Jellyfin Plugin Lets You Hide Movies from Specific Friends

Sharing a personal media library with friends often leads to awkward boundaries. If you have a collection that includes violent horror films but want to share it with a friend who prefers comedies, the standard approach is messy. You either hide the entire library, which defeats the purpose, or you hide specific titles, which is tedious and easy to forget. This creates a friction point for anyone using self-hosted media servers like Jellyfin to share content with family or close friends.

A new plugin called JellyPrivateLibraries offers a cleaner solution to this common problem. As reported by XDA Developers, the tool allows administrators to create private views of their existing library for individual users. This means you can keep your full collection intact while showing only the specific titles you are comfortable sharing with each person. It removes the need to duplicate files or create entirely separate library instances, which is a significant improvement for server owners managing mixed audiences.

Filtering content without moving files

The system works by leveraging Jellyfin’s existing permission structure rather than creating new physical libraries. When you enable the feature for a user, the plugin assigns a unique tag to that user. You can then apply this tag to specific movies or shows in your main library. Jellyfin uses this tag to filter what the user sees, effectively creating a personalized view. This method is lightweight because it does not require moving files around or duplicating data, which saves storage space and simplifies maintenance.

The setup is designed to be simple for both the server administrator and the end user. Once enabled, a widget appears in the user's interface, allowing them to manage their own content visibility if desired. However, the primary control remains with the administrator, who can use blocked tags to hide sensitive or inappropriate content from specific non-admin users. This two-way filtering ensures that the library remains organized and respectful of individual preferences without constant manual intervention.

Automating requests with Seerr integration

The plugin becomes even more powerful when paired with Seerr, a service that automates media requests. If you use tools like Radarr or Sonarr to download movies, Seerr acts as the bridge between your friends and your server. With the JellyPrivateLibraries integration, when a friend requests a movie through Seerr, the plugin automatically assigns that title to their personal view once the download is complete. This eliminates the need for you to manually track who asked for what and then go into the library settings to add it to their list.

This automation addresses a major pain point for media server owners. Previously, adding a new title to a specific friend's view required manual steps after the download finished. Now, the process is seamless. The plugin supports Seerr webhooks to handle this assignment automatically and can even sync previous requests. This means the library stays current and personalized without you having to keep a mental or written record of every request. It turns a cumbersome administrative task into a passive background process.

Trade-offs of using this plugin

While the solution is clean, it is not without limitations. The plugin relies heavily on Jellyfin’s tagging system, which means you must maintain those tags correctly for the filtering to work. If you add new content and forget to apply the relevant tags, it may not appear in the intended private views. Additionally, the integration with Seerr is optional but highly recommended for full automation; without it, you still have to manually assign tags after downloads, which reduces the efficiency gain. It is a powerful tool, but it requires a bit of initial setup and ongoing discipline to keep the tags accurate.