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Library maintenance

Regular maintenance keeps your library organized and running smoothly.

Regular Tasks​

Weekly​

  • Review Activity for failures
  • Check for missing episodes
  • Verify new releases added correctly

Monthly​

  • Clean up blocklist
  • Review quality profiles
  • Check disk space
  • Backup database

Quarterly​

  • Review indexer health
  • Update download client settings
  • Archive old logs
  • Optimize database

Library Scanning​

Manual scan​

  1. Go to Library > Movies or Library > TV
  2. Click Scan Library
  3. Cinephage checks for:
    • New files
    • Deleted files
    • Changed files
    • Metadata updates

Automatic scanning​

Configure in Settings:

**Settings > Media Management > Library Scan**
Scan Interval: 6 hours (or custom)

Scan results​

  • Files added
  • Files removed
  • Metadata updated
  • Errors encountered

Metadata Refresh​

Update TMDB metadata for items:

  1. Select item(s)
  2. Click Refresh & Scan
  3. Cinephage fetches latest:
    • Posters and artwork
    • Plot summaries
    • Cast and crew
    • Ratings
    • Release dates
Scheduled Refresh

TMDB data changes over time. Refresh monthly for active series.

Disk Space Management​

Monitor usage​

Navigate to Settings > General > Storage Maintenance to get a full picture of your storage:

  • Storage summary - total used across all libraries broken down by movies, TV, and subtitles with a visual usage bar
  • Libraries and Root Folders - per-library and per-root-folder breakdown with disk usage bars showing Cinephage vs other vs free space; click a library row to collapse or expand its root folders
  • Top Played Items - sortable table of most-played content; filter by All, Movies, or Episodes
  • Largest Items - sortable table of biggest files to help identify candidates for cleanup
Dashboard shortcut

The storage card on the dashboard links directly to the Storage Maintenance page.

Free space accuracy

When multiple root folders share the same physical disk or network share, Cinephage deduplicates free space by filesystem device ID so the total is never counted more than once.

Cleanup strategies​

  1. Unmonitor Unwanted Items:

    • Stop searching for old series
    • Keep files but disable monitoring

  2. Delete Unwatched:

    • Review play history
    • Delete items never watched
    • Use "Delete Files & Remove" action

  3. Quality Cleanup:

    • Keep only best quality
    • Delete lower quality duplicates
    • Use "Organize" to consolidate

  4. Export List:

    • Export library to CSV
    • Analyze outside Cinephage
    • Identify candidates for deletion

Best Practices​

Organization​

  1. Use Meaningful Root Folder Names:

    • "Movies" not "Media"
    • "TV Shows" not "Series"

  2. Keep Paths Simple:

    • /media/movies not /home/user/media/collection/movies/final

  3. Separate by Type:

    • Don't mix movies and TV
    • Consider anime separately
    • Kids content in dedicated folder

Maintenance​

  1. Regular Scans:

    • Enable automatic scanning
    • Or scan weekly manually

  2. Monitor Disk Space:

    • Set up alerts
    • Plan storage expansion

  3. Keep Backups:

    • Database backup weekly
    • Configuration backup monthly

  4. Clean Regularly:

    • Review blocklist monthly
    • Clean up failed downloads
    • Archive old logs

Performance​

  1. SSD for Config:

    • Database on fast storage
    • Media can be on slower storage

  2. Optimize Database:

    • VACUUM monthly
    • ANALYZE weekly

  3. Limit Library Size:

    • Realistic collection size
    • Quality over quantity

See Also​