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Awesome Library Cleaner (ALC) can automatically manage cleanup for Jellyfin Movies and TV Shows libraries, but it does not handle every library type or every kind of library problem. It lets administrators set age rules based on when files were added, updated, or last watched, and choose whether to review items before deletion or automate removal.
What Awesome Library Cleaner can clean
ALC is a rule-based Jellyfin plugin for Movies and TV Shows libraries. The project README says other library types—including music, books, photos, and mixed-content libraries—are ignored. Jellyfin supports those other types, but that broader platform support does not extend ALC’s scope. See the ALC project README and Jellyfin’s library documentation.
That makes ALC a fit when you want to manage aging films or episodes, not a general-purpose fix for metadata, scanning, or every Jellyfin library issue. Jellyfin recommends dedicated library types rather than mixed libraries because mixed-type metadata results can be unreliable.
How its cleanup rules work
ALC lets you configure its behavior for each supported library. You can enable or disable cleanup per library, choose the date used to calculate age, set a “leaving soon” period, set a deletion threshold, and decide whether deletion happens automatically.
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| Age reference | How ALC uses it |
|---|---|
| File-added date | Measures age from when the item was added to the library. |
| Latest file-update date | Measures age from the latest update to the file. |
| Latest-watch date | Measures age from the most recent watch. For an item that has never been played, ALC falls back to the file-added date. |
The dates answer different questions: added-date rules target items that have been in the library a long time, update-date rules account for changed files, and watch-date rules focus on viewing activity. Choose the one that matches your retention policy, then set a threshold with enough margin for the way your household uses the server.
Review items before deleting them
Automatic deletion is optional. With it disabled, pending items can be reviewed in a “To Delete” collection and in ALC’s cleanup interface, where an administrator can selectively delete or retain them. This is the safer way to learn how a chosen rule applies to the library before making removal automatic.
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ALC also documents optional favorites protection. For TV libraries, it offers episode-, season-, or whole-series cleanup granularity. These protections and choices depend on configuration; do not assume favorites or entire shows are protected unless you have set the relevant options.
Set up ALC conservatively
- Check compatibility. The project README lists Jellyfin 10.11.2 or later as a requirement. Verify the current release information and your installed server version before installing, since plugin compatibility can change.
- Install from the project’s repository route. Follow the installation instructions in the ALC README. Jellyfin documents catalog installation and plugin repositories in its plugin documentation. A plugin being installable through Jellyfin’s interface does not, by itself, mean it is an official Jellyfin plugin.
- Start with a test library and manual review. Enable ALC only for a test Movies or TV Shows library, choose an age reference, and use a relatively long threshold. Leave automatic deletion off while you inspect which items become pending.
- Check protections and TV granularity. Configure favorites protection if you want it, and choose whether TV cleanup should target episodes, seasons, or whole series.
- Keep backups before enabling automation. Confirm that the pending list matches your intent and that your media is backed up before you allow automatic deletion.
Scheduling and deletion risks
The ALC README documents a daily 3 AM default for its cleanup task, and says the task can be triggered manually or its schedule changed. That is ALC’s documented default, not a general Jellyfin schedule. Jellyfin’s task documentation explains that plugins may add configurable scheduled tasks, which can also be triggered manually: Jellyfin scheduled tasks.
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Automatic deletion is consequential: the ALC README warns, “Deletion is permanent and will remove the original media files!” Manual mode lets you review pending items and selectively delete or retain them. Keep backups of original media; a backup drive may be useful, but the right capacity and setup depend on your library and backup plan.
Do not confuse ALC’s deletion behavior with Jellyfin’s separate built-in “Clean up collections and playlists” task. Jellyfin warns that if media is unavailable when that task runs, playlists may be lost. That warning concerns playlists and collections, not ALC’s permanent removal of media files.
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