I would like to request the option to toggle on / off the access right to delete media for users other than the owner. Currently only the owner is allowed to delete media.
5 Likes
Seconded. Iâm not the only person using my server, and I donât want to have to be responsible for deleting stuff that other people have independently recorded and watched. At the very least there should be a way to see which items have been marked as read by another user when youâre logged in as the owner, so that you can delete them without having to go back and forth between accounts to determine what can and canât be deleted.
Devs: Iâm sure you already realise that some of us use our servers as a temporary store and donât want to keep hold of everything we add to it indefinitely. Please make it simpler for server owners and users alike to manage content from within the apps.
This has been asked for before and I and others have said that Plex really does not have any business deleting or otherwise altering local media. There are file managers that are both better and safer to use for that purpose. I do NOT want the option to even be available as a software bug or an operator error can trash entire libraries.
I actually wish Plex would totally remove the delete option because, even though I have been unable to force it to happen, I have found it turned on after some updates and had to turn it back off.
Media deletion or otherwise manipulation like renaming is just something that Plex has no business doing at all.
Thatâs one opinion, hereâs another: if some of your users are technologically illiterate, would you rather try to teach them to remember exactly which files they need to delete and then go to another computer to use a file manager to find and delete those files without accidentally deleting anything else, or would you like them to be able to select that single episode and delete it as soon as theyâre done watching it?
Personally, Iâm for the latter.
For reference: the other users on my server will mainly use the HTPC interface with a remote control. Complex interaction with a file manager is not going to happen on that PC, nor would I trust them to do it correctly anyway. Unfortunately, I canât even let everyone use the same owner account because the HTPC app doesnât allow deletion at all, even though the web, Windows, Xbox One and Android apps all do. Having paid for a subscription so that I could test all of this out, Iâm beginning to doubt that itâs worth continuing to subscribe if there isnât some way to let other users delete files when theyâre done with it.
There is no concept in the design for a Plex Media Server owned by a community. The Plex Media Server is owned by a person and that person is the administrator.
What you are asking for is a free for all community managed Plex Media Server design. Perhaps the feature request should be changed to that
1 Like
How about a compromise: allow users to flag items for the admin to delete later, with flagged items hidden from that user. Admin could manually check and clear.
For me, Iâm trying to use Plex as a partial replacement for Windows Media Centre, so most of the videos in my collection are recordings from TV which I have no intention of keeping once theyâve been watched. Most of the recordings are of interest to a single user: once that userâs seen them, itâs logical to allow the user to delete them.
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That sounds reasonable request.
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Great, thanks. Should that go into a separate thread?
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@NJMorf said:
Great, thanks. Should that go into a separate thread?
Options;
- You raise a new feature request
- get agreement with @QuesadillaMan that the request is changed to what you are proposing. Options then would be to close this request and a new request is raised or for the OP to edit the first post and title of this request and add a sentence that the feature request was changed
I third the original request by @QuesadillaMan. Also, @sa2000, what heâs asking for isnât a community-managed server, but rather just the community ability to be able to delete. Administration encompasses a lot more than deleting.
In the absence of deletion, Iâd settle for the flag thing, but really, I donât wanna have to go through and delete everything everyone in my family flagged for deletion. It turns managing Plex into much more of a chore than Iâd like.
In general though, using Plex as a DVR is very cumbersome, and this is just one example of it. Itâs great for an archive of content, but it really needs a âDVRâ library type that behaves slightly differently, including allowing users to easily delete content and not having to dive from root into show into season in order to delete.
I support the original request. If my family users were all capable at an OS level, I wouldnât be using Plex in the first place. Additionally, the suggestion to ârequest deletionâ is a more complex one than the addition of a simple user setting per user, as you now have to have an internal messaging and notification system (with links to content) to facilitate this.
Far simpler to have a âdeleteâ permission per user (if owner can delete media setting is on), and allow them to simply execute the delete function (something already supported in the product).
It is the administratorâs decision whether or not to permit this, and places the responsibility firmly in their control.
This should be far down on the list of things that Plex is working on. So far down the list, that if Plex didnât get to that part of the list, till after Iâm dead, well I could live with that. 
Different people have different priorities.
Is there a public list of features and their relative priority that we can vote on?
@âNightman Auâ said:
Different people have different priorities.Is there a public list of features and their relative priority that we can vote on?
Doesnât matter. User opinions do not hold much âswayâ in Plexâs Grand Plan - that is apparently maintaining one of, if not THE best media servers, and some of, if not THE most hated client apps on Earth.
Hey found this thread, I know itâs a tad old, but I wanted to chime in on allowing users to delete.
So since the DVR feature was introduced, love it, my family has various shows we record, watch, and delete. Itâs been working pretty well for the most part as there are only a couple shows in all that we record where two or more of us watch them. Most times we donât watch those shows together as we tend to watch them while working out or wherever it is we like to chill in the house (living room for me but my wife likes the den for instance). So anyway what we normally do is ask hey did you watch and finish Superstore? (if you are not watching this show you are missing out, itâs really funny). Anyway based on the response we know if that one is safe to delete once we are done with it.
So I just finally decided to make everyone profiles so we can each track what we are watching individually. While I could have certainly lived with still asking my wife if we are both done with certain shows I noticed since she is not the âownerâ or âadminâ profile she canât delete the shows. This is of course adding even more management into the mix as now I have to ask if weâre both done. If she is not yet watched something then I have to ask again later and eventually go back and take care of it later. I guess not a huge deal if she tells me she is done already but I am not, since then I know I can delete when I am done.
Anyway allowing the local users to delete or to flag shows somehow for the âadminâ would greatly reduce the management effort here. And as a previous user noted in this thread, training my family how to use a computer after the fact to delete some show is next to impossible. They just would not get it. I think treating at least libraries marked to allow media to be deleted could work as well at least for how we are setup. In my mind a DVR being able to delete to clear up space is exactly how they have and do work. AT&T, Charter, and Tivo DVRâs all have delete functionality.
btw, I am not asking to allow users that I have shared my libraries to be able to perform deletes.
thanks for your time
@Elijah_Baley said:
This has been asked for before and I and others have said that Plex really does not have any business deleting or otherwise altering local media. There are file managers that are both better and safer to use for that purpose. I do NOT want the option to even be available as a software bug or an operator error can trash entire libraries.I actually wish Plex would totally remove the delete option because, even though I have been unable to force it to happen, I have found it turned on after some updates and had to turn it back off.
Media deletion or otherwise manipulation like renaming is just something that Plex has no business doing at all.
If you donât want Plex to ever alter/delete your media, why would you give the Plex server process write access to your media directories in the first place? And if you donât do that, then you donât have to worry about Plex bugs or user errors and you wonât care if it has a delete feature for those users who find this very important.
2 Likes
i would like to add a +1 for this request. i do not share my plex server with anyone other than users in my family. i would like to give my family the ability to delete the shows they watch that i donât watch. currently only i can delete their shows and i have to ask them all the time âhave you watched (insert show name here)?â
1 Like
+1 for this request.
+1 here too.
WOW! I canât⊠Iâll stop hereâŠ
