Setup:
Plex Server on Proxmox Server running in a Debian LXC Container
Suggestion:
Adding a “Never Watched” or “Never Seen” option to The “Record Options” “Advanced” tab “Keep” options.
Reason for Suggestion:
I thought I had a problem with my DVR function on Plex because DVR recorded TV shows were being immediately deleted after recording and transcoding. After review of the Debug logs on this POST it seems the “Watched Deletion Policy” was deleting recording right away after transcoding because I had seen the show in the past at some time during the servers run time.
My logic was that having set the DVR to “Airings”/“New and Repeat Airings” then having “Advanced” set to “Keep” set to “All Episodes”/“Delete Episodes After Playing” would mean it would record and keep even reruns for me to “mark as played” if I don’t want to watch them to make use of the “Delete episodes after playing” to keep my library clean automatically so I had space on my drive without having to manually delete episodes because the only way to keep rerun recordings was the set “Delete Episodes After Playing” to “Never.” This logic from the settings description seemed like it would fit my desire to record even reruns but it only records and keeps new shows I have never seen despite the recording preferences settings I selected.
This lasting history on plex as a reference for the “Watched Deletion Policy” is my issue with recording shows I may have watched before but I found interesting enough to watch again. I also sometimes like background noise so having reruns was never an issue for me.
I see how this would be very useful for most people, but it doesn’t fit my situation and it makes the “Delete Episodes After Playing” option useless to me to remove watched shows.
Here is what was happening on my DVR screen: This shows DVR recordings that were recorded then transcoded but deleted immediately.
Here were my settings I thought were logical to record reruns I may have seen before.
Here I selected “All Episodes”:
Here I selected “After a Day”:
Suggested Change:
Add a option to “Keep” setting that is more inline with what Plex actually does to keep which is “Unwatched” or “Never Seen” and have the option “All Episodes” mean anything recorded despite being seen in the past according to Plex’s history.
Work Around:
I have to set the “Delete Episodes After Playing” to “Never” and I have to manually manage all deletions myself.
Note:
Because this process records then transcodes the recordings then automatically deletes episodes means the process puts extra strain on the drives used for recording and transcoding/processing.
Thank you for your time.
