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Importing an Existing Collection

If you already have media files organized on disk, Mydia can bring them into a library by scanning, without searching for or downloading anything. If you want media you do not have yet, see Adding Media instead.

Import Existing Media

If you have existing media files, Mydia can import them during library scanning:

  1. Place your media files in the library directory
  2. Trigger a library scan (or wait for a scheduled scan, if you have enabled one for this library)
  3. Mydia will match files to metadata and import them

File Naming

For best results, use standard naming conventions:

Movies: 

Movie Title (Year)/Movie Title (Year).mkv

TV Shows: 

Show Title (Year)/Season 01/Show Title - S01E01 - Episode Title.mkv

The Import Page

For bulk imports, use Import in the sidebar. It scans a library you have already configured; you do not browse to a folder from inside it.

  1. Click Import Files on the dashboard, or go to Import in the sidebar
  2. Pick the library you want to bring in from the tabs at the top
  3. Click Start scan
  4. Once the scan finishes, review the matches below it, correcting any Mydia got wrong, then accept them

If the library you want is not on the list, add it first. See Managing Libraries.

The Import Your First Movie tutorial walks through the same page with a single file, if you would rather see it once before running it against a whole collection.

Automatic Import

The Automatically import confident matches in this run checkbox on the scan form controls what a scan does with a high-confidence match:

  • Checked (the default): the scan matches and imports confident results on its own, leaving only uncertain or unmatched files for you to review.
  • Unchecked: the scan discovers and matches files but leaves every result, confident or not, for you to review and accept by hand.

A library's Automatic scanning schedule (see Managing Libraries) uses the same distinction for its own unattended runs: off, a scheduled scan only maintains files Mydia already knows about; on, it also discovers new files and imports confident matches without a manual scan.

Reviewing Results

Below the scan controls, results are grouped by folder and filtered into Ready, Needs attention, and No match chips, plus an Ignored chip for anything you have dismissed. Dismissing a result is durable: it survives later scans of the same library, and survives Clear too.

Queued holds the groups with work already under way, whether that is an import you accepted or a re-match you asked for. Neither happens on the spot: both hand the work to a background job, so you can close the page and it carries on without you. Groups leave Queued as they finish. A group whose work could not be completed returns to the main list with a short note explaining why, most often because its files match more than one title or because no provider recognised them.

Clear removes unresolved scan results and finished scan history for the selected library so the next scan starts fresh, but it never removes a result you have already dismissed -- that decision stays exactly as you left it.

Next Steps