Install Jellyfin

Get set up and ensure your media files are organised correctly.

There are multiple ways to install Jellyfin on your server. You’ll find instructions across a range of distros at https://jellyfin.org/docs/ – taking Ubuntu as an example, open a terminal window and issue the following commands:

$ wget -O- https://repo.jellyfin.org/install-debuntu.sh $ sudo bash

This launches a script to add and configure the Jellyfin repository, install Jellyfin and configure it to start automatically with your server and run in the background continuously. Verify the server is running by opening your web browser and navigating to http:// localhost:8096 or, if you want access from another computer on your network, http://192.168.x.y:8096 (192.168.x.y is, of course, your server’s IP address). When you see the welcome wizard, close your browser, then reboot your server and connect again to verify the service is configured correctly.

Prepare your media libraries

Once Jellyfin is verified as up and running, but before you start setting up, make sure your media libraries are ready to go. You’ll want to set up individual folders for each library you plan to create, which typically means separate folders for Movies and TV, plus one for Music.

Inside each folder, you also need to ensure your files are both organised and named correctly following these conventions:

If your files aren’t currently named correctly,

RenameMyTVSeries makes short work of renaming files using an online search tool to match episode titles to files. Go to www.tweaking4all.com/hometheatre/rename-my-tv-series-v2 and download the latest stable Linux version, then extract its contents to a suitable folder. Before double-clicking the RenameMyTVSeries shortcut, you may need to install additional dependencies:

$ sudo apt-get install libssl-dev sqlite3 libsqlite3-dev

When it comes to renaming music files, try

MusicBrainz Picard (https://picard.musicbrainz.org),

which can be installed via Snap or Flatpak as well as through its own repository.

Once your media files are in place, it’s time to get set up. Open your browser and return to the Jellyfin

wizard, then work your way through it. It’s largely selfexplanatory: set yourself up as the main admin user – but don’t leave the password blank, particularly if you plan to open up Jellyfin for remote access. Next, click Add Media Library to add your first library: select its type (choose Shows for TV), give it a suitable name and then add the library’s parent folder before running through the various library options – note, you can configure these later from Jellyfin’s

dashboard if you’re impatient to get going. Click OK when done, then repeat for any more libraries you want to add (again, these can be added later) before clicking Next.

Confirm your metadata language and country settings, and click Next. The final step confirms whether you want to open remote access to your server (for streaming content over the internet) and whether you’d like to attempt UPNP port mapping. Once configured, click Next followed by Finish, and

Jellyfin starts scanning your media folders for content in the background. This can take some time depending on your server hardware, so now’s a good time to leave

Jellyfin to its own devices for a while.