Jellyfin 10.11.0 → 12.0

WARNING: This release contains several extremely important security fixes. These vulnerabilities will be disclosed in 14 days as per our security policy. Users of all versions prior to 10.11.7 are advised to upgrade immediately.

Note: This release fixes several regressions from 10.11.7, with the goal to get people onto an updated release due to the forthcoming (t-minus 9 days) release of the GHSAs/CVEs that were fixed in 10.11.7. Please upgrade to this release as soon as you can.

Notes on Updating

Before upgrading from an earlier version, a full backup of the data directory is strongly recommended, as this release includes database changes that prevent rolling back without a full restore.

Direct upgrades from 10.10.7 and 10.11.x to 12.0 are supported; intermediate upgrades are not required. Users running releases older than 10.10.7 are strongly encouraged to upgrade to 10.10.7 before migrating to 12.0.

Installed repository plugins (anything not built-in) should also be removed before migrating. Plugins will likely need time to adapt to the new database changes, so re-adding them afterward is the safest approach for testing.

Official plugins compatible with Jellyfin are available through the stable plugin repository. If you have changed to the unstable plugin repository please change it back.

• Go to Dashboard -> Plugins -> Manage Repositories
• Update the Plugin Repository URL to: https://repo.jellyfin.org/files/plugin/manifest.json

After migrating please perform the following steps.

• Perform a full library scan to restore alternative versions

If you run into issues, please prefix bug reports with "[12.0]".

Packaging

• Debian Bullseye and Ubuntu Focal packages are no longer built

Breaking and behavior changes

• Legacy route prefixes removed (/emby/* and /mediabrowser/*). Old third-party clients that rely on them will stop working
• Legacy authorization is now disabled by default, and a migration disables it on existing installs as well
• Removed obsolete API routes: POST /Users/{userId}/EasyPassword (the EasyPassword feature is gone), GET /Items/{itemId}/CriticReviews, GET /Environment/NetworkShares, POST /System/MediaEncoder/Path, GET /LiveTv/Recordings/Groups/{groupId}, and GET /QuickConnect/Initiate
• The global subtitle configuration has been removed, subtitle settings are configured per library
• .ogg is no longer treated as a video extension and is audio only, .aifc is now recognized as audio, and .aiff is no longer treated as an image
• Symlinks are only resolved at playback time
• Sorting by name now uses SortName and CleanName, and the same cleaning logic is applied to ForcedSortName. Library ordering may change compared to 10.11
• Image endpoints no longer upscale beyond the source resolution, so low resolution artwork renders at its real size instead of being enlarged
• Username capitalization can now be changed. Usernames are stored in a normalized column with a unique index, so installs with usernames that differ only by case need to be corrected before upgrading

TL; DR

Info

IT IS VERY IMPORTANT THAT YOU READ THIS SECTION BEFORE UPGRADING TO JELLYFIN 12.0! Failure to do so may cause issues! Always feel free to ask for help in our chat if you are unclear or run into trouble.

This release changes the database schema and actively rewrites data on first boot, so a backup is the only way back to your previous version.

1. As always for major upgrades, ensure you STOP Jellyfin and take a FULL MANUAL BACKUP OF YOUR DATA AND CONFIG DIRECTORIES before upgrading!

2. You must be running Jellyfin 10.10.7 or any 10.11.x release before upgrading to 12.0. Upgrading directly from 10.11.x is fully supported and no intermediate step is needed. If you are on anything older than 10.10.7, upgrade to 10.10.7 first, then upgrade to 12.0.

3. Check your usernames before upgrading. Usernames are now case insensitive, so two accounts can't have names that only differ by capitalization. If you have users that match this pattern the database migration will fail.

4. A full library scan is REQUIRED after upgrading. As part of fixing how alternate versions are stored, versions that Jellyfin grouped automatically, not ones you merged yourself, are cleared during the upgrade. Until you run the scan those versions will look like they are missing.

5. The first scan after upgrading will take significantly longer than normal, and some movies may appear as newly added. This is expected. Jellyfin now checks every item in your library against the files on disk to clear out leftovers from previous versions, and anything that was previously filed incorrectly gets corrected as it goes. Do not stop the server while migrations are running.

6. Once installed, please ensure you hard refresh (e.g. Ctrl+Shift+R or similar) and/or clear your web cache for your Jellyfin instance if you notice any UX anomalies. Bad cached assets are the #1 cause of such issues.

7. Remove any third-party plugins before upgrading. Plugins built for 10.11 will not load on 12.0 and need updated builds from their authors, so give them time to catch up before adding them back. Official plugins have been updated for 12.0 support.

8. Very old third-party clients will stop working. Support for the legacy /emby/ and /mediabrowser/ addresses has been removed, and the deprecated way of signing in is now disabled, including on existing servers. Clients that have not seen an update in years are the ones at risk here.

9. This release contains security fixes, so we recommend upgrading rather than staying on an older release once you are ready.

10. As always with major Jellyfin releases, bugs will exist. Please prefix bug reports with "[12.0]" so we can triage them quickly, and see point 1 one more time: take a backup.

Changes you may notice after upgrading

A few things behave differently than they did on 10.11, beyond the legacy client removals covered above:

• Subtitle settings are now configured per library rather than once for the whole server, so the old server-wide subtitle options no longer exist.
• Sorting is more consistent, which does mean some libraries will be ordered slightly differently than you are used to.
• Artwork is no longer stretched past its real size. Low resolution posters now appear at their actual size instead of being blown up to fit, which looks smaller but sharper.
• .ogg files are treated as audio, not video. If you had .ogg video files, they will be re-sorted on the next scan.
• Usernames can now be changed between upper and lower case. As part of that, two accounts can no longer have names that differ only by capitalization. If your server has usernames that differ only by capitalization, the database migration will fail.
• Symlinked media is followed when something is played rather than when the library is scanned.

Deprecation of internal TLS/SSL support

In the 10.11.0 release notes we announced that internal TLS/SSL support would be removed in this release. That removal has been postponed to a future version. The reasoning has not changed - we continue to recommend running Jellyfin behind a reverse proxy - so if you are running an Internet-facing instance using Jellyfin's built-in TLS, this is extra time to migrate, not a reprieve.

• All themes now derive from a shared base theme built on CSS variables, including Dark, Light, WMC, Blue Radiance, Apple TV, and Purple Haze. Custom themes may need to be adjusted