Tips, updates, and guides from the JellyWatch team.
Dispatcharr is a self-hosted IPTV stream proxy and connection manager that sits between your IPTV provider and Jellyfin or Emby. It manages concurrent stream limits, provides automatic failover between providers, offers real-time stream statistics, and eliminates the buffering caused by exceeding your provider connection cap. Complete Docker setup guide with Jellyfin and Emby integration.
Real stories from the Jellyfin community: corrupted databases after power outages, lost watch history from failed 10.11 migrations, drives dying with no backup, and accidental rm -rf on config folders. Each story includes what went wrong, what could have prevented it, and the exact recovery steps. Plus a complete disaster recovery playbook you can implement today.
Build a kid-friendly streaming experience on Jellyfin that rivals Disney+ without ads, tracking, or inappropriate content. Covers dedicated kids libraries, parental rating enforcement, access schedules, age-appropriate themes, PIN-protected profiles, and how to make the interface simple enough for a 4-year-old to navigate with a TV remote.
Tracearr is a self-hosted playback tracking application that records viewing history from Jellyfin, Emby, and Plex simultaneously into a single unified database. Unlike server-specific plugins (Jellyfin Playback Reporting, Tautulli), Tracearr provides cross-platform analytics, long-term history retention, and integrates with tools like Emby Wrapped and Reclaimerr for year-in-review stats and storage cleanup decisions.
Running one Jellyfin server works for most users. But what happens when you have 20+ concurrent users, need geographic distribution for remote viewers, or require zero-downtime maintenance? This advanced guide covers multi-server Jellyfin architectures: shared storage with multiple instances behind a load balancer, active-passive failover, geo-distributed servers with WatchState sync, and the honest limitations of scaling Jellyfin beyond a single node.
WatchState is a self-hosted tool that synchronizes watch history and play state between multiple media servers and tracking services simultaneously. Run Jellyfin and Plex pointing at the same library? WatchState keeps watched status in sync across both. Migrating from Plex to Jellyfin? WatchState transfers your entire history. This guide covers Docker setup, multi-backend configuration, conflict resolution, and real-world sync workflows.
Serve your Jellyfin library to users worldwide with low latency using Cloudflare R2 for storage and Workers for edge logic. This advanced guide covers uploading media to R2, creating STRM files for Jellyfin, building a Worker that handles range requests and authentication, cost analysis vs traditional VPS hosting, and the honest limitations of this approach.
You left Plex. Your media is on Jellyfin or Emby. Everything works, except you have no idea who is watching what. Tautulli was your dashboard for years and it does not work with anything except Plex. This guide covers every replacement option: JellyWatch for mobile monitoring with push notifications, Jellystat for web-based analytics, Streamystats for lightweight stats, and how to combine them for complete visibility.
Plex just announced its Lifetime Pass will jump from $250 to $750 on July 1, 2026, the second massive price hike in 18 months. The self-hosting community is in revolt. This guide covers what happened, what it means for your server, and how to migrate to Jellyfin or Emby this weekend, including replacing Tautulli with proper monitoring tools.
