fix(plex): a finished HLS session outlives a throttled heartbeat

backend/app/main.py

@@ -151,7 +151,7 @@ async def _reap_hls_sessions() -> None:
     somebody pressed play again or the process restarted.
 
     A FINISHED session is reaped on the short rule here, not kept for the full idle window: an open
-    player checkpoints every 10 s and that route touches the session, so a paused viewer is no longer
+    player keeps checkpointing and that route touches the session, so a paused viewer is no longer
     invisible to this pass (see `reap_idle`). Keeping every finished session for ten minutes instead
     held one whole segmented copy of a film per item on the download volume."""
     while True:

backend/app/plex/stream.py

@@ -1160,9 +1160,13 @@ def sweep_orphans(older_than: float | None = None) -> int:
     return dropped
 
 
-# How long a session whose ffmpeg has FINISHED may go unfetched before a new session request reaps
-# it (see reap_idle).
-_FINISHED_IDLE_S = 30
+# The slowest heartbeat a live player sends: a browser cuts the timers of a hidden page that makes no
+# sound to one a minute (measured on Chromium: a paused and a muted player, about a minute after
+# hiding; a hidden player with sound keeps its 10 s).
+_THROTTLED_HEARTBEAT_S = 60
+# How long a session whose ffmpeg has FINISHED may go without a signal before `reap_idle` takes it:
+# the beat before the reaper looks, one lost on the way, and the time the next one takes to arrive.
+_FINISHED_IDLE_S = 3 * _THROTTLED_HEARTBEAT_S
 
 
 def reap_idle(finished_idle_s: float = _FINISHED_IDLE_S) -> int:
@@ -1171,15 +1175,17 @@ def reap_idle(finished_idle_s: float = _FINISHED_IDLE_S) -> int:
 
     A finished session is also what a PAUSED viewer has: a remux runs far faster than realtime, so
     ffmpeg is done a minute or two in and writes ENDLIST; hls.js then stops asking for the playlist,
-    and with its forward buffer full a paused player fetches nothing at all. With the 30 s rule that
-    killed a one-minute pause, and playback died ~30 s after resuming.
+    and with its forward buffer full a paused player fetches nothing at all.
 
-    What makes the short rule safe again is that fetching is no longer the only signal: a player
-    parked MID-ITEM checkpoints its position every 10 s, and that route calls `touch_session`, so a
-    viewer who is merely paused says so far more often than this rule asks. The heartbeat
+    What makes the short rule safe is that fetching is not the only signal: a player parked MID-ITEM
+    checkpoints its position and that route calls `touch_session`. That beat is every 10 s only while
+    the page is visible or making sound; a hidden, silent one sends it once a minute, which a 30 s
+    rule killed whenever the reaper happened to run more than 30 s after the beat (measured: a paused
+    session gone that way, and one that lived on the same cadence because its phase was luckier).
+    So the rule is sized to the throttled beat (`_THROTTLED_HEARTBEAT_S`). The heartbeat
     stops once the item is finished or before a position is known (`usePlexProgress.flush`) — both
     states where reaping is correct, and where the player's 404 → reclaim recovers a viewer who
-    scrubs back in anyway. Do not restate this as "every 10 s whether or not it is playing":
+    scrubs back in anyway. Do not restate this as "whether or not it is playing":
     a review found that claim in two comments and not in the code. An earlier blanket
     `reap_abandoned` bought the same safety by keeping every finished session for ten minutes — each
     one a whole segmented copy of the film on a volume shared with the download center."""

backend/app/routes/plex/playback.py

@@ -323,7 +323,8 @@ def item_progress(
     `_should_push_resume`). `final` (sent on pause / seek / pagehide / unmount) pushes immediately and
     resets the throttle window, so Plex sees a settled position the instant the user pauses or seeks."""
     it = item_or_404(db, rating_key)
-    # A player parked mid-item — playing or PAUSED — checkpoints every 10 s, so this is the signal
+    # A player parked mid-item — playing or PAUSED — keeps checkpointing (every 10 s, once a minute
+    # in a hidden silent page), so this is the signal
     # that such a viewer still wants their HLS session: the one thing `last_access` could not see,
     # since it moved only on a file fetch and a paused player fetches nothing (see
     # stream.reap_idle). It is NOT every open player: `usePlexProgress.flush` sends nothing once the