Quick start

Collectoh is a media server you run yourself, on your own computer or NAS. It organises your films, TV, music, audiobooks, books, courses, photos and home videos, and streams them to any web browser — at home, or away from it if you choose.

This page takes you from nothing to watching. Each step links to a fuller guide.

#1. Install Collectoh

Choose the way that suits the machine your media lives on:

• Windows, macOS or Linux: run the installer or package. It sets Collectoh up as a background service and opens the setup wizard for you.
• Docker: download the compose file, point it at your media folder and start it.
• A NAS: from your NAS's app centre, or with the Docker image.

Installing Collectoh covers the requirements, each method and the Docker settings.

#2. Run the setup wizard

Open http://localhost:8080 in a browser on that machine, or http://<server-address>:8080 from another device on your network. The first visit opens a five-step wizard:

1. Sign in with Collectoh. Choose Sign in with Collectoh and the wizard shows a code. Open the link beside it, sign in to your Collectoh account (it's free), and confirm the code. The server is yours, and the wizard carries on by itself. Only you need an account: the people you invite sign in to your server alone.
2. Create the owner account. This is how you sign in to your server itself. The owner can do everything; you'll add other people later.
3. Add storage: the folder your media lives in. With Docker, that's /media. Choose Test; you can carry on once the server can read it.
4. Create the first library: a name, a type (Films, TV shows, Music and so on) and one or more folders. Before anything is saved, the wizard shows what the scanner would make of those folders, so a wrong folder or type is obvious straight away.
5. Remote access: optional. Test the address you'd use away from home, or skip it for now.

#3. Let the first scan run

When you finish, the first scan starts and you land on the home screen with its progress. Items appear within seconds of their files being found. Posters, descriptions and cast fill in behind them as the online catalogues answer, which can take a while for a big library.

Anything Collectoh can't identify with confidence keeps the name from its files and waits in Admin → Needs matching for you to confirm, rather than being guessed. Admin is in the menu under your picture.

To add more libraries, drives or network shares, see Libraries and folders. Tidy names make for accurate matches: Naming and organising your files shows the layouts Collectoh understands.

#4. Watch on any screen

Open the same address on a laptop, phone or tablet and sign in. Collectoh plays a file as it is when the device can, and converts it on the fly when it can't. Your place is kept on the server, so you can stop on one screen and carry on from the same moment on another.

On a television, use its web browser: Collectoh switches to a layout you can drive with the remote. You can also send what's playing to a Chromecast, or to another screen with Collectoh open. Older TVs and AV receivers that only speak DLNA can be served too, once you switch that on. See Playback and DLNA.

#5. Invite your family

1. Make sure the server knows the address people will use to reach it, PUBLIC_URL (see Installing Collectoh). Invitation links are built from it. For anyone outside your home, set up remote access first.
2. Open Admin → People and choose Invite someone.
3. Choose a role, the libraries they can see, and any limits: an age limit, whether they may download, how many streams at once.
4. Choose Make the link and send it. It works once and is shown only this once, so copy it now.

Children can have restricted accounts with age limits and viewing hours. Sharing and users covers roles and limits in full.

#Where next

• Libraries and folders: library types, scanning and the trash
• Naming and organising your files
• Metadata and artwork: catalogue keys, fixing matches, collections
• Backup and restore