Mark unwatched behavior on play

[SenorSmartyPants]

I think the current behavior of marking resumable content unwatched on play is wrong. I have created an issue jellyfin/jellyfin#7535 and PRs to give options to alter this behavior jellyfin/jellyfin#8275 or jellyfin/jellyfin-web#3805 .

Now it seems popular opinion might be switching to not mark items as unwatched when play has started.

Please check out my issue and discuss here.

[nielsvanvelzen]

Please make sure to specify all information in the meta discussion instead of linking to other places.

Without reading the linked threads my initial reaction is that I agree. An item should be marked watched when completed only and marked unwatched only when playback is stopped and the resume functionality enabled (I believe this is an absolute value depending on the item type).

[SenorSmartyPants]

IMO nothing should be marked as unwatched based on playing an item. Item is unwatched when imported into JF. Could be marked as watched by a history import plugin like Trakt.

But if you have watched an item, JF should never automatically mark it unwatched. Manually by a user, absolutely.

[klueman]

You said you agree but then the rest of your comment sounds like maybe you misunderstand what the complaint is so to clarify:

An item should be marked watched when completed only

Agreed, if it's new content that has not been completed yet.

and marked unwatched only when playback is stopped and the resume functionality enabled

Agreed in cases where the content has not been marked as watched previously.

If it has been watched once already, the unwatched status overwrites the watched status until it's completed again or manually marked completed.

This is not desirable functionality in certain cases, because the watched status affects other things in Jellyfin beyond triggering the resume functionality. The unwatched tag is serving a duel role here as both an indicator that playback was interrupted and may need to be resumed, but it's also serving as the equivalent of a "NEW" tag for certain functions of Jellyfin, and the UI reflects that. But content being re-watched is not "new" and people may not want Jellyfin to display it as if it is.

There should be a toggle or lock or something that allows certain content to remain permanently "watched".

[FOSSilizedDaemon]

I absolutely think this is a needed change. In fact, I found this trying to figure out how to fix what I thought was a bug. This issue makes it hard to take advantage of other features such as playlists or shuffle play because re-watching a series causes all of my watched progress to be removed. I think this is heavily needed.

Edit:
I do not think we are kn the same page. Jellyfin should just handle watched tracking how all major streaming platforms do: when you watch something it tracks to what point you stopped, if you are in the later end of the episode it is marked as watched. Currently the issue with Jellyfin is that rewatching content causes entire shows to be marked unwatched due to some bug. Having to manually manage watched/unwatched would be tiring and having to use a whole new platform like trakt would be irritating.

[davemsh]

JF instantly marking watched media as unwatched the moment it starts playing is extremely irritating, since it results in my library getting out of sync with what's in Trakt.tv.

Why not have a toggle setting to override this behavior? Imo the only time any watched items should be switched back to the unwatched state is if the user explicitly unchecked the watched status. No other reasons.

[dan-riley]

Please make this change. I'm testing out a few things (which I tend to do a lot), playing something briefly then stopping, and it's totally nuking my watches. Now I have to make sure I use files that have never been played before so I can make sure I can clear their history. It also caused an infinite loop with Trakt where it and Jellyfin kept resetting each other each time a sync was performed. It only stopped when I manually changed Jellyfin to match Trakt (ie, Unwatched, since there's no way I can find to manually set a Watched date).

[klueman]

Would greatly love to see this implemented. I see there might be some confusion as to why so to explain:

As an example, the shuffle function. Say you like putting a certain show you've already watched once on shuffle, but occasionally skip certain episodes when they come up. Those episodes might lose their watched status in the library and need to be manually set back to watched. Or maybe you felt like re-watching a certain episode of something one night but didn't finish it, and have no intention to go back and finish it. You've already seen it once, it was just something to put on, you don't need to finish that episode again.

In those cases, with Jellyfin, those episodes you were rewatching now flood the "Continue Watching" section, and have counts for unwatched episodes on their show's images. To clean that up you have to go back in and manually mark each episode/show watched, which is tedious. It also affects interactions with Trakt.

This is not an unusual manner for people to use their media server, and in this way, the video content is being treated much the same way you would expect audio content to work in a music app. Songs don't get marked unplayed or "new" because you hit play, the played count just increases by 1.

Basically what I'd like to see is a lock on the watched status that can be toggled for certain content. "This has been watched to completion and should never be marked unwatched again regardless of activity." Or simply treat the Watched status like the Read status on email. It gets marked Read when opened, but it only ever gets marked Unread when you do it manually.

I'm aware the watched status is tied to the resume function but that feels like part of the issue. The "watched" tag shouldn't be tied to the playback progression in such a way that it must be overwritten each time a new playback session is started. There's a difference between "I have never watched this" and "I'm in process of watching this a second time" but the current usage of the unwatched tag treats them as the same thing.

Podcast apps are another good example. Even if playback position is retained on a re-listen of an old episode, that episode is not flagged as "new" or "unwatched". It just saved the position, didn't change the status.

[journeym]

Omg ppl you shoud have fixed it already, any sane person understands that this is how that should be. If you unsure copy form plex, ppl do everything right.

[cewert]

I despise this behavior and would welcome any solution whether that be a user setting or changing default behavior.

What are we waiting on as far as making a decision? Is there anything we can do to help move this forward?

[davemsh]

This problem is still as irritating as ever, and it doesn't sound like anyone is actually opposed to this. Why was the original PR to change this behavior from two years ago closed and directed to here for a discussion in the first place?