We are also changing how remote playback works for streaming personal media (that is, playback when not on the same local network as the server). The reality is that we need more resources to continue putting forth the best personal media experience, and as a result, we will no longer offer remote playback as a free feature. This—alongside the new Plex Pass pricing—will help provide those resources. This change will apply to the future release of our new Plex experience for mobile and other platforms.
I used to use Plex, then one day my internet was down and since Plex couldn’t phone home, it wouldn’t let me log in to watch media ON MY LAN.
So yeah it’s inherently broken. That’s before you even consider the licensing.
It’s not broken. It’s the core difference between Plex and something like Jellyfin. They handle all the infrastructure/security elements, you’re just hosting the media and transcoding. If you use Jellyfin and don’t know what you’re doing, you open the world up to your router.
I’m not saying everyone should use Plex, but it’s not broken in the way you’re describing. That’s how it works. It has to roll through their infrastructure at some point, it’s not designed for LAN playback.
I memba when it was primarily for LAN playback and you didn’t have to login to anything to use it on your LAN
Plex still offers that option, it’s just buried in the settings.
i’m not sure why it would do this, i’ve never had any issues with watching plex while the internet is down (in fact that was one of my original uses for it, to have movies and tv in a building without internet). I don’t have it turned on but I do know you can go into server settings -> network and set a list of IPs/subnets that can access without any authorization at all. That lets you use plex without even having a plex account afaik.
It has to do with the app used. I think it will work with web player and maybe the windows app, but it won’t work on Android/iOS.
I can watch it without Internet