Get Recently Viewed Movies

This API command is used to get all recently viewed movies from a Plex server.

URL

GET http://{ip_address}:32400/library/sections/{id}/recentlyViewed?X-Plex-Token={plex_token}

Parameters

Return Status

Response

XML string value that lists the all the recently added movies in the library. An example of the XML returned from the request is shown below:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<MediaContainer size="100" allowSync="1" art="/:/resources/movie-fanart.jpg" identifier="com.plexapp.plugins.library" librarySectionID="2" librarySectionTitle="Movies" librarySectionUUID="493a64e7-b541-4667-b050-d702beebf2f6" mediaTagPrefix="/system/bundle/media/flags/" mediaTagVersion="1713459976" sortAsc="1" thumb="/:/resources/movie.png" title1="Movies" title2="Recently Viewed" viewGroup="movie" viewMode="131624">
    <Video ratingKey="289418" key="/library/metadata/289418" guid="plex://movie/5d7770787a53e9001e7a3b15" slug="they-shall-not-grow-old" studio="Imperial War Museums" type="movie" title="They Shall Not Grow Old" contentRating="R" summary="Through ground breaking computer restoration technology, filmmaker Peter Jackson's team creates a moving real-to-life depiction of the WWI, as never seen before in restored, vivid colorizing & retiming of the film frames, in order to honor those who fought and more accurately depict this historical moment in world history." rating="9.9" audienceRating="9.1" viewOffset="3117216" lastViewedAt="1714352567" year="2018" tagline="A ground-breaking documentary..." thumb="/library/metadata/289418/thumb/1713850166" art="/library/metadata/289418/art/1713850166" duration="5958954" originallyAvailableAt="2018-11-09" addedAt="1686699310" updatedAt="1713850166" audienceRatingImage="rottentomatoes://image.rating.upright" chapterSource="media" primaryExtraKey="/library/metadata/289419" ratingImage="rottentomatoes://image.rating.ripe">
        <Media id="355039" duration="5958954" bitrate="11025" width="1920" height="1040" aspectRatio="1.85" audioChannels="6" audioCodec="dca" videoCodec="h264" videoResolution="1080" container="mkv" videoFrameRate="24p" audioProfile="dts" videoProfile="high">
            <Part id="355439" key="/library/parts/355439/1685130702/file.mkv" duration="5958954" file="M:\Media\Movies\They Shall Not Grow Old (2018)\They Shall Not Grow Old (2018).1080p.x264.dts.mkv" size="8213799279" audioProfile="dts" container="mkv" videoProfile="high" />
        </Media>
        <Genre tag="Documentary" />
        <Genre tag="History" />
        <Country tag="New Zealand" />
        <Country tag="Turkey" />
        <Director tag="Peter Jackson" />
        <Writer tag="Peter Jackson" />
        <Role tag="Thomas Adlam" />
        <Role tag="William Argent" />
        <Role tag="John Ashby" />
    </Video>
    ...
</MediaContainer>

The XML returned provides a list of the all movies in a library that have been recently viewed on the Plex server. The root is the MediaContainer element. This element contains a few attributes that provide overall information about the movies on the server.

Within the MediaContainer there are one or more Video child elements. Each Video element represents one movie available on the Plex server.

Within the Video there are one or more Media child elements. Each Media element represents one media file of the movie available on the Plex server.

If there are two media files associated with the movie, such as a 1080p and 480p version, then there would be two Media child elements in the Video element.

Within the Media there are one or more Part child elements. Each Part element represents one part of the movie. If the movie has been added to the Plex server as a multi-part movie, then each of those parts will be represented by one Part child element.

Also within the Video element there are multiple additional child elements that provide more details about the movie. These child elements include Genre, Director, Writer, Country, Collection, and Role.

Within each of these child elements is a single tag attribute that provides the information for the element. There could be multiple of the same child element within the Video, such as multiple directors or writers.

Remarks

When using the command ensure that the 'V' in 'recentlyCdded' is in uppercase. A lowercase 'V' will return a 404 status code.

Examples

curl -X GET http://{ip_address}:32400/library/sections/{id}/recentlyViewed?X-Plex-Token={plex_token}

import requests
plex_url = http://{ip_address}:32400/library/sections/{id}/recentlyViewed?X-Plex-Token={plex_token}
response = requests.get(plex_url)
print(response.text)

$response = Invoke-RestMethod 'http://{ip_address}:32400/library/sections/{id}/recentlyViewed?X-Plex-Token={plex_token}' -Method 'GET'
Write-Output $response