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sonarr-metadata-rewrite

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About sonarr-metadata-rewrite

Automatically translates Sonarr TV show metadata files to your preferred language using TMDB

Platforms

Web Self-hosted Docker

Languages

Python

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Source Code
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Published by
kfstorm
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README.md

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Sonarr Metadata Rewrite

Coverage CI

Ever been frustrated that Sonarr only gives you English metadata for your TV shows? This tool fixes that by watching for Sonarr's .nfo files and automatically replacing them with translations in whatever language you prefer. It can also rewrite poster and clearlogo images to language-specific variants when available (e.g., poster.jpg, clearlogo.png, season01-poster.jpg).

It's my solution to Sonarr Issue #269 and Sonarr Issue #6663 . It turns out a lot of people want their media metadata in their native language, but Sonarr doesn't support this natively.

What it does

The tool runs as a background service that:

  • Watches your media folders for when Sonarr creates or updates .nfo files
  • Grabs the TMDB ID from those files and fetches translations from TMDB's API
  • Replaces the English metadata with your preferred language(s)
  • Rewrites poster and clearlogo images based on your preferred language-country codes (e.g., en-US, ja-JP) when such variants exist on TMDB
  • Does this fast enough that you barely notice it happening
  • Keeps backups of the original files in case you want them back
  • Caches everything so it doesn't spam TMDB's API

You can configure multiple languages with fallback priority - like Chinese first, then Japanese, then just leave it in English if neither is available.

Installation

You'll need Docker and a TMDB API Read Access Token from themoviedb.org.

⚠️ Important: This application requires an API Read Access Token, NOT an "API Key". Get your API Read Access Token from the TMDB API settings page under the "API Read Access Token" section. Learn more about authentication at the TMDB Authentication Guide.

Docker (recommended):

docker run -d \
  --name sonarr-metadata-rewrite \
  --user $(id -u):$(id -g) \
  -e TMDB_API_KEY=your_api_key_here \
  -e REWRITE_ROOT_DIRS=/tv,/anime \
  -e PREFERRED_LANGUAGES=zh-CN,ja-JP \
  -v /path/to/tv/shows:/tv \
  -v /path/to/anime:/anime \
  -v sonarr-metadata-cache:/app/cache \
  -v sonarr-metadata-backups:/app/backups \
  --restart unless-stopped \
  kfstorm/sonarr-metadata-rewrite:latest

Docker Compose:

version: '3.8'
services:
  sonarr-metadata-rewrite:
    image: kfstorm/sonarr-metadata-rewrite:latest
    container_name: sonarr-metadata-rewrite
    user: "${UID:-1000}:${GID:-1000}"
    environment:
      - TMDB_API_KEY=your_api_key_here
      - REWRITE_ROOT_DIRS=/tv,/anime
      - PREFERRED_LANGUAGES=zh-CN,ja-JP
      # Optional: customize cache duration (default: 30 days)
      # - CACHE_DURATION_HOURS=168
    volumes:
      - /path/to/tv/shows:/tv
      - /path/to/anime:/anime
      - sonarr-metadata-cache:/app/cache
      - sonarr-metadata-backups:/app/backups
    restart: unless-stopped

volumes:
  sonarr-metadata-cache:
  sonarr-metadata-backups:

Configuration

Required Settings

TMDB_API_KEY=your_api_read_access_token_here  # Your TMDB API Read Access Token
# One or more media directories (comma-separated) to watch for Sonarr .nfo files
REWRITE_ROOT_DIRS=/tv,/anime
# Comma-separated language codes in priority order
PREFERRED_LANGUAGES=zh-CN,ja-JP

REWRITE_ROOT_DIR (singular, one path) is also accepted for backward compatibility. REWRITE_ROOT_DIRS takes priority when both are set.

Optional Settings (with defaults)

# Scanning & Monitoring
PERIODIC_SCAN_INTERVAL_SECONDS=86400  # How often to scan directory (default: daily)
ENABLE_FILE_MONITOR=true              # Real-time file monitoring (default: true)
ENABLE_FILE_SCANNER=true              # Periodic directory scanning (default: true)

# NFO & Images
ENABLE_NFO_REWRITE=true               # Translate NFO files (default: true)
ENABLE_IMAGE_REWRITE=true             # Rewrite posters/clearlogos (default: true)

# Caching & Storage
CACHE_DURATION_HOURS=720              # Cache translations (default: 30 days)
CACHE_DIR=./cache                     # Cache directory (default: ./cache)

# TMDB API Rate Limiting
TMDB_MAX_RETRIES=3                    # Max retry attempts (default: 3)
TMDB_INITIAL_RETRY_DELAY=1.0          # Initial retry delay (default: 1.0)
TMDB_MAX_RETRY_DELAY=60.0             # Max retry delay (default: 60.0)

# Backup
ORIGINAL_FILES_BACKUP_DIR=./backups   # Backup original files (default: ./backups)
                                      # Applies to both .nfo and images. Set to
                                      # empty string to disable backups.
                                      # Files are stored under their full absolute
                                      # path (e.g. /app/backups/tv/Show/tvshow.nfo)
                                      # so backups from different root dirs never
                                      # collide.
                                      # Backups created by older single-root-dir
                                      # versions are still found and restored
                                      # automatically (backward compatible).

# Service Mode
SERVICE_MODE=rewrite                  # Service mode: 'rewrite' or 'rollback'
                                      # (default: rewrite)

Language codes are ISO 639-1 format:

  • zh-CN - Chinese (Simplified)
  • ja-JP - Japanese
  • ko-KR - Korean
  • fr-FR - French
  • de-DE - German
  • es-ES - Spanish

You can list multiple languages separated by commas - it'll try them in order.

Which images are rewritten?

If image rewriting is enabled, the service recognizes these filenames:

  • Series-level: poster.*, clearlogo.*
  • Season-level: seasonNN-poster.* (e.g., season01-poster.jpg)
  • Specials: season-specials-poster.*

Supported extensions: .jpg, .jpeg, .png.

When rewriting, the tool selects the first TMDB image that exactly matches your preferred language-country codes in order. It then writes the image atomically, embeds a small JSON marker in the image metadata indicating the TMDB file path and language, and normalizes the extension to match TMDB while preserving the original filename stem. If the existing image already matches the selected candidate (based on the embedded marker), it is skipped to avoid unnecessary writes.

File Permissions (Important!)

The --user parameter in the Docker examples above is critical for maintaining proper file permissions. Here's why:

  • Without --user, Docker runs the container as root by default
  • Files created by the container (rewritten .nfo files, cache, backups) will be owned by root
  • This can cause permission issues when trying to access files from your host system
  • Sonarr or other applications may not be able to read the rewritten files

For Docker run:

--user $(id -u):$(id -g)

This automatically uses your current user's UID and GID.

For Docker Compose:

user: "${UID:-1000}:${GID:-1000}"

Set the UID and GID environment variables first:

export UID=$(id -u)
export GID=$(id -g)
docker compose up -d

To check your user ID:

id -u  # Shows your user ID (UID)
id -g  # Shows your group ID (GID)

Highly Recommended Volume Mappings

While only the media directories are strictly required, these volumes will improve your experience:

# Media directories (required - mount each root dir separately)
-v /path/to/your/tv/shows:/tv
-v /path/to/your/anime:/anime

# Cache directory (highly recommended - persists translation cache across
# container restarts)
-v sonarr-metadata-cache:/app/cache

# Backup directory (highly recommended - keeps original .nfo and image files safe)
-v sonarr-metadata-backups:/app/backups

Without these volumes, you'll lose cached translations and backups when the container is recreated.

Running it

The Docker container runs automatically once started. You can check the logs:

docker logs sonarr-metadata-rewrite

You'll see something like:

🚀 Starting Sonarr Metadata Rewrite...
✅ TMDB API key loaded (ending in ...xyz)
📁 Monitoring directory: /tv
📁 Monitoring directory: /anime
🌍 Preferred languages: ['zh-CN', 'ja-JP']
✅ Service started successfully

The container runs in the background. When Sonarr updates your shows, this will automatically translate the metadata files.

To stop the container:

docker stop sonarr-metadata-rewrite

How it works

The service has a few main parts:

File monitoring - Uses Python's watchdog to watch for file changes (.nfo and image files) in real-time

TMDB integration - Extracts TMDB IDs from Sonarr's XML files and fetches translations via their API

Smart caching - Stores translations locally so it doesn't hit the API repeatedly for the same content

Batch processing - Also scans your existing files periodically to catch anything it might have missed (both .nfo and image files)

Safe file handling - Does atomic writes, embeds tiny markers in images to avoid reprocessing, and keeps backups so you never lose data

The whole thing is designed to be invisible - just set it up once and forget about it.

Restoring originals (rollback)

If you want to restore Sonarr's original English metadata (and images), you can use the built-in rollback functionality to automatically restore all original files from backups.

Automated Rollback (Recommended)

Set the service to rollback mode, which will restore all original files from backups:

Docker:

docker run --rm \
  --user $(id -u):$(id -g) \
  -e SERVICE_MODE=rollback \
  -e TMDB_API_KEY=your_api_key_here \
  -e REWRITE_ROOT_DIRS=/tv,/anime \
  -e PREFERRED_LANGUAGES=zh-CN,ja-JP \
  -v /path/to/tv/shows:/tv \
  -v /path/to/anime:/anime \
  -v sonarr-metadata-backups:/app/backups \
  kfstorm/sonarr-metadata-rewrite:latest

Docker Compose:

# Temporarily change your docker-compose.yml
environment:
  - SERVICE_MODE=rollback
  # ... other environment variables

The rollback service will:

  • Restore all original .nfo and image files from the backup directory
  • Skip any shows/episodes that have been deleted
  • Log the restoration progress
  • Hang after completion (preventing restart loops)

Important: The service will hang after rollback completion to prevent restart loops. Stop it manually when done:

docker stop sonarr-metadata-rewrite

Development

Want to hack on this? Cool!

Setup

git clone https://github.com/kfstorm/sonarr-metadata-rewrite.git
cd sonarr-metadata-rewrite
./scripts/setup-dev.sh
echo "TMDB_API_KEY=your_key" > .env

Run tests:

./scripts/run-unit-tests.sh          # Fast unit tests
./scripts/run-integration-tests.sh   # Slower integration tests (needs Docker)
./scripts/combine-coverage.sh        # Combine coverage reports

Code quality:

./scripts/lint.sh                    # Fix formatting and imports
./scripts/lint.sh --check            # Just check, don't fix

The codebase uses modern Python tooling - uv for dependencies, Black for formatting, Ruff for linting, MyPy for type checking. There are pre-commit hooks that run all the checks automatically.

Troubleshooting

Service won't start

  • Check that your TMDB API Read Access Token is valid (see authentication section above)
  • Make sure the media directory exists and is readable
  • Look at the error messages, they're usually pretty helpful

Authentication errors (401 Unauthorized)

If you see "401 Unauthorized" errors:

  • Most common cause: You're using an "API Key" instead of an "API Read Access Token"
  • Solution: Get the correct "API Read Access Token" from TMDB API settings
  • How to tell: API Read Access Tokens are much longer than API Keys
  • Reference: TMDB Authentication Guide

Files aren't getting translated

  • Verify your .nfo files actually contain TMDB IDs (look for <uniqueid type="tmdb">123456</uniqueid>)
  • Check that TMDB has translations in your preferred language for that content
  • Make sure Sonarr is actually writing new .nfo files (try refreshing a series)

File permission issues

If you're seeing permission denied errors or files owned by root:

  • Make sure you're using the --user parameter in your Docker command
  • For existing containers, stop and recreate with the proper --user setting
  • Check file ownership: ls -la /path/to/your/tv/shows/
  • Files should be owned by your user, not root

Fix for existing root-owned files:

# Stop the container first
docker stop sonarr-metadata-rewrite

# Fix ownership (replace with your actual path and user)
sudo chown -R $(id -u):$(id -g) /path/to/your/tv/shows/

# Restart with proper --user parameter

API rate limits

  • TMDB has rate limits, and the service includes automatic retry logic with exponential backoff
  • Most requests are cached, so they only happen once per series/episode
  • If you have a huge library, the service will automatically handle rate limits and pace itself
  • You can configure retry behavior with TMDB_MAX_RETRIES, TMDB_INITIAL_RETRY_DELAY, and TMDB_MAX_RETRY_DELAY settings

License

MIT License - do whatever you want with it.

This project scratches my own itch of wanting Chinese metadata for my media library. If it helps you too, that's awesome! Feel free to contribute or report issues.