Jellyfin

What it's good for#

If you've got a hard drive of films and series, Jellyfin turns it into something the whole house can use. It sorts your files into a library with artwork, cast lists and plot summaries, remembers where each person stopped, and plays on nearly anything with a screen. When a device can't play a file as it is, Jellyfin converts it on the fly.

It plays music too, and it's a fine choice if you want one app for everything. If music is your main interest, Navidrome or Funkwhale do that one job better, and for audiobooks there's Audiobookshelf.

Signing in#

A new Jellyfin opens on a setup wizard, and whoever finishes it becomes the administrator. On a server other people can reach, that would be a race. So LibrePortal finishes the wizard itself as soon as Jellyfin answers, and keeps Jellyfin reachable from the server only until it has checked the new login works.

The account is called admin. Its password is in the Login Details shown when the install finishes; press Welcome on the app's page to see it again.

LibrePortal has no Tools for Jellyfin, so you change passwords and add people inside Jellyfin itself. If you change the admin password there, the Login Details keep showing the old one, so keep the new one somewhere safe, like your password manager.

Adding your films and series#

LibrePortal doesn't create any libraries, because only you know what kind of media you have. Jellyfin reads your files from its media folder, which is in its app folder, normally /libreportal-containers/jellyfin/media. Inside Jellyfin that folder is called /media.

There's also a media2 folder next to it, which Jellyfin can read but never change. It suits files you want kept safe from anything Jellyfin might do, like deleting.

Adding people#

Give everyone their own account, so each person gets their own "continue watching" row and you can keep the grown-up films away from the children's profiles. Accounts are added in Jellyfin's Dashboard, under Users, where you can also choose which libraries each person sees.

Watching on phones and TVs#

This is where Jellyfin shines. There are Jellyfin apps for Android and iPhone, Android TV and Fire TV, and several other TV platforms and desktops, plus apps from other makers that speak its language. In any of them, add a server with Jellyfin's address, exactly as you open it in the browser, and sign in.

Jellyfin is marked Public in the catalogue, with no extra login in front of it, because those apps have to reach the same port the browser does. If everyone who watches lives with you, making it private is the safer choice, and the LibrePortal VPN brings it with you when you're away. With a domain, it gets its own address at jellyfin.<your domain>, over HTTPS.

Good to know#

• Converting video uses the processor. LibrePortal doesn't hand Jellyfin a graphics card, so when a device needs a file converted, the server's CPU does the work. Converting high-definition video is hard work for a small server, while a file the device can play as it is costs almost nothing, so formats your TVs and phones play directly save a lot of effort.
• Backups include your media. LibrePortal backs up the whole app folder, so a film collection makes for a very big backup. Make sure your backup location has room for it before the first nightly run.
• Updates are automatic, following Jellyfin's latest release, with a backup taken first.
• It runs on your server's timezone from 0.4.7, which is what its scheduled tasks and logs go by. Installs made with 0.4.6 or earlier run on UTC, because the setting never reached the app. Press Update Configuration on its Config tab, without changing anything, to fix that: it rewrites the app's compose file, which an update leaves alone, and keeps your libraries and accounts. It also checks the admin login as an install does, so if the password in the Login Details no longer works (you changed it inside Jellyfin, or set Jellyfin up yourself before 0.4.7), Jellyfin comes back reachable from the server only. Restart it to open it up again.
• You can run several copies, each with its own library and accounts; see More than one copy of an app.