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Storage quotas

Gigabytes instead of counts

“Three films a week” sounds fair — until one of them is 60 GB. Nexview can therefore measure quotas in the thing that actually matters: occupied storage. This page explains the whole system — the two modes, the difference between a personal account and the house inventory, handing titles back, the settings, and what happens when an account is deleted.

Still experimental. Storage quotas are being tried out in real operation and ship switched off — if you never enable them, nothing of this appears anywhere. Expect bugs and changes, and if you spot something: report it on GitHub. The app shows the same notice above its settings.

The idea

Storage is not consumed — it is occupied

This is exactly where storage quotas usually fail: space is not used up per person like an allowance — it is occupied jointly. A personal GB account is therefore always a convention, and Nexview makes that convention honest instead of hiding it:

Your account covers what you brought into the house yourself and still claim. The moment the operator takes a title into the house inventory, it belongs to the house — and no longer counts against anyone.

That gives every person a way out that is not deletion: handing back. The operator then decides whether the title stays (and belongs to the house) or really disappears. Psychologically, that is a different product from “delete something or you're stuck”.

Two modes

By count or by storage — never both

Nexview knows two currencies for quotas, and exactly one applies at a time. Either the count rules (“3 films, 2 shows a week” — described under approvals) or the occupied storage does (“300 GB per account”). Both at once would mean two different reasons a request can fail, with opposite rules.

Because the two behave fundamentally differently: the count quota renews every week or month — waiting cures a full week. Storage never renews — the space is, after all, occupied. Only tidying up cures a full account.

Which one for whom? The count slows down serial requesters and keeps approval work small — the right choice when space is not an issue. The storage quota protects the disk: in a real library the smallest and the largest film are easily a factor of 100 apart — a count says nothing about that.

Screenshot: the storage settings with the test-phase notice, the choice between by count and by storage, the default limit, and the queue of pending hand-backs on the right
The control centre. Mode and default limit on the left, hand-backs awaiting a decision on the right, the house's current state below — and the test-phase notice on top.
Switching

Every switch is a general pardon

Whenever you switch modes — in either direction — every attributed title is rebooked to the house inventory and every account starts at zero. The reason: measuring runs all the time, even in count mode. Without the pardon, someone would be overdrawn the very day you switch — because of a history they never knew would count one day.

No switch goes through silently: a dialog first states the actual numbers — how many titles with how many GB move to the house. Files are never touched, saved limits survive and apply again if you switch back.

The same mechanism doubles as the emergency exit: “Reset and turn off” cleans up the whole state in one click — without touching code, container or a single file.

Screenshot: the confirmation dialog when switching modes — it states how many titles with how many gigabytes move to the house inventory
Numbers, not warnings. A generic notice gets clicked away — a number gets read. Only the red button executes; cancel leaves everything as it was.
The core

Personal account and house inventory

The personal account covers everything this person requested and still claims — films whole, shows per season, never finer. Handed-back titles keep counting until the operator has decided; otherwise handing back would be a free pass. 1080p and 4K of the same film are two files, and therefore two items.

The house inventory belongs to nobody and counts against nobody. Everything already in the library at the first measuring run falls to it — so every account starts at zero. Plus whatever the operator deliberately takes over: “everyone here wants that classic anyway, it should not weigh on your account.”

Whatever an administrator requests belongs to the house from the start — they have no quota, so there is nothing to attribute. And the sizes come from what Radarr, Sonarr and the media server report anyway — no extra queries, no file-system scan.

Screenshot: the administrator's house-inventory view with the total figures and the titles that belong to the house
The operator's view. Their personal account is zero by definition — Nexview shows them what the house holds and how much is occupied overall instead.
For every person

My storage: seeing what you occupy

The Storage quota tab in the profile shows your own state: occupied space against the limit, and below it every single title — largest first, because whoever is asked to make room must first see where the room went. Long lists get search and pages.

If a hand-back is waiting for the operator, that shows in yellow on the row and in the sum: “X GB are awaiting a decision — until then they keep counting.”

The same figure also lives in the account menu at the top right — it is never more than one click away.

Screenshot: the storage quota tab in the profile — occupied space against the limit at the top, below it the own titles sorted by size, each with an eye icon and the button I don't need this
187 of 300 GB. Every row carries its size, its watched eye and the hand-back button. Two titles are already awaiting the operator's decision.
Decision aid

The watched eyes

The real question behind every clean-up is: “have I even watched this?” So every title carries an eye: green means watched, red means not yet. For seasons, green explicitly means every episode watched — half-watched stays red, because for “can this go?” only all-or-nothing counts.

The data comes from the per-person watched sync with Plex. If an account is not linked to the media server, Nexview shows a question-mark eye with the reason — a red eye would claim “never watched” where nobody can actually check.

The Watched only filter above the list shows the hand-back candidates at a glance — it only appears when watched data exists at all.

Screenshot detail: the title list with green and red eyes — watched titles green, unwatched ones red
Green can go. Watched seasons and films are the natural hand-back candidates — the eye turns the decision into a glance.
When it gets tight

Warn, allow — block only in the red

Nexview blocks a request only when the account is already overdrawn. If there is anything left, the request goes through — even if the title will probably exceed it. Nobody can know in advance how large a file will really be, and blocking on an estimate would be arbitrary.

Whoever is over the limit sees it unmistakably — and cannot request anything new until there is room again. Everything else keeps working: browsing, handing back, the watchlist.

The operator, by the way, sees the requester's state right in the approval list — warned, not blocked: whether to approve despite an overdrawn account remains their call.

Screenshot: an overdrawn account — 71 of 50 GB in red, below it the notice that nothing new can be requested, and titles with question-mark eyes
71 of 50 GB. Over the limit the figure turns red and new requests are blocked until room is made. The question-mark eyes: this account is not linked to Plex.
The flow

Handing back: one click, one wish, one decision

Room is made with I don't need this. For films, that says it all. For seasons, Nexview asks for the wish: Have it deleted frees the space — Keep, stop downloading leaves the episodes in place and only ends the downloading; the title keeps counting, it just stops growing.

Important: handing back does nothing yet. The title stays on disk and keeps counting until the operator has decided — otherwise you could hand everything back and be instantly free. A slip of the mouse is undone any time with Keep after all.

The operator sees the hand-back in the queue, wish on the row, and has three outcomes: To the house (title stays, account freed, file untouched), Delete (with the actual file list in view — the only step with no way back) or Stop following (episodes stay, downloading ends). The person gets the outcome as a notification.

Screenshot: the wish dialog when handing back a season — the choices are Have it deleted and Keep, stop downloading
The wish travels along. One step, so nobody is asked twice: the person states their wish when handing back, the operator decides exactly once.
Settings in detail

One limit for everyone, refined per account

The default limit in the settings applies to every account that carries nothing of its own — a new account is set up correctly without a single extra step. Empty means: nobody is limited; then Nexview only measures and displays.

In user management, any account can get its own storage limit. The label spells out the semantics: empty = the default limit applies, 0 = this account is unlimited. Administrators are always unlimited — what they fetch belongs to the house anyway.

In count mode the field does not appear at all — a setting without effect would only be a trap.

Screenshot: user management with an account's storage limit field — empty means the default limit, zero means unlimited
Refined per account. The brother-in-law gets 500 GB, the kids 100 — and whoever has nothing of their own follows the default.
Honestly

There is one catch

Nexview downloads nothing and deletes nothing itself — everything runs through Radarr and Sonarr. Nexview is meant to complement these apps, not replace them. From that follows the one hard condition: titles must stay in Radarr and Sonarr.

The catch concerns a popular workflow: admins of large libraries like to remove films from Radarr once the quality profile has hit its maximum — Radarr as a pure download machine, the file stays. With that workflow the storage quota stops working. Such a title remains measurable (the media server still lists it, the account stays honestly charged), but Nexview can no longer delete it — the person can only pass it to the house inventory. That is exactly what the red box in the settings warns about.

And because deleting is the only step with no way back: set up the recycle bin right inside Nexview — the storage settings show for each instance whether one is set, with the field to enter it. The work is then done by Radarr and Sonarr: deleted files move to their recycle bin instead of vanishing immediately, and Nexview says before every deletion which of the two cases applies.

Deleting an account, part 1

The request

Users and approvers do not delete their account themselves — they request it in the profile under Security. The request reaches the operator as an ordinary ticket; a duplicate request is refused while the first one is open.

Until the deletion, nothing changes: requesting, browsing, handing back — everything keeps working. The deletion itself deliberately stays with the operator, because the decision about the estate hangs on it.

Screenshot: the Delete account card in the profile's security tab with the Request deletion button
A request, not self-service. The button files the request — the deletion happens later, by the operator, with the estate list in view.
Deleting an account, part 2

What an account leaves behind, a human decides

When the operator deletes the account, they decide about the estate at the same time — list in view, checkbox by checkbox: checked = to the house (file stays), unchecked is deleted through Radarr/Sonarr. “Mark all” handles the most common case in one click.

Running orders are settled too: open ones without a single file are cancelled, started seasons get their own question — keep or delete, and whether to keep downloading. Nothing keeps downloading ownerless after the deletion.

Screenshot: the dialog when deleting an account — a checkbox per title for to the house, below it the summary of how much goes to the house and how much is deleted
Checked = stays. Keeping is the safe default; deleting wants to be chosen deliberately, item by item. Only below that does the account fall — for good.
Guide

Switching it on in five steps

1. Set up the recycle bin — right inside Nexview. Under Settings → Storage quotas every instance shows whether a recycle bin is set, with the field to enter it; the work is then done by Radarr and Sonarr. Without one, every deletion is final immediately.

2. Pick the mode. Select By storage and save. The dialog states what moves to the house — on first enabling that is simply the whole existing library: every account starts at zero.

3. Set the default limit. Generous at first — or leave it empty and just measure. After a few days the per-account view shows what is realistic; then the limit comes from real numbers instead of guessing.

4. Refine individual accounts. Whoever should get more or less gets their own figure in user management (empty = default, 0 = unlimited).

5. Watch and decide. Hand-backs appear in the queue, grown files announce themselves as notifications, and the overview always shows house, recycle bin and attribution. If it does not work out for you: Reset and turn off — one click, no file touched.

Good to know: shows are counted per season, never per episode — a season is only attributed once it has fully downloaded. If a file later grows noticeably (say, an upgrade to 4K), Nexview tells the person instead of letting the figure climb silently. And 1080p and 4K of the same title keep separate items — they are two files. The one catch is described above: titles must stay in Radarr and Sonarr.

Nexview uses TMDB as its data source but is not from TMDB and is not endorsed or certified by TMDB. The screenshots come from a test installation; the accounts and requests shown in them are made up.

Nexview is published under the MIT licence. Radarr, Sonarr, Plex, Docker, Synology, IMDb, Rotten Tomatoes, Metacritic and JustWatch are trademarks of their respective owners and are named here for descriptive purposes only. Some of the icons on this page are based on Lucide (ISC licence) — copyright held in part by Cole Bemis 2013–2022 as part of Feather (MIT licence), otherwise by the Lucide contributors from 2022.