Jellyfin favorites, collections and play orders in Ensō
Ensō marks favorites with a heart, gives every Jellyfin collection a page that plays its films in release order, and lets you make play orders of your own. Here is what each needs from your server and where it is stored.
All of it is in the iPhone, iPad and Apple TV apps; where they differ, the text says so. The Apple Watch app is a remote and has none of it. More about each device: iPhone and iPad and Apple TV.
Favorites: the heart on a film or series
Choose Add to Favorites on the page of a film or series; it then reads Remove from Favorites. iPhone and iPad show a heart, Apple TV a plus that becomes a check mark. The mark belongs to the whole film or series, so on the page of an episode it marks the series. It is Jellyfin’s own favorite flag for your user, stored on your server, so every device signed in to that account shows the same favorites. Ensō lists them in three places:
- Home: a Favorites shelf after Continue Watching, in name order, up to 20 titles, with a See All card when it is full. It appears once you have a favorite; Settings → Home → Favorites on the Home Screen turns it off.
- Playlists: a Favorites card comes first and opens all of them, with Play and Shuffle. Films and episodes play; series and collections are left out of the queue.
- Libraries: a Favorites chip in the category bar, described below.
Playlists, covers and the Playlists tab
Playlists have their own tab: Playlists on iPhone and iPad (in German, Listen), and the same tab in the top bar of Apple TV, between your libraries and Search; the Apple TV Home screen keeps its Playlists shelf too. The plus button (iPhone, iPad) or the New Playlist card (Apple TV) makes a playlist from a name, and Add to Playlist on a film’s page fills it. A playlist plays in the order it was made in; its page has Play and Shuffle, and Play starts at the first item. Ensō tells the server not to make any playlist it creates public, so they stay private to your account.
Ensō draws the covers itself: a color gradient that stays the same for each playlist, up to three posters and the name; Favorites is always red and gold. Settings → Library → Cover of Lists chooses Drawn by the App (the default) or From Jellyfin, the collage that your server makes. A single list can differ: on the playlist’s page a photo button (iPhone, iPad) or the Cover button (Apple TV) lets you choose, and on iPhone and iPad there is also Choose a Photo…. A photo goes to your server first, which Jellyfin normally accepts only from an administrator; otherwise Ensō keeps it on the device and says so.
Jellyfin collections: one page for a whole saga
A collection is a group of films on your Jellyfin server. Ensō shows and plays collections; it does not create, rename or delete them. A film that belongs to one has a From the Collection shelf (the other films and a See All card that opens the collection) and a Play Collection From Here button. Collections also open from your server’s Collections library, if it has one.
The page of a collection shows its description, years and total running time. Play (Resume once you have begun) goes to the first film you have not finished and plays on from there; Start From Beginning, Shuffle and Make Your Own Order sit next to it. Rows of films follow, each starting with a play card:
- Chronological: by release date, oldest first. That is the order the films came out in, not always the story order.
- Best Rated First: only for four or more films whose ratings give a different order.
- Your own orders (see below), and More Like This with similar titles from outside the collection.
A check mark on a poster means you watched that film; a play mark shows the one that comes next. Hold Select on Apple TV, or press and hold on iPhone and iPad, and choose Play From Here to start at a film. Whatever you start goes on by itself: the player is given the films as a queue, and the next one follows after a countdown card, like a playlist. A film you start from its own page ends like any single film, unless you switch on Settings → Playback → Continue Collections Automatically (off by default) or use Play Collection From Here.
Your own play orders
Release order is not always story order, so make an order of your own, such as the original trilogy of a saga. An order is a playlist on your server that holds the films in the sequence you chose.
- Open a collection and choose Make Your Own Order. The collection needs at least two films.
- Type a name, for example Original Trilogy.
- Choose the films in the order you want to watch them. The number on a film is its place in the order; choosing it again takes it out.
- Choose Create.
The order appears as a row on the collection’s page and as a playlist on every device that uses your account. It needs a name and at least two films, and only films that play can be in it. Any playlist of yours that holds two or more films, all from this collection, counts as an order of it, also one made elsewhere; Ensō looks into at most 40 playlists. Delete Order removes it where your server allows that.
The category bar, running times and Back on Apple TV
Above the posters of a movie or TV show library the category bar offers All, Favorites (once a title there is a favorite) and the library’s genres, each with its number of titles; choose one and the grid shows only those. Ensō builds it from the titles it has loaded anyway and asks your server for nothing extra. Other kinds of libraries, and libraries without genres or favorites, have no bar. Settings → Library → Categories in the Library switches it off.
The running time of a film or an episode, such as 1 h 28 min, shows on its page. On a series page it stands beside the episode that Play is on, the page of a collection shows the total, and on Apple TV a focused poster in a library grid tells its year and length. Also on Apple TV, Back on a library, Playlists or Search takes you to Home first; on Home it leaves the app as before.
What is stored where
| Where | What |
|---|---|
| Your Jellyfin server | Your favorites; the collections, which Ensō only reads; playlists and play orders with their films and their order; a cover photo, if your account may change pictures on the server. |
| The device | The covers Ensō draws; which cover you chose for each list, and a photo that your server did not accept; the switches named above. |
| iCloud | With Sync with iCloud on (Settings → Accounts, on by default), four switches travel between your iPhones and iPads through iCloud Keychain, together with your sign-in: Favorites on the Home Screen, Categories in the Library, Cover of Lists and Continue Collections Automatically. An Apple TV keeps its own settings, because Apple documents that tvOS does not synchronize an app’s Keychain items through iCloud. Favorites, playlists and orders do not travel at all; they live on your server. |
To learn which collection a film belongs to, Ensō uses a call that newer servers have; for a server without it, Ensō lists the collections and looks into up to 80 of them, which takes more requests. Accounts and servers says what each account keeps for itself.
How the age limit applies
Collections and playlists have no age rating of their own, so the age limit judges their films one by one; Parental controls explains how Ensō reads ratings. With the limit on, the films it hides are missing from favorites, from collection pages and rows, from play queues and from the posters on covers that Ensō draws, and the category bar counts only what is shown. A collection or playlist whose films are all hidden is still listed by its name. The cover From Jellyfin is your server’s own collage, and Ensō shows it as it is.
Limits to know
- The order of a collection is the release order. For the story order, make an order of your own.
- The page of a collection has no heart, and Ensō cannot create or edit collections.
- The Apple Watch app, Siri and Spotlight do not know favorites, collections or play orders.
- These screens were built and tested against a simulated Jellyfin server and Jellyfin’s published code. How each Jellyfin version answers them has not been checked on every server.
Questions about favorites, collections and play orders
Where are my favorites stored?
On your Jellyfin server, as the favorites of your user, not in Ensō. Every device signed in to that account shows the same ones. Only the switches around them, such as the Favorites shelf on Home, live on the device, and between iPhones and iPads they travel through iCloud Keychain when Sync with iCloud is on. Accounts and servers explains what each account keeps.
Can Ensō create or edit Jellyfin collections?
No. Collections are made on your server. Ensō shows them, plays their films in release order and lets you make play orders of your own. Those orders are playlists, not collections, so they sit with your other playlists on the server.
Does the age limit apply to favorites, collections and playlists?
Yes, through their films. With the limit on, the films it hides are left out of favorites, collection pages, play queues and the posters on the covers that Ensō draws. A collection or playlist itself has no rating and is still listed by its name, and the cover From Jellyfin is your server’s own collage, shown as it is. See Parental controls.
Can other users on my server see the playlists Ensō makes?
No. Ensō tells the server to keep every playlist it makes private to your account. Playlists that already exist are not changed by Ensō.
Why are the films of a collection not in story order?
Ensō puts them in release order, oldest first; the server does not know the story order. Choose Make Your Own Order on the collection’s page to pick the films in the order you want to watch them.