[FEATURE CHANGE REQUEST] - Plex DVR Retention Rules

Under the current DVR ruleset, shows recorded using Plex DVR use the following rules…

Keep Episodes for X Days - This setting will keep episodes broadcast by original air date for the past X days. The downside of tying to original air date in this case is apparent when attempting to record and retain shows which have concluded their original run. When you use this setting, Plex will record and immediately delete these shows, effectively NOT Keeping them for X Days. Older shows result in zero recordings kept.

Keep X Episodes - This setting will keep X number of episodes in a “hopper” so to speak. The issue here is that Plex also ties this to the original broadcast date, meaning that it will only keep the 5 most recently originally aired episodes. If any older episodes are broadcast after the ones currently kept, they will record and immediately be deleted.

I would like to see DVR Retention rules modified to account for current broadcast date rather than original air date.

Benefits:
Keep Episodes for X Days - This would do as it states… it would keep any and all episodes broadcast in the last X days regardless of them being new or old, unless New Airings Only is selected elsewhere. It would be nice if a 10 Day option was included as well under these new guidelines.
Keep X Episodes - This would also do as it states, and favor X episodes, recording new ones as they come in and dumping older recordings as they fall off the tail of the list.
Final Benefit - CPU resources would cease being needlessly used by recording shows that Plex has no intention of keeping.

Like this post to vote in favor. Comment any benefits/downsides of keeping or changing these settings.

There’s so much confusion about this. Please at least clarify the settings. I would love to see options to keep ANY showings for X days, as well as only record recently first-aired episodes.

These settings are described in https://support.plex.tv/articles/226074728-setting-up-recordings/.

@“MovieFan.Plex” said:
These settings are described in https://support.plex.tv/articles/226074728-setting-up-recordings/.

Correct. This request is to change them.

Sorry. I was responding to @dyndragon’s request about clarifying the settings.

I don’t have any comments on your request. :smile:

Thank you, sir. I have edited the post to more clearly call out the request in case there is any confusion.

Yep, I run into this issue pretty often when recording shows for my kids. Many many kids shows are reruns that air in no particular order, or are rebroadcasts from years ago (Mr. Rogers for example). Having everything tied to the ‘original’ air date makes all those settings not work as the developers probably intended. If they just added some ‘recording date’ options, this would be solved.

The current settings are useless. What’s needed is something simple and versatile.

Keep X episodes … with X being a variable that the user can set himself

2 Checkboxes:

  • Match duplicates … to identify and not record a show that already had been recorded
  • Delete oldest … if checked delete the oldest recording to continue to record, if uncheck don’t record if X episodes are already recorded