Connect a Server

After installing Tracearr, you’ll connect your first media server during the initial setup.

Initial Setup

When you first access Tracearr, you’ll be prompted to sign in or create an account.

The owner account

The first account created on a fresh install becomes the owner, and there is only ever one. Once it exists the login page stops offering sign-up and there is no way to create another Tracearr account. Everyone else comes in through their own Plex, Jellyfin or Emby account; see Member sign-in.

Create the owner as yourself, from your own media server account or with its details. Tracearr records plays against people, and each person is one identity that holds their accounts on your servers. Your own Plex, Jellyfin or Emby account is one of those accounts, and it should belong to the owner instead of showing up as a second person.

How your own account joins the owner depends on how you set it up:

• Sign up with Plex creates the owner from your Plex account and attaches your account on the server you pick right away.
• Create Account asks for a display name, username, email and password. When Tracearr syncs a Plex server’s accounts, an account whose email matches an existing person’s email joins that person. Give the owner the same email as your Plex account and your Plex account becomes part of the owner. Matching is by email only. A matching username links nothing.
• Jellyfin and Emby do not send Tracearr any email addresses, so a Jellyfin or Emby account never joins the owner on its own, whatever you type here. Your own account shows up on Users as a separate member until you link it.

When the owner and your own server account end up as two people, plays on that account are recorded under the member, not the owner, and signing in with it through Jellyfin or Emby follows the member rules instead of signing you in as the owner. Renaming does not join them. A person’s display name can be changed from their page, the username cannot be changed in the web app, and a synced account never joins a person by username. Two people who are both listed on Users can be merged. The owner is never listed there, so your own Jellyfin or Emby account is linked from its server instead.

Linking your own Jellyfin or Emby account

In Settings → Servers → Connections, each Jellyfin and Emby server has a Your account line with a Link button. Pick the account you use on that server and type its username to confirm. When the server has exactly one administrator, that account is already selected.

Linking folds that account into the owner the same way a merge does. Its plays become yours, and signing in with it through the Media server form signs you in as the owner, on a server open to member sign-in. Anyone who can sign in to the server as that account gets the same access: whoever knows its password, anyone who manages the server, and on Jellyfin any device signed in to it that approves a Quick Connect code. Only link your own account.

Tracearr refuses the link when:

• you already have an account linked on that server
• the person holding the account also has accounts on other servers; split it off on their page first
• that person is an admin or has their own Tracearr password or SSO sign-in
• the account has been removed from the server

Unlink on the same line moves the account back out to a person of its own and signs you out of Tracearr everywhere except the browser you used and your paired phones. While none of your Jellyfin or Emby accounts are linked and you have no plays, the Personal dashboard points you to this setting.

Plex (Recommended)

1. Click Sign up with Plex
2. A popup opens — sign in with your Plex account
3. Tracearr discovers your Plex servers automatically
4. Select the server you want to monitor
5. You’re done — Tracearr begins tracking sessions

Single Sign-On (OIDC)

If your Tracearr instance is configured with an OIDC identity provider (Authentik, Authelia, Keycloak, and similar), the login page shows an SSO button. Click it to sign in through your provider, then connect servers as described below. On a fresh install the first account created this way becomes the owner. See OIDC Single Sign-On for the required environment variables.

Jellyfin

1. Click Create Account and set up a local Tracearr account for yourself (read The owner account first)
2. After account creation, go to Settings → Servers → Connections
3. Click Add Server and select Jellyfin
4. Enter your server details:
   • Server URL: for example http://192.168.1.100:8096
   • Public address: optional, see Public address
   • Server Name: a friendly name for the server
   • API Key: from Jellyfin Dashboard → API Keys
5. Click Connect Server

Emby

1. Click Create Account and set up a local Tracearr account for yourself (read The owner account first)
2. After account creation, go to Settings → Servers → Connections
3. Click Add Server and select Emby
4. Enter your server details:
   • Server URL: for example http://192.168.1.100:8096
   • Public address: optional, see Public address
   • Server Name: a friendly name for the server
   • API Key: from Emby Server → API Keys
5. Click Connect Server

Public address

Both the Jellyfin and the Emby form carry one more field, Public address, which is optional and has no equivalent on Plex. It is the address members use to open the server from outside your network, such as https://jellyfin.example.com, and newsletter links use it.

Tracearr always talks to the server on the Server URL. The public address is only ever put into links other people click, so setting it changes nothing about polling, sessions or the API key. Leave it blank and newsletters carry no links to items on that server. Give it an address a member off your network could not open, such as an RFC 1918 or loopback address, a Tailscale 100.64.0.0/10 address, or a .local or .ts.net name, and the links are left out for the same reason; the newsletter editor’s Readiness list names the server and says which of the two it hit.

Adding More Servers

You can monitor multiple servers from a single Tracearr instance. Click Add Server in Settings → Servers → Connections, pick the server type, and fill in the same fields as above. You’ll need administrator access to generate a Jellyfin or Emby API key.

Plex servers come from linked Plex accounts. To add one owned by a different Plex account, link that account first under Plex accounts.

Changing a server’s URL or API key later is covered in Media Servers.

Getting API Keys

Jellyfin

1. Open Jellyfin and go to Dashboard → API Keys
2. Click the + button to create a new key
3. Give it a name (e.g., “Tracearr”)
4. Copy the generated key

Emby

1. Open Emby and go to Dashboard → API Keys
2. Click New API Key
3. Give it a name (e.g., “Tracearr”)
4. Copy the generated key

Next Steps

Once connected, Tracearr will begin tracking sessions and collecting analytics. Check out the Configuration guide to customize alerts, sharing detection rules, and more.