Jellyfin Matched the Wrong Movie

When a film shows the wrong poster, year or description, Jellyfin matched your file to a different film with the same title. The fix is almost always the name: add the year.

Updated 23 October 2026.

What it looks like

We made this happen on purpose on our test server. Blender’s 8-minute short Spring (2019) was saved as just Spring.mp4, with no year.

Jellyfin’s film page for Spring showing 2014 and a description of a different film, marked 1 and 2.
Before: the file was named just Spring.mp4.
  1. Jellyfin matched a 2014 feature film called Spring. The year, rating and description belong to that film; the running time still comes from your file.
  2. The description is for a different film.
The same film page after renaming, showing 2019 and the right description, marked 1 and 2.
After: renamed Spring (2019)\Spring (2019).mp4 and rescanned.
  1. This is the right film, Blender’s Spring from 2019.
  2. The description now fits.

Fix it

  1. Rename the film’s folder and its file to the title and the year the film came out, such as Spring (2019)\Spring (2019).mp4.
  2. Rescan the library.
  3. If the name is right and the match is still wrong, open the film’s menu, choose Identify and search for the right film. In Plex this is called Fix Match.

Library Check lists every film without a year and suggests a clean name for each.

Want the Whole Setup, Start to Finish?

Your First Movie Server is our beginner’s guide. It walks you from three video files on a Windows PC to your own movie server, with real, annotated screenshots of the Jellyfin and Emby setup screens, a check at each step and the fixes for the problems beginners hit most. A bonus chapter brings your films into ALT VIDEO. It is on sale soon.

See the guide Get Library Check free

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