Feature Request: Smarter Parental Controls – Weekday/Weekend, Flexible Times, Sorting & Localized Day Names

[TDriver 53]

Hi Emby Team,

first off, thanks for all your hard work on Emby. I’m using Parental Controls to manage screen time for my kids, and I’ve run into a few limitations in the Access Schedule that make day-to-day use harder than it needs to be:

 

Pain points

• Missing/incorrect translations for day names
  The individual weekday labels aren’t localized consistently (e.g., not translated in my UI). This is confusing in non-English locales.

• No quick “Weekdays vs. Weekend” selection
  I often need different rules for Monday–Friday vs. Saturday/Sunday, but there’s no simple toggle or preset for that.

• Limited start/end time control
  The time input doesn’t allow fully flexible start/end times (minute-level precision). For real life, I need e.g. 07:30–08:05 and 16:15–19:45, not just coarse blocks.

• Weekdays display unsorted after saving
  After creating a plan, the listed days appear out of order. They should be sorted Monday→Sunday (or per locale’s first day of week).

 

Proposed improvements

• Locale-aware day labels & formatting

  Localize day names and time formats fully, and respect the locale’s configured first day of the week.

• Weekday/Weekend presets

  Add one-click toggles for Mon–Fri and Sat–Sun selection, plus an optional “School nights” preset.

• Flexible time picker

  Allow minute-level precision for start/end times; support multiple time windows per day (e.g., morning + afternoon).

  Optional convenience actions: Copy a day’s windows to other days, Clear a day, Duplicate a whole plan.

• Stable, sorted display

  Always render days in a consistent, locale-appropriate order after saving.

• Quality-of-life extras (nice to have)

  Preview sentence (“Allowed: Mon–Fri 16:00–19:30; Sat–Sun 10:00–20:00”).

  Import/Export schedule as JSON for backup/sharing between users.

  Template schedules (e.g., “School Term”, “Holidays”) per user profile.

  Accessibility: full keyboard support for time inputs and checkboxes.

 

Possible UX sketch

• A 7-row grid (Mon–Sun) with:

  A checkbox to enable the day.

  One or more time-range chips per day (e.g., 16:00–19:30), each with edit/delete.

  Buttons: Add time range, Copy to…, Clear day.

• Above the grid:

  Buttons: Select Weekdays, Select Weekend, Copy Weekdays to Weekend, Duplicate Plan.

  Locale selector shown only for reference if applicable (or inherit server locale).

 

Benefits

• Parents get realistic, fine-grained control without tedious manual edits.

• Fewer support questions around “why is my schedule not working as expected?”

• Better international experience through proper i18n/l10n.

• Consistent sorting improves clarity and reduces mistakes.

 

Environment

• Emby Server: 4.9.1.80

• Platform: Docker on Linux /  Ugreen NAS

• Clients: all Clients Web / Android / iOS / TV apps

• Locale/Timezone: de-DE / Europe/Berlin

 

Happy to provide screenshots if needed. Thanks for considering this—these changes would make Parental Controls much more practical for families.

Best regards,
Roman

 

 

Edited October 3, 2025 by TDriver

[GrimReaper 4739]

WatchingEye plugin should cover some of those in the meantime. 

Plus, plugin Dev is very responsive and open to implementitng various features, you might throw some of those ideas in the plugin topic. 

Edited October 3, 2025 by GrimReaper

[TDriver 53]

Thanks, @GrimReaper — appreciate the pointer!

I’ve installed WatchingEye for the time-window/screen-time side and it does help. A few items still seem to belong in Emby core rather than a plugin, though:

• Locale-aware day names and correct week order

• One-click Weekdays/Weekend presets

• Consistent sorting of days after saving

I’ll drop the time-window ideas in the WatchingEye thread (the dev looks very responsive), and keep this feature request open for the core UI bits so all clients benefit consistently. Happy to help test both.

Thanks again!
— Roman

[yocker 1247]

On 10/3/2025 at 5:50 PM, TDriver said:

Thanks, @GrimReaper — appreciate the pointer!

I’ve installed WatchingEye for the time-window/screen-time side and it does help. A few items still seem to belong in Emby core rather than a plugin, though:

• Locale-aware day names and correct week order

• One-click Weekdays/Weekend presets

• Consistent sorting of days after saving

I’ll drop the time-window ideas in the WatchingEye thread (the dev looks very responsive), and keep this feature request open for the core UI bits so all clients benefit consistently. Happy to help test both.

Thanks again!
— Roman

I've added the ability to choose days as well as time in the time window.
I hope that helps.

Get it at Github - WatchingEye

[Neminem 1518]

@yockeris on a roll

[TDriver 53]

Thank you  @yocker