So this feature has been around for awhile. I haven’t needed it until recently. I don’t want/need some weekly shows I host for my parents to be part of my permanent collection, taking up storage.
So I use “Keep 3 latest episodes” option in the advanced section for all the shows I don’t want to keep. While it’ll remove any additional episodes immediately when I set it up, it does not seem to delete the files consistently afterwards. I often had to delete them manually.
When exactly does Plex delete unwanted episodes? (this should be state clear IMO) and can I change the setting so it’ll delete unwanted episodes immediately when server detects I have more than 3?
From my experience it deletes episodes during the window you set to run your scheduled tasks, mine is set for 2 am.
Also just so you are aware because this bit me selecting x latest episodes is based on airdate so let’s say for instance you are recording a show that is no longer on air like Seinfeld it will delete all episodes because none of them are considered “latest” so the wording isn’t very clear so I started to use the episodes added in past x days.
Also note that “Keep” only affects unplayed episodes; it has no effect on watched or partially watched content. The setting “Delete episodes after playing” determines how long to wait, after episodes have been played, to delete them. This setting doesn’t affect partially played content either.
At present, there’s no way to have Plex Media Server automatically delete partially viewed content. There’s a feature suggestion on the forums to add this; I’ll see if I can find the link to it.
[Edit]
Here’s the feature suggestion I was referring to; it wasn’t posted under Feature Suggestions, so it doesn’t have the forum-integrated voting mechanism enabled.
