How to Connect an External Hard Drive to Jellyfin Server: A Step-by-Step Guide

What You’ll Need

Before we dive into the process of connecting an external hard drive to your Jellyfin server, make sure you have the following:

• A Jellyfin server set up and running (if you haven’t done this yet, check out our guide on How to Install Jellyfin Server)
• An external hard drive compatible with your Jellyfin server (we recommend a drive with acapacity of at least 1TB)
• A USB port available on your Jellyfin server
• Basic knowledge of Linux commands (don’t worry, we’ll walk you through it)

Step 1: Prepare Your External Hard Drive

Before connecting your external hard drive to your Jellyfin server, you need to make sure it’s properly formatted and ready for use.

Formatting Your External Hard Drive

If your external hard drive is brand new, it’s likely to be in a raw state and needs to be formatted. If you’ve used it before, you might need to reformat it to ensure compatibility with your Jellyfin server.

sudo fdisk -l

Run the above command in your terminal to list all available disk devices. Identify your external hard drive (it should be listed as `/dev/sdX`, where `X` is a letter, e.g., `/dev/sdb`).

sudo mkfs.ext4 /dev/sdX

Replace `/dev/sdX` with the identifier of your external hard drive, and run the above command to format it with the ext4 file system.

Step 2: Mount the External Hard Drive

Now that your external hard drive is formatted, you need to mount it to your Jellyfin server.

Temporary Mount

sudo mkdir /mnt/external

Create a new directory `/mnt/external` to serve as a mount point for your external hard drive.

sudo mount /dev/sdX /mnt/external

Replace `/dev/sdX` with the identifier of your external hard drive, and run the above command to mount it to the `/mnt/external` directory.

Persistent Mount

To ensure your external hard drive is mounted automatically on boot, you need to add an entry to the `/etc/fstab` file.

sudo nano /etc/fstab

Open the `/etc/fstab` file in a text editor, and add the following line at the end:

/dev/sdX /mnt/external ext4 defaults 0 0

Replace `/dev/sdX` with the identifier of your external hard drive, and save the changes.

Step 3: Configure Jellyfin to Use the External Hard Drive

Now that your external hard drive is mounted, you need to configure Jellyfin to use it for storage.

Update Jellyfin Configuration

sudo nano /etc/jellyfin/config.json

Open the Jellyfin configuration file in a text editor, and add the following lines:

{
  "paths": {
    "media_path": "/mnt/external/media"
  }
}

Update the `media_path` to point to the `/mnt/external/media` directory, which will serve as the root directory for your media files.

Step 4: Move Media Files to the External Hard Drive

Move your existing media files to the external hard drive to make them accessible through Jellyfin.

sudo mv /var/lib/jellyfin/media /mnt/external/media

Move the existing media files from the default `/var/lib/jellyfin/media` directory to the new `/mnt/external/media` directory.

Step 5: Restart Jellyfin and Verify the Connection

Restart the Jellyfin service to apply the changes:

sudo systemctl restart jellyfin

Verify that Jellyfin is using the external hard drive by checking the Jellyfin dashboard. You should see your media files listed and accessible through the web interface.

Troubleshooting Tips
If you encounter issues with the external hard drive not being recognized, try reformatting it or checking the USB port. If Jellyfin fails to start after updating the configuration, double-check the changes and ensure the `media_path` is correctly set.

Conclusion

By following these steps, you’ve successfully connected your external hard drive to your Jellyfin server. This setup allows you to expand your media storage capacity and enjoy seamless access to your media files through the Jellyfin web interface.

Remember to periodically back up your data to prevent losses in case of hardware failure or other catastrophic events.

Have any questions or need further assistance? Feel free to ask in the comments below!

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Frequently Asked Question

Want to connect your external hard drive to your Jellyfin server and enjoy seamless media streaming? We’ve got you covered! Here are the most frequently asked questions about connecting an external hard drive to Jellyfin: