diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
index 49649478..78ac2d62 100644
--- a/README.md
+++ b/README.md
@@ -20,6 +20,7 @@ turn your phone or raspi into a portable file server with resumable uploads/down
 
 * top
     * [quickstart](#quickstart)
+        * [debian](#debian)
     * [notes](#notes)
     * [status](#status)
 * [bugs](#bugs)
@@ -76,6 +77,18 @@ you may also want these, especially on servers:
 * [contrib/systemd/copyparty.service](contrib/systemd/copyparty.service) to run copyparty as a systemd service
 * [contrib/nginx/copyparty.conf](contrib/nginx/copyparty.conf) to reverse-proxy behind nginx (for better https)
 
+### debian
+
+recommended steps to enable audio metadata and thumbnails (from images and videos):
+
+* as root, run the following:
+  `apt install python3 python3-pip ffmpeg python3-dev`
+
+* then, as the user which will be running copyparty (so hopefully not root), run this:
+  `python3 -m pip install --user -U Pillow pillow-avif-plugin`
+
+(`pyheif-pillow-opener` was skipped because apparently debian is too old to build it)
+
 
 ## notes