Recommended naming scheme
On the Sonarr Discord people often ask, "What's the recommended/best way to name your files?" First off, it's personal preference, but it's often recommended to add non-recoverable info.
Why?
If, for what ever reason, you ever need to do a re-install or re-import in the Starr Apps or Plex/Emby/Jellyfin it's nice to have all that info in the filename so it gets imported correctly and isn't incorrectly matched as HDTV or WEB-DL etc.
The Tokens not available in the release won't be used/shown.
Preparation
Go to Settings => Media Management and make sure that Show Advanced at the top is enabled.
Once you clicked on the button it should look like this and you should see all the advanced options.
Standard Episode Format
{Series TitleYear} - S{season:00}E{episode:00} - {Episode CleanTitle} [{Custom Formats }{Quality Full}]{[MediaInfo VideoDynamicRangeType]}{[Mediainfo AudioCodec}{ Mediainfo AudioChannels]}{[MediaInfo VideoCodec]}{-Release Group}
RESULTS: - [Click to show/hide]
Single Episode:
The Series Title! (2010) - S01E01 - Episode Title 1 [AMZN WEBDL-1080p Proper][DV HDR10][DTS 5.1][x264]-RlsGrp
Multi Episode:
The Series Title! (2010) - S01E01-E03 - Episode Title [AMZN WEBDL-1080p Proper][DV HDR10][DTS 5.1][x264]-RlsGrp
Daily Episode Format
{Series TitleYear} - {Air-Date} - {Episode CleanTitle} [{Custom Formats }{Quality Full}]{[MediaInfo VideoDynamicRangeType]}{[Mediainfo AudioCodec}{ Mediainfo AudioChannels]}{[MediaInfo VideoCodec]}{-Release Group}
RESULTS: - [Click to show/hide]
The Series Title! (2010) - 2013-10-30 - Episode Title 1 [AMZN WEBDL-1080p Proper][DV HDR10][DTS 5.1][x264]-RlsGrp
Anime Episode Format
{Series TitleYear} - S{season:00}E{episode:00} - {absolute:000} - {Episode CleanTitle} [{Custom Formats }{Quality Full}]{[MediaInfo VideoDynamicRangeType]}[{MediaInfo VideoBitDepth}bit]{[MediaInfo VideoCodec]}[{Mediainfo AudioCodec} { Mediainfo AudioChannels}]{MediaInfo AudioLanguages}{-Release Group}
RESULTS: - [Click to show/hide]
Single Episode:
The Series Title! (2010) - S01E01 - 001 - Episode Title 1 [iNTERNAL HDTV-720p v2][HDR10][10bit][x264][DTS 5.1][JA]-RlsGrp
Multi Episode:
The Series Title! (2010) - S01E01-E03 - 001-003 - Episode Title [iNTERNAL HDTV-720p v2][HDR10][10bit][x264][DTS 5.1][JA]-RlsGrp
Series Folder Format
{Series TitleYear}
RESULT: The Series Title! (2010)
Optional Series Folder Format
This naming scheme is made to be compatible with the new Plex TV Series Scanner that now support IMDB and TVDB IDs in file names.
Optional Plex
{Series TitleYear} {imdb-{ImdbId}}
RESULT: The Series Title! (2010) {imdb-tt1520211}
Optional Emby
{Series TitleYear} [imdbid-{ImdbId}]
RESULT: The Series Title! (2010)
Optional Jellyfin
{Series TitleYear} [tvdbid-{TvdbId}]
RESULT: The Series Title! (2010) [tvdbid-tt1520211]
Tip
IMDb IDs are going to be very accurate and rarely change, TVDB/TMDB IDs, on the other hand, do change or are removed more frequently.
Season Folder Format
For this there's only one real option to use in my opinion.
Season {season:00}
RESULT: Season 01
Multi-Episode Style
Prefixed Range
RESULTS:
Original Title vs Original Filename
Original Title
Another option is to use {Original Title} rather than the recommended naming scheme outlined above. {Original Title} will use the title of the release which will contain all of the information included in the release itself. The benefit of this naming scheme is to prevent download loops which can occur on import when there is a discrepancy in the release title compared to the contents of the file itself (for example, if the release title says DTS-ES but the contents are actually DTS). The downside is less flexibility with how the files are named.
If using this alternate naming scheme I suggest using {Original Title} over {Original Filename}
Why?
The filename can be Obscured where the Release naming isn't, especially when you use Usenet.
{Original Title} => The.Series.Title.S01E01.Episode.Title.1080p.AMZN.WEB-DL.DDP5.1.H.264-RlsGrp
{Original Filename} => show episode 1-1080p or lchd-tkk1080p or t1i0p3s7i8yuti
Thanks:
A big Thanks to fryfrog, rg9400 and bakerboy448 for the suggestions.
Questions or Suggestions?
If you have questions or suggestions click the chat badge to join the Discord Support Channel where you can ask your questions directly and get live support.
