Plexcurtain

Draw the curtain on selected Plex libraries, making them fully invisible to every account, including the server admin, via a menubar control or the command line.

Instead of deleting libraries (which loses watch states and custom metadata), plexcurtain.py briefly stops Plex Media Server and surgically moves every database row belonging to the selected libraries (plus their artwork bundles on disk) into an "attic" SQLite file at ~/Library/Application Support/Plexcurtain/attic.db. Restoring moves everything back byte-for-byte. Nothing is ever rescanned or re-matched, so watch states, custom posters, manual edits, added-dates, and collections all survive. Media files are never touched.

Requirements

• macOS with Plex Media Server installed at /Applications/Plex Media Server.app (the tool uses the bundled Plex SQLite binary, which is required because Plex's database uses a custom full-text tokenizer that stock sqlite can't open safely).
• Python 3.9+ (stdlib only, no packages). Note: on a Mac where the Xcode license hasn't been accepted, /usr/bin/python3 won't run; use a Homebrew Python (/opt/homebrew/bin/python3) instead.
• SwiftBar, needed only for the menubar control. The CLI works without it.

Install

1. Clone the repo anywhere and make the scripts executable:

   git clone https://github.com/pjdoland/plexcurtain.git
   cd plexcurtain
   chmod +x plexcurtain.py plexcurtain.5m.sh

2. Check the CLI works (this also creates the config file):

   ./plexcurtain.py status          # should print: all libraries visible
   ./plexcurtain.py list-sections   # should list your libraries

3. Install SwiftBar (skip for CLI-only use):

   brew install --cask swiftbar
   # or download the zip from https://github.com/swiftbar/SwiftBar/releases
   # and drag SwiftBar.app into /Applications

4. Point the plugin at your paths. Edit the two variables at the top of plexcurtain.5m.sh: PLEXCURTAIN (absolute path to plexcurtain.py in your clone) and PY (your working python3).

5. Link the plugin into SwiftBar's plugin folder (choose the folder on SwiftBar's first launch, or pre-set it as below), then launch SwiftBar:

   PLUGDIR="$HOME/Library/Application Support/SwiftBar/Plugins"
   mkdir -p "$PLUGDIR"
   defaults write com.ameba.SwiftBar PluginDirectory -string "$PLUGDIR"
   ln -s "$PWD/plexcurtain.5m.sh" "$PLUGDIR/plexcurtain.5m.sh"
   open -a SwiftBar

   An eye icon appears in the menubar. Use its checkboxes to select libraries, then "Hide extra libraries".

6. First-toggle permission prompt: the first hide from the menubar may trigger a macOS prompt asking to let SwiftBar control Plex Media Server (it quits/relaunches Plex via AppleScript). Approve it once.

Nothing else is installed: no launch agents, no login items beyond SwiftBar itself, no changes to Plex or your plex.tv account.

Uninstall

1. Restore first. Do not uninstall while libraries are hidden:

   ./plexcurtain.py status    # if anything is hidden:
   ./plexcurtain.py restore

   (If you already deleted the tool while things were hidden, nothing is lost: re-clone it and run restore, or copy the newest backup from ~/Library/Application Support/Plexcurtain/backups/ back into ~/Library/Application Support/Plex Media Server/Plug-in Support/Databases/ with Plex stopped. The attic and backups hold everything.)

2. Remove the menubar plugin:

   rm "$HOME/Library/Application Support/SwiftBar/Plugins/plexcurtain.5m.sh"

3. Delete the data directory (config, attic, backups):

   rm -rf "$HOME/Library/Application Support/Plexcurtain"

4. Delete the repo clone.

5. Optionally remove SwiftBar if nothing else uses it:

   brew uninstall --cask swiftbar        # or just delete /Applications/SwiftBar.app
   rm -rf "$HOME/Library/Application Support/SwiftBar"
   defaults delete com.ameba.SwiftBar

Plex itself is left exactly as it was; the tool never modifies anything outside its own data directory, the SwiftBar plugin link, and (while hiding) the Plex library database it's designed to manage.

Menubar

The SwiftBar plugin (plexcurtain.5m.sh, symlinked into ~/Library/Application Support/SwiftBar/Plugins/) shows an eye icon: open eye = everything visible, slashed eye = hidden.

• While visible: "Select libraries to hide" lists every library with a checkbox; check/uncheck freely, then "Hide extra libraries".
• While hidden: the menu never lists library names. It offers "Show extra libraries", and, only if you changed the selection since hiding, "Apply selection changes", which restores everything and re-hides the new set in one step.

CLI

./plexcurtain.py status                 # what's hidden right now
./plexcurtain.py list-sections          # every library: checked? visible/hidden?
./plexcurtain.py check "Some Library"   # add to the hide set
./plexcurtain.py uncheck "Some Library" # remove from the hide set
./plexcurtain.py hide                   # stop Plex, attic the set, restart (~5s)
./plexcurtain.py restore                # bring everything back (~10s)
./plexcurtain.py toggle                 # whichever applies
./plexcurtain.py apply                  # reconcile a selection changed while hidden

Selection semantics (why this can't get wedged)

• The selection (config sections) is consulted only by hide.
• Restore always brings back everything in the attic, no matter what the selection says. Editing the selection while hidden can never orphan records or half-restore a library.
• Changing the selection while hidden simply marks intent; apply (or the menubar item) reconciles it via a full restore followed by a fresh hide.

Config lives outside the repo at ~/Library/Application Support/Plexcurtain/config.json:

{
  "sections": ["Example Library A", "Example Library B"],
  "keep_backups": 3
}

Tests

python3 tests.py -v

The suite builds a synthetic fixture by copying the local Plex database and cloning rows into fake libraries ("Curtain Test Alpha/Beta"), then exercises hide/restore round trips (asserting byte-identical content), bundle moves, watch-state survival, ID-collision safety for rows added while hidden, tag resurrection after garbage collection, selection drift + apply, guard rails (empty selection, double hide, missing library), simulated schema migration, and failure injection (a failed hide must leave the database untouched). Everything runs against temp copies with PLEXCURTAIN_NO_SERVER=1; the real server and database are never touched.

Safety

• A full copy of com.plexapp.plugins.library.db is made before every hide/restore, kept in ~/Library/Application Support/Plexcurtain/backups/ (last N per keep_backups). Worst case: copy one back into ~/Library/Application Support/Plex Media Server/Plug-in Support/Databases/.
• Any SQL failure rolls back the transaction and restores the backup automatically.
• All SQL runs through Plex's own bundled Plex SQLite binary, so the full-text search index triggers fire correctly.
• Every affected table uses AUTOINCREMENT, so rows restored after days of hiding can never collide with IDs created in the meantime.

Caveats

• Plex TV apps cache the sidebar, and all row changes happen while the server is stopped, so clients never receive change events for them. The tool compensates after every toggle: on restore it triggers a scan on each restored library (cheap: nothing on disk changed), and after both hide and restore it renames a surviving library and immediately renames it back, which fires the section-change events that make connected clients re-fetch the library list. A client that is fully asleep during the toggle picks up the change when it next connects.
• Each toggle restarts Plex Media Server (a few seconds). The tool refuses to run while anyone is actively streaming; override with --force. Only sessions that are actually playing or buffering block; paused or stopped ones do not, since a device someone walked away from mid-video would otherwise wedge the toggle indefinitely, and Plex keeps the resume point across the restart.
• Play queues referencing hidden items are dropped (Plex regenerates them). Playlist membership is preserved.
• Avoid letting Plex upgrade itself while libraries are hidden: if a server update migrates the database schema, restore inserts by column intersection and warns; a removed/renamed column would need manual attention (the pre-hide backup always exists). Best practice: restore, update Plex, hide again.
• Watch states live in metadata_item_settings, keyed by GUID; they are intentionally left in place while hidden (they render nowhere) and relink automatically on restore.