PLAN THE LIBRARY

How much storage will your media server need?

Estimate capacity for films, TV, music, growth, Jellyfin data and backup copies before choosing disks.

Use your real library sizes where possible. Codec, bitrate, resolution and remux/compression choices can change file sizes dramatically. The defaults are only an editable example.

Your media library

MoviesNumber of movie files in the library.Average movie size (GB)Use a sample from your own library if possible.TV episodesNumber of episode files.Average episode size (GB)Varies heavily by resolution and codec.Music albumsNumber of albums or album-equivalents.Average album size (GB)Lossless libraries can be much larger than compressed audio.Future growth allowance (%)Plan ahead rather than filling the storage on day one.Metadata / cache reserve (GB)Allow extra space for Jellyfin data, images, logs and temporary work.Extra backup copies1 means one additional full-copy equivalent besides the live library.

MEDIA STORAGE PLAN

Plan around 5.05 TB for the live server

10.10 TB including backups

Current media: 4.00 TB
After growth allowance: 5.00 TB
Live storage target: 5.05 TB
All copies: 10.10 TB

This does not include parity overhead from RAID layouts. Compare the live target with the usable capacity of your actual disk configuration.

One extra Jellyfin storage detail

Jellyfin says a moderate library database can grow into the tens of gigabytes, and transcoding cache can temporarily need substantial space. Keep the application database local rather than on network storage and leave adequate fast temporary space if you transcode often.