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Adding Media Libraries

Overview

Media libraries are how Norri organizes your content. Each library is associated with one or more folders on your system and a specific content type.

Library Types

  • Movies — Feature films
  • TV Shows — Series with episodes organized by season
  • Music — Albums, artists, and playlists
  • Photos — Image galleries
  • Home Videos — Personal video content

Adding a Library

  1. Go to Settings → Libraries
  2. Click Add Library
  3. Select the library type
  4. Enter or browse to the folder containing your media
  5. Click Save

Local Folders

For media stored directly on your server, use the Browse button to navigate to your media folder, or type the path directly (e.g., /mnt/media/movies).

Network Storage (NAS)

For media on a NAS or network share, you can enter a network path directly:

  • \\nas\movies — UNC format
  • smb://192.168.1.100/media — SMB URL format

If the share requires a password, expand Network Credentials and enter your username and password. For guest/anonymous shares, leave credentials empty.

You can also use the Network tab in the directory browser to discover available shares on your network.

Media Organization

For best results, organize your media following these naming conventions:

Movies

Movies/
├── Movie Name (2023)/
│ └── Movie Name (2023).mkv

TV Shows

TV Shows/
├── Show Name/
│ ├── Season 01/
│ │ ├── Show Name - S01E01 - Episode Title.mkv
│ │ └── Show Name - S01E02 - Episode Title.mkv

See Media Organization for complete details.

Scanning Libraries

After adding a library, Norri will scan the folders to discover your media. You can also manually trigger a scan:

  1. Go to the library’s edit page
  2. Click Scan Now

Scan Types

  • Library Scan — Discovers new files and detects removed files
  • Metadata Refresh — Updates ratings, trailers, and info from TMDB

Unavailable Files (Trash)

When Norri scans a library and can’t find a file that was previously there, it doesn’t delete the record immediately. Instead, the file is marked as “unavailable” and moved to the library’s trash.

This protects you from losing your library data when:

  • A network drive is temporarily offline
  • An external drive is disconnected
  • Files are accidentally deleted but you have a backup

Viewing Trash

  1. Go to Settings → Libraries
  2. Click Edit on the library
  3. Scroll down to the Unavailable Files section

You’ll see counts of:

  • Unavailable — Files not found during the last scan
  • Pending Removal — Files scheduled for permanent deletion

Emptying Trash Manually

To permanently remove unavailable files from the database:

  1. Go to the library’s edit page
  2. In the Unavailable Files section, click Empty Trash
  3. Confirm the action

Automatic Trash Emptying

You can configure Norri to automatically empty trash after each scan, similar to Plex:

  1. Go to the library’s edit page
  2. Enable Empty trash automatically after every scan
  3. Optionally set a Grace Period (days to wait before removing)

Default behavior (grace period = 0): Files are removed immediately when not found during a scan. This matches Plex’s default behavior.

With grace period: Files must be missing for the specified number of days before they’re removed. Use this if you want time to restore accidentally deleted files.

Network Storage Safety

Norri includes protection for network storage users:

  • If a drive/share is offline: Norri skips that path entirely and makes no changes
  • Files are only removed when: The path is confirmed accessible AND the file is genuinely missing

You’ll never lose your entire library because a NAS was temporarily offline during a scan.

Library Settings

Localization

Each library can have its own language and country settings:

Metadata Language

Sets the language for titles, descriptions, and taglines fetched from TMDB.

  • en — English (default)
  • de — German
  • fr — French
  • etc.

When set, Norri will:

  • Search TMDB using your preferred language
  • Download titles and overviews in that language
  • Prefer artwork with text in that language (when available)

For example, a German user with de will see “Die Verurteilten” instead of “The Shawshank Redemption” if a German title exists on TMDB.

Rating Country

Sets which country’s age ratings to display:

  • US — MPAA ratings (G, PG, PG-13, R, NC-17)
  • GB — BBFC ratings (U, PG, 12A, 15, 18)
  • DE — FSK ratings (FSK 0, 6, 12, 16, 18)
  • etc.

If a rating isn’t available for your country, Norri can estimate one based on ratings from other countries. This can be enabled/disabled in library settings.

NFO Files

  • Read NFO files — Import metadata from existing .nfo files (Kodi format)
  • Write NFO files — Export metadata to .nfo files for portability