General Questions

[sameleff]

I have a few questions about functionality:

1. How exactly does the recommendation engine work? Which user's viewing history is used when generating a list of media to recommend against (i.e. the plex admin, all plex users, Overseerr admin, Overseer local user if configured)? Are user ratings taken into account?
2. I was only able to connect to my Plex server via http (insecure) connections. In other apps (e.g. Overseerr, I have been able to connect via https). Will https be enabled in the future?
3. I like the step-by-step GUI, but once configured it would be nice to be able to edit each individual config rather than stepping through the sequence again from the beginning.

[giuseppe99barchetta]

Hi! Thank you for your interest and for the thoughtful questions about SuggestArr’s functionality. I’ll address each point:

1. Recommendation Engine: SuggestArr generates recommendations by analyzing the viewing history of all users on the media server. For each user, it retrieves recently viewed content to suggest similar media. Currently, user ratings aren’t factored into the recommendation process, but this could be a future enhancement.
2. HTTPS Support for Plex: At the moment, SuggestArr supports only HTTP connections for Plex. However, HTTPS support is on my roadmap. I plan to investigate further to identify the cause behind the current SSL limitation for Plex connections.
3. Configuration Management: I’m glad you appreciate the step-by-step setup interface! I'm already working on making the configuration more flexible, allowing users to adjust individual settings without needing to restart the entire setup process.

Thank you again for the feedback, and I hope you're enjoying SuggestArr!

[sameleff]

1. Is there a way to restrict which users SuggestArr considers within its recommendation scope? If not, this would be a good feature request candidate. Each user may have different tastes, so one recommendation engine isn't a good match (among other reasons). Also, could the current behavior explain the duplicate recommendations from [BUG] Duplicate Requests #74 ? I also experienced this and wasn't sure why, but if SuggestArr pulls viewing history for each user individually and makes recommendations, then if two users have similar tastes it may recommend the same item? Obviously if it combines viewing history from all users before attempting to create issues then that would not explain [BUG] Duplicate Requests #74.

Thanks for all the replies - and truly, this is an awesome app. This feature (automatic recommendations based on watch history) is a major gap with a self-hosted server. Definitely exciting!

[giuseppe99barchetta]

Thank you for your detailed feedback and kind words! 😊

Currently, SuggestArr doesn’t have a feature to restrict recommendations to specific users, but it’s a great idea and definitely aligns with enhancing user customization. Implementing a way to filter recommendations based on user preferences or specific user histories would indeed help tailor the results better.

To clarify, SuggestArr is designed to check for existing requests before creating a new one, so theoretically, it should avoid duplicates even if multiple users have similar watch histories. However, it seems that in some cases this doesn’t work as expected, which could lead to duplicate recommendations.

I’ll need to investigate why the duplicate check isn’t always catching these cases. If you have any specific details about the conditions or patterns where duplicates appear, feel free to share them.

[sameleff]

The best I can do is provide my logs (see below).

Three items show up twice: A Quiet Place, Day One (in the list of recently watched), Twisters (already requested), and Horizon: An American Saga - Chapter 1 (in requested by SuggestArr). It did in fact request Horizon twice.

Also, it is a small detail, but SuggestArr is linked to Overseerr (not Jellyseerr), however, Jellyseerr is mentioned in the logs.

2024-10-29 12:48:17,926 INFO success: cron entered RUNNING state, process has stayed up for > than 1 seconds (startsecs)
2024-10-29 12:48:17,926 INFO success: uvicorn entered RUNNING state, process has stayed up for > than 1 seconds (startsecs)
2024-10-30 00:00:01,718 - SeerClient - INFO - Fetched 156 total requests from Jellyseer.
2024-10-30 00:00:01,720 - PlexClient - INFO - Searching all content in Plex
2024-10-30 00:00:02,514 - PlexClient - ERROR - Failed to retrieve metadata for item /library/metadata/13728: 200
2024-10-30 00:00:02,572 - PlexClient - ERROR - Failed to retrieve metadata for item /library/metadata/13983: 200
2024-10-30 00:00:02,636 - PlexClient - INFO - Retrieved 89 items in tv with TMDB IDs
2024-10-30 00:00:15,318 - PlexClient - INFO - Retrieved 1190 items in movie with TMDB IDs
2024-10-30 00:00:15,318 - ContentAutomation - INFO - Fetching recently watched content from Plex
2024-10-30 00:00:15,327 - PlexClient - INFO - Returning 10 filtered recent items.
2024-10-30 00:00:15,328 - ContentAutomation - INFO - Processing item: Episode 6
2024-10-30 00:00:15,328 - ContentAutomation - INFO - Processing item: The One with the Sonogram at the End
2024-10-30 00:00:15,328 - ContentAutomation - INFO - Processing item: Giant
2024-10-30 00:00:15,328 - ContentAutomation - INFO - Processing item: The Sixth Sense
2024-10-30 00:00:15,328 - ContentAutomation - INFO - Processing item: Deadpool & Wolverine
2024-10-30 00:00:15,328 - ContentAutomation - INFO - Processing item: A Quiet Place: Day One
2024-10-30 00:00:15,328 - ContentAutomation - INFO - Processing item: Beware the Jabberwock, My Son
2024-10-30 00:00:15,328 - ContentAutomation - INFO - Processing item: Episode 6
2024-10-30 00:00:15,328 - ContentAutomation - INFO - Processing item: Alien: Romulus
2024-10-30 00:00:15,328 - ContentAutomation - INFO - Processing item: A Quiet Place: Day One
2024-10-30 00:00:15,774 - ContentAutomation - INFO - Skipping [movie, Despicable Me 4]: already requested or downloaded.
2024-10-30 00:00:15,793 - ContentAutomation - INFO - Skipping [movie, Unbreakable]: already requested or downloaded.
2024-10-30 00:00:15,793 - ContentAutomation - INFO - Skipping [movie, Signs]: already requested or downloaded.
2024-10-30 00:00:15,809 - ContentAutomation - INFO - Skipping [tv, Gen V]: already requested or downloaded.
2024-10-30 00:00:15,810 - ContentAutomation - INFO - Skipping [tv, The Mandalorian]: already requested or downloaded.
2024-10-30 00:00:15,876 - ContentAutomation - WARNING - Error while processing item: 'tmdb_id'
2024-10-30 00:00:15,882 - ContentAutomation - WARNING - Error while processing item: 'tmdb_id'
2024-10-30 00:00:15,959 - ContentAutomation - WARNING - Error while processing item: 'tmdb_id'
2024-10-30 00:00:16,018 - ContentAutomation - WARNING - Error while processing item: 'tmdb_id'
2024-10-30 00:00:16,035 - ContentAutomation - INFO - Skipping [movie, Twisters]: already requested or downloaded.
2024-10-30 00:00:16,036 - ContentAutomation - INFO - Skipping [movie, Twisters]: already requested or downloaded.
2024-10-30 00:00:17,065 - ContentAutomation - INFO - Requested movie: The Crow
2024-10-30 00:00:17,117 - ContentAutomation - INFO - Requested movie: Horizon: An American Saga - Chapter 1
2024-10-30 00:00:17,119 - ContentAutomation - INFO - Requested movie: Horizon: An American Saga - Chapter 1
2024-10-30 00:00:17,119 - ContentAutomation - INFO - Requested movie: Miraculous World: Paris, Tales of Shadybug and Claw Noir
2024-10-30 00:00:17,130 - ContentAutomation - INFO - Requested movie: Old Man Junior
2024-10-30 00:00:17,130 - ContentAutomation - INFO - Total media requested: 5

[crispybegs]

i posted this on reddit but posting here too:

i'm very confused about where suggestions made by suggestarr appear, and it's not covered in the docs.

for example, i use overseer and plex. when suggestarr runs at the specified times and find suggestions I may like, where do those appear? in overseerr somewhere? in radarr somewhere? in plex somewhere? nowhere at all?

Will i have a chance to accept or decline suggestions in one of the apps above?

Sorry if I'm being stupid here, since other people seem to understand it just fine, but there's nothing in the docs to illustrate this and nowhere in the config or interface to give any further clues.

[giuseppe99barchetta]

When SuggestArr runs, it generates media requests directly in Overseerr or Jellyseer, based on your preferences.

To approve or reject these requests, you can create a local account in Jellyseer/Overseerr without auto-approval permissions. This way, you’ll have the opportunity to review each suggestion and decide what to add to your library.

You can also adjust SuggestArr’s filters (like genre, rating, or release year) to further tailor the recommendations.