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Music - changing metadata path from config to media #7189
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Originally created by @obeidahmad on GitHub (Jul 25, 2025).
Description of the bug
I have setup jellyfin v 10.10.7 through docker, and it works fine. I have it configured to save artists config to the media folder itself. I realized that when an artist does not have a folder in my /media folder, a folder is created in the /config/metadata/artists folder, and I am ok with that as some artists appear as guests on other albums but are not the album artist.
However, when I want to add that artist to the /media folder, jellyfin keeps looking for the metadata in the /config/metadata/artists. Deleting the config folder and rescanning recreates the /config/metadata/artists folder.
Removing the artist completely from both config and media, rescanning, then readding the artist again does not fix the issue. I cannot seem to be able to change the config path from the ui as well.
Reproduction steps
What is the current bug behavior?
Adding an artist to the /media folder does not update Jellyfin's lookup folder for artist metadata even when it's the preferred set behaviour.
What is the expected correct behavior?
When /media/artist exists Jellyfin should copy and read the metadata from the /media/artist folder and drop the /config/metadata/artists/artist folder
Jellyfin Server version
10.10.0+
Specify commit id
No response
Specify unstable release number
No response
Specify version number
No response
Specify the build version
10.10.7
Environment
Jellyfin logs
FFmpeg logs
Client / Browser logs
No response
Relevant screenshots or videos
The image below (taken from jellyfin-web) shows how the config path is still /config/metadata/artists/artist
The image below (taken from jellyfin-web) shows how i expect the path to be usually /media/artist
Additional information
No response
@TimF0 commented on GitHub (Jul 25, 2025):
I had the same issue - I found that it wasn't so much around you adding the artist as a new artist in your /media folder, but that they were already referenced (appearing on) other existing albums.
The only way I found to do it was to remove both the artist and any of their albums that existed, but ALSO remove any albums/tracks where they were guest artists, delete them from the metadata directory, rescan, then add both their own albums AND the albums where they were a guest artist back in (loading their own albums first to ensure they ended up on the /media folder).
Yes it's a pain and ideally I'd like to see artists "auto-migrated" to the media folder (if so configured) when an album where they're the album artist is added, or always added to the /media folder even if they're a guest artist (if so configured), but this is a workaround, albeit an awkward one, for now.
Doesn't fix the issue, but hopefully it helps you organise your music :)
@obeidahmad commented on GitHub (Jul 25, 2025):
@TimF0. Thank you for the tip, your method works.
I do agree with you, I still believe a more correct fix is needed.
@Behem07h commented on GitHub (Aug 19, 2025):
This was an issue for me as well, but slightly differently.
I had my albumartist tag set as the artist's name as defined by my media directory, and my artist tag set as the artist's youtube channel name (which differs from the media directory name). This resulted in the album artists category being my media sorted by the directories and the artists category being the media sorted by the channel name of the artist.
Somewhere along the way, that behavior changed and I got both artist and album artists in the album artists category. Assuming this was intended by jellyfin I then retagged all my media such that albumartist, artist and the media directory names match, and I moved the channel name to a unused tag that I arbitrarily named "channel name". Just like the other users before me, jellyfin did not update the config/metadata/artists directory and keeps recreating it when the contents are deleted, so my album artists category is still messy D:
Hopefully the method that was outlined here by TimF0 works for me as well
@Behem07h commented on GitHub (Aug 19, 2025):
To be honest, I "just" want to host my music according to a fixed directory structure and tags, so its quite frustrating to me that jellyfin has so many "smart" features that cannot be turned off
@jbiosca78 commented on GitHub (Nov 14, 2025):
It happens to me. I would like to remove the "automatic" artist creation in config and have the possibility to create my data manually. This is a mess.
@obeidahmad commented on GitHub (Nov 17, 2025):
@jbiosca78 for me manual artist creation would just add extra work. I like the automatic creation, but I wish it allows for easier control.
Many things I realized related to this automatic creation. For example the artist.nfo doesn't always seem to contain all the data. Sometimes it contains the albums sometimes not. Renaming an artist is very annoying and you need to basically delete the artist and readd, by renaming the folder and removing or fixing the artist.nfo
With all the different little problems, it feels to me almost like manual artist creation constantly moving around, deleting and recopying. What we need is a better automatic system.
@Tankudoraiba commented on GitHub (Nov 18, 2025):
I also have this problem. Frustrating thing is, I can't find a good way to clear the part of metadata to recreate only artist metadata from scratch.
@TimF0 commented on GitHub (Nov 18, 2025):
You should be able to use the method I outlined a few posts above. Agreed, it's not a "good" method, but it works... for now ! Unless you meant "recreate all artists' metadata" - which - yeah, I'm sort of dreading having to do due t of the amount of data customisation I've done...