Plex has confirmed that it will require a Remote Watch Pass or Plex Pass for remote streaming on its TV apps. The change is going into effect for the Roku app first, followed by all other TV apps and third-party clients in 2026.
Earlier this year, Plex increased its pricing for Plex Pass and stopped supporting all options for free remote streaming in the Plex apps, such as adding a custom server connection in the app settings. The company said at the time, “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.” That’s also when Plex introduced the Remote Watch Pass as a less expensive way to enable remote streaming again.
Plex is now rolling out the remote watch changes to its Roku TV app. If you have Plex Pass, or the owner of the server you’re streaming from has Plex Pass, you don’t need to do anything. Otherwise, if you are streaming on a different network from the server’s home network, you need Plex Pass or Remote Watch Pass.
I’m sticking with plex personally. I have a lifetime plex pass already so no one else needs a pass to stream from my server. Aka, this changes nothing for me or my users.
for now. I feel like it’s only a matter of time before they say those lifetime passes are expired, or that the product has changes so much it’s not valid, etc. they’ve proven they don’t really care about the user base anymore, it’s all about the money for them now unfortunately.
They care about their users but who those users are has shifted. They make more money off of FASS so that is who they care about.
Argh that was so useful in hotels. I’d take a little roku stick and poof.
This makes me glad I went with Jellyfin for my home server
Me too buddy, me too. Not gonna lie it took quite a lot of effort to get everything setup and stuff but reading news like this now gives me a cozy warm feeling
Bye, bye Plex!
What a shocking chapter of “Plex and the Quest for Investiblity!”
I tried setting up Jellyfin a while ago, but ran into a lot of difficulties with TV show matching. Plex is a lot better at grabbing a pack of loosely organized files and understanding episode structure without renaming or moving files, which is great for continuing to seed files that are in the library.
I haven’t seen anyone discuss this, so maybe I’m doing something wrong? If not, this is the one major blocker that I have before rolling it out Jellyfin as an alternative to the people I’ve shared my plex server with.
Really want that in place because the writing seems to be on the wall (in flashing neon) about the direction Plex is going
Plex is a lot better at grabbing a pack of loosely organized files and understanding episode structure without renaming or moving files, which is great for continuing to seed files that are in the library.
You may want to look into the *arr suite. Sonarr for managing TV show downloads, Radarr for managing movie downloads, Jellyseerr for managing media requests, Prowlarr for managing torrent/usenet indexers (search engines), Cleanuparr for automatic download management, and Huntarr for automatic downloads.
I haven’t seen anyone discuss this, so maybe I’m doing something wrong?
The go-to these days is to use hardlinks, which will allow you to have the files show up in two places at once. Sort of like a shortcut, but it actually shows the true file instead of simply pointing to a different file location. One stays in your torrent’s location for seeding, and a second hardlink is created in your media folder, with proper naming structure for Plex/Jellyfin to find. The *arr suite automates that process. It tracks your downloads, and automatically creates Plex/Jellyfin file names in the corresponding library folders when the download is completed.
It’s the best in every sense:
- You can continue seeding.
- You don’t need to keep multiple copies of the same file, because the hardlink in your library folder is pointing to the same file as the torrent. So it doesn’t take up twice as much space on your drive.
- You get proper naming conventions for your media discovery.
- You don’t need to manually manage your library.
The big downside to hardlinks is that they can’t be used across drives or partitions. The hardlink can only point to a file on the same drive. So if your torrent download folder is on a different drive than your library folders, you can’t use hardlinks.
Not necessarily the same drive but the same pool. I have a ZFS pool with 6 drives and can use hardlinks just fine.
Yeah, I guess I should have been more clear. Hardlinks also work for things like RAID drives. But if your PC has a C:/ and D:/ drive, you can’t hardlink across the two.
if the hard links everyone else is mentionining aren’t feasible for you, take a look at tvnamer. I’ve found it works quite well for scanning and renaming files, it even supports custom renaming pattern and you can pass it a tvdb series id if it doesn’t automatically detect your series.
I use it cause all my torrenting is done on a different machine, and those files get transferred over to my server. so the arr suite isn’t the best solution for me
I ended up using tiny media manager to move and rename all of my files. Fixes that issue.
Well if you want to continue with torrents, use Sonarr configured to torrent and configure it to move files by linking instead of moving
But I would HIGHLY recommend you switch to usenet for your source. You do have to have one or a couple cheap (talking 9-20$ a YEAR) indexer subscriptions and a subscription to a usenet provider itself (7-30$/month) but it’s SO much faster, easier and you don’t need to worry about seeding.
It took me awhile to figure out the correct setup to get Sonarr, qbittorrent, and Jellyfin all to play nicely together, but once you get it figured out, it transparently addresses the problems of folder structure and allowing you to keep seeding content.
I had the same issue as you, initially, where I had to do a ton of library maintenance in Jellyfin. But since using Sonarr to monitor and import media from torrents to a structured media library, Jellyfin has been pretty hands-off
I have the same problem. There is a Lemmy community for Jellyfin. Maybe we need to ask there. I run both right now. Plex and Jellyfin. I use Jellyfin whenever I can but still have plex for that issue
I think it’s a common practice to keep the original file in the torrent folder and create a hard link with proper naming in the media folder.
Jeeeeeeelifin, jellifin. jeeeeely jellifin…
Jellyfin. All day, every day
Switched my users to Jellyfin this spring when Plex first announced this move, pretty seamless transition.
I actually prefer Jellyfin and it’s UI compared to the new one Plex rolled out on Roku, what a mess that is to navigate now.
I haven’t looked in awhile, how was the process of migrating watch history or did you not bother?
Here is one I was looking at https://github.com/wilmardo/migrate-plex-to-jellyfin
Didn’t end up using it as I had an issue where I lost all my watch history.
You probably could do it with trakt.
The plugin supports syncing watched history.But you’d need to do it for every user individually.
(Not tested. But at the time had issues with weird watch status in my jellyfin and trakt seemed to be the reason)
Switched to Jellyfin after more than a decade with Plex. Prettey… prettey… pretty good.
Do you give friends and family access to your library? If so, how?
There’s a few ways, but it’s similar to hosting anything yourself. You could, if you’re not too bothered by it, just forward the port that jellyfin is using. You do this in your routers settings and you can see/change the port in jellyfins settings. Then you give your friends the device that’s hosting jellyfin’s ip address and they type it in when logging into the app. That’s simple and quick and not secure at all. But it’s really one of those things that 99 times out of 100 it’s fine.
You can use something like tailscale to connect your friends devices to your network, I didn’t do it so I don’t really know the details, but you’d need it installed on all of their clients. This is (probably) the most secure way but it’s a pain in the butt for users, compared to other ways. https://jellyfin.org/docs/general/post-install/networking/tailscale/
I ended up using nginx as a reverse proxy, and bought a domain name so I could just tell people “go into jellyfin wherever you want and type in domain.com, then pick the profile I made you.” I was really new to this nginx thing when I did it, so I don’t have a deep understanding of why it’s better than just forwarding the port but it is.
So on Plex I just input my friend’s email address
I can recommend a local Wireguard server for this. I have one port on my router open for Wireguard and all of my devices can connect to it remotely.
Once connected, they can see all the devices on my local network, including my local jellyfin server. It works pretty painlessly and you don’t need to open any jellyfin ports to the world.
Sure except for tv boxes.
Haven’t personally the need to connect tv boxes remotely- all of my mobile devices are handheld, so cell phone, laptop, steamdeck etc, all of which have pretty seamless wireguard clients, but I don’t see a reason why it wouldn’t work with the correct Wireguard client installed on a tv box. The only issue might be really old android versions.
Enable the Funnel feature on your Tailscale.
The bandwidth is not enough for big media files, at least that’s what I’ve discovered.
I don’t see why a router couldn’t be configured to make that work.
That’s how it works with Tailscale as well. Tailscale creates Wireguard tunnels underneath between the different devices. There’s also an open-source self-hostable Tailscale control plane.
Love me some Jellyfin. I was yesterday days old when I finally read some documentation and learned that my metadata issues were because I was using a mixed library type for kids shoes and movies, and that they strongly discourage it because of the unreliable metadata it causes. Split kids movies and shows apart and now that works flawlessly, still, I feel like I’d prefer they could be combined on a single library for a kids’ browsing
Why do you have a library of kiss’s shoes?
Who is kiss?
A band.
No, my dogs give me kiss.
Same, and I haven’t missed any of the streaming services I used to have. It’s amazing.
Do you remote stream (off your server network)? If so, how’s the experience?
I do. No issues.
Do you reverse proxy, Tailscale, etc to authenticate or circumvent the need for a secure connection? Every time I come close to planning a switch, that part paralyzes me, it feels so unintuitive.
I do use both a reverse proxy and Tailscale. All services are proxied. All services except for Jellyfin are accessed only via Tailscale. Jellyfin is publicly available. I’ve obscured it a bit by setting up long, randomly generated DNS name. The proxy would only forward traffic to Jellyfin if the request comes from that exact DNS name. Bots would have to know this name for the proxy to entertain their attempts at all. Then every user has long, randomly-generated password. I prefer to only use it behind Tailscale but some of my family needs direct access. Also Chromecast.
I get that some users need a DNS name, but for Chromecast (unless you’re talking about the original one that does not actually have apps) you can use Tailscale just like in any android device.
Hm, I thought Chromecast needs HTTPS and internet-visible endpoint.
Yup. Shame the new version is unusable for me. Hopefully they fix the bugs.
Oh? I haven’t upgraded yet. 😄
Its a major rewrite, which is bringing a lot of problems like library scans that last dozens of hours, massive CPU use on idle, broken playback, and much much more
Oh fuck off, dipshits. You chose this route despite the community that built you.
They make more money off of FAST then they do self hosting own media. Of course they are going to care less and less about the self hosters.
If Plex was 100% paid there a would be zero complaints.
The issue, as always, is that Plex started to put free existing features behind a paywall to squeeze more money out of their client base instead of adding something and charging for it.
VC money came in and now the VC wants to cash in on the investment.
In that case, I think no one would’ve used Plex in the first place. But yeah, I think it should be that way ideally.
I don’t think that’s it.
There were complaints when Netflix started enforcing password sharing rules.
I think the main driver of complaints is “you promised the thing I’m paying for would be X, and now you’re changing the deal.”
And the main answer is “Pray we do not change it any further.”
And as you’re done praying, they change 10 more, because they can.
Which is not what Plex is doing. There’s no change for paid users.
There were complaints… and then subscription numbers increased.
Overall. They went down in the affected areas.
There was never an explicit deal on providing free shit. Although they seem to be honoring paid stuff. If your account is old enough, content shared with friends can be downloaded even if they don’t have a Plex pass.
Not for users who paid the mobile unlock fee.
What if I’ve already paid the one-time mobile app activation fee?
For users who have already paid a one-time, in-app activation for either our mobile Android or iOS app, an extended trial for the new Remote Watch Pass subscription is available.
(Source: Plex)They soften the landing with the “extended trial”, but anyone who paid the “one-time fee” is finding out what that really meant.
I wouldn’t be surprised if a year from now there’s an announcement for Plex 2.0 and my lifetime account only applies to legacy Plex.
Thought it would have happened by now. Life time doesn’t make sense as there are recurring costs.
Then they shouldn’t have offered it.
What exactly does this mean?
Previously you could pay a one time fee to watch remotely on Android and iOS without having the Plex Pass and now it sounds like they’re rolling this into the Plex Pass and asking users to pay again.
Yeah that sounds fucked if true. I’m asking specifically because people’s experiences will help so much more than search results.
That the one-time fee was a lie.
How so
Yes
Which part?
Is there a difference between the two?
Cue all the users with lifetime passes not seeing that this is slowly becoming a problem…
I have a lifetime pass and switched to Jellyfin years ago. Plex shoving their streaming content down my throat while putting my local libraries in the most tedious spots to access in the menus was a very quick turn off.
I have a lifetime pass and stopped using it. I got my money’s worth over the years. No regrets.
Same. I finally switched over to jellyfin recently as it was low down on a long list of stuff I want to do, let alone need to do. I feel like I got my worth and if things mess up with jellyfin, I’ve got a temporary backup option to spin up without having to give a single penny more. Fingers crossed, no more of my data either seeing as it’s all uninstalled.
Abandoning streaming services only to become a serf of another commercial subscription service seems like such a bizarre move that I really don’t understand how Plex users even exist.
I bought a lifetime pass for 100 bucks about 10 years ago, and have had 10 years of not having to give a shit about these announcements. I’ve saved well over 100 bucks on streaming services in that time. Worth it 1000%.
Wow, could you get any more condescending? We bought a product (10+ years ago in my case) and it still works great. Why would I switch to an inferior service, just because the FREE version of the product I already bought got worse?
This has no impact on anyone that actually paid for Plex.
With this move the free version of Plex got downgraded, to now have feature parity with Jellyfin. Meaning a VPN is required if you want to access your media on the go
This has no impact on anyone that actually paid for Plex.
Yet.
They’re going down the pathway to enshittification and very few companies that start down that dark path turn away before they destroy everything good they’d made for everyone, free and paid alike. Maybe that won’t happen here, but from all of the times I’ve seen that same song and dance, I would be finding alternatives to switch to, personally. But, it’s obviously up to you to decide your own comfort level if you want to start now or wait to see how far they go
Privacy for me. When they where sending out emails about what you watched. Kind of made the we don’t know what’s on your server line a lie. So how could I trust them. I still expect a massive sting where they have to tell the MPAA or something who has pirated content and they go after people. Surprised it hasn’t happened yet seems so obvious.
I’m not sure if you’re joking or not, but you can remotely stream from Jellyfin without using a VPN.
You CAN, but you really shouldn’t. Even the documentation says as much. The Jellyfin server is way to insecure to expose it to the open internet. In reality you can’t safely use Jellyfin remotely without a vpn
Oh no, someone else could possibly play media from my media server, if they have the exact link for it!
Yea, not ideal, but not exactly the end of the world.
This seems like a naive viewpoint as you’re exposing your whole network and everything connected to it to the open internet. Just because the port connects to Jellyfin doesnt mean there isn’t some exploit or vulnerability that can allow for greater access. This is media software written by volunteers and offered for free, so I wouldn’t expect Fort Knox security from it just because its FOSS. In fact, they specifically put the onus on the user to do this themselves if they so chose.
What problems? The ones that everyone keeps posting which are not a big deal. Sure they should get fixed and a lot of them have been.
It does not say that in the documentation. What the documentation does have, however, are extensive instructions on how to make Jellyfin accessible on WAN: https://jellyfin.org/docs/general/post-install/networking/ https://jellyfin.org/docs/general/post-install/networking/reverse-proxy/
Note that opening a port gives full access to that port to the next higher Network. Opening a port directly to the Internet is therefore insecure and not recommended.
It says so right there.
There are multiple ways of exposing Jellyfin to the outside - the most common ones are:
forwarding its Ports directly to the internet (not recommended!)
forwarding through a Reverse Proxy
using a VPN connection to enter the Network
use a VPS to Reverse Proxy to your home network
And there.
This smug mentality that security is unnecessary when exposing ports to the open internet reminds me of people who think its fine to drive drunk because “I’ve done it dozens of times before and nothing happened!” It also reminds me of the mentality of tech company VPs right before they have a massive data breach. It’s quite absurd to read.
This is good to know, thanks for sharing. I’ve only got it local for now after installing at the weekend and wasn’t sure how secure it was for external access.
I’m just chiming in to say that while the documentation gives you information on how to do external access, there are multiple issues open on the github about unauthenticated endpoints that if you know what is on the server already, you can confirm that it’s there
So I wouldn’t use a standard naming convention because using that knowledge, someone who cares could use common names that could be on the server, followed by common standards of formats they would be in, and be able to confirm it’s their via the end points.
‘I paid for this shit, and I will not allow it to be disrespected’. Sounds too much like Microsoft and Google apologists.
What do you mean?
To me the problem would be modifying the lifetime pass or simply removing it (for new customers) in favor of a fucking subscription only.
I would be very surprised if they don’t go there eventually, and I’d even bet they’ll try at some point to force lifetime pass owners to switch to subscription
If you ever think you’ve found a corpo that can be trusted, no you haven’t
Exactly.
Practically every piece of “lifetime” software I’ve paid for has gone this route.
I literally only ever open these threads for the cope.
I always thought less of people whenever they mentioned plex.
Why? Plex was one of the original self hosted streaming platforms and for a long time was pretty much the only option. We have more options now, and those still on Plex, I imagine, are because they don’t have the time or capacity to perform a migration. So they stick with what they’ve got until it breaks.
Maybe this will be the one that breaks it.
I was a Plex holdout until 3 months ago. I wanted off Plex for the last 2 years but just never had the time.
For those waiting, don’t be like me, it’s easier than you think.
What was the migration like? I’ve been looking to get off Plex for a while now but like you say, haven’t had the time nor the energy.
Is it as simple as just installing it and pointing it at my NAS?
Pretty much. Personally, I spun up another VM and had the two running alongside each other for a few weeks. Doing it this way allows you to split the work. First get the base server up and running, do some testing and get familiar, then migrate a client.
It took more effort to get family to switch their client than it did to do the server.
What did you do for remote connections? I used an overlay network.
I’m just using nginx as a reverse proxy. I’m actually using Emby, which Jellyfin is a fork of. I had issues with Jellyfin playback and wasn’t patient enough to fix at the time, but I’ll try again over xmas.
Same I put off and might still be on it if I didn’t loose my watch history. I figured if I was starting over might as well be with FOSS.
It makes more sense to just use free streaming sites or save videos to a storage drive.
Plex, like framework, seemed like corporate shite that wannabe nerds fell for to fit in with other wannabes.
Obvious troll account.
I’ve not using a free streaming site for years, but when I did they were bags of shite. Buffering, unavailable, etc. There are apps that aggregate the various sites that try and find a wanted show on multiple sites, but they weren’t much better.
I see self-hosted streaming as just an extension of your “save videos to a storage drive” option. We are just extending the access of that to where its wanted.
I switched to Jellyfin about 4 years ago, no regrets. If I’m traveling I tunnel into my home server and watch whatever I want. As most of us, I started in Plex because back then I was with Synology (cheapest NAS they had back then). The moment I moved to building and maintaining my own server, I tried JF, liked it from day one, learned to deal with the caveats and fix them (took me a while), and have been on it since then.
Great, so the free Plex now was downgraded to feature parity with Jellyfin
I’m what way? You can remote stream on Jellyfin for zero dollars.
Yes, but you should use a reverse proxy for anything open to the internet. If you use a reverse proxy (without passing X-Forwarded-…), Plex and Jellyfin should have feature parity with this change.
So Plex has downgraded to [insert the word below feature parity] with Jellyfin.
In the sense, that you need a VPN for both
You don’t need a VPN for plex?
If You want to use remote streaming after this, without paying, you do. Did you even red the article or are you just here to Stan for Jellyfin?
So pay.
Stan for Jellyfin?
You definitely have the wrong person …
Nor do you for jellyfin
