three-way-sync.md

Three-Way Sync

Three-way sync allows you to sync two separate accounts with a shared account between them. This is useful when you have a family account and want to keep it synchronized with individual user accounts without those individual accounts conflicting with each other.

Use Cases

• You have a family account and separate accounts for yourself and your spouse, and you want to sync the family account with both individual accounts.
• You want play state from the shared account to flow to both individual accounts without those accounts overwriting each other.
• You need to maintain separate viewing histories while keeping a central family account synchronized.

How to Set Up Three-Way Sync

Step 1: Set Up the Individual Accounts.

Follow the one-way sync guide Once the setup is complete you need to remove the shared user's data folder to prevent conflicts:

1. Access your WatchState shell or terminal
2. Navigate to /config/users/
3. Delete the shared user's folder

Important

Removing the shared user folder is necessary because the shared account will be manually configured in both individual user profiles to prevent data conflicts.

Step 2: Add the Shared Account to Individual Backends

For each individual account (yours and your spouse's)

Note

you can switch via the identity button in the top-right corner of the interface.

1. Go to Backends and click on the Add Backend button
2. Follow the usual add backend process to add the share account.
3. Configure the settings as follows:
   • Name: Choose a unique name that isn't already used. e.g. shared_family_one or shared_family_two
   • Enable Import: Yes
   • Enable export: No

Important

Keeping Enable Import enabled ensures the shared account's watch state overrides the individual accounts. Disabling Enable export prevents individual accounts from modifying the shared account's data.

Verify the Setup

Once configured, your sync flow should work as follows:

• The shared account imports data to WatchState
• Both individual accounts receive updates from the shared account
• Individual accounts do not send updates back to the shared account
• Individual accounts do not interfere with each other

To verify everything is working correctly:

1. Go to the History page
2. Check that watch state from the shared account appears in both individual accounts
3. Verify that changes in individual accounts do not affect the shared account

Side Effects and Considerations

• If you force import the shared account data it will override your existing playstate. DO NOT force import if you want to keep existing data.
• It's not possible to sync old data as it will override your existing playstate. Only new watch states will be synced.
• Be cautious when modifying settings in individual accounts, as changes may affect how data is imported from the shared account.
• Before making the setup always have a backup of your data in case you need to restore it.