I am looking for a plug-in for media requests from users.
My users suck, and won’t tell me if I’m missing stuff they want, or my copies are bad (with a few very helpful exceptions) so I’m looking for some sort of integration that like tells me what they are looking for, or makes it easy for them to ping me a suggestion to add/fix. I don’t watch most of my library, so this is a big concern.
Most of my users don’t know my number or email because they are my partner’s friends and I don’t use the email address my server is tied to, for security (nor are messages usually passed to me on the rare occasion they are sent to him). So “have them text you” isn’t really a good option, and it’s enough of a struggle to get them to use it in the first place that adding another standalone app isn’t going to do it either.
Preferably I would like something my end users don’t have to do anything to access, maybe a few button presses in their search interface? Like “search returns no results, request this content” as a button maybe?
Does anything like that exist?
You’ve been recommended Ombi, but I recommend Overseerr instead. You can set it to permit them to only login using Plex auth (so no credentials for you to manage) and import your user list from Plex. It links up to radar or sonarr (and other stuff) for downloads. It can be configured to auto-approve downloads so you don’t have to do anything.
I’ve been using it for years now. It’s great.
So you can set this all up without needing your own domain or something like taliscale? I’ve wanted something like Ombi for a long time but don’t have the skills to set these (authentication, security, etc) up safely
If you want it accessible outside of your LAN, then yes, you’ll need a domain or tailscale/a VPN of some kind. But that’s true of any service.
I have some pretty heavy security on my config, but I expose the Overseerr container directly and just let the Plex auth do its thing. It doesn’t have write access to anything important anyway.
you can go to no-ip.com for a free domain name to use. you have to renew every 30 days, but it’s just clicking a couple of buttons. it’s pretty great, and I’ve used it for years.
also, overseer is pretty great
See this Useful Plex Add-ons guide for more info
This looks very promising, and I’m looking at their page but I don’t understand how it integrates. Do I add it, do my users…? I second the question by the other commenter, but also this looks like more what I’d want if it’s a more seamless integration.
You would just be another Overseerr user. At initial setup, you pull all of the users you’ve shared your Plex server into the Overseerr config. You can dig into the settings and tweak it - the number of movies a default user can request per day, number of seasons of TV, etc. I have mine set up to auto-approve all requests, but users can only request one season of TV and three movies per day, to avoid people abusing the service. In general I don’t have to touch it.
Shit that sounds perfect.
Did you have to configure rss feeds (pulling semi-related terms out my ass so if this is wrong lmk, I have noooo idea!) or anything or was that just part of it?
Or I guess how do you have it only pull from sources you want/trust?
In my specific case, I’m subscribed to a usenet indexing service, which is hooked in to sonarr & radarr, which send downloads to sabnzbd+ to trigger the downloads. Overseerr just adds another layer, sending requests to sonarr/radarr.
That said, Overseerr will work with pretty much whatever your specific method is. Just hook it in and the services handle the rest.
Thank you for taking the time to chat with me!
I am going to need to do some looking into those things because I understood little of that, but I appreciate being pointed in the right direction (or at least a direction 😜), with the right words to look into.
I do want a ronco experience eventually - set-and-forget (pipe dream, I know, that’s not how things work). So I just need to learn about the feed options (already on my to-do list for stuff I want for myself once my spare/work pc isn’t being used for anything) and then this for my users and everyone is good to go! Maybe! 😁
How are you currently searching & downloading content?
Currently I am not, because I am intentionally overhauling my way of doing things entirely. Pia sold out from what I hear so I’m doing a ton of looking into better options for vpn, sites, trackers, etc. and looking to automate some of it since I’ll have time and energy to learn how to do that.
Prior: manually. Sources: varied and questionable.
Ombi supports adding from Watchlist, after they log into it once with their Plex account.
Second this. It requires a domain though like other request services, since it’s a website. The real nice thing is that it integrates with services like radar and sonarr so if you approve the request you don’t have to manually go find the new item.
That is another thing I’m hoping to set up after October when my time becomes available to me alone, so good to know.
I’m very much a self-hosting noob, despite having lifetime Plex for like 8 years (so probs 10 yrs total?)
So just to make sure I understand correctly, this would be something I would need to send them the credentials for, or link to, and have them do an extra login?
If that’s correct, what happens after that?
You send them your Ombi webpage link, so ombi.cheapdomain.net, then they just log in with their Plex credentials.
Cloudflare zero trust tunnels are an easy way to connect your ombi localhost port to the domain with HTTPS/SSL.
Porkbun are giving away .app & .dev domains for free atm.
I also suggest trying to learn Docker.
Thank you for replying! I was nervous about posting this in the first place because it’s likely I could find some answers online, but maybe not the right ones? I did a google search (even +Reddit) and the results were 4+ yrs old, which may easily have no bearing on now, with the lack of official plugin support.
I don’t mean to sound dismissive, so I hope I don’t, but I have very little idea what you are talking about, so I’m going to need to do some looking. I’m very much a noob with this stuff, but I aim to not be! 😁 it’s so hard to figure out where to start, especially without specific use-cases, so thank you for the help! I legitimately appreciate your time.
I think I’ll start with docker. I know nothing about it.
I’ve seen a lot in the self-hosting communities about it, and I hope to expand my self-hosting to cover all major “cloud” services eventually (media with Plex, games, pictures, audiobook/podcast, comics/ebooks, etc) so probably a good place to start. My present setup doesn’t seem to need docker, and I’m not really sure of its value, but I see stuff about it a lot, so ima do some digging :)
I’m not in IT or anything, I’m just some rando with a spare pc hanging around to work with. My self-hosting is a passion project for mostly myself, but also a few friends I care about who “don’t do algorithmic media” for various reasons, so I’m learning a ton to help serve them an internet they can enjoy. And that’s good, probably.
I am not certain I’ll stay on windows (was on Ubuntu 18.xx, but my 2014 mobo bit it hard and I replaced the unit entirely with off-the-shelf windows pc to host Plex until I fix my Linux beast. Omg the folder management and rename utilities on Linux made managing Plex so smooth!)
Docker took me a while to learn so it might be something to work up to, it’s just that transfering services to docker after installing can be complicated.
I’ve been using komga for comics.
I mentioned Cloudflare because it’s unwise to open the port for each service due to security, Cloudflare handles a lot of the security for you, which still needs you to limit stuff like country IP etc.
Ombi is rarely easy to setup without as much knowledge, I did it before learning docker, but it also needs sonar & radarr which are more services.
