Document resuming where you left off, and recently_viewed.yaml

A new page explains what WROLPi remembers for videos, audio, EPUB eBooks and
comic books, how resume works (and when it does not), `?t=`, progress bars,
the Dashboard's Continue view, and the recently_viewed.yaml config.  The
configs page lists the new config, and PDFs and eBooks link to the page.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5.5 <noreply@anthropic.com>

docs/index.md

@@ -13,6 +13,7 @@ Information about a WROLPi system.
 * [How WROLPi Stores Files](system/filegroups.md)
 * [How Configs Work](system/configs.md)
 * [Tags](system/tags.md)
+* [Resume Where You Left Off](system/viewing-progress.md)
 * [Collections](system/collections/index.md)
     * [Reorganize Collections](system/collections/reorganization.md)
 * [Backup](system/backup.md)

docs/other/ebooks.md

@@ -11,6 +11,9 @@ Epub files are desired as ebooks, though some support for Mobi files is provided
 * Device support for Epubs is nearly ubiquitous.
 * Because an Epub contains HTML files, it makes it easy to display them in a web browser.
 
+EPUB eBooks and comic books open on the page you were reading; see
+[Resume Where You Left Off](../system/viewing-progress.md).
+
 Cover images are detected automatically — including Calibre-style directories with a `cover.jpg` — see
 [Cover Images](../modules/docs/index.md#cover-images).
 

docs/other/pdfs.md

@@ -3,6 +3,9 @@
 PDFs are managed by the [Docs module](../modules/docs/index.md), where they can be browsed, filtered by author and
 subject, searched, and read directly in the browser with the embedded PDF viewer.
 
+WROLPi does not remember your page in a PDF: the browser's PDF viewer does not report it. See
+[Resume Where You Left Off](../system/viewing-progress.md).
+
 ## Searching
 
 When indexes for a PDF are generated, they are searched in the following order of precedence:

docs/system/configs.md

@@ -26,6 +26,7 @@ All configs are stored in the `config` directory of your media directory: `/medi
 | `download_cache.yaml` | Cached video durations (safe to ignore). |
 | `map_pins.yaml` | Your [Map](../modules/map/index.md) pins. |
 | `bookmarks.yaml` | Your [Bookmarks](../modules/bookmarks/index.md), including their directories and order. |
+| `recently_viewed.yaml` | Your 1,000 most recently viewed files, and [where you left off](viewing-progress.md) in each. |
 | `inventory/*.yaml` | One file per [Inventory](../modules/inventory/index.md), plus the food catalog. |
 | `cookies.txt.enc` | Your [encrypted cookies](../modules/videos/cookies.md). |
 | `controller.yaml` | [Controller](../controller/index.md) settings: drives, Samba shares, hotspot. |
@@ -91,7 +92,7 @@ Imports are designed to be safe, but you should know the rules:
 
 A few things live only in the database and are lost if the database is rebuilt:
 
-* Video watch history / view positions.
+* Viewing history beyond your 1,000 most recently viewed files (see [Resume Where You Left Off](viewing-progress.md)).
 * The file index itself (this is simply rebuilt by a file refresh).
 
 Everything you deliberately curated — Tags, Channels, Playlists, Downloads, Inventories, pins, settings — is in the

docs/system/viewing-progress.md

@@ -0,0 +1,87 @@
+# Resume Where You Left Off
+
+WROLPi remembers how far you are through your videos, audio, eBooks and comic books. When you open one again, it
+picks up where you stopped — even on a different phone, tablet or computer.
+
+## What is remembered
+
+| File type | Where you left off | Finished when |
+|---|---|---|
+| Videos and audio | The playback time | You are 95% of the way through, or it plays to the end |
+| EPUB eBooks | The page you were reading | You reach the end of the book |
+| Comic books (`.cbz`, `.cbr`, `.cbt`, `.cb7`) | The page you were on | You reach the last page |
+
+PDFs are shown in your browser's built-in PDF viewer, which does not tell WROLPi what page you are on, so PDFs are only
+marked as viewed. Archives, images and text files are also only marked as viewed, and Zim articles are not
+tracked.
+
+Files in directories you [Ignore](../modules/files/index.md#files-tools) are never tracked.
+
+## Resuming
+
+Open a file from anywhere — its page, a search result, the [Files](../modules/files/index.md) browser, or a
+preview — and it opens where you left off:
+
+* A video or audio file jumps to where you stopped and keeps playing. If your browser blocks automatic playback
+  (some phones do), it waits at that spot for you to press play.
+* An eBook opens on the page you were reading.
+* A comic book opens on the page you were on.
+
+A file you **finished** starts again from the beginning.
+
+A file you only **just started** is not resumed: the first 10 seconds of a video, the cover of a comic book, or the
+first page of an eBook. Flipping back to the cover of a comic, or to the start of an eBook, does not lose your place.
+
+> To start a video at a particular time instead, add `?t=` and the number of seconds to its address. For example,
+> `/videos/123?t=90` starts at 1:30.
+
+Opening an eBook from a search result still opens at the match, not where you left off.
+
+### Using more than one device
+
+Your place is saved on your WROLPi, not in your browser, so you can stop watching on a phone and continue on a laptop.
+Whichever device saved most recently wins.
+
+Your place is saved every 15 seconds while you watch or read, and again when you pause, close the page or switch to
+another tab.
+
+## Progress bars
+
+Videos, audio files, eBooks and comic books show a bar along the bottom of their picture showing how far through them
+you are. A full bar means you finished it. A file you have not started has no bar.
+
+## Continue on the Dashboard
+
+The **Recently Viewed Files** panel at the bottom of the Dashboard has two views:
+
+* **All** shows the files you viewed most recently.
+* **Continue** shows only the files you are part way through, most recent first.
+
+> To find what you were in the middle of, click **Continue** in the Recently Viewed Files panel on the Dashboard.
+
+![The Continue view of Recently Viewed Files](recently-viewed-continue.png)
+
+WROLPi remembers which view you chose on each browser.
+
+## The recently viewed config
+
+Your viewing history is saved in the `recently_viewed.yaml` [config](configs.md), so it survives a rebuilt database,
+like your Tags and Channels do. It holds the **1,000 most recently viewed files**: each file's path, when you last
+viewed it, and how far through it you are.
+
+```yaml
+files:
+  - path: videos/Channel Name/Video Title.mp4
+    viewed: '2026-10-08T21:13:07+00:00'
+    progress: 0.4
+    position:
+      kind: time
+      seconds: 338.0
+```
+
+* The config is saved when you open a file, when you pause or close it, and after files are moved, renamed or
+  deleted. While you are watching, your place is saved to the database every 15 seconds, but the config is only
+  written when you stop, so your drive is not written to constantly.
+* When the config is imported, a file you viewed more recently than the config was written keeps its newer place.
+* Files that were deleted are skipped.
+* Files older than the 1,000 most recent are still marked as viewed in the database, but are not in the config.