autorefresh 🎥

Plex autorefresh is python scripted solution to a problem that has been around for many years without any apparent solution.

Autorefresh issues a force metadata update of a specific Movie/show which force detecting any changes in subtitles, an issue which apparently happens with rclone mounted libraries and subtitle solutions like bazarr.

Autorefresh offer a webhook solution. Post calls to it with json information about the desired folder to refresh will send a refresh command to your plex server through plex api. You are going to need your plex token for this.

Installation

Python >= 3.7 is required. I recommend creating a virtual environment if you are going to install it directly on your machine. Created and tested on a linux based machine, should work fine in windows.

git clone https://github.com/ajmandourah/autorefresh.git
cd autorefresh
pip install -r requirements.txt

edit the config.yaml with any text editor. paste in your plex address and Plex token ( Find your X-plex-token )

Create a systemctl entry in /etc/systemd/system lso the script can start on boot. you can use the following template.

#autorefresh.service
[Service]
ExecStart=Path/to/python /path/to/autorefresh/main.py
Restart=always
Type=simple
RestartSec=15s
WorkingDirectory=/path/to/autorefresh/dir/
User=YOUR USER

[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target

Docker:

For the docker image, ENV variable make it eaiser to configure the script as an alternative to the config file. If ENV variable was not define the config file will be generated in the docker volume. you can use either but the env variable way is preferred. Map the autorefresh volume to your host, this will have the logs as well as the generated config file ( if ENV variable were not specefied )

using docker, edit the env variables to your server's setting

sudo docker run -v /PATH/TO/CONFIG:/data/autorefresh -e PLEXADDR=http://127.0.0.1:32400 -e PORT=4343 -e TOKEN=12345 -e PUID=1000 -e PGID=1000 ajmandourah/autorefresh:latest

using docker-compose

version: "2.1"
services:
  autorefresh:
    image: ajmandourah/autorefresh
    container_name: autorefresh
    environment:
      - PUID=1000
      - PGID=1000
      - TZ=Europe/London
      - PLEXADDR=http://127.0.0.1:32400 #Required change to your server address.
      - TOKEN=xxxxxxxxxxxx #Required, Plex Token
      - PORT=6969 #Internal PORT. do not change.
    volumes:
      - /PATH/TO/CONFIG:/data/autorefresh
    ports:
      - 6969:6969
    restart: unless-stopped

How to use autorefresh

Autorefresh exposes a webhook point at /refresh on the port that you defined, default is port 6969. Sending post requests with attached Content-Type: application/json header and JSON formated data with a dir key with the directory of the content you want will send a refresh metadata request to your plex server.

using curl the command will look like this

curl -X POST http://127.0.0.1:6969/refresh -d '{"dir":"/movies/Paul Blart Mall Cop (2009)"}' -H 'Content-Type: application/json'

The curl command can be used as post processing script in bazarr like this

curl -X POST http://127.0.0.1:6969/refresh -d '{"dir":"{{directory}}"}' -H 'Content-Type: application/json' 2>&1 

make sure to change the default 127.0.0.1 to your host ip/domain

How it works

Plex API allow you to issue a scan library command as per Plex Media Server URL commands. This has been used in most of the autoscan script including plex_autoscan and autoscan. There is no mention of the ability to issue a directed metadata refresh of a specefic content here rather a full metadata refresh of the whole library. While inspecting the api I discovered you can do a refresh command of a specefic content if the metadata id is known. the script will scrape your libraries for metadata ids and see if it match. it will then send a request for metadata refresh on that specefic metadata.

Limitations

The biggest limitation is TV series. the metadata id is for the whole show. this will result in refreshing all this specefic show metadata.

Todo

• do a more thourough API hunt to see if the TV show limitations can be fixed.
• Create a page for manual post requests.
• create a docker image.
• you tell me...