File naming the correct way in simple terms

Help & Support
#1

Hello,

very new to Sonarr but loving it.

I have been doing a lot of googling and looking on forums but one thing that does confuse me is how to name files.

To make everything work perfectly and limit errors, what is the best naming system?

At the present I do Series title - season/episode - Name. Example: The Simpsons - S01E01 - First episode Is this an issue? Sonarr and Plex seem to pic up the quality fine. Although I do suspect Sonarr is downloading the same file now and again.

  • I see some forums say to that I should have the resolution/quality as well? Is it needed? would that be The Simpsons - S01E01 - First episode - 720p / webdl720 etc?

  • I have seen some say you need the (codecs???) strange looking words in it AC3 etc.

  • I have seen some say you need the year included also The Simpsons (1990) - S01E01 - First episode

My folders are just the name and season 1, 2 so on.

Love to get clarity on this.

Thank you.

Edit - From another post it seems adding in the Year is good but the other information is not needed?

#2

If you’re referring to after you’ve gotten the file rule of thumb for Plex and Emby is Show (Year) SxxExx Episode title. If you want the dashes that’s up to you.

Billions (2016) S07E01 Tower Of London

#3

Great awesome, just saw on here Recommended naming scheme - TRaSH Guides is has all that extra info but I see its not needed

#4

Just a quick note on “all that extra info”… the point of putting some of that in the filename is in case it is needed in the future… so for example, if you’re searching for subtitles, often they will be mapped to a certain release group for synchronization and such, so if you don’t have the release group in the name of the file, you’ll never remember what release group the download/file came from and thus not be able to match it up to a subtitle again in the future if needed…
The audio/video stuff can USUALLY be re-determined by an ffmpeg/mediainfo interrogation, so that’s a bit excessive, but it’s (usually) impossible from file metadata to tell if a file is a Remux, Special Edition, etc or not… so sometimes those items are worth tagging into the file name too for posterity.

Rule of thumb is - “if you can’t determine it from within the file, you better have it as a tag on the filename itself”

1 Like
#5

Lets be honest here and admit most times it does not matter whitch subtitle you gram as long as it’s for that movie, or tv show episode.

#6

if you ever need to re-import your files into sonarr then you want the minimum amount of info in the filename, in a format sonarr will understand, so it has all the data it needs.

eg if you “prefer word” release groups then having it in the filename is almost essential or sonarr may go and download it again (if you leave things monitored)

i use {series.cleantitle}.s{season:00}e{episode:00}{.mediainfo.videocodec}{.quality.title}{-release group}

i include the codec and quality because it lets me (as a person) see that information without having to dig into the file properties, sonarr can get at those itself so if you dont need to see them you could leave them out, just make sure sonarr is set to analyze.

i dont include the episode title but thats mostly due to not caring about it. if you do then you can include it.

make sure you test your format. get sonarr to rename a file with the new format, move it somewhere else, rescan so sonar sees it has gone, then import it and make sure that sonarr can decode it properly and ends up with the bits you need.

#7

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