I also posted this on the /r/plex subreddit, but have not had any discussion on it.
Sorry for the wall of text, but I have done a lot of research on this issue and cannot seem to find any solution to this problem.
We have separate libraries for my content, my wife’s content, and my son’s content; including separate libraries tv, movies, etc, for each. None of us particularly care or need to see each other’s content under our accounts.
I can share specific libraries with them, which is no problem. But I, as the main admin, can see all libraries. So, the logical solution would be to uncheck “Include in dashboard” for the libraries I don’t want to show up on my dashboard. Seems like a good solution; those libraries do not add all their content to my dashboard, but I can still access them to manage them.
Here is the problem, now both other accounts effectively have no dashboard. By disabling “Include in dashboard” for myself, it disables it for all users. Sure, they can go into a specific library and find something specific, but that breaks half of the usability experience of plex. So this is an all or nothing approach.
Another option is for me to create another managed account for myself, and share my libraries with that new account, setting all libraries to show on dashboards. I would only see “my” content, but then I end up with two accounts; the “real” account just sitting there as a holding tank. I would also have to go in and manually change watched status on everything to match my original account (Something I had to do for my wife’s account when we split libraries, not looking to do that again).
All of these choices break experience and ease-of-use. Idealy, plex should allow each user to set “Include in dashboard” within their account for libraries that are shared with them. Why not let the user choose what they want to see within their own account? I can maybe see use cases where you might not want to allow this for managed accounts, but it would be rare and could even overridden by the home admin. Even if there was a separate option for the account that owns the server to hide specific libraries from their own dashboard, without changing the global “Include in dashboard” setting, would be a massive improvement.
I am also open to trying other solutions anyone else can offer.
tl;dr My wife doesn’t want to see my anime on her dashboard, I don’t want to see her reality shows on mine, and neither of us want to see Sesame Street.
