Plex allows you to optionally sync your watched/played state and personal ratings of movies and episodes with your Plex account online. That means that if you watch a movie on a friend’s server, it can update your account so that the movie will also be marked as watched on Plex’s Discover feature, our free Movies & Shows streaming service, and any Plex Media Server you have access to.
Related Page: Discover Source
Related Page: Movies & Shows Overview
What Data Gets Synced (i.e. Privacy)
It’s important to be clear here about what data does (and does not!) get synced when this feature is enabled. To be very clear up front, the feature is designed so that Plex does not know what content may be located on a personal Plex Media Server. That’s important for our users and it’s important for us. Here is the specific data that would be included for each type of data:
- Watched State
- The Plex account user ID
- The GUID for the title (i.e. which movie, show, or episode was acted upon)
- The date and time it was set as watched/unwatched
- The “watched” or “unwatched” state
- User Rating
- The Plex account user ID
- The GUID for the title (i.e. which movie, show, or episode was acted upon)
- The date and time the rating was made
- The user rating submitted (e.g. “4 stars”)
The sync event does not let us know whether you performed the action on a Plex Media Server library item, a Discover page, or through a Movies & Shows streaming title. Activity from any of those would look identical. So, there is no way to know whether something being “watched” occurred because you went and saw it at the theater and then marked it on the Discover page when you got home, you watched through a personal Plex Media Server library, or anything else.
How Synced Watch States and Ratings are Used
For specific details about how account data can be used, we recommend reviewing our Privacy Policy. But more generally, when the syncing of watch state and ratings feature is enabled, your watch history and ratings can be used or appear in a few places:
- When you set up or are granted access to a new Plex Media Server your watch states and ratings will be synced to the new server
- As part of your Profile, your friends’ Activity Feeds, and your friends’ email or push notification digests depending on your privacy settings
- Recommendations based on watch history and ratings
Privacy Setting can be found in your account Profile settings.
Related Page: Profile
Related Page: Activity Feed
Related Page: Push notifications
Related Page: Email preferences
Getting Started
Note: Before starting if you are the admin of a server you may want to refresh metadata for libraries to make sure that media IDs (GUIDs) match what we have in our database.
Requirements
- Opt in to syncing the watch state and rating in your account Settings (see below)
- For the information to be synced with a Plex Media Server library:
- Must be running v1.27.2 or higher of Plex Media Server
- A movie library must use the Plex Movie metadata agent
- A TV Show library must use the Plex TV Series metadata agent
Opting In To View State Sync
View state sync will only be an option for those accounts which have access to a Plex Media Server running 1.27.2 or higher. The setting can be found under Settings > Account > Sync My Watch State and Ratings in the web app (as well as a few other player apps, like Android and iOS).
If you choose to later opt out of the feature, that will stop future events (from Plex Media Servers you have access to) from being synced to your account. Note, however, that data that has already been synced will remain, just like if you marked something as watched/unwatched in Discover or Plex Movies & Shows without having the feature enabled.
Making Watch State or Rating Changes
Once you’ve opted in to the feature with your account, you may need to restart your Plex Media Server (or wait a few hours) to pick up the account change. At that point, changes you make on a Plex Media Server, our Movies & Shows service, or through the Discover feature will all get synced across to each other.
- Making a change on a Plex Media Server should be reflected almost immediately on Movies & Shows or Discover.
- Making a change on either Movies & Shows or Discover should be reflected almost immediately on the other. That change could take up to 30 minutes to be reflected on a Plex Media Server.
- If you have access to more than one Plex Media Server and make a change on one server, it could take up to 30 minutes for the change to be reflected in a library on a different personal server, once it syncs the information from the online Plex account.
After you initially opt in to the syncing feature, any Plex Media Server you have access to (owned by you or where a friend/family member granted you access) will sync the current watched state (and rating) for your account, of existing content on that Plex Media Server, so long as it matches the previous requirements. That should happen within a few hours of opting in to the feature.
Tip!: If you stop watching an item part way through, the “in progress” information is not synced. Only if or when you complete the title (so it is “watched”) will the state get synced up. That’s intentional to ensure the source can’t be inferred to be a personal server.
Frequently Asked Questions
What’s the difference between watch state and watch history?
“Watch state” is simply the current value indicating whether the title is watched or unwatched field, as well as any personal rating you’ve set for the title. This is what you see on the details page for the title.
“Watch history” is the ongoing log of changes to watch state.
Do you store my watch history?
Plex stores watch history for any viewings that take place after this feature is enabled. When you first enable this feature, we upload a single watch state record for each title (that you’ve marked as watched or have rated) on any Plex Media Server you have access to, regardless of how many times it was watched before syncing. All watched events from that point forward will be stored as additional records.
For example: If you’ve watched The Empire Strikes Back 10 times before enabling this feature, Plex will upload a single record for that movie with the time of your most recent viewing. Every time you watch The Empire Strikes Back after that, Plex will sync another record for recording the time it was watched (or marked as watched via Discover).
These history records do not identify where the activity happened. Activity on a Plex Media Server library item, a Discover page, or a Movies & Shows streaming title will appear identical. A future release will allow you to view your consolidated watch history.
Can I use this to restore watch states/ratings on my Plex Media Server, like Trakt?
Generally speaking, yes. The current (un)watched state for titles will automatically update on a Plex Media Server within about 30 minutes from the time a library is created but only the current state.
If my family member/friend doesn’t sync their watch state info, can I still have mine sync when accessing their personal server?
Yes! The settings are based on the Plex account itself, not a particular Plex Media Server. So long as you enable it for your account, it will work for any Plex Media Server to which you have access.
Can I prevent users with access to my server/libraries from enabling this feature?
No. This is an account setting that applies to their data and is associated with a Plex GUID, not any particular Plex Media Server. Plex does not collect any information that identifies where a user may have updated watch state or ratings for an item.
This is similar to how our last.fm integration works when scrobbling music tracks played from accessible servers
Are there any types of media not synced?
Only movies or TV items are synced (and only when the library is using the appropriate metadata agent, for personal content). Music is not synced. For movies, it’s important to note that if you have set edition information for a movie in a personal library, that item will not be synced. Only “non-edition” movies can be synced.
Related Page: Multiple Editions - Movies
Is this available for Managed Users?
Managed users cannot currently use this feature, sorry. It’s certainly something we’d like to be able to support in the future, in some way.