How can I sync the 'played' status of all media from UserA to UserB

[ChrisJ60 13]

We have multiple user's defined in our server (one per family member). For various reasons I now want to sync the 'played' status of every item of media in the library from UserA to UserB (i.e. after the 'sync', anything that UserA has marked as played will also be marked as played for UserB).

Is there any existing method or tool for this? If not, any pointers as to how it might be accomplished?

Thanks.

[Doppellhelix 17]

You could use a service like trackt TV (https://trakt.tv/)
There is also a suitable plugin for this.
This allows you to sync the seen status of Emby with Trackt.
Then switch to the other user, enter the account or code from the Trackt account you just created and sync back.

[serpi 82]

AFAIK you can import the status from user A to user B using the backup plugin, but this doesn't sync, it just copies (when executed).

[Luke 42078]

5 hours ago, serpi said:

AFAIK you can import the status from user A to user B using the backup plugin, but this doesn't sync, it just copies (when executed).

This is the closest thing because it is the most complete. Trakt will only handle what is in the trakt database.

This just isn't a sync though.

[Gilgamesh_48 1240]

If you really want to have the two users see the same thing all the all the time and if you really want everything watched by either to appear to be watched by both then what you actually have is two user that are, Emby wise, identical so the easiest thing would be to simply make them the same user. By that I mean give both users the exact same name or make them exactly one user.

There may be a way for Emby to alias one as the other but i have not heard that Emby allows aliasing. Although it might be something for Emby to consider.  

I think you can pretty easily accomplish what you want by turning your two users into one. That way nothing needs to be done using Emby backup or Tract or Emby's Legacy backup.

[Neminem 1519]

You could play around with this tool.

arabcoders/watchstate: Self-hosted service to sync your plex, jellyfin and emby play state. without relying on 3rd-party external services.

[ChrisJ60 13]

8 hours ago, Luke said:

This is the closest thing because it is the most complete. Trakt will only handle what is in the trakt database.

This just isn't a sync though.

I only want the 'played' state of items to be updated on the second user as a one-off (or infrequent) exercise and ideally it would be a merge (i.e. only set the target state as played if the source user state is played otherwise leave it unchanged). Can backup/restore achieve this?

Edited December 31, 2024 by ChrisJ60

[ChrisJ60 13]

8 hours ago, Gilgamesh_48 said:

If you really want to have the two users see the same thing all the all the time and if you really want everything watched by either to appear to be watched by both then what you actually have is two user that are, Emby wise, identical so the easiest thing would be to simply make them the same user. By that I mean give both users the exact same name or make them exactly one user.

There may be a way for Emby to alias one as the other but i have not heard that Emby allows aliasing. Although it might be something for Emby to consider.  

I think you can pretty easily accomplish what you want by turning your two users into one. That way nothing needs to be done using Emby backup or Tract or Emby's Legacy backup.

No, that is not what I want at all. I want to be able, as an infrequent operation, to sync just the played state (nothing else) from UserA to UserB, ideally as a 'merge' operation (i.e. only set it to watched for UserB if it I set as watched for UserA, otherwise leave it unchanged).

[seanbuff 1316]

2 hours ago, ChrisJ60 said:

Can backup/restore achieve this?

Yes

[ChrisJ60 13]

Well, I decided it was time to learn the Emby REST API. So I wrote a tool to do what I need based on that API. Works a treat and I can just run it from the command line on any of my Macs.

Thanks for all the suggestions.

[Gilgamesh_48 1240]

6 hours ago, ChrisJ60 said:

No, that is not what I want at all. I want to be able, as an infrequent operation, to sync just the played state (nothing else) from UserA to UserB, ideally as a 'merge' operation (i.e. only set it to watched for UserB if it I set as watched for UserA, otherwise leave it unchanged).

Then it sounds like the "Legacy backup and restore" is the easiest way. It is what i use to sync between two servers and it should work quite simply for what you want to do.
But it overwrites the watched status of User B with that if user A. It does not preserve any independent status of User B's watched status.