Once, it was relatively inexpensive to buy another hard drive and throw it in your server when you ran out of space.These days, "just add another drive" is an expensive proposition.If you don't want to delete any content buy a new drive, you do have some options.
These are 4 ways you can free up space on your Jellyfin server.Re-encode old files to HEVC or AV1 Newer codecs store the same picture in far less space If your library has a lot of files encoded with H.264 or remuxes (which are typically enormous), you could save yourself a significant amount of space by converting them to a newer, more efficient codec.The two most promising candidates are HEVC (otherwise called H.265) and AV1.
HEVC can often reduce the size of a H.264 file by between 30% and 50%.As a concrete example, 2TB of H.264 video could shrink to as little as 1TB of HEVC video.AV1 is usually slightly better.
However, there is always a cost.Re-encoding a large library will take hours or even days, depending on your hardware.Additionally, every time you re-encode a file, you lose a bit of quality.
You also need to be a bit careful with AV1.Not every device supports it yet, and you may wind up forcing your Jellyfin server to transcode more often than you'd like if multiple devices don't support it.Always re-encode one or two videos to see if you find the trade-off tolerable.
Play back whatever file you convert on your phone, TV, PC, or whatever other device you normally use for viewing.If the quality is acceptable, and you don't run into a bunch of transcoding issues, it is probably worthwhile.Once you decide, there are programs that let you convert your entire library automatically.
Tdarr is one popular option.Remove audio tracks you never use Lossless audio and extra dubs can use up a ton of space Close Video will typically use up the most space on a Jellyfin server, but it isn't the thing that can hog space.In many remuxes, lossless surround tracks can use up 1GB of storage, and I've seen cases where they exceed 5GB.
And you .Some remuxes come with multiple.It is also common for media to include different language and commentary tracks too.
Between the extra languages, commentary, and the lossless audio files, you could easily be looking at more than 5GB per file.Depending on the specifics, that means that audio alone could account for as much as 10% of your storage requirements.Related Jellyfin's best feature is its plugins—here are the 5 that matter most Even the best media server can be made better with a few add-ons.
Posts By Ismar Hrnjicevic Keep one high-quality track for each language you actually use and ditch the rest.Tdarr can handle this job too, but you could also use ffmpeg to bulk process your entire library.Note: Stripping out an audio track doesn't necessarily re-encode the video, so removing audio shouldn't hurt your video quality at all.
Clean up Jellyfin's own cache and metadata folders The server's generated files grow with the library Like all apps, Jellyfin generates data during its regular operation.Trickplay creates preview images that you see while scrubbing through a video's timeline, the transcoder can leave behind temporary files, and there are a few other odds and ends.Start by checking your cache and config folders to see how much space they're using.
You can reduce Trickplay resolutions or decrease the frequency at which it generates preview images.You could also disable it completely if you don't care to use it.If you wind up with a bugged transcode cache—which can happen with a crash or unexpected restart—you can just delete it.
Clear out leftover downloads, extras, and recycle bins Using a server leaves a lot of junk behind Every PC generates a certain amount of junk while it's in use.In my case, I accumulated a pretty significant number of old downloads, unpacked files, and test files.If you use any of the *arr family of apps (Radarr, Sonarr, Lidarr), they may also have a recycle bin.
Under normal circumstances, none of that appears in the Jellyfin user interface, so you may actually have apps using up a significant amount of space without any way to see it normally.If you're hosting on Linux, NCurses Disk Usage (ncdu) is easier to use than most native Linux tools.If you're hosting on Windows, WizTree is a great option.
Whatever the case, clear your recycle bin, remove redundant or unneeded downloads, and keep an eye out for the download fragments that are sometimes created when a file transfer is interrupted—they can be tens of gigabytes each.You may also have a lot of extras, like director's commentary, behind-the-scenes footage, b-roll footage, and more.If you aren't going to watch it, delete it.
Start with the audio tracks first Of the options here, re-encoding your videos and stripping unused audio tracks are going to make the biggest difference in your storage needs.I'd recommend starting with the audio tracks first.It is a change you're not likely to notice and could conceivably free up hundreds of gigabytes or even terabytes, depending on the size of your
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