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Rule Explanations

Rules are the engine of Maintainerr. Media will be tested against the rule parameters and added to a collection, if they are a match. When media exists in the collection for a specified amount of time, they'll be deleted from disk & external applications.

Once you complete and save your rule, Maintainerr will generate a collection. The collection will only be visible/synced to Plex if it contains media.

Rule Handling

Rule handling is a batch process that runs every 8 hours. You can manually trigger it with the Run rules button on the 'rules' page.

Creating rules

General

General info about the rule. Some of the information specified here will be shown on the generated collection. In here you also specify how to handle the collection.

Parameter Description
Name The Rule and Plex Collection name
Description Description of the Rule. This is also used as the Collection's description
Library Which Plex library's media to use
Media type The type of TV media the rules will apply to, either the entire show, only seasons or only episodes
Radarr Action Unmonitor or delete movies from Radarr
Sonarr Action Unmonitor or delete series from Sonarr
Active If inactive, the rule won't run
Show on home Show the rule's collection on the Plex home screen
Add list exclusions Prevent *arr import lists from re-adding media that has been removed by Maintainerr
Media deleted after days Amount of days media will live in the collection before deletion
Use rules Disable the rule engine, in case you want to add media manually
Force reset Overseerr record Force resets the Overseerr record instead of relying on availability-sync. 'Enable CSRF Protection' needs to be disabled in Overseer's settings for this to work. 1
Custom collection Use a manual collection. Media will sync from Plex to Maintainerr. Maintainerr will never remove this collection from Plex
Custom collection name The name of the manual collection to use 2

TV media type

With the Media type parameter you're able to specify the type of media that should be used for a TV library. This allows to run rules on either a selection of shows, seasons or episodes.

For instance, this makes it possible to create rule groups that select & delete old/watched seasons of a tv show, without removing the newer seasons.

Info

  • Because you can't mix media types on a Plex collection, Maintainerr also doesn't allow the use of multiple types on a rule group / collection.

  • Executing rules on episodes takes a lot longer than shows & seasons because Maintainerr has to sift through more data.

Disabling rules & manual collections

In case you want to manage the collection manually, or with another program, there's the possibility to disable Maintainerr's collection system by specifying a manual collection. Maintainerr will sync all media added/removed from the Plex collection into its internal collection.

Warning

If media is excluded in Maintainerr, but is added manually to the Plex collection, the exclude will be ignored.

Additionally, you can disable the rule system by unchecking the use rules checkbox.

Adding rules

Adding a rule is done by using the Add button next to a section title. If the button is not available, it means your current rule isn't finished yet.

A rule consists of at least 4 values. If the second value contains a custom value, a custom value parameter will also pop up.

Starting from the second rule or section, a operator parameter is also required. Here you must specify the action to take on the results of the previous rule.

Param Description
Operator Action to take on the previous rule or section
First value The first value to compare with
Action The comparable action to take
Second value The second value to compare with
Custom value A custom value input

Sections

A section is a group of rules. What happens to the result of a section depends on the choice of Operator in the section's first rule.

Adding new sections

The New section button, at the bottom of the form, is only available if all rules are completed.

Operators

There are 2 operator choices, both explained below. The choice of operator defines what happens to the result of each section or rule.

AND

Using this operator, the rule will run against the result of the previous rule (or section). The output of the rule will then be passed on to the next rule.

OR

Using this operator, the rule will start off with all media and add its result to the previous rule (or section) result. The output of the rule will then be passed on to the next rule.

Actions

The action defines the way the first value and second value will be compared. The available actions are dependent on the type of the first value

Action Description Types
bigger Is the first value bigger than the second value ? number
smaller Is the first value smaller than the second value ? number
contains Does the first value contain the second value? Lists will confirm the existence of an exact match within the first value list number, text
contains (partial) Does the first value contain the second value ? Lists will confirm the existence of a partial match within the first value list number, text
not contains Does the first value lack the second value? Lists will indicate the absence of an exact match within the first value list. number, text
not contains (partial) Does the first value lack the second value ? Lists will indicate the absence of a partial match within the first value list. number, text
equals Is the first value equal to the second value ? number, text, date
not equals Is the first value unequal to the second value ? number, text, date
before Does the first value occur before the second value ? date
after Does the first value occur after the second value ? date
in last Does the first value occur in the last x amount of days ? date
in next Does the first value occur in the next x amount of days ? date

The difference between Contains/Contains (exact) and Contains (partial) is only apparent with list values. When comparing a text list, Contains (exact) will only return true if the second value exactly matches any value in the first value list. Contains (partial) will return true if the first value list has a value that partially matches any value in the second value list.

List Examples

True `Contains (partial)`
firstValue:
  - user1
  - user2
  - user3
secondValue:
  - use
  - ser
  - ser3
  - user
  - ser1
  - er3
True `Contains (partial)`
firstValue:
  - user1
  - user2
  - user3
secondValue:
  - user1
  - user2
  - user3
  - user5
⠀
⠀
False `Contains (partial)`
firstValue:
  - user1
  - user2
  - user3
secondValue:
  - friend
  - james
  - wilhelm
  - frank
True `Contains (exact)`
firstValue:
  - user1
  - user2
  - user3
secondValue:
  - user1
  - user2
  - user5
⠀
True `Contains (exact)`
firstValue:
  - user1
  - user2
  - user3
  - user7
secondValue:
  - user1
  - user2
  - user7
True `Contains (exact)`
firstValue:
  - user1
  - user2
  - user3
secondValue:
  - user1
  - user5
  - user8
⠀
False `Contains (exact)`
firstValue:
  - user1
  - user2
  - user3
secondValue:
  - use
  - friend
  - 1
  - 2
  - 3

Custom values

The second value field allows some custom values. The available custom values are dependent on the type of first value.

Action Description Types
Custom days This behavior depends on the selected action. In case of in_last or in_next, this translates to 'in the last (or next) x days'. in case of before the value will be translated to the current date subtracted by the amount of custom days. In all other cases, the amount of days will be added to the current date date
Custom date Takes a specific date date
Custom number Takes a specific number number
Custom text Takes a specific text text
Custom text (list) Takes a list in JSON format ["Jef", "Frank", "Wilhelm"]

  1. This is the old method of telling Overseerr that something has been removed. The default method now, is to tell Overseerr to initiate an Availability Sync, through its API. This happens automatically after something has been removed. ↩

  2. Only shown and needed when the Custom Collection checkbox is checked. ↩