Using your controller

Finch is built for a controller. A keyboard works too. Buttons are named as on an Xbox pad; a PlayStation pad’s ✕ ○ □ △ are A B X Y.

Xbox’s Start is called “Menu (Start)”, since Menu is also the name of Y’s job, and Select is “View”. Settings, then Appearance, then “Button style” picks the pictures Finch draws; with Xbox pictures, the hints draw Start as three lines and Select as two squares.

Everywhere

D-pad or left stick: move.
Left and Right: change a value in Settings.
A: open, play, or choose.
B: go back. On Search, Shows, Movies, Settings or Help it goes back to Home.
B on Home asks whether to quit Finch, with Cancel chosen first.
X: mark a title watched or unwatched. On a whole show it asks first. Cards show a check once watched.
Y: the menu for a title (see “A title’s menu”). In the folder picker, Y types a path instead.
LB and RB: the previous or next tab.
On a show’s or movie’s page, LB and RB switch its tabs from anywhere on the page: a show’s seasons, Extras, Details and More like this, or a movie’s Play or Resume, Extras, Details and More like this.
LT and RT: in Shows or Movies, jump between letters, or three rows at a time when sorted another way.
LT and RT: in Settings, Help, the folder picker and a show’s or movie’s list, move a page at a time. Left and Right page those lists too.
Up from the top row: the tab bar (Home, Search, Shows, Movies, Settings, Help, then Profile with two or more profiles, and Quit at the far right).
Start: opens the filters in Shows, Movies and Search, and does nothing elsewhere. Settings is reached from the tab bar.
Select: switch profiles, when there are two or more.

Y opens it on Home, on the grids, on a collection’s page, and on a show’s or movie’s page.

It starts with Add to My list (or Remove from My list), then Series details or Movie details.
On an episode it also has Episode details. A show has Hide spoilers, Play next episode and Shuffle.
A movie you stopped partway has Play from the start.
Home shows a My list row after Continue Watching, newest first. Each profile keeps its own list on this device.
The last entry, “More…”, holds the rest: Fix series matching or Fix movie matching, Choose a custom cover…, Remove my cover, Refresh posters and descriptions, and Forget audio and subtitle choices.
Fix matching and Refresh show only when posters and descriptions are on.
For a movie made from an Unsorted file, More… also has Not a movie.
B in More… goes back to the first menu.
Left, Right or A on a setting changes it in place: a show’s Play next episode and Hide spoilers go As in Settings, On, Off.
A on Add to My list or Remove from My list works the same way, and the menu stays open.
Only B closes the menu. An entry that does something, such as Movie details or Fix movie matching, closes it too.
A plays and X marks watched, so the menu doesn’t have them.
A movie collection’s card on the Movies grid has no X or Y. A opens its page, where X and Y work on each film’s row.

On a show’s or movie’s page

On the More like this tab (when something you own is alike), Left and Right move along the row.
On More like this, A opens the title, Y opens its menu and B goes back to the tabs.
A on a title’s Details tab: “Show full cast” opens the rest of the cast out in two columns, and “Show less” folds it.
B folds the cast first, before it goes back.
Right on an episode, with the description panel beside the list, moves into the panel.
The page then folds its header to give the panel room, and the panel’s picture becomes a small thumbnail.
In the panel, Up and Down scroll the whole column of description, credits and your own progress.
A in the panel opens it out (hiding the thumbnail) or closes it. Left or B go back to the list.
Settings, then Appearance, then Episode layout on Grid shows a season’s episodes as stills, three across, with the same panel beside them.
In the grid the panel has no picture, since the episode’s still is already on screen.
In the grid, LT and RT move by the rows in view, and Left and Right move one episode.
Right on the last still of a row moves into the panel. Left or B comes back to that still.
The Extras tab’s grid is four across, with no panel.

Filters

Start opens them in Shows, Movies and Search, from the tab bar too. Other screens have none.
Sort comes first. The sort stays when filters are cleared.
Search then has Type: All, Shows, Movies, Unsorted, Episodes or Extras.
Next come Progress (All, Unwatched, In progress or Watched), Drive, Genre, Stars and Age rating.
Genre, Stars and Age rating need posters and descriptions on. Genre and Age rating show only when some title has one.
The list refreshes behind the menu as you choose.
With a filter on, a last entry, “Clear all filters”, turns them all off.
Holding Start does the same without opening the menu.

While watching

A: pause or resume.
Left and Right: skip 10 seconds. Hold to go faster; the bar shows where you will land.
LT and RT: previous or next chapter.
LB and RB: the previous or next episode of a show, in order with specials last, whatever its play next and shuffle settings.
LB and RB keep your place in the episode you leave, and do nothing for a movie or an extra.
X: skip an opening, recap, credits or preview, until that chapter ends.
The skip button hides after 6 seconds, and any press brings it back. X works even while it is hidden.
Y: the player menu. It has the previous and next episode at the top, then audio, subtitles, chapter, volume, sleep timer, subtitle size and position.
B: pause and go back. “Pause when leaving a video” in Settings, then Playback, keeps it playing instead.

Search

Move to a letter and press A to type it.
On the keyboard or on a result, X deletes a letter. Holding X clears everything typed.
Y types a space. Holding LT types capitals, or small letters while caps is on.
RT switches to the symbols and back, keeping your place on the keyboard.
The last row has the caps key (an arrow, filled in while capitals are on), the symbols key (@#:), Space and Delete.
Holding A on Delete clears everything too.
A result takes no watched mark and no menu here.
Search shows what you type in the case you typed it, and matching ignores case.
Start opens the sort and filters.
Search matches the start of words and lists results in sections, each with its count: Shows, then Movies.
Next come up to 100 matching files from Unsorted, and up to 100 episodes. A on an episode opens its show on that episode.
The last section is up to 100 films, extras, openings and endings kept with a show or a movie.
A on one of those opens that page on its Extras tab with it selected. An opening or ending says so under its name.
The Type filter keeps just one section.
With nothing typed, it lists every title and then up to 100 Unsorted files. A Drive filter on a drive of loose files shows them at once.
A single letter finds titles, Unsorted files, episodes and extras whose first word starts with it. A leading “The” or “A” doesn’t count.
Up moves through the sections one by one before it reaches the tabs.
Sort starts on Best match and can be Name, Date added, Recently watched or Stars. It orders each section among itself.

Typing elsewhere

A name, a path, a title to look for, a share’s address, user name or password, and a TMDB key all work the same way.
Their keyboard has a Done key that finishes.
A title’s and a password’s keyboards have the symbols key, and no Space key, so Y types the space.
The other keyboards have Space and no symbols.
A PIN’s number pad only deletes with X.
Settings, then Appearance, then “Keyboard layout” puts the letters in ABC or QWERTY order.
In Game mode, Steam + X opens Steam’s own keyboard.

Changing the controls

Settings, then Controls, moves the buttons for the profile watching. This page names the buttons as they come.
Press A on a job, then the button you want for it.
A button another job has swaps the two. The job’s own button again leaves it on Nothing, as X on a job’s row does.
Every button counts as an answer, B too, so B can be given to another job. To cancel, hold B (Back’s button) for a moment.
Holding Back’s button (B unless you moved it) on the Controls page also leaves it.
Open and play and Back always keep a button. The D-pad and the left stick never move.
A show’s seasons follow Previous tab and Next tab. A show’s or movie’s lists page with Page up and Page down, wherever those are.
On a keyboard, holding Page up’s button is shift, Page down’s switches to the symbols, and holding Toggle watched’s clears.
“Reset controls” puts everything back.
The hints along the bottom always name the button a job is on. The keyboard keys below stand for the buttons, so they follow the changes too.

Keyboard

Arrows move, Enter is A (and finishes typing a name, a path or a title), Escape is B, X is X, Tab is Y, Page Up and Page Down are LB and RB, comma and full stop are LT and RT, F1 is Start, F2 is Select.

On the Search screen and any on-screen keyboard, a real keyboard’s letters type straight in, its own Shift giving capitals, so comma and full stop type themselves there rather than standing for LT and RT.

On a desktop

On a desktop, and in the Deck’s Desktop mode, start Finch with --windowed to get a window you can switch away from; fullscreen Finch has no Alt+Tab of its own. If Steam’s desktop controller layout sends keys as well, Finch follows the controller and ignores the keys.