Jellyfin 12.0

Original release notes

:rocket: Release notes for 12.0

Notes on Updating

Before upgrading from an earlier version, a full backup of the data directory is strongly recommended, as this release includes database changes that prevent rolling back without a full restore.

Direct upgrades from 10.10.7 and 10.11.x to 12.0 are supported; intermediate upgrades are not required. Users running releases older than 10.10.7 are strongly encouraged to upgrade to 10.10.7 before migrating to 12.0.

Installed repository plugins (anything not built-in) should also be removed before migrating. Plugins will likely need time to adapt to the new database changes, so re-adding them afterward is the safest approach for testing.

Official plugins compatible with Jellyfin are available through the stable plugin repository. If you have changed to the unstable plugin repository please change it back.

Go to Dashboard -> Plugins -> Manage Repositories
Update the Plugin Repository URL to: https://repo.jellyfin.org/files/plugin/manifest.json

After migrating please perform the following steps.

Perform a full library scan to restore alternative versions

If you run into issues, please prefix bug reports with "[12.0]".

Packaging

Debian Bullseye and Ubuntu Focal packages are no longer built

Server

Performance PR implications https://github.com/jellyfin/jellyfin/pull/16062
We're running a full path-based check on all library items to clean up left overs. Depending on size this can take some time
Alternative versions of media that were auto resolved (not manually merged) will be removed due to data type issues -> A full library scan will fix this again and is therefore REQUIRED AFTER UPGRADE
First scan will take significantly longer than normal and some movies might appear as newly added due to type issues that got fixed on-scan
Multiple versions for episodes
Similarity & recommendation providers
Search providers, letting plugins extend or replace how search results are produced
SchedulesDirect and EPG refresh fixes
Fixes to the parental rating system
Proper data pruning on file replacement/deletion
Support triple+ digit episode numbers
Add library-specific BoxSet and Playlist filtering, allowing per-library collection and playlist views
CACHEDIR.tag support
Accept-Language header support
Add VideoRotation profile condition for Android TVs that do not support rotation metadata
Parse provider IDs from season and episode folder/file names
Allow tmdb, tvdb, and imdb as aliases for the tmdbid, tvdbid, and imdbid provider IDs
Add curly brace and parentheses support for parsing attribute values
Add NameStartsWith and NameLessThan filters to Person search
Add new filters for audio and subtitle languages
Add OriginalLanguage as option to PreferredAudioLanguage
Add a collection API for Included In feature
Add support for VobSub subtitle streams
Add Tmdb missing episode provider

Breaking and behavior changes

Legacy route prefixes removed (/emby/* and /mediabrowser/*). Old third-party clients that rely on them will stop working
Legacy authorization is now disabled by default, and a migration disables it on existing installs as well
Removed obsolete API routes: POST /Users/{userId}/EasyPassword (the EasyPassword feature is gone), GET /Items/{itemId}/CriticReviews, GET /Environment/NetworkShares, POST /System/MediaEncoder/Path, GET /LiveTv/Recordings/Groups/{groupId}, and GET /QuickConnect/Initiate
The global subtitle configuration has been removed, subtitle settings are configured per library
.ogg is no longer treated as a video extension and is audio only, .aifc is now recognized as audio, and .aiff is no longer treated as an image
Symlinks are only resolved at playback time
Sorting by name now uses SortName and CleanName, and the same cleaning logic is applied to ForcedSortName. Library ordering may change compared to 10.11
Image endpoints no longer upscale beyond the source resolution, so low resolution artwork renders at its real size instead of being enlarged
Username capitalization can now be changed. Usernames are stored in a normalized column with a unique index, so installs with usernames that differ only by case need to be corrected before upgrading

Database and performance

Playlists and collections are now properly relational, using a new LinkedChildren table instead of serialized child lists. OwnerId and PrimaryVersionId are real GUID foreign keys, and ExtraIds has been dropped
Many tuning migrations covering item counts, item names, type and clean name, latest items, image info, and primary version id
Migration routines clean up existing data on first boot: duplicate music artists and people are merged, orphaned extras and external data are removed, incorrect owner relationships are repaired, and clean names, forced sort names, and series presentation keys are recomputed
Heavy database tasks no longer run while a library scan is in progress
Faster queries for Resume, Next Up, rewatching, Latest Items for music, playlists and collections, artist lookup, and item counts
Item deletion is batched, which fixes "too many SQL variables" failures when deleting large numbers of items
jellyfin.db can now be stored at a custom path

Operations

New --mode startup flag with MediaServer, MigrateSystem, and SeedSystem, allowing migrations or database seeding to be run without starting the server. This is useful for containerized and orchestrated deployments and for controlled upgrades
The startup interface has been restyled and now shows version and activity information
Disabled plugins are no longer re-enabled on restart
Full system backups skip corrupt keyframe rows instead of failing

Media and subtitles

Subtitle writing now goes through SubtitleEdit, which is what avoids the SSA to ASS conversion and loss of styles
External subtitles can be embedded into MKV when transcoding
The subtitle extraction timeout is now configurable
Client-rendered graphical subtitles are allowed during remux
Fixes for races in concurrent subtitle conversion, cache invalidation when a subtitle is replaced, and ffmpeg hangs during extraction
New HlsAudioSeekStrategy configuration option
Trickplay: existing files are discovered during a scan, duplicates from interlaced video are fixed, invalid PTS values from containers are normalized, and the cache is cleaned up after a failure

Live TV

Live TV no longer returns unreachable "server-local" streaming URLs to clients
XMLTV background images and episode thumbnails are now imported
XMLTV guide imports skip programs whose data has not changed, using an ETag computed from the fields the server actually consumes, which makes repeat guide refreshes considerably cheaper. Other listings providers stay on the existing field-by-field update path

Metadata and providers

ListenBrainz is now bundled with the server and provides similar artist data with a selectable similarity algorithm
TVDB provider IDs are supported for movies
AudioDb artist search
ReplayGain album gain is parsed
MusicBrainz lookups are more resilient
WEB-DL release tags are recognized in file names
Hyphenated numbers in episode titles are no longer parsed as multi-episode files
3D format detection works when the tag is the last token of the path
Person metadata refreshes are queued instead of blocking the request

Transcoder

New upstream version of FFmpeg 8.1
Optimized CUDA transposing filter performance
Optimized OCL scaling filter performance
Optimized OCL tonemapping filter performance on Mali GPU
Use EOTF from BT 2446 Method B for HLG tonemapping
Fix potential A/V desync in HLS when transcoding video while remuxing audio
Avoid SSA to ASS conversion and loss of styles
Add spec-compliant dvh1 HLS variant for DoVi P5 for compatibility

Web

The Modern layout is now the default, the previous layout is now called Legacy
Updated Music Videos view
Updated Mixed Media view
Updated Collections & Playlists view
Updated Books view
Add still watching prompt
Add delay setting for photo slideshow
Add caching of queries to indexed db for the tanstack query client for improved loading performance
Add watch feature to log viewer
Add ``,` and `.`` as controls to scrub frame-by-frame
Add filters for audio and subtitle languages (modern layout only)
Add Collections and playlist tab to all libraries
Add collections to item details page
Replace libpgs with libbitsub and adds support for vobsub rendering
Merge cards for crew with multiple roles

Layout and themes

All themes now derive from a shared base theme built on CSS variables, including Dark, Light, WMC, Blue Radiance, Apple TV, and Purple Haze. Custom themes may need to be adjusted
The library toolbar has been merged into the app bar, with a sticky library header and design polish throughout the library
Custom links can be added to the Modern layout
The screensaver time setting is now available in the Modern layout

Libraries and browsing

Collections and folders tabs for book libraries, and a folder view in the Modern home videos layout
Default tab options for Home Videos and Photos libraries
Studio search, and an extended Studios tab
Play All and Shuffle buttons on the series library. Both are disabled rather than hidden when no items are available
Improved Upcoming view
Sorting and filtering on the Activity page
A Reset Filters button in the filter dropdown
Folders can be marked as played
TV show creators are shown on item details
Similarity providers can be configured per library
Pagination controls are hidden when paging is disabled

Playback

The playback info overlay is more compact and shows more detail
Chapter names are shown in the OSD slider bubble
Bitrate detection now runs in web
Dolby Vision in MKV on webOS 25 and newer
AV1 fMP4 stream copy on TV clients
Direct play of anamorphic video on Tizen, and loosened anamorphic restrictions for browser device profiles
On iOS, background playback continues when the screen is turned off, and audio normalization is disabled to fix pitch and speed issues
libbitsub updated to v1.11.0 with an HLS offset fix
The screensaver is suppressed while viewing photos or reading

TV and remote

Game controller navigation fixes, and the gamepad repeat rate is no longer tied to framerate
Keyboard controls work on non-Latin keyboard layouts, with additional fixes for older browsers
Rewind and FastForward play state commands are handled
SyncPlay menu update, and the SyncPlay ping is now reported to the server
Focused and checked checkbox styling in the TV layout

Under the hood

WebSockets have been migrated to SDK subscriptions
The React and TypeScript migration continues with the libraries, Live TV, and networking pages, and the dashboard user pages now use the TS SDK
TanStack Query now backs user settings and home screen sections, and the query cache is cleared when the server restarts

Notable fixes

Blurry card images on high DPI displays, and card image sizes are rounded up
Duplicate /socket connections
Login loop, connecting to the wrong server when several are configured, and native shell server selection when signing out
An invalid request for all items on page load
The Live TV default landing tab
Holding and dragging on media no longer activates multi-select
A warning is shown before restoring a version, a warning is shown when starting a backup while a scan is running, and a library scan starts automatically when folders are added to a library

Security

Server:

Path validation has been added to the legacy HLS segment endpoints and to the plugin image endpoint, so a requested file must resolve inside the transcode directory
Path traversal hardening has been extended to the image and plugin endpoints and to username path handling, building on the fixes released in 10.11.x
The startup wizard can no longer be re-run without authentication on a misconfigured server
Unsafe plugin package names are rejected by the plugin installer
Parental filtering is enforced on additional endpoints, playlist visibility has been corrected, non-admin access to additional parts has been fixed, and people are exempt from the allowed tags visibility check

Web:

Cross-site scripting via person roles
Auth parameters are encoded when creating API clients
The login disclaimer only allows common link protocol schemes

Books

Books have often taken a backseat in favor of video playback in Jellyfin, but this should no longer be the case. We have started a concerted effort to improve book support across the API and our official clients. eBook and comic support is still maturing, but the ODPS plugin allows for direct access from a wide range of popular self-hosted programs. Correspondingly, contributions in any repository are extremely welcome from the wider community. That includes server improvements, documentation changes, and third-party clients for book playback. A combination of eBook, comic, and audiobook support is available on the following clients.

Official: Web, iOS, Android, Desktop, Roku, Kodi, JMP Community: JellyBook, Symfonium, Jellium, Plappa

One notable omission from the server is book series as unique entities, which didn't make the cut for this release. If you would like to bridge the gap until they are added, feel free to use the Folio plugin to display them as collections. It functions very similar to the TMDb Box Sets plugin but only applies to eBooks.

Another in-flight feature is audiobook chapters, which are only available from the API at present. Luckily, this means client support is now possible, so you should see them appear in your favorite audiobook client before our next server release.