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FAQ

To see list of all the available commands run

$ docker exec -ti watchstate console list

This command will list all available commands, and each command has help document attached to it, simply run

$ docker exec -ti watchstate console help [COMMAND_NAME]

It will show you the relevant information regarding the command and some frequently asked question about that command.

Important

The help document attached to each command is more up to date and precise. So, please read it.

How to turn on scheduled tasks for import/export?

Scheduled tasks are configured via specific environment variables refers to environment variables section,

Via WebUI

Simply go to Tasks page and enable the tasks you want to run.

Via CLI

$ docker exec -ti watchstate console system:env -k WS_CRON_IMPORT -e true
$ docker exec -ti watchstate console system:env -k WS_CRON_EXPORT -e true

By default, import is scheduled to run every 1hour while export is scheduled to run every 1hour 30minutes, you can alter the time when the tasks are run via adding the following variables with valid cron expression. good source to check your cron expression is crontab.guru.

While we think they are reasonable defaults, you can change them by setting the following environment variables:

Via WebUI

Go to the env page, click on + button, then select the key in this case WS_CRON_IMPORT_AT, WS_CRON_EXPORT_AT and set the value to a valid cron expression. Then click save to apply the new timer. This will be change later to be included with the tasks page.

Via CLI

Execute the following commands:

$ docker exec -ti watchstate console system:env -k WS_CRON_IMPORT_AT -e '"*/1 * * * *"'
$ docker exec -ti watchstate console system:env -k WS_CRON_EXPORT_AT -e '"30 */1 * * *"'

For Values with space, they must be enclosed in double quotes. to see the status of your scheduled tasks,

Via WebUI

Go to the Tasks page, you will see the status of each task.

Via CLI

$ docker exec -ti watchstate console system:tasks

Note

All scheduled tasks are configured via the same variables style, refer to Tool specific environment variables for more information.

Container is crashing on startup?

This is likely due to misconfigured user: in compose.yaml, the container is rootless as such it will crash if the tool unable to access the data path. to check permissions simply do the following

$ stat data/config/ | grep 'Uid:'

It should show something like

Access: (0755/drwxr-xr-x)  Uid: ( 1000/  user)   Gid: ( 1000/  user)

Use the ids as parameters for user: in this case it should be user:"1000:1000".

How to find the apikey?

You can find the apikey inside the following file /config/config/.env. The apikey is stored inside this variable WS_API_KEY=. Or you can run the following command to get it directly:

$ docker exec -ti console system:apikey

What the API key used for?

The API key is used to authenticate the requests to the tool, it's used to prevent unauthorized access. The API key is required for all endpoints except the /v1/api/[backend_name]/webhook endpoint which is open by default unless you have enabled WS_SECURE_API_ENDPOINTS environment variable. which then you also need to use the apikey for it webhook endpoint.

The new WebUI will also require the API key to access data as it's decoupled from the backend and run in standalone mode.

MAPPER: Watch state conflict detected in [BACKEND_NAME]...?

This warning occurs when the database has the movie/episode marked as played but a backend reporting the item as unplayed and there is no metadata that indicates that the movie was previously imported from the backend. So, Preserving your current watch state takes priority, and thus we mark the item as tainted and re-process it. To Fix this conflict you should re-export your database state back to the problematic backend using the following command:

$ docker exec -ti console state:export -fi -s [BACKEND_NAME]

How to use Jellyfin, Emby oauth tokens?

Due to limitation on jellyfin/emby side, the way we implemented support for oauth token require that you provide the username and password in username:password format, This is due to the API not providing a way for us to inquiry about the current user.

Simply, when asked for API Key, provide the username and password in the following format username:password. WatchState will then generate the token for you. and replace the username and password with the generated token. This is a one time process, and you should not need to do it again. Your username and password will not be stored.

My new backend overriding my old backend state / My watch state is not correct?

This likely due to the new backend reporting newer date than your old backend. as such the typical setup is to prioritize items with newer date compared to old ones. This is what you want to happen normally. However, if the new media backend state is not correct this might override your current watch state. The solution to get both in sync, and to do so follow these steps:

Add your backend that has correct watch state and enable full import. Second, add your new backend as metadata source.

In CLI context Answer N to the question Enable importing of metadata and play state from this backend?. Make sure to select yes for export to get the option to select the backend as metadata source.

In WebUI if you disable import, you will get an extra option that is normally hidden to select the backend as metadata source.

After that, do single backend export by using the following command:

$ docker exec -ti watchstate console state:export -vvif -s new_backend_name

Running this command will force full export your current database state to the selected backend. Once that done you can turn on import from the new backend.

In CLI context you can enable import by running the following command:

$ docker exec -ti watchstate console config:manage -s backend_name

In WebUI you can enable import by going to the backends page and click on import for the new backend.

My new backend watch state not being updated?

The likely cause of this problem is date related problem, as we check the date on backend object and compare that to the date in local database, to make sure this is the error you are facing please do the following.

$ docker exec -ti watchstate console state:export -s new_backend_name --debug --logfile /config/export.txt

After running the command, open the log file and look for episode and movie that has the problem and read the text next to it. The error usually looks like:

[YYYY-MM-DDTHH:MM:SS-ZZ] DEBUG: Ignoring [backend_name] [Title - (Year or episode)]. reason. { ..., (comparison: [ ... ]) }

In this case the error text should be Backend date is equal or newer than database date.

To bypass the date check you need to force ignore date comparison by using the [-i, --ignore-date] flag, so to get your new backend in sync with your old database, do the following:

$ docker exec -ti watchstate console state:export -vvif -s new_backend_name

This command will ignore your lastSync date and will also ignore object date comparison and thus will mirror your database state back to the selected backend.

Is there support for Multi-user setup?

No, The tool is designed to work for single user. However, It's possible to run container for each user. You can also use single container for all users, however it's not really easy refer to issue #136.

For Jellyfin and Emby, you can just generate new API tokens and link it to a user.

For Plex, You should use your admin token and by running the config:add command and selecting a user the tool will attempt to generate a token for that user.

Note

If the tool fails to generate an access token for the user, you can run the following command to generate the access token manually.

$ docker exec -ti console backend:users:list -s backend_name --with-tokens

How do i migrate invited friends i.e. (external user) data from from plex to emby/jellyfin?

As this tool is designed to work with single user, You have to treat each invited friend as a separate user. what is needed, you need to contact that friend of yours and ask him/her to give you a copy of the X-Plex-Token, then create new container and add the backend with the token you got from your friend.

After that, add your other backends like emby/jellyfin using your regular API key. jellyfin/emby differentiate between users by using the userId which you should select at the start of the add process.

After that. run the state:import -f -s [plex_server_name] command to import the user watch state. After that, you can run the state:export -fi -s [emby/jellyfin_server_name] to export the watch state to the new backend.

You have to repeat these steps for each user you want to migrate their data off the plex server.

Important

YOU MUST always start with fresh data for EACH USER, otherwise unexpected things might happen. Make sure to delete compose.yaml ./data directory. to start fresh.

Does this tool require webhooks to work?

No, You can use the task scheduler or on on demand sync if you want.

I get tired of writing the whole command everytime is there an easy way run the commands?

Good News, There is a way to make your life easier, We recently added a WebUI which should cover most of the use cases. However, if you still want to use the CLI You can create a shell script to omit the docker exec -ti watchstate console

$ echo 'docker exec -ti watchstate console "$@"' > ws
$ chmod +x ws

after that you can do ./ws command for example, ./ws db:list

I am using media backends hosted behind HTTPS, and see errors related to HTTP/2?

Sometimes there are problems related to HTTP/2, so before reporting bug please try running the following command:

$ docker exec -ti watchstate console config:edit --key options.client.http_version --set 1.0 -s backend_name

This will force set the internal http client to use http/v1 if it does not fix your problem, please open bug report about it.

Sync operations are failing due to request timeout?

If you want to increase the timeout for specific backend you can run the following command:

$ docker exec -ti watchstate console config:edit --key options.client.timeout --set 600 -s backend_name

where 600 is the number of seconds before the timeout handler will kill the request.

How to fix corrupt SQLite database?

Sometimes your SQLite database will be corrupted, and you will get an error similar to this General error: 11 database disk image is malformed. To fix this error simply execute the following commands:

$ docker exec -ti watchstate bash
$ sqlite3 /config/db/watchstate_v01.db '.dump' | sqlite3 /config/db/watchstate_v01-repaired.db

After executing the previous command you should run integrity check, by running the following command:

$ sqlite3 /config/db/watchstate_v01-repaired.db 'PRAGMA integrity_check'

it should simply say ok. then you should run the following command to replace the corrupted database.

$ mv /config/db/watchstate_v01-repaired.db /config/db/watchstate_v01.db

Which external db ids GUIDS supported for Plex Media Server?

  • tvdb://(id) New plex agent
  • imdb://(id) New plex agent
  • tmdb://(id) New plex agent
  • com.plexapp.agents.imdb://(id)?lang=en (Legacy plex agent)
  • com.plexapp.agents.tmdb://(id)?lang=en (Legacy plex agent)
  • com.plexapp.agents.themoviedb://(id)?lang=en (Legacy plex agent)
  • com.plexapp.agents.thetvdb://(seriesId)?lang=en (Legacy plex agent)
  • com.plexapp.agents.xbmcnfo://(id)?lang=en (XBMC NFO Movies agent)
  • com.plexapp.agents.xbmcnfotv://(id)?lang=en (XBMC NFO TV agent)
  • com.plexapp.agents.hama://(db)\d?-(id)?lang=en (HAMA multi source db agent mainly for anime)
  • com.plexapp.agents.ytinforeader://(id) ?lang=en ytinforeader.bundle With jp_scanner.py as scanner.
  • com.plexapp.agents.cmdb://(id) ?lang=en cmdb.bundle (User custom metadata database).

Which external db ids supported for Jellyfin and Emby?

  • imdb://(id)
  • tvdb://(id)
  • tmdb://(id)
  • tvmaze://(id)
  • tvrage://(id)
  • anidb://(id)
  • ytinforeader://( id) jellyfin & Emby. (A yt-dlp info reader plugin).
  • cmdb://( id) jellyfin & Emby. (User custom metadata database).

Environment Variables

The recommended approach is for keys that starts with WS_ use the WebUI > Env page, or system:env command via CLI. For other keys that aren't directly related to the tool, you MUST load them via container environment or the compose.yaml file.

to see list of loaded environment variables

Via WebUI

Go to Env page, you will see all the environment variables loaded.

Via CLI

$ docker exec -ti watchstate console system:env

Tool specific environment variables.

These environment variables relates to the tool itself, You should manage them via WebUI > Env page or system:env command via CLI.

Key Type Description Default
WS_DATA_PATH string Where to store main data. (config, db). ${BASE_PATH}/var
WS_TMP_DIR string Where to store temp data. (logs, cache) ${WS_DATA_PATH}
WS_TZ string Set timezone. Fallback to to TZ variable if WS_TZ not set. UTC
WS_CRON_{TASK} bool Enable {task} task. Value casted to bool. false
WS_CRON_{TASK}_AT string When to run {task} task. Valid Cron Expression Expected. */1 * * * *
WS_CRON_{TASK}_ARGS string Flags to pass to the {task} command. -v
WS_LOGS_CONTEXT bool Add context to console output messages. false
WS_LOGGER_FILE_ENABLE bool Save logs to file. true
WS_LOGGER_FILE_LEVEL string File Logger Level. ERROR
WS_WEBHOOK_DUMP_REQUEST bool If enabled, will dump all received requests. false
WS_TRUST_PROXY bool Trust WS_TRUST_HEADER ip. Value casted to bool. false
WS_TRUST_HEADER string Which header contain user true IP. X-Forwarded-For
WS_LIBRARY_SEGMENT integer Paginate backend library items request. Per request get total X number. 1000
WS_CACHE_URL string Cache server URL. redis://127.0.0.1:6379
WS_SECURE_API_ENDPOINTS bool Disregard the open route policy and require API key for all endpoints. false

Important

for environment variables that has {TASK} tag, you MUST replace it with one of IMPORT, EXPORT, BACKUP, PRUNE, INDEXES. To see tasks active settings run

$ docker exec -ti watchstate console system:tasks

Note

To see all supported tool specific environment variables

Via WebUI

Go to the Env page, click + button, you will get list of all supported keys with description.

Via CLI

$ docker exec -ti watchstate console system:env --list

Container specific environment variables.

Important

These environment variables relates to the container itself, and MUST be added via container environment or by the compose.yaml file.

Key Type Description Default
WEBUI_ENABLED bool Enable WebUI. Value casted to a bool true
DISABLE_HTTP integer Disable included HTTP Server. 0
DISABLE_CRON integer Disable included Task Scheduler. 0
DISABLE_CACHE integer Disable included Cache Server. 0
HTTP_PORT string Change the HTTP listen port. "8080"
FPM_PORT string Change the PHP-FPM listen port. "9000"

How to add webhooks?

The Webhook URL is backend specific, the request path is /v1/api/backend/[BACKEND_NAME]/webhook, Where [BACKEND_NAME] is the name of the backend you want to add webhook for. Typically, the full URL is http://localhost:8080/v1/api/backend/[BACKEND_NAME]/webhook. Or simply go to the WebUI > Backends and click on Copy Webhook URL.

Note

You will keep seeing the webhook.token key, it's being kept for backward compatibility, and will be removed in the future. It has no effect except as pointer to the new method.

Emby (you need Emby Premiere to use webhooks).

Go to your Manage Emby Server > Server > Webhooks > (Click Add Webhook)

Webhook/Notifications URL:

http://localhost:8080/v1/api/backend/[BACKEND_NAME]/webhook

  • Replace [BACKEND_NAME] with the name you have chosen for your backend.
Request content type (Emby v4.9+):

application/json

Webhook Events:

v4.7.9 or higher

  • New Media Added
  • Playback
  • Mark played
  • Mark unplayed

Versions prior to 4.7.9

  • Playback events
  • User events
Limit user events to:
  • Select your user.
Limit library events to:
  • Select libraries that you want to sync or leave it blank for all libraries.

Click Add Webhook / Save

Plex (You need Plex Pass to use webhooks)

Go to your Plex Web UI > Settings > Your Account > Webhooks > (Click ADD WEBHOOK)

URL:

http://localhost:8080/v1/api/backend/[BACKEND_NAME]/webhook

  • Replace [BACKEND_NAME] with the name you have chosen for your backend.

Important

If you have enabled WS_SECURE_API_ENDPOINTS, you have to add ?apikey=yourapikey to the end of the URL.

Click Save Changes

Note

If you share your plex server with other users, i,e. Home/managed users, you have to enable match user id, otherwise their play state will end up changing your play state.

If you use multiple plex servers and use the same PlexPass account for all of them, You have to add each backend using the same method above, while enabling limit webhook events to selected user and backend unique id. Essentially, this method replaced the old unified webhook.token for backends.

Jellyfin (Free)

go to your jellyfin dashboard > plugins > Catalog > install: Notifications > Webhook, restart your jellyfin. After that go back again to dashboard > plugins > webhook. Add Add Generic Destination,

Webhook Name:

Watchstate-Webhook

Webhook Url:

http://localhost:8080/v1/api/backend/[BACKEND_NAME]/webhook

  • Replace [BACKEND_NAME] with the name you have chosen for your backend.
Notification Type:
  • Item Added
  • User Data Saved
  • Playback Start
  • Playback Stop
User Filter:
  • Select your user.
Item Type:
  • Movies
  • Episodes

Send All Properties (ignores template)

Toggle this checkbox.

Click Save

What are the webhook limitations?

Those are some webhook limitations we discovered for the following media backends.

Plex

  • Plex does not send webhooks events for "marked as played/unplayed" for all item types.
  • Sometimes does not send events if you add more than one item at time.
  • When you mark items as unwatched, Plex reset the date on the object.

Emby

  • Emby does not send webhooks events for newly added items. See feature request implemented in 4.7.9 still does not work as expected no metadata being sent when the item notification goes out.
  • Emby webhook test event does not contain data. To test if your setup works, play something or do mark an item as played or unplayed you should see changes reflected in docker exec -ti watchstate console db:list.

Jellyfin

  • If you don't select a user id, the plugin will send itemAdd event without user data, and will fail the check if you happen to enable webhook.match.user for jellyfin.
  • Sometimes jellyfin will fire webhook itemAdd event without the item being matched.
  • Even if you select user id, sometimes itemAdd event will fire without user data.
  • Items might be marked as unplayed if Libraries > Display - Date added behavior for new content: is set to Use date scanned into library. This happens if the media file has been replaced.

Sometimes newly added episodes or movies don't make it to webhook endpoint?

As stated in webhook limitation section sometimes media backends don't make it easy to receive those events, as such, to complement webhooks, you should enable import/export tasks by settings their respective environment variables in your compose.yaml file. For more information run help on system:env command as well as system:tasks command.

How to disable the included HTTP server and use external server?

Set this environment variable in your compose.yaml file DISABLE_HTTP with value of 1. your external server need to send correct fastcgi environment variables. Example caddy file:

https://watchstate.example.org {
    # Change "172.23.1.2" to your watchstate container ip e.g. "172.23.20.20"
    reverse_proxy 172.23.1.2:9000 {
        transport fastcgi {
            root /opt/app/public
            env DOCUMENT_ROOT /opt/app/public
            env SCRIPT_FILENAME /opt/app/public/index.php
            env X_REQUEST_ID "{http.request.uuid}"
            split .php
        }
    }
}

Important

If you change the FastCGI Process Manager TCP port via FPM_PORT environment variable, you should change the port in the caddy file as well.

WS_API_AUTO

The purpose of this environment variable is to automate the configuration process. It's mainly used for people who uses many browsers to access the WebUI and want to automate the configuration process. as it's requires the API settings to be configured before it can be used. This environment variable can be enabled by setting WS_API_AUTO=true in ${WS_DATA_PATH}/config/.env.

Why you should use it?

You normally should not use it, as it's a GREAT SECURITY RISK. However, if you are using the tool in a secure environment and not worried about exposing your API key, you can use it to automate the configuration process.

Why you should not use it?

Because, by exposing your API key, you are also exposing every data you have in the tool. This is a GREAT SECURITY RISK, any person or bot that are able to access the WebUI will also be able to visit /v1/api/system/auto and get your API key. And with this key they can do anything they want with your data. including viewing your media servers api keys.

So, please while we have this option available, we strongly recommend not to use it if WatchState is exposed to the internet.

Important

This environment variable is GREAT SECURITY RISK, and we strongly recommend not to use it if WatchState is exposed to the internet. I cannot stress this enough, please do not use it unless you are in a secure environment.

How to disable the included cache server and use external cache server?

Set this environment variable in your compose.yaml file DISABLE_CACHE with value of 1. to use external redis server you need to alter the value of WS_CACHE_URL environment variable. the format for this variable is redis://host:port?password=auth&db=db_num, for example to use redis from another container you could use something like redis://172.23.1.10:6379?password=my_secert_password&db=8. We only support redis and API compatible alternative.

Once that done, restart the container.

How to get WatchState working with YouTube content/library?

Due to the nature on how people name their youtube files i had to pick something specific for it to work cross supported media agents. Please visit this link to know how to name your files. Please be aware these plugins and scanners REQUIRE that you have a yt-dlp .info.json files named exactly as your media file.

For example, if you have 20231030 my awesome youtube video [youtube-RandomString].mkvyou should have 20231030 my awesome youtube video [youtube-RandomString].info.json in the same directory. In the future, I plan to make .info.json optional However at the moment the file is required for emby/jellyfin plugin to work.

Plex Setup

  • Download this agent ytinforeader.bundle please follow the instructions on how to install it from the link itself. It's important to use the specified scanner otherwise the syncing will not work.

Jellyfin Setup

Emby Setup

If your media is not matching correctly or not marking it as expected, it's most likely scanners issues as plex and jellyfin/emby reports the GUID differently, and we try our best to match them. So, please hop on discord with the relevant data if they are not matching correctly, and we hopefully can resolve it.

How to check if the container able to communicate with the media backends?

If you having problem adding a backend to WatchState, it most likely network related problem, where the container isn't able to communicate with the media backend. Thus, you will get errors. To make sure the container is able to communicate with the media backend, you can run the following command and check the output.

If the command fails for any reason, then you most likely have network related problem or invalid apikey/token.

For Plex.

$ docker exec -ti watchstate bash
$ curl -H "Accept: application/json" -H "X-Plex-Token: [PLEX_TOKEN]" http://[PLEX_URL]/
  • Replace [PLEX_TOKEN] with your plex token.
  • Replace [PLEX_URL] with your plex url. The one you selected when prompted by the command.
{"MediaContainer":{"size":25,...}}

If everything is working correctly you should see something like this previous json output.

For Jellyfin & Emby.

$ docker exec -ti watchstate bash
$ curl -v -H "Accept: application/json" -H "X-MediaBrowser-Token: [BACKEND_API_KEY]" http://[BACKEND_HOST]/System/Info
  • Replace [BACKEND_API_KEY] with your jellyfin/emby api key.
  • Replace [BACKEND_HOST] with your jellyfin/emby host. it can be a host or ip:port i.e. jf.mydomain.ltd or 172.23.0.11:8096
{"OperatingSystemDisplayName":"Linux","HasPendingRestart":false,"IsShuttingDown":false,...}}

If everything is working correctly you should see something like this previous json output.

I keep receiving this warning in log

INFO: Ignoring [xxx] Episode range, and treating it as single episode. Backend says it covers [00-00]?

We recently added guard clause to prevent backends from sending possibly invalid episode ranges, as such if you see this, this likely means your backend mis-identified episodes range. By default, we allow an episode to cover up to 3 episodes.

If this is not enough for your library content. fear not we have you covered you can increase the limit by running the following command:

$ docker exec -ti watchstate console config:edit --key options.MAX_EPISODE_RANGE --set 10 -s backend_name

where 10 is the new limit. You can set it to any number you want. However, Please do inspect the reported records as it most likely you have incorrect metadata in your library.

I Keep receiving [jellyfin] item [id: name] is marked as [played] vs local state [unplayed], However due to the remote item date [date] being older than the last backend sync date [date]. it was not considered as valid state.

Sadly, this is due to bug in jellyfin, where it marks the item as played without updating the LastPlayedDate, and as such, watchstate doesn't really know the item has changed since last sync. Unfortunately, there is no way to fix this issue from our side for the state:import task as it working as intended.

However, we managed to somewhat implement a workaround for this issue using the webhooks feature as temporary fix. Until jellyfin devs fixes the issue. Please take look at the webhooks section to enable it.

Bare metal installation

We officially only support the docker container, however for the brave souls who want to install the tool directly on their server, You can follow these steps.

Requirements

  • PHP 8.3 with both the CLI and fpm mode.
  • PHP Extensions pdo, pdo-sqlite, mbstring, json, ctype, curl, redis, sodium and simplexml.
  • Composer for dependency management.
  • Redis-server for caching or a compatible implementation that works with php-redis.
  • Caddy for frontend handling. However, you can use whatever you like. As long as it has support for fastcgi.
  • nodejs v20+ for WebUI compilation.

Installation

  • Clone the repository.
$ git clone https://github.com/arabcoders/watchstate.git
  • Install the dependencies.
$ cd watchstate
$ composer install --no-dev
  • If you your redis server on external server, run the following command
$ ./bin/console system:env -k WS_CACHE_URL -e '"redis://127.0.0.1:6379?password=your_password"'

Change the connection string to match your redis server.

  • Compile the WebUI.

First you need to install yarn as it's our package manager of choice.

$ npm -g install yarn

Once that is done you are ready to compile the WebUI.

$ cd frontend
$ yarn install --production --prefer-offline --frozen-lockfile && yarn run generate

There should be a new directory called exported, you need to move that folder to the public directory.

$ mv exported ../public

If you do ls ../public you should see the following contents

ws:/opt/app/public$ ls
exported   index.php

There must be exactly one index.php file and one exported directory. inside that directory, or if you prefer, you can add WS_WEBUI_PATH environment variable to point to the exported directory.

  • link the app to the frontend proxy. For caddy, you can use the following configuration.

Note

frontend server is needed All the API, WebUI and Webhooks operations.

http://watchstate.example.org {
    # Change "[user]" to your user name.
    root * /home/[user]/watchstate/public
        
    # Change "unix//var/run/php/php8.3-fpm.sock" to your php-fpm socket.
    php_fastcgi unix//var/run/php/php8.3-fpm.sock
}
  • To access the console you can run the following command.
$ ./bin/console help
  • To make the tasks scheduler work you need to add the following to your crontab.
* * * * * /home/[user]/watchstate/bin/console system:tasks --run --save-log

For more information, please refer to the Dockerfile. On how we do things to get the tool running.

How does the file integrity feature works?

The feature first scan your entire history for reported media file paths. Depending on the results we do the following:

  • If metadata reports a path, then we will run stat check on each component of the path from lowest to highest.
  • If no metadata reports a path, then simply the record will be marked as OK.

Here is the break-down example

Lets says you have a media file /media/series/season 1/episode 1.mkv The scanner does the following:

  • /media Does this path component exists? if not mark everything starting from /media as not found. if it exists simply move to the next component until we reach the end of the path.
  • /media/series Do same as above.
  • /media/series/season 1 Do same as above.
  • /media/series/season 1/episode 1.mkv Do same as above.

Using this approach allow us to cache calls and reduce unnecessary calls to the filesystem. If you have for example /media/seriesX/ with thousands of files, and the path component /media/seriesX doesn't exists, we simply ignore everything that starts with /media/seriesX/ and treat them as not found.

This helps with slow stat calls in network shares, or cloud storage.

Everytime we do a stat call we cache it for 1 hour, so if we have multiple records reporting the same path, we only do the stat check once.

How to use hardware acceleration for video transcoding in the WebUI?

As the container is rootless, we cannot do the necessary changes to the container to enable hardware acceleration. However, We do have the drivers and ffmpeg already installed and the CPU transcoding should work regardless. To enable hardware acceleration You need to alter your compose.yaml file to mount the necessary devices to the container. Here is an example of how to do it for debian based systems.

services:
    watchstate:
        container_name: watchstate
        image: ghcr.io/arabcoders/watchstate:latest   # The image to use. you can use the latest or dev tag.
        user: "${UID:-1000}:${GID:-1000}"             # user and group id to run the container under. 
        group_add:
            - "44"                                    # Add video group to the container.
            - "105"                                   # Add render group to the container.
        restart: unless-stopped
        ports:
            - "8080:8080"                             # The port which will serve WebUI + API + Webhooks
        devices:
            - /dev/dri:/dev/dri                       # mount the dri devices to the container.
        volumes:
            - ./data:/config:rw                       # mount current directory to container /config directory.
            - /storage/media:/media:ro                # mount your media directory to the container.

This setup should work for VAAPI encoding in x86_64 containers, There are currently an issue with nvidia h264_nvenc encoding, the alpine build forffmpeg doesn't include the codec. i am looking for a way include the codec without ballooning the image size by 600MB+. If you have a solution please let me know.

Please know that your video, render group id might be different then mine, you can run the follow command in docker host server to get the group ids for both groups.

$ cat /etc/group | grep -E 'render|video'

video:x:44:your_docker_username
render:x:105:your_docker_username

In my docker host the group id for video is 44 and for render is 105. change what needed in the compose.yaml file to match your setup.

Note: the tip about adding the group_add came from the user binarypancakes in discord.