Jellyfin 12.0 ships with database rewrite, book and comic support

Jellyfin released version 12.0, its new stable server release, on September 7, 2026. The release continues the database conversion begun in 10.11, turns that foundation into performance work, and adds long-awaited support for books and comics, according to core team member Cody Robibero.

The upgrade carries significant requirements. The release changes the database schema and rewrites data on first boot, so a full manual backup is the only way back to a previous version. Users must be on 10.10.7 or any 10.11.x release before upgrading. Usernames are now case insensitive, and the database migration will fail if two accounts differ only by capitalization. A full library scan is required after upgrading, and the first scan will take significantly longer than normal.

Third-party plugins built for 10.11 will not load on 12.0 and need updated builds from their authors. Support for legacy /emby/ and /mediabrowser/ addresses has been removed, and the deprecated sign-in method is disabled, which will break very old clients. The release contains security fixes, and the team recommends upgrading over staying on an older release.