First-Class Household Profiles for Shared Devices

[Rocketplanner83]

I wanted to raise this as a broader household-use feature idea rather than just a client-specific question.

I have a Plex Pass myself. I bought lifetime years ago on a Black Friday deal for around $80, and I have definitely gotten my money’s worth from it. So this is not meant as an anti-Plex post. One thing Plex still does very well is the “family appliance” experience: open the app, pick the right household profile, maybe enter a PIN, and start watching.

Jellyfin already has the important server-side pieces: local users, library access, parental controls, watch history, passwords, and per-user settings. The gap, at least from my perspective, is making those users feel like first-class household profiles on shared devices.

What I would love to see is a polished “Household Profiles” or “Who’s Watching?” experience across clients:

- Fast user/profile switching on shared clients
- Optional PIN per user/profile
- Ability to hide admin accounts from the switcher
- Guest or child profile support
- Per-profile watch history, libraries, ratings, subtitle/audio preferences, and home-screen layout
- Admin control over whether quick switching is allowed on a given device
- No cloud identity requirement
- No Plex-style account dependency

The security concern is valid, but I do not think quick switching necessarily weakens security. It could be controlled by the server admin and/or trusted per device. For example, a living-room Apple TV might allow quick switching between household profiles, while a remote phone or laptop could still require normal login behavior.

That would preserve Jellyfin’s local-first model while making it much easier for normal households to use. For a single technical user, logging out and back in is tolerable. For a living-room TV, spouse, kids, parents, or guests, profile switching is the difference between “this works like an appliance” and “only the server admin understands it.”

I do not think Jellyfin needs to become Plex. I think this is a place where Jellyfin could do the household experience in a more self-hosted, local-first way.

[TheDreadPirate]

Is this an AI generated post?  Jellyfin already does most of these things.

All 3 of our TV clients (Android TV, Roku, Apple TV) already support quick switching between logged in profiles.

Jellyfin already has per-user watch history, libraries, parental ratings, and home screen layouts.

Jellyfin already has per-user preferences for language (UI, audio, and subtitles).

While there aren't "child profiles", you can create an account with parental rating restrictions.

Jellyfin has never, nor ever will, have cloud ID requirements.  Or any kind of centralized accounts.  Jellyfin has, and always will, use local accounts.