# 🎞️ I Built a Free Windows App to Catalog My Movie Hoard — Sharing It **URL:** \ **Category:** Tools & Scripts\ **Tags:** freebies, tips-tricks, file-management\ **Created:** [April 20, 2026, 9:03pm UTC](https://onehack.st/t/i-built-a-free-windows-app-to-catalog-my-movie-hoard-sharing-it/321377 "2026-04-20T21:03:30Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Aung\_Ko\_Ko](https://onehack.st/user_avatar/onehack.st/aung_ko_ko/32/138798_2.png) [@Aung\_Ko\_Ko](https://onehack.st/u/Aung_Ko_Ko)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2026, 9:03pm UTC](https://onehack.st/t/i-built-a-free-windows-app-to-catalog-my-movie-hoard-sharing-it/321377/1 "2026-04-20T21:03:30Z")
# 🛠 Built for Myself, Free for You — CineLibrary, Open Source _Long-time movie hoarder. Built a tiny Windows app so my external drives finally stop feeling like a graveyard. Free, MIT, no server nonsense._ ![image](https://onehack.st/uploads/default/original/3X/3/a/3a996ccfe52f8c565388d38b16839fa56d13ff8e.jpeg) **Four Seagate externals. A few thousand movies. No idea what’s on which drive.** Plex wants to be a server. Kodi wants my living room. Everything else wanted to re-scrape my whole collection with its own scheme. So I wrote my own. **CineLibrary.** > _Think of it as a bookshelf, not a cinema. It just shows you what you own — plugged in or not._ * * * > **🎬 What It Is?** > > A Windows app that reads your existing Movie folders and TV Shows folders turns them into one searchable, poster-filled library. It doesn’t play movies. It doesn’t run in the background. It doesn’t want an account. You open it, see every movie you own across every drive, double-click to play in whatever your default player is. That’s it. > > | | | > | --- | --- | > | **Works with** | Windows 10 (19041+) / Windows 11, 64-bit | > | **Costs** | $0 — MIT licence, source on GitHub | > | **RAM** | ~60 MB with ~1,500 movies loaded | > | **Startup** | Under 1 second | > | **Installer** | 42 MB, portable — move the folder, keeps working | > **🧰 The One Thing You Need First — CineLibrary Essentials** > > CineLibrary doesn’t fetch data from the internet. It reads what’s already next to your movies. That data has to come from somewhere, and that somewhere is **[CineLibrary Essentials]( CineLibrary Essentials — Clean up messy movie and TV-show downloads. Rename, organize, and scrape full metadata into the folder layout Plex, Kodi, Jellyfin and MediaElch expect — fast, offline, no admin required.]([https://aungkokomm.github.io/cinelibraryessentials/](https://aungkokomm.github.io/cinelibraryessentials/)))** — a free scraper that drops three files next to each movie: > > | File | What It Holds | > | --- | --- | > | `movie.nfo` | Plot, year, genre, cast, rating (plain text) | > | `poster.jpg` | The cover art you’d see on Netflix | > | `fanart.jpg` | The wide backdrop for the detail view | > **💡 Stuff I Built Because It Annoyed Me Personally** > > | Problem | How CineLibrary Handles It | > | --- | --- | > | **Drive letters change** when I swap USB hubs | Drives tracked by **hardware ID** , not letter | > | All my externals named “Seagate Backup Plus Drive” | **Rename inside the app** — “Seagate 5TB Bollywood” etc. | > | Drive unplugged = movies vanish from catalog | Still shown, marked **OFFLINE** with poster intact | > | Deleted movies leave ghost entries | **Orphan detector** flags them, one click cleanup | > | Don’t want random folders scanned | **Per-folder opt-in** per drive, not whole-drive scan | > | Plex eats 500+ MB RAM just to sit idle | **Native WinUI 3** , no hidden browser, ~60 MB | > > > 💡 The giveaway this was built by a hoarder: the orphan cleanup screen exists. That’s the kind of feature you only add after it bites you. > **🧭 Where This Fits vs Plex / Kodi / Jellyfin** > > | Tool | What It Is | What It Wants | > | --- | --- | --- | > | **[Plex](https://www.plex.tv/)** | Netflix clone, self-hosted | A PC running 24/7, an account | > | **[Jellyfin](https://jellyfin.org/)** | Free open-source Plex | A home server + setup time | > | **[Kodi](https://kodi.tv/)** | Living-room media centre | A TV-connected PC, full-screen takeover | > | **CineLibrary** | Offline catalog | Nothing — open it, close it, done | > > You can run CineLibrary **alongside** any of them — they all read the same MediaElch files. Use Plex to watch on the TV. Use this to remember what you own on the laptop. > **🛠️ Setup in 5 Steps** > > **1.** Install [MediaElch](https://mediaelch.github.io/), point it at your movie folders, let it scrape. > **2.** Download CineLibrary portable `.exe` from [releases](https://github.com/aungkokomm/CineLibraryCS/releases) — 42 MB. > **3.** Drop the folder anywhere (Desktop, Documents, even an external drive). > **4.** First launch: add a drive → pick which folders to scan per drive. > **5.** Rename your drives to something useful. Done. > > First scan takes a few minutes per ~1,000 movies. After that it just opens. > **🚧 What It Doesn't Do Yet** > > - Windows only (WinUI 3 is Windows-native — no Mac/Linux) > - No full flagged built-in scraper (it only fill missing metadat) > - No streaming or casting — plays via your default player locally > - Single user, desktop only > > [file an issue](https://github.com/aungkokomm/CineLibraryCS/issues). Feature requests welcome — this is very much a “built for myself” project, so I’m sure I missed obvious stuff. * * * **⚡ Quick Hits** | Want | Do | | --- | --- | | 🎯 Download | [Latest release](https://github.com/aungkokomm/CineLibraryCS/releases) | | 📜 Source | [GitHub repo](https://github.com/aungkokomm/CineLibraryCS) | | 🎞 Scraper first | [CineLibrary Essentials](https://aungkokomm.github.io/cinelibraryessentials/) | | 🐛 Bug / feature | [GitHub Issues](https://github.com/aungkokomm/CineLibraryCS/issues) | | 🚫 Skip this if | You have one drive with 20 movies — just use Explorer | * * * _Built for myself. Sharing it because someone out there has the same mess._ ---
**Author:** ![Abd\_Shk](https://onehack.st/user_avatar/onehack.st/abd_shk/32/25814_2.png) [@Abd\_Shk](https://onehack.st/u/Abd_Shk)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2026, 8:03am UTC](https://onehack.st/t/i-built-a-free-windows-app-to-catalog-my-movie-hoard-sharing-it/321377/2 "2026-04-21T08:03:25Z")
[CineLibrary-v1.3.0-Portable-Setup.exe](https://github.com/aungkokomm/CineLibraryCS/releases/download/v1.3.0/CineLibrary-v1.3.0-Portable-Setup.exe) What about for linux? 😷 ---
**Author:** ![Aung\_Ko\_Ko](https://onehack.st/user_avatar/onehack.st/aung_ko_ko/32/138798_2.png) [@Aung\_Ko\_Ko](https://onehack.st/u/Aung_Ko_Ko)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2026, 8:20am UTC](https://onehack.st/t/i-built-a-free-windows-app-to-catalog-my-movie-hoard-sharing-it/321377/3 "2026-04-21T08:20:29Z")
I have tried to make it multi-platform but honestly Electon overload makes it too slow that was too frustrating. If you are interested can look it here, and fork it if you wish to. That is totally separate release. [CineLibrary (Electorn)](https://github.com/aungkokomm/CineLibrary) ---
**Author:** ![Abd\_Shk](https://onehack.st/user_avatar/onehack.st/abd_shk/32/25814_2.png) [@Abd\_Shk](https://onehack.st/u/Abd_Shk)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2026, 8:29am UTC](https://onehack.st/t/i-built-a-free-windows-app-to-catalog-my-movie-hoard-sharing-it/321377/4 "2026-04-21T08:29:24Z")
Thanks @Aung_Ko_Ko ---
**Author:** ![Aung\_Ko\_Ko](https://onehack.st/user_avatar/onehack.st/aung_ko_ko/32/138798_2.png) [@Aung\_Ko\_Ko](https://onehack.st/u/Aung_Ko_Ko)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2026, 7:00am UTC](https://onehack.st/t/i-built-a-free-windows-app-to-catalog-my-movie-hoard-sharing-it/321377/5 "2026-05-08T07:00:04Z")
**v2.0.0 Major Release is live now!** ## ✨ New things you can do - **Make your own lists.** Right-click any movie → _Add to list_ (or use the _📑 Add to list_ button in the detail dialog) and drop it into a list of your own — _Date night_, _80s sci-fi_, _Rewatch list_, anything. Each list appears in the sidebar with a count. - **Copy a list to a folder.** Right-click a list in the sidebar → _Copy movies to folder…_ — pick any drive or folder, and CineLibrary copies every movie’s full folder (video + posters + .nfo + extras) there. Asks once before overwriting if anything’s already at the destination. Skips offline movies and tells you which drive(s) to plug in. - **Continue Watching.** Anything you’ve hit Play on but haven’t marked Watched shows up in this sidebar shortcut — most-recently-played first. Disappears once you mark it Watched. - **Recently Added.** A sidebar shortcut sorted by when each movie was added to the catalog. - **Surprise me.** A random unwatched pick — prefers movies whose drive is connected so you can play it right away. - **Notes per movie.** Open any movie → _📝 Notes_ → write your own thoughts, where you stopped, who you watched with. Saved as a tiny `cinelibrary-note.txt` next to the .nfo so the note travels with the movie folder. MediaElch leaves it alone. - **Refresh changes.** New button on top of the Drives page. After re-scraping in MediaElch, click it — CineLibrary picks up just what you changed, no full rescan needed. - **Click chips to filter.** In the movie detail dialog, click a genre, director, actor, or studio name to filter your library by that. ---
**Author:** ![Aung\_Ko\_Ko](https://onehack.st/user_avatar/onehack.st/aung_ko_ko/32/138798_2.png) [@Aung\_Ko\_Ko](https://onehack.st/u/Aung_Ko_Ko)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2026, 6:28am UTC](https://onehack.st/t/i-built-a-free-windows-app-to-catalog-my-movie-hoard-sharing-it/321377/6 "2026-05-19T06:28:34Z")
# CineLibrary v2.7.0 — Personal state travels with your drives [Latest](https://github.com/aungkokomm/CineLibraryCS/releases/latest) You can finally remove a drive, plug it back in next month, and find every watched mark, favorite, list membership and note exactly where you left them. ## 🎒 The problem this fixes Your watched marks, ★ favorites, 📌 watchlist, 📑 list memberships, and 📝 notes are the one thing CineLibrary couldn’t rebuild for you by re-reading a `.nfo`. Until now, removing a drive in CineLibrary cascade-deleted all of those movies’ rows — and with them, every personal mark you’d made on them. Re-adding the drive later gave you a fresh, blank slate. ## 🪄 What v2.7.0 does Every movie that has any personal state attached now gets a tiny sidecar file written into its own folder, right next to the `.nfo`: ```auto …/My Movies/Inception (2010)/ ├── Inception.mkv ├── Inception.nfo ├── poster.jpg └── cinelibrary-state.json ← new ``` A sample `cinelibrary-state.json`: { “version”: 1, “watched”: true, “favorite”: true, “lastPlayedUnix”: 1747576800, “lists”: [“All Time Great”] } ### Live mirroring Every Mark Watched, Favorite, Watchlist, Play, Add/Remove to list, and note save writes the sidecar immediately. Best-effort, silent if the drive is offline. ### Auto-import on scan On the next scan or rescan, CineLibrary reads any `cinelibrary-state.json` it finds and merges those values back in. **Remove drive → re-add drive → everything’s back.** ### “Remove Drive” now has a safety net The Remove Drive dialog shows how many movies on the drive carry personal data and offers a checkbox (default ON): _“Save that state to the drive first.”_ Leaving it ticked guarantees re-adding the drive later restores everything. If the drive is offline, a red warning recommends cancelling until you reconnect. ### Per-drive “Sync state” button Each drive card has a new **Sync state** action — manually push everything to disk on demand (useful before handing the drive to a friend, after restoring from a DB backup, etc.). ### Background catch-up on startup A quiet sweep at startup mirrors current DB state to disk so anything you’d already marked (before this feature existed, or while a drive was offline) gets exported automatically. ## 📜 The rules - **DB wins where it already has a value.** If you mark something watched on machine A then plug the drive into machine B that already has its own copy, the data on B isn’t overwritten. - **Lists are additive.** A list named in the sidecar that doesn’t yet exist locally gets created; a list the local install has that the sidecar doesn’t mention is never silently dropped. - **`.nfo` files are never touched.** The only file CineLibrary writes inside a movie folder is `cinelibrary-state.json`. Posters, fanart, video files — all untouched. A `.nfo` rescrape in MediaElch can’t disturb your CineLibrary state. ---
**Author:** ![Aung\_Ko\_Ko](https://onehack.st/user_avatar/onehack.st/aung_ko_ko/32/138798_2.png) [@Aung\_Ko\_Ko](https://onehack.st/u/Aung_Ko_Ko)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2026, 5:28am UTC](https://onehack.st/t/i-built-a-free-windows-app-to-catalog-my-movie-hoard-sharing-it/321377/7 "2026-05-22T05:28:19Z")
What’s new in v2.8.0 — TV Shows 📺 TV shows, alongside your movies. Any folder with a tvshow.nfo is detected as a show; episodes are read from the SxxExx in each filename. A single drive can hold both — movies are unaffected. One show page, no drilling. Poster, plot, year · rating · status, a watched roll-up, genre chips and a cast strip up top; below it, each season is a horizontal row of episode cards (Netflix-style). ▶ Play next unwatched — jumps straight to the first unwatched episode; reads “✓ All watched” when you’re done. Per-episode watched, show-level favorite / watchlist. Toggle watched right on each episode card; the progress roll-up updates instantly. Double-click or ▶ Play opens it in your default player (and marks it watched). Travels with the drive, just like movies — a per-show cinelibrary-state.json mirrors favorite / watchlist / note + per-episode watched, so removing and re-adding a drive brings your progress back. Drives page shows a purple SHOWS count pill beside the gold MOVIES pill. Browse back button — drilling into By Genre / Decade / Rating / Studio / Collections now gives you a “‹ Back” to that page. Everything from earlier versions (drive-portable personal state, multi-select, brand polish, motion, active filter chips, light-theme tightening) carries forward unchanged. ---
**Author:** ![Aung\_Ko\_Ko](https://onehack.st/user_avatar/onehack.st/aung_ko_ko/32/138798_2.png) [@Aung\_Ko\_Ko](https://onehack.st/u/Aung_Ko_Ko)\ **Post date:** [October 12, 2026, 7:04am UTC](https://onehack.st/t/i-built-a-free-windows-app-to-catalog-my-movie-hoard-sharing-it/321377/8 "2026-10-12T07:04:15Z")
## What’s new in v4.5.0: favorite and play from the card ❤ Favorite, Watched, Watchlist and Play right on the card, and a movie window you can browse. ### ❤ Right on the card - **Point at a movie card** and three round icons appear in its corner: 📌 Watchlist, ✓ Watched and ❤ Favorite. They’re dim when off and bright when on, and one click switches them. - **▶ Play from the card** when its drive is connected. When it isn’t, the card tells you which drive to plug in. - **A heart for Favorites everywhere.** The star is for ratings only. TV show cards get the ❤ and 📌 too. - **Titles sit where they should.** Some short titles sat a line too high. That’s fixed on movie, TV show and collection cards. ### 🎬 A movie window you can browse - **Previous and next:** press ← or → to step through the movies you were looking at, in the same order and filter, without closing the window. - **The rest of the collection,** like every James Bond film you own, in order, with a ✓ on the ones you’ve seen. Click one to open it right there. - **More by the director,** from the films you own. - **Genres under the rating, year and runtime** , and Director, Writer and Studio side by side, with plainer labels.