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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.


Standard Episode Format

{Series TitleYear} - S{season:00}E{episode:00} - {Episode CleanTitle} [{Preferred Words }{Quality Full}]{[MediaInfo VideoDynamicRangeType]}{[Mediainfo AudioCodec}{ Mediainfo AudioChannels]}{MediaInfo AudioLanguages}{[MediaInfo VideoCodec]}{-Release Group}

Sonarr V4 - Is now using Custom Formats instead of Release Profiles. Use the below naming scheme instead ⚠

{Series TitleYear} - S{season:00}E{episode:00} - {Episode CleanTitle} [{Custom Formats }{Quality Full}]{[MediaInfo VideoDynamicRangeType]}{[Mediainfo AudioCodec}{ Mediainfo AudioChannels]}{MediaInfo AudioLanguages}{[MediaInfo VideoCodec]}{-Release Group}
RESULTS: - [CLICK TO EXPAND]

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} [{Preferred Words }{Quality Full}]{[MediaInfo VideoDynamicRangeType]}{[Mediainfo AudioCodec}{ Mediainfo AudioChannels]}{MediaInfo AudioLanguages}{[MediaInfo VideoCodec]}{-Release Group}

Sonarr V4 - Is now using Custom Formats instead of Release Profiles. Use the below naming scheme instead ⚠

{Series TitleYear} - {Air-Date} - {Episode CleanTitle} [{Custom Formats }{Quality Full}]{[MediaInfo VideoDynamicRangeType]}{[Mediainfo AudioCodec}{ Mediainfo AudioChannels]}{MediaInfo AudioLanguages}{[MediaInfo VideoCodec]}{-Release Group}
RESULTS: - [CLICK TO EXPAND]

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} [{Preferred Words }{Quality Full}]{[MediaInfo VideoDynamicRangeType]}[{MediaInfo VideoBitDepth}bit]{[MediaInfo VideoCodec]}[{Mediainfo AudioCodec} { Mediainfo AudioChannels}]{MediaInfo AudioLanguages}{-Release Group}

Sonarr V4 - Is now using Custom Formats instead of Release Profiles. Use the below naming scheme instead ⚠

{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 EXPAND]

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 for the Plex TV Series Scanner and Jellyfin/Emby

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.

For Plex:

{Series TitleYear} [imdb-{ImdbId}]

RESULT:

The Series Title! (2010) [imdb-tt1520211]

For Jellyfin/Emby:

{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:

results


Original Title vs Original Filename

If you want to keep the original release name that holds all the info of the file then I suggest to use {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?

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Last update: December 10, 2022 00:25:33