This insight was synthesized by AI from public community discussions. We do not display original user posts or comments verbatim—all content has been rewritten and aggregated. Verify before acting on it.
Smart Media Cleanup & Lifecycle Manager
A Docker-based tool that integrates with Sonarr, Radarr, and Jellyfin/Plex to automatically track watched content, flag disposable media, and reclaim storage space. It bridges the gap between automated media acquisition and manual cleanup by applying user-defined retention rules—keep favorites forever, delete watched non-favorites after 30 days, archive TV seasons after completion.
Why this matters
You have spent months building your self-hosted media library. Your automation stack dutifully fetches everything, but nobody helped you plan for when your 10TB fills up. Now you are stuck manually scrolling through hundreds of movies and shows, trying to recall what you watched and what was worth keeping. The process is tedious—TV shows are manageable, but movies require individual decisions. The tools that automated your acquisition do not help with cleanup. You wish something could track what you have actually watched, flag the disposable content, and free up space automatically without you babysitting the process.
- · Built for Home NAS owners running Sonarr/Radarr/Jellyfin who have filled 5TB+ of storage and struggle with manual media cleanup.
- · Most likely monetization: freemium.
The Pain · Narrative
You have spent months building your self-hosted media library. Your automation stack dutifully fetches everything, but nobody helped you plan for when your 10TB fills up. Now you are stuck manually scrolling through hundreds of movies and shows, trying to recall what you watched and what was worth keeping. The process is tedious—TV shows are manageable, but movies require individual decisions. The tools that automated your acquisition do not help with cleanup. You wish something could track what you have actually watched, flag the disposable content, and free up space automatically without you babysitting the process.
Score Breakdown
Market Signal
Go-to-Market
Home NAS owners running Sonarr and Radarr who have filled 5TB+ and spend time manually deleting watched media
~200K active Sonarr/Radarr users globally with growing libraries
r/selfhosted and r/datahoarder organic posts plus GitHub project visibility
$5/month or $39 one-time lifetime license
100 installs in first 30 days from a single community showcase post
MVP Scope · 1–2 weeks
- Set up development environment with Docker and Python and scaffold the project structure
- Build Sonarr and Radarr API clients to fetch library contents and metadata
- Integrate Jellyfin and Plex APIs to pull watch history and completion status
- Create rules engine supporting criteria like watched status, favorite flag, and age threshold
- Design a simple web dashboard showing cleanup candidates with one-click delete and dry-run preview
- Implement automated cleanup rule execution with dry-run preview mode and confirmation flow
- Add storage space tracking and reclamation reporting after deletions occur
- Build notification system for cleanup actions via email, Discord webhook, or Telegram
- Create Docker Compose for easy self-hosted deployment with environment variable configuration
- Write setup guide and post to self-hosted communities for feedback and early adopter recruitment
Differentiation
Why This Might Fail
Self-rebuttal — the most important trust signal
- 1The *arr ecosystem is built by and for enthusiasts who expect free open-source tools—users may replicate this as a community script rather than pay for it
- 2Sonarr, Radarr, and Jellyfin APIs change across versions and maintaining compatibility could become an unsustainable maintenance burden with limited revenue
- 3Users may fundamentally distrust automated deletion of media files—the fear of losing something valuable may prevent adoption even with safety guards and preview modes
Evidence Summary
How AI synthesized this insight — no verbatim quotes
Multiple commenters describe the pain of accumulating media without effective cleanup tools. One user filled 10TB and reports manually sorting through everything, calling movie deletion especially tedious. Another asks specifically about managing old, unwatched content. A third mentions manually removing non-favorite movies through Radarr after a single viewing. The acquisition side is fully automated, but the lifecycle endpoint—deciding what to keep and reclaiming space—remains manual and painful. No existing tool in the discussed stack addresses this gap.
Action Plan
Validate this opportunity before writing code
Recommended Next Step
Validate
Promising signals, but needs confirmation. Create a landing page, collect email sign-ups, then decide.
Landing Page Copy Kit
Ready-to-paste copy based on real Reddit community language — no editing required
Headline
Smart Media Cleanup & Lifecycle Manager
Sub-headline
A Docker-based tool that integrates with Sonarr, Radarr, and Jellyfin/Plex to automatically track watched content, flag disposable media, and reclaim storage space. It bridges the gap between automated media acquisition and manual cleanup by applying user-defined retention rules—keep favorites forever, delete watched non-favorites after 30 days, archive TV seasons after completion.
Who It's For
For Home NAS owners running Sonarr/Radarr/Jellyfin who have filled 5TB+ of storage and struggle with manual media cleanup
Feature List
✓ Watch-status-aware cleanup rules engine ✓ Integration with Sonarr, Radarr, Jellyfin, and Plex APIs ✓ Dry-run preview mode showing what would be deleted before execution ✓ Storage reclamation reporting and dashboard ✓ Automated scheduling with webhook notifications
Where to Validate
Share your landing page in r/r/selfhosted — that's exactly where these pain points were discovered.
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