Important 2025 Plex Updates
www.plex.tv
Personal Media and Beyond You’re going to be hearing a lot from us this year—we’ve got a ton of exciting...

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.

    • dormedas@lemmy.dormedas.comEnglish
      938·
      16 days ago

      Alright, so I have had Jellyfin installed for years now, but my primary issue is that most devices myself or my users use lack official, readily-available clients. For example, the Samsung TV app is a developer mode install. Last I looked, nobody has put a build into the store.

      I really want to use Jellyfin, but I feel like my users simply can’t. I’m interested in others’ experiences here that could help.

    • sasquash@sopuli.xyz
      English
      11·
      16 days ago

      any recommendations to get it to work remotely? the good thing about plex was it was easy to set up, but the quality was medicore.

    • merthyr1831@lemmy.mlEnglish
      6·
      16 days ago

      Before now I was on the sunk cost fallacy of not wanting to teach my extended family how to use Jellyfin instead of plex but after this I’m already mid-way through setting up a Jellyfin docker container on my server and I only found out an hour ago

  • Evotech@lemmy.worldEnglish
    1587·
    16 days ago

    I’m not pirating a bunch of shows just to pay Plex for the privilege of watching it.

  • RonnyZittledong@lemmy.worldEnglish
    1092·
    16 days ago

    I have a lifetime plex pass so this does not really affect me but I expect the trend of degrading experience to continue. I would have switched to Jellyfin a long time ago but I am dreading contacting everyone I share with and getting them migrated.

  • dmtalon@infosec.pubEnglish
    10123·
    16 days ago

    Glad I bought the Plex Pass like 13 years ago. While I understand everyone seems to think everything should be free, I’m sure your boss wishes you worked for free too, but the world doesn’t work that way.

    I’m OK supporting products I use , and Plex is an example of this for me. It was a well spend $75 in 2013

  • PhAzE@lemmy.caEnglish
    773·
    16 days ago

    As a plex pass lifetime user, this doesn’t change anything for me.

    I am, however, blown away that the price went from $75 CDN to $350 CDN over the last 10 years!! That’s just insane!

  • electric_nan@lemmy.mlEnglish
    472·
    15 days ago

    I’m surprised by the resistance to Jellyfin in this thread. If you are using Plex, you’re already savvy enough to use bittorrent and probably the *arrs. If you can configure that stuff, Jellyfin is absolutely something you can handle. If you like Docker, there’s good projects out there. If you’re like me and you don’t understand Docker, use Swizzin community edition. If you can install Ubuntu or Debian, and run the Swizzin script, you’re in business.

    • waitmarks@lemmy.worldEnglish
      5·
      14 days ago

      The big thing for me with plex is user management. I am absolutely knowledgeable enough to set up jellyfin, but i dont want to deal with user management. Plex makes it easy, i tell them to make their own account and i just share my library. i dont have to reset passwords, they can do that themselves. However, it’s getting to the point where i will probably just switch to jellyfin and deal with it because of how bad plex is getting.

      • electric_nan@lemmy.mlEnglish
        2·
        14 days ago

        I’m only sharing access with a few friends and family, so I don’t find it cumbersome. Usually I make their account using the Jellyfin app on my phone. I do sympathize with not wanting to do support, which is the main reason I don’t even ask for help with the hosting costs. I don’t want to feel any obligation.

      • Obelix@feddit.orgEnglish
        2·
        14 days ago

        I just setup jellyfin and it totally is the same. Install. Point it to a media folder. Setup port forwarding.

          • freebee@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
            1·
            14 days ago

            That ease of outside LAN access poses a big risk tho. Plex can and eventually probably will share, be forced to share, get hacked etc Those cloud accounts imply the possibility of very detailed reports about who’s streaming what, when, where, from which source…

          • Obelix@feddit.orgEnglish
            11·
            14 days ago

            But let’s be honest - it really is not complicated. That was a one minute configuration in my router.

              • Obelix@feddit.orgEnglish
                1·
                14 days ago

                Ok, that is a totally different use case than mine. I’m one of those guys browsing a selfhosting community on the fediverse and I only want to stream my own stuff to my mobile and provide my wife with audiobooks. If you’re providing a bigger group of people with streaming services, who are not tech savvy, another software might be the better solution. But that doesn’t mean that Jellyfin is bad - it’s just another use case with different requirements

            • poke@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
              3·
              14 days ago

              One minute for you and me, but that sort of thing just isn’t feasible for many even if they have someone walking them through it over the phone.

    • Swarfega@lemm.eeEnglish
      41·
      15 days ago

      Me too. Docker isn’t hard if you use a compose file. It’s easy to read syntax.

      Linux server.io has great documentation for their images.

      I have Jellyfin and Plex running from the same virtual machine pointing at the same media. If it wasn’t for the one crappy TV I have in my house with no Jellyfin client, Plex would be gone.

      • JasSmith@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
        3·
        14 days ago

        Docker isn’t hard if you use a compose file. It’s easy to read syntax.

        This is giving me “yaml isn’t hard to use if you use a compose file!” It is, actually. It’s easy for you because you understand the technology. The vast majority of people do not.

        • Swarfega@lemm.eeEnglish
          1·
          14 days ago

          Of course. But if you managed to setup Plex then you’ve already shown you have willing to learn…

    • MrSelatcia@lemmy.worldEnglish
      2·
      14 days ago

      I think I represent a huge portion of Plex users; I am tech savvy enough to follow a simple walkthrough on YouTube to get my server setup. But the arrs, jellyfin, and docker both look like graduate level chemistry to me.

      Plex has been around for ages and they have put money into making things easier for users like me to understand with events such as Pro Week and directly paying content creators to dumb things down for me.

      • freebee@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
        1·
        14 days ago

        It’s quite easy without docker to get lots of it running with a dietpi install. Runs on rpi and alike, but also on any “normal” old low end pc. Just select jellyfin, arrs, … It handles it all for you, no need to learn Docker (I know people will argue about the advantages of docker, which are valid points, but ease of installation is more important to many people). The only difficulty remains the streaming outside your own LAN (because it’s risky). VPN, tailscale, … there’s options but it always keeps on feeling risky to open up outside LAN. Local setup for jellyfin can be really really easy tho, if it’s just for yourself and you mostly watch at home anyway… And in some jellyfin compatible app like Finamp and Streamyfin you can just download a few music albums, episodes or movies to your phone before you travel…

      • electric_nan@lemmy.mlEnglish
        1·
        14 days ago

        I’ve got to admit that I’ve never used Plex (I’m a cantankerous open software fanatic), but how do you get your media on there? You’re hosting your own server so presumably you’re downloading the media somehow. Are you doing it manually? If so, you can do the same with Jellyfin. Is it automated with some tool built into Plex?

        • MrSelatcia@lemmy.worldEnglish
          2·
          7 days ago

          I’m ripping it with makemkv, actually. I have a fairly large blu ray collection that is slowly going onto my DAS.

  • quack@lemmy.zipEnglish
    508·
    15 days ago

    Can’t say I have a huge issue with this - Plex isn’t FOSS and the infrastructure to make this happen isn’t free. Other options are available if you don’t want to pay the fee.

    • Tilgare@lemmy.worldEnglish
      11·
      15 days ago

      But what infrastructure does this feature require? I’m direct connecting to my own personal server with perhaps credential handling and a handshake handled by Plex servers to connect. None of the media is passing through their servers - or it shouldn’t be if it is.

      • Captain Janeway@lemmy.worldEnglish
        22·
        14 days ago

        In a nutshell, if your app isn’t able to make a direct connection to your Plex Media Server when you’re away from home, we can act as sort of a middle man and “relay” the stream from your server to your app. To accomplish this, your Plex Media Server establishes a secure connection to one of our Relay servers. Your app then also connects securely to the same Relay server and accesses the stream from your Plex Media Server. (In technical terms, the content is tunneled through.)

        So, your Plex Media Server basically “relays” the media stream through our server so that your app can access it since the app can’t connect with your server directly.

        Source: https://support.plex.tv/articles/216766168-accessing-a-server-through-relay/

        It’s not a requirement to stream and it’s sort of dumb they are lumping this relay service as a part of the remote streaming. Remote streaming should be allowed for free - if you are not a subscriber. The relay should just be a paid service, which makes sense. But if it’s a direct connection to my server, it should be free.

        That being said, I understand how Plex may have built some technical debt into this relay system. It might be hard for them to decouple the relay from the remote streaming. What they should have done is:

        We are removing the relay service as a free service, but you can still do remote streaming with a direct connection.

        And they should have built their architecture in a way that’s easy to decouple the two services.

        • Tilgare@lemmy.worldEnglish
          2·
          14 days ago

          Thanks for that - I wasn’t aware of the relay service, but completely agree that this is what they should be charging for and not the remote play feature in its entirety. I’ll probably drag it out for a while by refusing to update the app and server… Might be able to make it work with Tailscale as others have suggested.

          In the past I’ve paid for a month or two when I wanted to download to my devices remotely (and I think that’s the singular feature that I’ve ever cared about in the Plex pass). But to take features away and then try and charge me for them is a bridge too far, I can’t support that bad behavior.

          • Captain Janeway@lemmy.worldEnglish
            22·
            14 days ago

            I paid for the lifetime membership ~6 years ago so I’m going to stick with it. Plus I just use it for my own home. It’s not like I’m serving a bunch of other clients. But I’ll switch to Jellyfin if the lifetime membership ever gets taken away.

            • Tilgare@lemmy.worldEnglish
              2·
              14 days ago

              I considered it when they warned about the increase and offered it at $75, but I just didn’t have the money to spend back then. Felt pretty stupid for not doing it, but I don’t even know what paid features they offer, and I’m clearly not missing them.

              99% of my usage is at home as well, so this is unlikely to affect me - until that random 1% anyhow.

  • profilelost@discuss.tchncs.deEnglish
    42·
    16 days ago

    I’ve been meaning to set up a homeserver with plex recently but will defnitely go for jellyfin now that I read this thread.

  • GrundlButter@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
    411·
    16 days ago

    It looks like as long as the host has a Plex pass, this doesn’t change much. It is a regression of service, which sucks, but there are viable alternatives for those unable or unwilling to pay. And honestly, jellyfin is the clear winner in that case and always has been.

    Now, if they start to charge my friends and family for access to my media after I have already paid them for their lifetime subscription, then I’ll grab a pitchfork with the crowd.

    Also, why not run both and be ready? The resources required are minimal if you’re running via docker, just some extra RAM and a negligible amount of compute for overhead on library maintenance tasks.

  • Ebby@lemmy.ssba.comEnglish
    361·
    16 days ago

    I can understand new features being behind a fee, but this is putting old, old capabilities behind a paywall. Hmmm…

    This with a recent decision to remove watch together sort of eliminates the whole reason I would have tried Plex so many years ago.

    I’m a fan of Plex (it’s worked for me) and understand the Jellyfin crowd too. I’m worried about who is calling the shots at the moment. They aren’t aligning with their users.