an administrator, or have a role that allows correcting metadata, to do anything on this page. Managing files and removing items needs the “Manage what is on disk” permission. See Accounts and access.

Needs matching

Needs matching in the sidebar lists everything Credenza looked up and couldn’t identify. The number beside it is how many are waiting. Nothing on the list is retried by itself, so this is where unmatched items stay until you deal with them.

The page has four tabs: Films, Shows, Anime and Games. Each row shows the item’s title as read from its file, the year (or “year unknown”), its library, when it was last tried, and the file path it came from. The path is often the only clue to what the item really is.

Each row has two buttons:

• Try again asks the provider again, as it is. Use it after fixing a TMDB token, or after TMDB has added the film.
• Find match… opens the picker so you can choose.

Episodes never appear here. An episode is filled in from its show, so match the show and every episode under it follows.

Choose the right film or show

Find match… opens the Fix metadata dialog:

1. The search box starts with the item’s title. Change it if the file name was wrong, then press Search. The search isn’t limited to the year from the file, in case that’s what’s wrong.
2. Each result shows its title, year, original title and synopsis. Open on TMDB opens that entry on the TMDB website, which is the quickest way to check a show’s seasons and episode numbering against your files.
3. Press the right one.

Credenza fetches its details and artwork straight away, and for a show, every episode under it is matched again too. The item leaves Needs matching.

If nothing comes up, try the title TMDB uses, or the original-language title. The dialog shows up to 20 results.

For games, the picker searches every games source you’ve switched on and labels each result with where it came from. See Games.

Correct a wrong match

A film or show that matched, but matched the wrong entry, is fixed with the same picker:

• On a tile in the library, open its ⋮ menu and choose Fix metadata….
• On the item’s own page, open ⋮ and choose Fix match….

There’s no way to “unmatch” an item; pick the right entry instead.

If the match is right but a detail is wrong, such as a title you’d rather see in another form, don’t change the match. Use Edit details.

Episodes that don’t line up

An episode page has no match control. If episodes get the wrong titles, first check the show is matched to the right entry. If it is, the usual cause is that TMDB divides the show into seasons differently from your files. Renaming the files to TMDB’s season and episode numbers is the most reliable fix, and it keeps working on any server you move the files to. For anime numbered from 1 straight through, see Naming shows and anime.

Fixing a match from the file name

You can also put the TMDB id in the film’s file or folder name, or the show’s folder name, like The Matrix (1999) [tmdbid-603]. The next scan matches it to that entry. See Naming films.

Your corrections are kept

Every match you pick is written to a match file beside the media. If you delete the library and add it again, the next scan reads it back, and your corrections return without redoing them.

Manage an item’s files

The page for a film, an episode or a game lists its Files, for anyone allowed to manage what is on disk: each file’s full path on the server, its format and its size. On a show’s page, each episode row has a files button that opens the same list for that episode.

A file may be flagged:

• missing: it was on disk at an earlier scan and isn’t now.
• unlinked: you detached it from the item.

Unlink a file

Unlink detaches a file from the item without touching the file itself. It’s for when one item has two files and you only want one, such as an old 1080p copy left beside a new 4K one. Since the largest file is the one that plays, unlinking is how you choose which copy plays.

An unlinked file isn’t played, counted or written into match files, and later scans leave it unlinked. Press Relink to put it back.

Forget a missing file

For a file that’s gone from disk, the button reads Forget instead. It removes the file from the item for good. If the file comes back later, the next scan finds it again.

Remove an item from the library

Sometimes an item needs to go entirely: an entry left behind with file missing after you renamed a folder, a show that was split in two, or a stray clip filed as an episode.

Open the item’s ⋮ menu, on its tile or its page, and choose Remove from library…. It works on films, shows, episodes and games. Confirm with Remove.

• Nothing on disk is touched.
• What is recorded against the item goes: everyone’s watch history and progress for it, and for a game, every account’s saves. The dialog spells out what applies.
• A show takes its seasons and episodes with it. Removing a season’s last episode removes the season too.
• The next scan brings back whatever is still on disk as a new entry. A match you picked and details you edited return with it, from the match file beside the media.

So removing an item whose files are still there is a way to have it filed again from scratch. To keep something out of the library for good, move its files out of the library’s folders, or into a folder the scanner skips.