I moved my self-hosted library to Jellyfin while its future is argued about, because I own it either way

Published Aug 22, 2026, 3:00 PM EDT Based in rural Minnesota, Brian Burgess worked in IT for 10 years before finding his passion for writing about consumer technology. Brian earned his degree in computer and network technology in 2000. He held various IT positions, including help desk support, router installations for IBM, database administration, and other associate network administration roles. He's been a personal technology journalist for 18 years and has written thousands of articles about Microsoft products and services, Android, iOS, streaming, and more. He has written for notable tech sites including XDA, InformationWeek, How-To Geek, Byte, groovyPost, and others. When he is away from the keyboard, you will hear him playing guitar, working outdoors, and watching Star Trek. There has been a lot of talk in the self-hosted media community about Jellyfin's future. Some core team volunteers for the open-source project left, and development has stalled (ish). But past the headlines, it's clear that Jellyfin server and client development has continued to grow rapidly for an open-source project. Although Jellyfin's development might not be moving at the pace adopters who have fled Plex might like, it's still happening. Regardless, I will keep using it since I already own all the media on my server. Jellyfin's unpredictable future Leadership is leaving en masse One notable headline is that Jellyfin leaders are moving on to work on other projects. That in itself isn't a major story, but the fact that key figures who had been with the project team left within days of each other is. There were disagreements about the direction of the server/client code rewrite, the platform's future, and team members' burnout. All common when a small platform grows exponentially, and users are clamoring for new features. There is no need to panic and head toward the paywalled garden of Plex, yet. The Jellyfin constitution outlines a succession plan for when developers leave, and most of the devs who wrote the server, web, and client code are still on board. So, while a head developer and two team leaders took off, plenty more on the team can pick up the slack while those positions are filled. Jellyfin is actively developed and maintained, and different developers seem to release a new third-party client with all sorts of new features and functions almost daily. While some users are getting anxious about Jellyfin's development, it's important to note that devs are volunteering their time and target dates aren't always met. Releasing Jellyfin version 12 The next version is en route The next modern, stable update is nearly complete, with Jellyfin version 12 RC3 shipping in July, RC4 on August 2nd, and RC5 quickly following on August 10th. Hardly a sign of an uncertain future for Jellyfin. All versions are available to download on GitHub. The current stable version is 10.11.11, and Jellyfin version 12 fixes many problems that were plaguing version 11.11.x stable builds that most self-hosters are using. The new version includes increased responsiveness, faster queries for folder-based libraries, faster server screen load times, more efficient database-heavy operations, duplicate file cleanup, and much more under the hood. Also, for what matters to the end-viewer: faster playback with improved hardware and FFmpeg 8.1 support, better support for TV show episodes, improved metadata identification for eBooks, comics, and audiobooks, and a host of other improvements. You can see the full list on the Jellyfin GitHub page. So with a new stable version of Jellyfin on the way, more clients coming out of the woodwork, and a line of succession when team members leave the project, Jellyfin is likely to be around for a while. However, if it died tomorrow, I would be disappointed, sure, but I'm not going to fret about it. In fact, even if Plex, Emby, or even Kodi, disappeared, I wouldn't worry since I own my own media. I have physical discs to prove it I own my entire self-hosted media library that I stream on Jellyfin. From concert and classic TV show DVDs to full Blu-ray sets, to individual movies. Over the years, I've spent time ripping and backing up the discs I already own. So, even if Jellyfin disappeared tomorrow, I'd still have my backups. In fact, if self-hosted media server options vanished overnight, I still have my physical media. It's another reason to be happy I actually own my media. I can experience better quality with Blu-ray over streaming when I want to enjoy a movie or show. I own the discs if a movie vanishes from streaming. I can also watch them even if I don't have a Jellyfin server set up. Sure, it's much easier to build my own Netflix and watch high-quality local streams of my own discs, but ripping, decoding, and maintaining a media server also take a lot of work. It's often easier to just pop in a disc for a movie or show than spend hours ensuring metadata is correct, poster art displays correctly, and files have the right codecs for Jellyfin to see and transcode. For instance, I have many DVDs I ripped and compressed using DivX, which created AVI files with legacy MPEG-4 Part 2 codecs, and if the client doesn't support the format, my server goes into overdrive transcoding them. Instead of re-encoding a crappy file, I just re-rip the discs to a modern format, which gives me a better-quality file. It takes time, but so does taking discs in and out of my player. Not to mention always misplacing discs in the wrong case. Regardless of my struggles with physical discs, I'll take a stable self-hosting solution like Jellyfin any day over Plex's constantly paywalled features. Yes, Plex is easier and more reliable, but I appreciate the Jellyfin project and the chance to test new clients on multiple devices. I think it is close to being the "go-to" server for self-hosted media and am confident the right leadership team will make it happen. I will have media peace of mind regardless of what happens with Jellyfin Overall, I think the hysteria over Jellyfin issues is over-hyped. I foresee a long future for the platform, with more features being added to official and third-party clients for the self-hosted media server. Also, in the end, since I own my media, I can view it on my PC, in VLC via SMB, in Kodi via UPnP, or watch the physical discs with one of those ancient devices — what are they called? Oh yeah, Blu-ray players.