Unlock Multi-Folder Media Imports In MediaManager

The Challenge: Why Multiple Media Folders Matter

Have you ever found yourself in a tricky situation where your amazing media collection is spread across multiple storage locations? Perhaps you've got your favorite movies on one hard drive, while your must-watch TV shows reside on another, or maybe even across different ZFS pools, like our friend maxdorninger mentioned. This isn't an uncommon scenario at all! For many of us, expanding our digital libraries often means adding new drives as needed, leading to a naturally fragmented media library setup over time. It's not always practical, or even possible, to consolidate all that data into a single, massive root directory. Think about it: moving terabytes of data can be a Herculean task, especially if you don't have enough external storage to temporarily hold everything, or if your existing setup involves complex RAID or ZFS configurations that are difficult to reconfigure.

This is precisely where the current functionality of many media management tools can hit a roadblock. If a tool only supports importing media from a single root directory, users with diverse storage setups are left in a bind. They might have Pool 0/TV and Pool 1/TV containing entirely different seasons or shows, or Pool 0/Movies and Pool 1/Movies with distinct film collections, all without any duplication between the locations. This was exactly the case for maxdorninger, who configured their system a long time ago with a second ZFS pool when additional storage became necessary. Recreating these ZFS pools into a single, unified pool across all drives simply isn't an option due to the sheer size difference and lack of sufficient outside storage. Such real-world constraints highlight a significant pain point for anyone trying to maintain a growing and diverse media collection. We all want our media manager to be flexible and understand our unique storage landscapes, not force us into rigid, impractical configurations. It’s important for our tools to adapt to our reality, making media management a joy, not a chore. Many popular media tools like Sonarr and Radarr have already embraced this reality, allowing users to specify multiple root folders, and we believe MediaManager should too, to truly shine as a comprehensive solution.

Understanding Your Current MediaManager Setup

Let's dive a little deeper into how MediaManager typically handles its configuration and storage, using the examples provided by maxdorninger. When you're running MediaManager in a Docker environment, two key files dictate its behavior: docker-compose.yaml and config.toml. These files work together to tell MediaManager where to find your content and how to manage it. The docker-compose.yaml file is essentially your blueprint for setting up the MediaManager service, specifying things like the Docker image to use, environment variables, and crucially, your volume mounts.

In the provided docker-compose.yaml, you can see several volumes mounted. These lines are really important:

    volumes:
      - /mnt/0/TV:/data/TV/0
      - /mnt/1/TV:/data/TV/1
      - /mnt/0/Movies:/data/Movies/0
      - /mnt/1/Movies:/data/Movies/1 

What these lines do is map your actual physical storage paths (like /mnt/0/TV on your host machine) into the Docker container's file system (as /data/TV/0). This is a smart way to expose your multiple physical media folders to the MediaManager application running inside the container. However, the problem often arises in how MediaManager then interprets these paths.

The config.toml file, on the other hand, is where MediaManager gets its specific operational instructions. It defines where the application expects to find things. In the example, we see:

image_directory = "/data/images"
tv_directory = "/data/TV"
movie_directory = "/data/Movies"
torrent_directory = "/downloads"

Here, tv_directory = "/data/TV" suggests that MediaManager expects all TV shows to be under a single root path within its container environment, and similarly for movies. This is where the core issue lies for users with distributed storage. Even though the docker-compose.yaml successfully mounts /mnt/0/TV to /data/TV/0 and /mnt/1/TV to /data/TV/1, if MediaManager itself only looks at /data/TV as a single root, it might only see one of those subdirectories (or simply not scan them effectively as distinct libraries).

Maxdorninger ingeniously tried to work around this limitation by adding custom media libraries within config.toml:

[[misc.tv_libraries]]
name = "TV 0"
path = "/data/TV/0"
[[misc.tv_libraries]]
name = "TV 1"
path = "/data/TV/1"

[[misc.movie_libraries]]
name = "Movies 0"
path = "/data/Movies/0"
[[misc.movie_libraries]]
name = "Movies 1"
path = "/data/Movies/1"

This configuration perfectly articulates the desired solution: the ability to define and manage multiple, distinct paths as separate libraries for both TV shows and movies. It shows a clear intent to move beyond a single-root folder paradigm. The underlying problem is that while the configuration expresses the need for these distinct libraries, the MediaManager application itself might not fully support scanning and importing from these [[misc.tv_libraries]] and [[misc.movie_libraries]] entries as primary sources for media discovery in the same way it handles the singular tv_directory and movie_directory. Addressing this would unlock immense flexibility for users facing complex storage scenarios, truly making MediaManager a more versatile and robust tool for efficient media library management.

The Dream Solution: Seamless Multi-Folder Importing

Imagine a world where your media manager just gets your unique storage setup without you having to jump through hoops or reorganize terabytes of data. This is precisely what the dream solution of seamless multi-folder importing offers. We're talking about a MediaManager that has the innate ability to scan and manage media from multiple, distinct root directories for both your beloved TV shows and your extensive movie collection. Think of it: instead of being confined to a single /data/TV or /data/Movies path, you could simply tell MediaManager,