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E-mail and notifications

Evey tells each profile when new films, series, seasons, episodes or albums arrive. It also tells:

  • the person who made a request, when it is answered;
  • administrators, about new requests, failed backups, plugin errors and a full subtitle cache.

Notifications appear in the apps with nothing to set up. By e-mail, once you set up a mail server (below).

Where notifications appear

  • In every app: the bell, with the number of unread notifications. Always on. A notification is kept 30 days. People only see titles from libraries their account can open.
  • In the browser (push): on the web, each profile turns on Push Notifications in Settings → Notifications, once per browser. Browsers only allow this on an https:// address (or localhost). Elsewhere the setting says Push notifications need an HTTPS address: open this server over HTTPS to turn them on. The Android and TV apps do not receive push notifications.
  • By e-mail: once e-mail is set up, every notification is also sent to the account's e-mail address, in the profile's language, with a link to the server. An account with several profiles receives one e-mail per event. People cannot turn e-mails off for themselves.
Push keys

The server creates the keys browser push needs on its first start. To bring your own, see E-mail and notifications.

Set up e-mail

Evey sends e-mail through a mail server you already have an account with: your e-mail provider, or a sending service. Your provider's help pages give the values below.

  1. Go to Admin → Server Config → Email / SMTP.

  2. Fill in the fields:

    Field What to type
    SMTP Host, Port The mail server and its port. The usual pairs are 587 with starttls, or 465 with ssl.
    Username, Password The account Evey signs in with.
    From Address The sender address shown on every message.
    TLS Mode starttls or ssl, to match the port (see above). none sends without encryption.

  3. Press Save SMTP Settings. It applies at once, without a restart.

  4. Press Send test email. Evey sends a short message to your own account's address. If it fails, it shows the mail server's answer.

The most common mistake is a TLS mode that does not match the port.

E-mail is used for notifications and password resets. Invitations are links you send yourself.

Setting e-mail in the environment instead

The EVEY_SMTP_* variables, under environment: in the compose file, are used only while the card has no host:

docker-compose.yml
services:
  evey:
    environment:
      EVEY_SMTP_HOST: smtp.example.com
      EVEY_SMTP_PORT: "587"
      EVEY_SMTP_USERNAME: notifications@example.com
      EVEY_SMTP_PASSWORD: your-smtp-password
      EVEY_SMTP_FROM: noreply@example.com
      EVEY_SMTP_TLS: starttls

As soon as a host is saved in the card, every field comes from the card and the variables are ignored. So the server never sends the variables' password to a mail server typed in the panel. Clear the host to go back to the variables.

Choose what a profile receives

In Settings → Notifications, each profile picks a level for Movies, Series and Music:

Level New titles you are told about
All Every one. This is the default.
Relevant Only titles that share a genre with what the profile usually watches.
Important only For now, the same as Relevant.
Disabled None.

A genre counts as "usually watched" when it appears in at least 3 of the profile's last 200 playbacks. A title without genres is never notified at the Relevant and Important only levels.

When several episodes of one series arrive within 24 hours, you get one notification that counts them. None is sent when the series or the season was just announced.

Let people reset their password

  1. Set up e-mail (above).
  2. Turn on Password recovery in Admin → Server Config → Accounts & security → Sign-in and protection. It applies immediately.
  3. The sign-in page now shows Forgot your password?. It e-mails a link to choose a new password.

Without a mail server, the link stays hidden, even with the option on.