Scanning
Learn the important quirks of scanning
TL;DR
- Default scanning uses your AniList anime list data to match files, faster.
- Enhanced scanning does not require your AniList data and is more comprehensive, slower.
- Refresh entries manually or automatically to update your library.
- Lock files to speed up the scanning process. 'Skip locked filed' when refreshing.
- Uncheck this option if you changed library directories
- Un-match files that are mismatched and resolve unresolved files.
- Summaries show the results of your latest scans.
Default scanning behavior
The default scanning behavior is designed to be efficient and fast. This means reducing the number of external API requests. To achieve this, the scanner uses your AniList anime list data to match files.
In other words, if you have files from an anime that is not on your AniList account, they will not be matched correctly. This goes for files of seasons, movies, and OVAs (except direct prequels or sequels) that are not present in your AniList lists.
How it works
##### Local library ######
📁 Attack On Titan Season 3
📁 Jujutsu Kaisen
📁 One Piece
📁 One Piece Film Red <- 🧐 Not in AniList
📁 Blue Lock
📁 Sousou No Frieren
📁 Horimiya: Pieces <- 🧐 Only "Horimiya" in AniList
📁 Bungou Stray Dogs Season 5 <- 🧐 Only Season 1-3 in AniList
📁 Black Lagoon <- 🧐 Not in AniList
##### Results ######
✅ Attack On Titan Season 3
✅ Jujutsu Kaisen
✅ One Piece
❌ One Piece Film Red <- Mismatched to "One Piece"
✅ Blue Lock
✅ Sousou No Frieren
✅ Horimiya: Pieces <- Correctly matched, since it is direct sequel of "Horimiya"
❌ Bungou Stray Dogs Season 5 <- Mismatched to "Bungou Stray Dogs Season 3"
❌ Black Lagoon <- Unresolved
When to use
- When your local library contains anime that is in your AniList lists
- When you aren't scanning files from an anime that is not in your AniList lists
Enhanced scanning
Enhanced scanning is designed to be comprehensive. It does not rely on your AniList anime list data to match files. This means that the scanning duration will be longer, but it will be able to match files from anime that are not in your AniList lists.
How it works
To achieve this, the scanner pre-fetches data from AniList based on the file names. It then fetches additional data, including prequels, sequels, specials and movies of each anime, increasing the chances of matching files correctly.
Caveats
The catch is that this method requires a lot of API requests, which can be slow and may hit the rate limit multiple times if you have a large library.
Additionally, the reliability of the matching is not guaranteed, as it is based on the file names and search results from MyAnimeList.
##### Local library ######
📁 Attack On Titan Season 3
📁 Jujutsu Kaisen
📁 One Piece
📁 One Piece Film Red <- 🧐 Not in AniList
📁 Blue Lock
📁 Sousou No Frieren
📁 Horimiya <- 🧐 Not in AniList
📁 Bungou Stray Dogs Season 5 <- 🧐 Only Season 1-3 in AniList
📁 Black Lagoon <- 🧐 Not in AniList
📁 Shingeki no Kyojin - The Final Season Part 3
##### Results ######
✅ Attack On Titan Season 3
✅ Jujutsu Kaisen
✅ One Piece
✅ One Piece Film Red
✅ Blue Lock
✅ Sousou No Frieren
✅ Black Lagoon
✅ Horimiya
✅ Bungou Stray Dogs Season 5
✅ Black Lagoon
❌ Shingeki no Kyojin - The Final Season Part 3 <- Mismatched to "Shingeki no Kyojin"
As you can see based of this real result, the enhanced scanning was able to match more files than the default scanning.
However, it was not able to correctly match complex cases like Shingeki no Kyojin - The Final Season Part 3
Make it work
To ensure that enhanced scanning works as expected, you should:
- Make sure that either the files or their folder contains a title that closely matches the anime title from MyAnimeList.
- Avoid shortened, abbreviated or multiple titles
Refreshing entries
Seanime does not automatically refresh your library by default, so you will need to do this manually by clicking the Refresh entries
button when your library is updated.
Automatic refresh
You can enable automatic refresh in the settings page. Seanime will then automatically refresh your entries when it detects changes in your library.
Caveats:
- This works best when single files are added or removed. If you are adding a batch of files, it's recommended to disable this feature.
- This can cause mismatches if the new files are from anime that are not in your AniList collection.
- This can be slow if you have a large library and haven't locked any files.
Locking files
Locking is a handy feature that helps speed up the scanning process. It basically tells Seanime that these files were matched correctly, so it can skip them during the next refresh.
Good to know
- Locking files is not permanent. You can unlock them at any time.
- Locked files do not persist in the database after you delete them from your library. (i.e. you don't have to worry about unlocking files before deleting them)
Un-matching / Deleting files
Bulk actions
- Click on the vertical ellipsis button to open the context menu.
- From there, you can un-match all files or delete selected files.
Single file
- Click on the ellipsis on the right side of an episode item to open the context menu.
- Click on the "Un-match" button to un-match the file.
Summaries
You can view the summaries of your latest scans by going to the "Scan summaries" page. This page shows the results for each anime entry, including the number of matched and unresolved files and even scanner logs for each file. This allows you to quickly identify and fix any mismatches.
Unresolved files
Unresolved files are files that the scanner was not able to match to any anime entry.
It's recommended to resolve these files manually by finding out the reason they were not matched correctly and fixing the file names or structure accordingly. This will help you avoid any issues when you refresh your entries in the future.
However, you can simply click the "Resolve unmatched" button and choose the appropriate anime entry, the files will be matched and locked.