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Librariarr

Automatically Delete Unwatched Media

A library grows faster than anyone watches it. This guide builds a lifecycle rule that finds movies (or shows) that have sat unwatched for a long time, shows you the list, waits a few days for you to object, and then removes them through Radarr or Sonarr — files included. It works the same on Plex, Jellyfin, and Emby.

Before you start

Section titled “Before you start”
  • A media server connected and synced (Connecting a Server).
  • Radarr for movies or Sonarr for series connected under Settings → Integrations. Deleting goes through the *arr app; with Add import list exclusion on the action, a list or a new request cannot bring the title straight back.
  • Play history established. Play Count and Last Played count plays by every user on the server, read from the watch history Librariarr syncs — from the server’s own history, or from Tracearr when you have set it as the server’s watch-history source under Settings → Media Servers. Until that history has been synced once, a rule that reads it is refused rather than treating every title as never watched. If the rule editor says the history is not established yet, run Library → History → Refresh; on a Tracearr-mapped server, wait for the import to finish backfilling (Settings → Media Servers shows its progress) — the rule set un-pauses itself when it does.
  • A recycle bin configured in Radarr or Sonarr (Settings → Media Management). Librariarr warns when it is off, because a delete is then immediate.

Build the rule set

Section titled “Build the rule set”

  1. Create the rule set. Go to Lifecycle → Rules, pick the Movies tab and add a rule set. Give it a name you will recognise in notifications, such as Unwatched for a year.

  2. Add the conditions. In the top group:

    • Date Added (addedAt) More Than X Days Ago 180 — leave new arrivals alone, whether or not anyone has got to them yet.

    Then Add Group inside it, holding the two ways of being unwatched, joined with OR:

    • Play Count (playCount) equals 0 — never played by anyone.
    • Last Played (lastPlayedAt) More Than X Days Ago 365 — played, but not in the last year. A title that has never been played has no last-played date, so this condition does not match it on its own.

    The nested group matters: rules in one group fold left to right, so an OR beside the Date Added (addedAt) rule would read as (added long ago AND not played in a year) OR never played and let every new, never-played title through. The Logic Preview beside the builder spells out the exact grouping.

    For series, use the Series tab and the series rollup Series Last Played (seriesLastPlayedAt) more than X days ago 365 instead of the per-episode Last Played (lastPlayedAt): it is the most recent play across every episode, so a show someone is part-way through is never selected because of its older episodes. Watched Episode % (watchedEpisodePercentage) equals 0 finds shows nobody has started.

  3. Keep what you are keeping. Add conditions to the top group that exclude titles you know you want, for example Is Watchlisted (isWatchlisted) equals false (the connected account’s Plex watchlist; its Favorites on Jellyfin and Emby) — on movies only: Librariarr stores it per episode, so a rule judging a whole show can’t use it (see Criteria not allowed with series scope on); protect a show with an exception instead. If you use Seerr and want recent requests left alone, put Request Date (seerrRequestDate) In Last X Days 90 in a group of its own with the group’s NOT switch on — a plain More Than X Days Ago would also drop every title that was never requested, since those have no request date. For individual titles, the Exceptions list protects an item from every rule set, on every server.

  4. Preview. The Preview panel lists exactly what the rules match right now, with the criteria each item satisfied. Read it. A rule that selects 40 titles you did not mean will delete 40 titles.

  5. Set the action. Pick your Radarr Server (or Sonarr) at the top of the editor, switch on Enable lifecycle action and choose Delete from Radarr (or Delete from Sonarr). It always removes the files; Unmonitor Only is the action that keeps them. Turn on Add import list exclusion so the title is not re-added. Set Delay (days) to several days: matches then sit on the Pending page with their scheduled date, and you can execute or exclude any of them before the scheduled run touches them.

  6. Save and detect matches. That save button evaluates the rules at once and fills the Matches page; the actions are scheduled on the next detection run.

Put a ceiling on it

Section titled “Put a ceiling on it”

Under Settings → General, Delete without asking, up to N items per run holds any execution run that would delete more than N items. Nothing is deleted; the actions stay on the Pending page until you execute them yourself. It is worth setting while a new rule set beds in — see Deletion Safety for everything else that stands between a match and a deleted file.

Turn on the rule set’s Send Discord notification on action execution as well, so a run that deletes something tells you. A held run is announced whenever a webhook is configured, whatever the rule set’s own toggles say.

What happens next

Section titled “What happens next”

Lifecycle processing runs on two schedules under Settings → Scheduling:

  • Detection evaluates the rules and keeps the Matches page current. A title someone watches in the meantime stops matching, and its pending action is cancelled automatically.
  • Execution runs the actions whose delay has passed. Each one is checked again just before it runs: the item must still match, must not be on the Exceptions list, and must still be the title that was matched (a Fix Match in Plex or Identify in Jellyfin that changed its identity cancels the action). Completed deletions are recorded in the action history with the space reclaimed.

Both can be run by hand with Run Now.

Section titled “Related guides”