Backup & Restore ¶

Keep your Neptune preferences in sync across every device signed into the same server account.
Settings, layout choices, theme picks, library pins, and your customized home rows all stay aligned.
When one setting genuinely needs to be different on one device, Device Overrides can keep that setting local without disabling the rest of sync.
Settings Profiles provide named settings environments that can be selected locally or assigned by device type.
Administrators can separately publish reusable Server Profiles to every matching device class or only to selected users.

Backup & Restore is currently powered by the Jellyfin-specific Neptune MDM plugin.
Without a compatible backend extension, Neptune still works; your settings stay device-local and Neptune does not show cloud sync actions that cannot work.
Sync support for future backends will be documented as it becomes available.

What Gets Synced ¶

What stays device-local: diagnostics toggles, the sync switch itself, and anything tied to the specific hardware.
The active Settings Profile choice is local too: Auto, Manual with no profile selected, or a manually selected named profile can be different on each physical device.
A Device Override is also local, but it applies to one otherwise synchronized setting.
The active profile selection and the Device Override list never travel inside the backup.

Home Screen and Lock Screen widget placement, size, and per-widget Page/Section/Pin selection are managed by iOS on that device; they are not one synchronized Neptune preference.
The underlying native Pins and the content Neptune publishes to an existing widget do follow the active profile.

Picture in Picture and Background Playback are synchronized preferences even though their behavior is iPhone/iPad-only.
A changed value is used when the next playback session starts; it has no effect on Apple TV.

Setting It Up ¶

During Onboarding ¶

If the plugin is detected on your server, onboarding adds a backup step:

• Existing backup found.
  Neptune offers to restore your settings.
• No backup found.
  Neptune offers to enable sync so this device starts contributing.
• Skip.
  Continue without sync and turn it on later.

From Settings ¶

Go to Settings > User Preferences > Backup and Restore:

Settings Profiles lives inside Backup and Restore.
Its definitions and one optional automatic assignment per device type use the same Settings Sync connection.
Definitions and the local choice remain stored even while a profile is inactive.
An explicit Required assignment is managed policy and keeps the assigned profile active independently of personal profile selection.

Administrator-managed policy is stored separately from your cloud backup.
A directly locked setting or Required Settings Profile still applies when Sync across devices is off, and deleting the personal backup does not silently remove that policy.
The administrator must choose Allow User Changes to remove a direct or member lock, or remove the profile requirement to let the user select a different profile.
Required controls selection only; unlocked members remain customizable.
Personal values and Device Overrides under a locked member remain stored underneath.

Server Profiles are also stored separately.
Globally assigned profiles and profiles explicitly added to this user refresh even when ordinary Settings Sync is off.
They do not become editable personal profiles in the backup.

How It Works ¶

With Neptune MDM, rapid local changes are briefly batched and only the settings that changed are sent to your Jellyfin server.
The server merges different fields into the user's backup, then notifies every other signed-in device.
Those devices apply the accepted changes in place; no restart is needed.

On launch or reconnect, Neptune checks for changes made elsewhere before you start browsing.
Pending local edits are kept until the server accepts them.
If two devices change different settings, both changes can land.
If they change the same setting, the most recently accepted value wins.

For a brand-new Jellyfin profile, Server Defaults are applied before the first automatic Seerr sign-in, even when Settings Sync is off.
The onboarding page labels this as server setup instead of offering to restore it as a personal “Welcome Back” backup.

Settings Profile definitions and device-type assignments sync as one document.
Ordinary eligible changes update the active target: the regular synchronized setting when no named profile is active, or the named profile definition when one is active.
The named profile's effective member values are not uploaded as separate regular-setting changes, preventing an assignment for one device type from overwriting another client's configuration.
A profile's Replace Device Overrides choice also syncs.

A global automatic assignment is a live managed layer rather than a sync change.
An unassigned Server Profile stays out of the account until an administrator explicitly adds it to that user.
A personal automatic assignment wins over an optional global one.
A per-user required assignment wins over a global required assignment.
If no profile is assigned for this device class, Neptune uses ordinary settings; Server Defaults only seed those settings during first setup and are not reapplied when Auto is selected.

Optional personal or Server Profile assignments follow the recipient's profile availability.
A matching Required assignment is managed policy.
Required scope is currently the user plus device class, so it affects every matching device for that account rather than one particular physical device.

Offline clients keep the last Required policy and matching definition they successfully reconciled for the same server, user, and device class.
If Neptune has never verified the matching definition, it does not invent profile values; it retries when the server is reachable.
A server, account, backend-generation, or device-class change releases the old managed overlay.

Leaving a named profile does not request a fresh cloud restore.
Neptune reveals the newest regular synchronized values it has already observed, falling back to the local values captured before the profile became active.
Auto with no assigned profile uses that same baseline and does not reapply Server Defaults.

An active Device Override removes its setting from ordinary uploads and downloads on that device.
Removing the override normally queues this device's current value to sync again.
A profile with Replace Device Overrides enabled can instead remove only its matching overrides when activated.
A user-initiated selection asks before clearing, including a switch to Auto.
A later background automatic activation uses the saved policy.

Deleting a Backup ¶

Deleting the cloud backup clears the server copy but does not erase settings or Device Overrides from your devices.
Neptune will not immediately recreate the backup just because the app launches or reconnects.

If Settings Sync remains enabled, a later local change can create a new backup from the current synchronized settings; active overrides remain excluded.
Turn off Sync across devices as well if you want settings to remain local after deletion.

Backup Status ¶

The screen shows when the backup was last saved and which device saved it.
If sync stops working, a hint explains why (plugin not installed, pending restart, disabled).

Privacy ¶

Sync is scoped per server and per user.
A user signed into two different servers maintains two independent backups.