cross-posted from: https://poptalk.scrubbles.tech/post/2333639
I was just forwarded this someone in my household who watches our server. That’s it folks. I’ve been a hold out for a long time, but this is honestly it.
They want me to pay to stream content that I bought from my hardware transcoded also on my hardware.
I’ll say it. As of today, I say Plex is dead. Luckily I’ve been setting up Jellyfin, I guess it’s time to make it production ready.
Edit: I have a Plex Pass. More comments saying “Just buy a plex pass” are seriously not getting it. I have a Plex Pass and my users are still getting this.
And for the thousandth person who wants to say the same things to me:
- YES I know I’m unaffected as a Plex Pass owner.
- My users were immediately angry at it, which made me angry. Our users don’t understand what plex pass is, and they shouldn’t have to, that’s why I had it. The fact that they were pinged even though it should have kept working is horribly sloppy
- Plex is still removing functionality. I don’t care that “People should pay their fair share”. If Plex wants to put every new feature behind a paywall, that’s completely okay. They are removing functionality.
- “But they have cloud costs”. Remote streaming is negligible to them. It’s a dynamic DNS service. Plex client logs in, asks where server is, plex cloud responds with the IP and port of where server is located. That’s it.
- “Good luck finding another remote streaming” - Again, Plex just opens up an IP and port. Jellyfin also just opens up an IP and port (Hold on jellyfin folks I know, security, that’s a separate conversation). All “remote streaming” is is their dynamic dns. Literal pennies to them. Know what actually is costing them money? Hosting all of that ad-supported “free” content that they’re probably losing money on.
In short, I don’t care how you justify it. Plex is doing something shitty. They’re removing functionality that has been free for years. I’m not responding to any more of your comments repeating the same arguments over and over.
Totally agree with this. Plex has been drifting away from what made it great — the whole “own your media” ethos. I’ve been slowly moving my setup toward Jellyfin too, and honestly, it feels so much more in line with self-hosted values.
If anyone still wants a simple, lightweight media streaming option (especially for Android devices), CloudStream APK has been surprisingly solid no paywalls, no cloud lock-ins.
What’s Plex’s use case? Why not just mpv locally?
Some pretty easy work arounds.
I got the same email.
I haven’t had plex installed for over 7 years, and I’ve NEVER used the shared libraries feature.
We noticed that you’ve accessed libraries from friends and family in the past
They’ve apparently noticed activity that’s never occurred.
Others in another thread are trying to convince me that the email is wrong, that my Plex Pass should mean everyone gets to stream for free. The email, however, kinda indicates otherwise. So who knows what’s going on over there, but either way - I’m done
Only the server owner needs a plex pass, it says that in the email.
The email you posted specifically says if you have PLEX Pass users can stream for free.
I don’t quite understand your confusion, they sent the email to everyone with an account. The email indicates clearly that if a server owner has a Plex pass, the users do not need it. The email is not “wrong”.
My users are upset, and that makes me upset. I’ve been fielding calls and messages from them for the last hour where they’re worried they have to start paying. So yeah, I don’t really care that it doesn’t apply to them, Plex sent an email that to the average user looks like they need to start paying. That was a shitty move on their part.
They could have done a banner on each client if they connected to a non-plex pass server and said “Hey starting in a few days, this won’t be free”, and left plex pass ones alone. They could have narrowed the emails down to “If you’ve connected to a free server in the last year”. It appears that they just blasted it out. I know for a fact that one of the accounts has never connected to a free server.e
And all of that is ignoring that it was free for a decade already, so why is it suddenly a “premium” service. So yeah, they bungled the entire situation, and I’m out.
Your users shouldn’t be upset because nothing has changed for them. It shouldn’t be the end of the world to tell your users that nothing has changed. None of my users have reached out.
I’ll agree that they should have only sent it to affected users.
Your users might be more upset that you’re pulling the plug and will require technically involved setups such as tailscale for Jellyfin. Gotta pick your battles.
You shouldn’t blame Plex for your or your users illiteracy
I thought illiterate user friendliness was plex’s number 1 feature? That’s what half the comments in here are saying.
Your users are upset? Either they’re damn entitled, or you’re charging them like one of those “streaming” services.
Who gets upset with an email when it clearly states what’s going on regarding the Plex Pass.
Funny to hear all the complaining from people about Plex. I’ve been using it for years and bought a lifetime pass years ago because I wanted to support them. If you’ve been using it for so long and loved it, I question why you never bought a pass?
Instead of taking a minute to just read the entire email, they decided to go immediately to the internet to complain. Then when people explained to them multiple times what is going on they decided to argue with them instead of ya know reading the email. The internet is alive and well.
The email says that if the admin/owner of the plex server you stream from has a Plex Pass then nothing changes.
Per the email text and Plex’s policy, they are correct - only Server Owners need the Pass.
That said I moved to Jellyfin months ago when they announced it.
Except I have a pass and my users are still getting the email. So either they’re incompetent sending out the emails, they are trying to trick my users into thinking they need to pay, or they’re lying and they will need to pay eventually… All of those reasons tell me it’s time to stop using Plex.
Yeah, they shot an email to everyone with an account, it’s pretty normal. It explicitly says:
Alternatively, server owners can buy a Plex pass
Which is pretty clear language
Can I still watch for free from my pc to my tv locally through the Plex app?
OP couldn’t comprehend an email, and when everyone tried to reassure them that nothing for them has changed they doubled down. The closest thing to justification I can figure is “all my clients are borderline illiterate as well and it upset them”.
How in the world could you be upset that a product you already paid for is not providing that specific feature for free anymore. They’ve even made the phone software free!
LOL, aren’t there at least a half dozen open source alternatives for Plex?
Playon, Evernote, Lastpass, there have been plenty of examples.
Whenever a company starts charging for previously free features, it’s time to GTFO, even if you’re on their pay side.
I’ve got lifetime Plexpass, but I can read the writing on the wall. It’s only a matter of time before they enshittify my product or stop providing updates. They’ll sunset Plex and start Plex+ or some shit, give em a year or so.
Get your Jellyfin installed and working, they can work beside each other. Tailscale if it’s just you, reverse proxy if you have the fam on in.
In 2012 (ish), I bought a lifetime subscription for a flat $75. Over the next few years of using it, they got worse and worse with shit like this, so I switched to Emby for a bit, and then Jellyfin. I never shared with friends, tho, because I have no friends, so it was always just a pretty interface and convenience for me. Lately, I’ve just been opening the files directly in VLC, because Remmina is refusing to connect to my media server, and I can’t be arsed to figure out why.
Dropped this for jellyfin years ago
It was announced some time ago. I started using Tailscale because of that
Guess it’s time to start using jellyfin and contributing
I’ve been a lifetime Plex pass holder since forever. And that even covers my brother accessing the server? He doesn’t even need one?
Seems fair to me for a platform I use daily for a decade.
Correct, only the server owner needs the pass.
This has caused a lot of controversy because it was a free feature since Plex started and they’re now locking it behind a subscription.
Indeed. The entitlement that some folks online have towards Plex is embarrassing sometimes.
I don’t know if you’re trying to exclaim that it doesn’t cover it, or that it’s a fair thing.
I’m a Plex pass holder on my server - and my user does not have a plex pass. From what I’m reading they need to pay a subscription to access my (Plex pass) server.
That isn’t true. A Plex pass from the server owner will cover access for all users
What do you want me to say? I hold a plex pass. I’m the server owner. My users are receiving that email.
Yes, they’re being advertised to. In theory this is because they might be clients for non-Pass servers in addition to yours. In practice, Plex could easily verify Plex client accounts that don’t run a server or have access to non-Pass servers and skip sending this marketing email to those accounts. What they’re doing is trying to convince your users they need to pay a sub fee (even though they don’t), because it’s free money in Plex’s pocket if the users do click the thing and say “welp, still cheaper than netflix”
Any users of your plex-pass verified server do not need to pay anything to keep streaming it. You had to pay a lot more for the lifetime or subscription to enable it, but by doing so any users you share with don’t need to pay a dime. You reading this press release and seeing your users get emails and assuming that your users now need to pay for something isn’t you being stupid, it’s the intended result of their deliberately confusing messaging. One user shrugging and saying “guess it’s $7/mo now” is free money for the company.
Their email and even their “Plex: Free vs Paid” page is confusing. However, the “Requirements for Remote Playback of Personal Media“ is more clear.
I do not have a Plex Pass, but I stream remotely from a Plex Media Server
To stream video remotely from a Plex Media Server, you will need either a Remote Watch Pass or Plex Pass subscription on your account or the admin of the Plex Media Server from which you stream will need a Plex Pass subscription on their account.
Yes, that is correct. It’s because the people that read the email only, or read the email and click one (1) link, are likely to be less familiar with Plex as a platform than the server owner. Plex the company would very much like people to pay them $7 a month forever for literally nothing.
If that’s the case, then best case they’re being incredbily scummy and my users are getting lied to. Of which, I won’t just let them pay monthly for something they don’t need.
They likely streamed from some other Plex server in the past, and that’s why they’re getting the email. The email specifically states that if the server owner has a plex pass, you don’t need one.
I got the email earlier today and it couldn’t be clearer:
As a server owner, if you elect to upgrade to a Plex Pass, anyone with access to your server can continue streaming your server content remotely as part of your subscription benefits.
I know for a fact that minimum one of them has not, the second email I would be extremely surprised if they had.
It’s scummy advertising, yes. Designed to prey on a Plex server operator’s likely-less-tech-literate users.
And that should be enough right there to get all server owners to drop Plex
Yeah if you already have a lifetime pass then essentially nothing changes. They also did the right thing about giving people a pretty good heads up to purchase a lifetime pass before they raised the price.
Your users may have gotten the notice (my family didn’t) but they can ignore it if the server owner has a lifetime pass.
Read the email again. The key word in their marketing slop is “alternatively”. You have a Plex Pass and are the server admin. Your users need to do nothing.
Unfortunately, that does mean I have to respond to messages from all my users asking what that email means and convince them they can just ignore it.
A second “nice” part of this change is that iOS users no longer have to buy the Plex app on the App Store to stream longer than a minute. The app is only like 5 bucks one time, but it was a barrier when trying to convince stubborn people to just fucking TRY my Plex server.
Fuck them, glad I switched to Jellyfin years ago.
“your friends”
dude my friends don’t charge me for shit
