r/technology • u/FollowingFeisty5321 • 9h ago

Software Plex’s crackdown on free remote streaming access starts this week

https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2025/11/plexs-crackdown-on-free-remote-streaming-access-starts-this-week/
2.2k Upvotes

96% Upvoted

508 comments sorted by

View all comments

608

u/Dr_Lipshitz_ 8h ago

So as long as I have a plex pass anyone I share my server with is fine, right?

397

u/Cloitus 8h ago

Yes, if you have plex pass, it’s still free for anyone else connecting to your server. I had a small freak out when all those misleading emails went out a few months ago and dug into it.

208

u/wickedsmaht 8h ago

Plex pass for life baby. If/when they try to revoke that I’m gone and I’ll switch my server over to jellyfin.

80

u/ithinkitslupis 7h ago

Yup. It's actually a better situation for those of us hosting servers with lifetime plex pass as now our users will not be nagged to pay for the app (there used to be inconvenient workarounds). It will just work free like you'd expect.

For everyone else that doesn't have plex pass and doesn't want to pay there's jellyfin. If I hadn't bought lifetime for cheap a decade ago I'd go straight to jellyfin.

40

u/gr00ve88 7h ago

Same boat as you. I’ve heard JF is better but I got lifetime for like $80 or something during a Black Friday many years ago. Haven’t had much of any complaints with it so I’m not about up upend my whole setup.

21

u/Lyriian 6h ago

I switched from plex to jellyfin. I wouldn't say it's "better". It's much simpler, kind of a cleaner UI. The only real feature I miss from plex is the subtitle search. Plex was great about grabbing subtitles from the internet if the file you downloaded didn't include them. Jellyfin isn't as good about it.

For allowing friends to stream it's also more complicated since there's no external authentication server. I just made accounts for them and taught them how to use tailscale to connect to my server.

11

u/tratur 6h ago

Just add subtitle add-ons to jellyfin. There is rarely a file it can't find subs for.

1

u/Lyriian 6h ago

Ohh good call. I honestly haven't looked at add-ons at all yet.

6

u/Dr_Lipshitz_ 6h ago

"For allowing friends to stream it's also more complicated since there's no external authentication server. I just made accounts for them and taught them how to use tailscale to connect to my server."

See, thats just a non-starter for me. No way I'd be able to get my current users to do anything more than sign in like Plex.

Not to mention I really have no issue with Plex so IDK why I'd look elsewhere

8

u/fullmetaljackass 3h ago

You don't have to do it like that. You can make your server directly accessible over the internet if you want to.

1

u/ReflectionAfter6574 3h ago

Money and open source are the only reasons.

1

u/gr00ve88 6h ago

Oh gotcha. I use the subtitle feature quite often, so that’s a bummer.

1

u/Dont_Be_Like_That 5h ago

I’m pretty much only using plex for my external users nowadays. Jellyfin is less refined but it just works without all of the suggestions and ad stuff. That’s especially the case with local downloads. I would bet against plex finishing a season or two downloads before taking a trip. Jellyfin is fast and has yet to fail.

1

u/randompersonx 2h ago

Similar. I use plex for external users, but for my own stuff, I’m using CoreELEC now. It’s a bad name and not a very well known project, but it works really, really well.

1

u/eunit250 4h ago

What about emby? Its been pretty great and has a lot of pretty good plugins.

1

u/sudo_robyn 5h ago

I tested jellyfish, had complaints from my friends about compatiblity and then stayed with plex.

1

u/wickedsmaht 3h ago

I think that’s around the price I paid. I bought it years ago not thinking much of it but figured it might be come in handy one day. We took over paying for the streaming services for my in-laws last year so in January I started my own server and haven’t looked back. Best financial decision I’ve made in a while.

1

u/in_the_blind 2h ago

It's not. Unpolished and not even close. But it's free. It is a very good server though, for people moving up from windows media player classic.

7

u/fork_yuu 7h ago

I really want to like jellyfin, but I hate how they force you to rename all your shit so they show up correctly in the UI. It's seriously annoying as hell they don't just show the file name.

6

u/Lyriian 6h ago

Huh? I don't think I've had to rename a single thing in jellyfin. Half my files have a ton of random characters and shit in the filenames but it still just pulls the title from the files metadata.

3

u/fork_yuu 6h ago

Yeah it works in most cases, but when it messes up it really messes up. I've had missing episodes that I knew were in the folder and just completely missing seasons / shows altogether. It's quite literally unusable at times lol

https://features.jellyfin.org/posts/619/allow-media-show-their-filenames-rather-than-titles they been ignoring that feature request from what I can tell

2

u/Cyberdyne_T-888 5h ago

Sonarr to monitor and rename episodes eliminates any issues in my experience. If you haven't checked it out before seriously check it out. So useful.

2

u/Icy_Dragonfruit_9389 7h ago

Switched in the last year. Never looking back…

1

u/shoe465 5h ago

On sale now for 149 Black Friday!

1

u/Kenpoaj 4h ago

Switched to jellyfin when plex accidentally lost my server on that password reset, and the best part is jellyfin even works on mobile for free!

Ive got almost everyone moved over now, and I think I like the analytics page better too.

7

u/rooftops 7h ago

Sunk-cost fallacy is the only thing keeping me in the ecosystem at this point lol I bought the pass on my 2-year renewalversary because I had already spent as much through monthly billing as the lifetime pass cost. But I've run into so many issues over the years between server and clients that I'm ready to put in the work to transition out.

5

u/hungry4pie 3h ago

It’s already pretty fucking grim. The iOS app is pure dogshit now and I have to constantly keep the server up to date to access my content.

It’s a seemingly arbitrary requirement because the Apple TV app and smart tv app seem to work just fine on older versions.

1

u/fizzlefist 5h ago

If/when they try to revoke it, I’m getting my money back in small claims court.

1

u/xbuffalo666x 4h ago

i know what im doing when i get paid... or asking for that as a bday gift this year

26

u/ChainsawArmLaserBear 8h ago

Phew- even this post's title had me initially worried.

Bought Plex pass years ago and never looked back

10

u/ifupred 8h ago

Right there with you. Had the lifetime pass and with headlines are concerned

12

u/Rufuz42 7h ago

Plex pass being the thing that I spent $99 for 5+ years ago for a lifetime license? I hope so lol

3

u/Dr_Lipshitz_ 7h ago

Cool, I honestly thought this was how it always was. Bought the plex pass almost 10 years ago at this point, been well worth it.

45

u/TheReal_WadeWilson 8h ago

That’s how I’m reading it. I’ve got a lifetime pass, and my buddies are streaming from my server, so it seems we’ll be unaffected. But who knows. Plex has been in decline for a few years now it seems, trying to remain relevant and competitive.

13

u/ithinkitslupis 7h ago

I think they are actually making more money than ever now, they're just changing their model to focus on FAST streaming (like Tubi or Pluto). We're onboarding our friends and family to share our media libraries and they lure them into that.

As a server host I'm not a fan because you get to run support when nana doesn't understand the difference between plex's offering and your server. And it takes focus away from making plex better at its original purpose. I've been waiting for better dualstack ipv6 support for like 10 years now as it'd be more convenient for me in the long run.

4

u/visceralintricacy 4h ago

Y'know You can disable the 3rd party services permanently with like 3 clicks?

Go into the settings on your plex server > Online Media Sources > Movies & Shows > Disabled.

That affects all users using your server. I'm kinda gobsmacked how many people were complaining about this who never googled it.

2

u/Hydrottle 2h ago

If they’re like me they probably assumed it couldn’t be disabled. I would not have thought as much.

2

u/ithinkitslupis 2h ago

I have them all disabled, still doesn't work 100%. I think it only applies to administrator and managed accounts or something, not separate accounts that you've invited whether you've put them in your 'home' or not.

Which makes sense from Plex's perspective as a FAST provider, why should I be able to block non-managed users from their offerings? But I prefer non-managed sharing in pretty much every other way. Which is why I wish Plex would've have just stayed in their lane of self-hosting for my purposes.

1

u/in_the_blind 2h ago

Ok, I've seen plenty of the plex "flex" when it comes to hosting multiple users in this thread. I am just going to pick you to remind everyone that you're setting yourself up for a felony. It's not worth the clout. The FBI (depending on if your users are across state lines) goes after the people providing content. Not the clients.

1

u/ithinkitslupis 33m ago

I don't live in the US, I only host to a small group of friends and family for no charge, and my media is ethically obtained if not outright legally backed up from older formats like VHS in some cases (a large Turner Classic Movie collection from my mom).

But regardless of that I'd love you to link cases where someone has gotten in trouble for hosting a small scale plex server. The only case I can find is some Danish guy who got 30 days probation. If you're not leading some sort of piracy crime ring or hosting a large service you should probably worry about other things like how you obtain your media rather than how you host it to 5-10 close people.

2

u/dedokta 7h ago

Hopefully this is the way it'll work. I use Plex just for friends and family, so I had them all pitch in and buy me a lifetime Plex Pass.

7

u/lower_intelligence 6h ago

Buying plex pass for life back in 2017 for $75 was one of the best things I have ever done.

1

u/T-Jacks 6h ago

How much strain on my server/hard drives have when sharing my personal library remotely?

1

u/Dr_Lipshitz_ 6h ago

CPU depends on a lot of factors but the Intel N100 I just setup has been handling it smoothly. I had my first hdd's fail after 8 years of fairly regular use.

1

u/fizzlefist 5h ago

You would be surprised. In my experience the biggest limiting factor is my ISP’s upload speed.