Metadata

Metadata improves matching across providers. It turns “title + year” into stable IDs, so sync plans don’t guess.

Why you want metadata

Most sync problems start with weak identifiers:

• Different services use different IDs.

• Titles are localized, renamed, or ambiguous.

• Episodes can be especially messy without external IDs.

Adding metadata helps CrossWatch:

• match items by stable IDs (TMDb/IMDb/etc. when available)

• reduce “missing peer” and “wrong match” issues

• make two-way sync less risky

Recommended: set up metadata before your first real sync run.

What CrossWatch supports

Right now, CrossWatch supports one metadata source:

• TMDb (The Movie Database)

Setup

1

Add a metadata provider

Go to Settings → Metadata and enable a provider.

2

Configure TMDb

Create a TMDb API key and paste it into CrossWatch.

Guide: The Movie Database

How metadata is used

CrossWatch uses metadata during:

• indexing (to enrich items with IDs)

• planning (to match “same title” across two providers)

• writing (to send the most reliable IDs to the target)

Troubleshooting

• Lots of missing matches: configure TMDb, then re-run the pair.

• Wrong match: fix the item in the Editor (override IDs), then re-run.

• Rate limits: increase TMDb cache TTL and avoid rapid re-runs.