diff --git a/source/net/filebot/cli/ScriptShellBaseClass.java b/source/net/filebot/cli/ScriptShellBaseClass.java
index b0712e87..9c924741 100644
--- a/source/net/filebot/cli/ScriptShellBaseClass.java
+++ b/source/net/filebot/cli/ScriptShellBaseClass.java
@@ -39,7 +39,6 @@ import net.filebot.StandardRenameAction;
 import net.filebot.WebServices;
 import net.filebot.format.AssociativeScriptObject;
 import net.filebot.media.MediaDetection;
-import net.filebot.media.MetaAttributes;
 import net.filebot.similarity.SeasonEpisodeMatcher.SxE;
 import net.filebot.util.FileUtilities;
 import net.filebot.web.Movie;
@@ -209,10 +208,9 @@ public abstract class ScriptShellBaseClass extends Script {
 
 	public Movie detectMovie(File file, boolean strict) {
 		// 1. xattr
-		try {
-			return (Movie) new MetaAttributes(file).getObject();
-		} catch (Exception e) {
-			// ignore and move on
+		Object metaObject = MediaDetection.readMetaInfo(file);
+		if (metaObject instanceof Movie) {
+			return (Movie) metaObject;
 		}
 
 		// 2. perfect filename match
diff --git a/source/net/filebot/cli/ScriptShellMethods.java b/source/net/filebot/cli/ScriptShellMethods.java
index 0379b071..b94368ce 100644
--- a/source/net/filebot/cli/ScriptShellMethods.java
+++ b/source/net/filebot/cli/ScriptShellMethods.java
@@ -26,7 +26,6 @@ import net.filebot.MediaTypes;
 import net.filebot.MetaAttributeView;
 import net.filebot.Settings;
 import net.filebot.media.MediaDetection;
-import net.filebot.media.MetaAttributes;
 import net.filebot.similarity.NameSimilarityMetric;
 import net.filebot.similarity.Normalization;
 import net.filebot.similarity.SimilarityMetric;
@@ -377,14 +376,7 @@ public class ScriptShellMethods {
 	}
 
 	public static Object getMetadata(File self) {
-		try {
-			if (Settings.useExtendedFileAttributes()) {
-				return new MetaAttributes(self);
-			}
-		} catch (Exception e) {
-			// ignore
-		}
-		return null;
+		return MediaDetection.readMetaInfo(self);
 	}
 
 }
diff --git a/source/net/filebot/media/MediaDetection.java b/source/net/filebot/media/MediaDetection.java
index 6275b5e3..b00c45a7 100644
--- a/source/net/filebot/media/MediaDetection.java
+++ b/source/net/filebot/media/MediaDetection.java
@@ -290,19 +290,10 @@ public class MediaDetection {
 		List<String> names = new ArrayList<String>();
 
 		// try xattr metadata if enabled
-		if (useExtendedFileAttributes()) {
-			try {
-				for (File it : files) {
-					MetaAttributes xattr = new MetaAttributes(it);
-					try {
-						Episode episode = (Episode) xattr.getObject();
-						names.add(episode.getSeriesName());
-					} catch (Exception e) {
-						// can't read meta attributes => ignore
-					}
-				}
-			} catch (Throwable e) {
-				// ignore
+		for (File it : files) {
+			Object metaObject = readMetaInfo(it);
+			if (metaObject instanceof Episode) {
+				names.add(((Episode) metaObject).getSeriesName());
 			}
 		}
 
@@ -551,20 +542,9 @@ public class MediaDetection {
 		Set<Movie> options = new LinkedHashSet<Movie>();
 
 		// try xattr metadata if enabled
-		if (useExtendedFileAttributes()) {
-			try {
-				MetaAttributes xattr = new MetaAttributes(movieFile);
-				try {
-					Movie movie = (Movie) xattr.getObject();
-					if (movie != null) {
-						options.add(movie.clone()); // normalize as movie object
-					}
-				} catch (Exception e) {
-					// can't read meta attributes => ignore
-				}
-			} catch (Throwable e) {
-				// ignore
-			}
+		Object metaObject = readMetaInfo(movieFile);
+		if (metaObject instanceof Movie) {
+			options.add((Movie) metaObject);
 		}
 
 		// lookup by file hash
@@ -1391,13 +1371,13 @@ public class MediaDetection {
 		}
 	};
 
-	public static Object loadMetaInfo(File file) {
+	public static Object readMetaInfo(File file) {
 		if (useExtendedFileAttributes()) {
 			try {
 				MetaAttributes xattr = new MetaAttributes(file);
-				Object meta = xattr.getObject();
-				if (meta instanceof Episode || meta instanceof Movie) {
-					return meta;
+				Object metaObject = xattr.getObject();
+				if (metaObject instanceof Episode || metaObject instanceof Movie) {
+					return metaObject;
 				}
 			} catch (Throwable e) {
 				Logger.getLogger(MediaDetection.class.getClass().getName()).warning("Unable to read xattr: " + e.getMessage());
diff --git a/source/net/filebot/media/MetaAttributes.java b/source/net/filebot/media/MetaAttributes.java
index 3cd67f68..4fe6a835 100644
--- a/source/net/filebot/media/MetaAttributes.java
+++ b/source/net/filebot/media/MetaAttributes.java
@@ -47,16 +47,16 @@ public class MetaAttributes {
 	public void setObject(Object object) {
 		try {
 			metaAttributeView.put(METADATA_KEY, JsonWriter.objectToJson(object));
-		} catch (IOException e) {
-			throw new IllegalStateException(e);
+		} catch (Exception e) {
+			throw new RuntimeException(e); // unlikely to ever happen JSON serialization issues
 		}
 	}
 
 	public Object getObject() {
 		try {
 			return JsonReader.jsonToJava(metaAttributeView.get(METADATA_KEY));
-		} catch (IOException e) {
-			return null;
+		} catch (Exception e) {
+			return null; // ignore JSON serialization issues
 		}
 	}
 
diff --git a/source/net/filebot/similarity/EpisodeMetrics.java b/source/net/filebot/similarity/EpisodeMetrics.java
index 96592cef..8736f2fc 100644
--- a/source/net/filebot/similarity/EpisodeMetrics.java
+++ b/source/net/filebot/similarity/EpisodeMetrics.java
@@ -3,7 +3,6 @@ package net.filebot.similarity;
 import static java.lang.Math.*;
 import static java.util.Collections.*;
 import static java.util.regex.Pattern.*;
-import static net.filebot.Settings.*;
 import static net.filebot.similarity.Normalization.*;
 import static net.filebot.util.FileUtilities.*;
 import static net.filebot.util.StringUtilities.*;
@@ -28,14 +27,15 @@ import java.util.regex.Matcher;
 import java.util.regex.Pattern;
 
 import net.filebot.WebServices;
+import net.filebot.media.MediaDetection;
 import net.filebot.media.ReleaseInfo;
 import net.filebot.media.SmartSeasonEpisodeMatcher;
 import net.filebot.similarity.SeasonEpisodeMatcher.SxE;
 import net.filebot.vfs.FileInfo;
-import net.filebot.web.SimpleDate;
 import net.filebot.web.Episode;
 import net.filebot.web.EpisodeFormat;
 import net.filebot.web.Movie;
+import net.filebot.web.SimpleDate;
 import net.filebot.web.TheTVDBClient.SeriesInfo;
 import net.filebot.web.TheTVDBSearchResult;
 
@@ -643,11 +643,10 @@ public enum EpisodeMetrics implements SimilarityMetric {
 			}
 
 			// deserialize MetaAttributes if enabled and available
-			if (object instanceof File && useExtendedFileAttributes()) {
-				try {
-					return super.getProperties(new net.filebot.media.MetaAttributes((File) object).getObject());
-				} catch (Throwable e) {
-					// ignore
+			if (object instanceof File) {
+				Object metaObject = MediaDetection.readMetaInfo((File) object);
+				if (metaObject != null) {
+					return super.getProperties(metaObject);
 				}
 			}
 
diff --git a/source/net/filebot/ui/rename/BindingDialog.java b/source/net/filebot/ui/rename/BindingDialog.java
index 87d16bd5..3c0ba616 100644
--- a/source/net/filebot/ui/rename/BindingDialog.java
+++ b/source/net/filebot/ui/rename/BindingDialog.java
@@ -1,7 +1,6 @@
 package net.filebot.ui.rename;
 
 import static net.filebot.MediaTypes.*;
-import static net.filebot.Settings.*;
 import static net.filebot.ui.NotificationLogging.*;
 import static net.filebot.util.ui.TunedUtilities.*;
 
@@ -27,7 +26,6 @@ import java.util.concurrent.Future;
 import java.util.concurrent.TimeUnit;
 import java.util.concurrent.TimeoutException;
 import java.util.logging.Level;
-import java.util.logging.Logger;
 
 import javax.script.ScriptException;
 import javax.swing.AbstractAction;
@@ -52,17 +50,16 @@ import javax.swing.table.DefaultTableCellRenderer;
 import javax.swing.table.TableModel;
 import javax.swing.table.TableRowSorter;
 
-import net.miginfocom.swing.MigLayout;
 import net.filebot.ResourceManager;
 import net.filebot.format.ExpressionFormat;
 import net.filebot.format.MediaBindingBean;
 import net.filebot.media.MediaDetection;
-import net.filebot.media.MetaAttributes;
 import net.filebot.mediainfo.MediaInfo;
 import net.filebot.mediainfo.MediaInfo.StreamKind;
 import net.filebot.mediainfo.MediaInfoException;
 import net.filebot.util.DefaultThreadFactory;
 import net.filebot.util.ui.LazyDocumentListener;
+import net.miginfocom.swing.MigLayout;
 
 class BindingDialog extends JDialog {
 
@@ -378,20 +375,9 @@ class BindingDialog extends JDialog {
 				mediaFileTextField.setText(file.getAbsolutePath());
 
 				// set info object from xattr if possible
-				if (useExtendedFileAttributes()) {
-					try {
-						MetaAttributes xattr = new MetaAttributes(file);
-						try {
-							Object object = xattr.getObject();
-							if (infoObjectFormat.format(object) != null) {
-								setInfoObject(object);
-							}
-						} catch (Exception e) {
-							// ignore invalid data
-						}
-					} catch (Throwable e) {
-						Logger.getLogger(MediaDetection.class.getClass().getName()).warning("Failed to read xattr: " + e.getMessage());
-					}
+				Object object = MediaDetection.readMetaInfo(file);
+				if (object != null && infoObjectFormat.format(object) != null) {
+					setInfoObject(object);
 				}
 			}
 		}