Yes and no. A lot of sorting and optimizing processes can be done via scripts. For example, I had chatgpt generate one that finds audio streams in videos that are not in the language I need. Manual verification and then let another script remove the remaining lists streams that I don't need.
this post was submitted on 14 Jun 2025
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Have you considered the possibility that, if you have 2k bookmarks, this isn't necessarily a self-hosting issue, but rather a bookmark hoarding issue :)
That’s why I don’t go back and reorganize old bookmarks. I just start fresh every time.
Can't you use a script for that? There is a method to bulk import into linkding from Firefox and a REST API for linkding that allows you to remove all expired links.
Karakeep. It will throw an error if a website is down and you won't get tags.
Simplify as much as you can.
And remember, if you're also self-hosting for family, someone will need to take over all that software and digital clutter when you're gone.
I've been trimming as much as I can on my NAS, including only keeping the most important self-hosted software and heavily purging old files and backups.
There is a hidden cost to every hobby and everybody is willing to tolerate a certain degree of shittyness.
I have a friends that has a rather old car and something on it is always broken. But he has no problem having 20 different apps for appliances, instead of deploying home assistants. Or having ads everywhere and even trying pihole or at least NextDNS.
On the other hand, I see my car as a transportation tool and when I need it I want to use it without worrying about some random part exploding. But I have no problem running Proxmox and hosting tons of services for my family.
That said, I would definitely not self-host something like NextCloud or any business critical component for my business and just paid somebody for the service.
I do both - older vehicles always needing attention, and self-hosting shit
You understand the value of risk management.
I think that’s a feature 😅😅
Just kidding, I had no issue with my photos for example with Photoprism, but for streaming my music with gonic I need to make some modifications for all my album art to show up, and in some cases titles and album names…
It is indeed a great feature but how time-consuming haha :)
I inherited my music collection from my 20 years old limewire addicted self, so it's a complete mess. I'm in the process of completing albums and using Picard to properly tag everything... 20 years of music collection...it'll take me 20 more years!
Anyway, I guess it's a warning for anyone starting to accumulate data: think about metadata, formats and data-management. NOW!
Same boat. I put everything in Picard and let it analyze everything. It turned out about 95% perfect. Haven’t touched it since, and I’m using the metadata it generated.
I went through the exact same situation with my 20 year old music collection and MusicBrainz Picard and unfortunately this is just the state of music piracy even now as things are rarely tagged correctly or come from compilation albums, sample albums, or are just obscure and don't have the proper tags available on the service. This is why I don't mind paying for music streaming even though I selfhost most other media formats because you can put in days of work tagging songs and still have a jumbled mess at the end (Picard's tagging template is also a huge PITA to use with some obscure legacy language).
I had some issues with my old kazaa era mp3s and figured it was sometimes easier to just download them again using soulseek..Now I have better formats and quality along with tagged files. Then I use navidrome to serve my music
I think life is easier if you stop managing metadata and instead deal in folder structure. My music has never had consistent metadata and tagging, yet it's never been a problem. I use Gonic and just browse my music by folder structure.
These days I try to do both, but recognize it's an on-going thing that will never be done.
Sometimes folder structure can be a challenge because of extensive metadata. Where do parts of a compilation go, for example. At least with metadata, music players can show the tracks correctly.
Hate? Digital decluttering feels really good, for me anyway.
If you really access them that infrequently, are they actually worth keeping?
Plus if they're links, how many still work?
It's important to use services with a workflow that works for you; not every popular service is going to be a good fit for everyone. Find your balance between exhaustive categorization and meaningless pile of data, and make sure you're getting more out than you're putting in. If you do decide that an extensive amount of effort is worth it, make sure that the service in question is able to export your data in a data-rich format so that you won't have to do it all again if you decide to move to a different tool.
Make sure you check https://karakeep.app/, because it has, at least, automatic tagging and full text search on the bookmarks
Thanks for mentioning SingleFile. I’m not using it right now.
Idk. My folders are always decently organized since I've been nutty about since I was a kid, but the specific file structures different services can demand is a headache. This is why I prefer more simplistic services without a database, but there's always trade-offs to be had with both options.
I'm a bit split on it, but I do agree that it can be annoying and when you mess up, services and links you've sent to other people don't work and it can be quite agonizing. It'll probably get better for me as time goes on, but man it can bite at times.
Isn't that the goal? If you have an old drawer full of unorganized stuff, implementing a selfhosted management tool is getting an organizer and thinking about how to fill it, but you still have to sort your stuff in.
The only selfhosted thing where I really have to re-organize is my documents in paperless but I'm so glad to finally have it all organized and searchable instead of some hot mess of an inconsistent folder structure.
I didn't move shit haha. Dumped OneDrive onto the Nas and mounted it for next cloud, I didn't even clean out the photos, which I copied into immich. I did move some ebooks, but that was very few things that I have
You could use an llm with an mcp to the local filesystem and hope it can do it for you