Guys, given the current issues with both PSN and XBL, don't you think it would be a good idea to allow Plex to run when Xbox Live is down? When Live is down, do you know the thing I *REALLY* want to do? It's watch a show... do you know what I can't do when Xbox Live is down...?
Apologies for the condescending nature of the post... but it is a hell of a pain. It does occur to me that it might actually be MS's policy to not allow apps to run if they can't detect an XBL connection as most of the other apps don't run either.
Guys, given the current issues with both PSN and XBL, don't you think it would be a good idea to allow Plex to run when Xbox Live is down? When Live is down, do you know the thing I *REALLY* want to do? It's watch a show... do you know what I can't do when Xbox Live is down...?
Apologies for the condescending nature of the post... but it is a hell of a pain. It does occur to me that it might actually be MS's policy to not allow apps to run if they can't detect an XBL connection as most of the other apps don't run either.
Is this something you can clarify?
100% agree with you, have the same problem right now
Something I don't understand well is WHY is the internet required to start plex on Xbox, all the other front ends allow local network without internet sign-on/verify. This is seriously crap when a: Xbox Live is down or b: When your Internet Connection is flaky, throttled, down from a storm etc.
Its a rainy day outside lets watch a movie... Oh no we can't Xbox live is down and the internet is brokeded
Im sure this is a new feature and at a guess they use the money they get from people testing there new products to finish the new products.
Does your internet work when xbox live goes down may seem a simple question but none has mentioned it. :D
Yes it does.
That being said, considering they are both on the same network, there shouldn't really be a reason playback functionality on a local network shouldn't be broken when an Internet connection is down. But that is a separate problem.
While this is a PlexPass preview release, it makes sense that the Plex app would need to verify with the plex.tv servers. But I agree with everyone here that the app should not be unusable (and I mean literally unusable) when Xbox Live is down. Fact is the app itself isn't behind a paywall but actually using it is - but that part is on Plex's side not Microsoft's and I presume that will always be the case.
Out of interest - do other apps have the same issue when Xbox Live is down? Maybe it's just something all Xbox One applications have to do?
Also - I had this issue over Christmas when those guys were "hacking" Xbox Live. I also couldn't load games. However, I since realised that my Xbox One wasn't set to my home Xbox One (or primary Xbox One or whatever it's called). Since then I can load up my games without Xbox Live verification; maybe it's the same with the Plex app?
We have provided countless suggestions on how devs could implement features that would allow Plex to still remain function locally.
Yet, this problem continues to be reported and we now have about 9 separate subjects and threads where this is mentioned. Surely this warrants updating the FAQ? A "Known Issues" section would be appreciated.
We live in hope for support or even just a "problem acknowledged, redesign planned" by a Plex employee.
The problem is it is all just pure speculation. The presence of any Devs/Plex Employees is so rare to explain things we just have to banter on about what other apps do, rather than any definitive answers.
I was responding to someone that was asking specifically if other apps worked, but I'll bite anyway.
1. The built in media player has access to libraries that Plex doesn't (this is also evidenced by the lack of mkv support outside of it). MS doesn't allow 3rd party apps to crawl the local network (likely for security). This is why Plex needs to connect to the Plex.tv site, to find the local IP address so it can stream from your server. This has been said on the forums previously.
2. PHT on PC is completely separate, it's not hamstrung by the Xbox OS & Ecosystem.
The really irritating part is that there is no cache to store this in the event of Xbox Live, Plex.tv or your internet connection being down. This unfortunately leaves 3 failure points for having no access to local data. Hopefully they will come up with a better work around or MS will open up some other libraries for access.
As in the cayars thread, I will say lack of dev/employee interaction does seem to be an issue. I realize they are busy, but to take 10 minutes out of the day to respond even to 1 or 2 of these kind of things would help calm a lot of people down. Alas, this is their decision and business, so the choice is on them.
Yes, the Plex app needs a connection to Xbox live. As you've seen this isn't uncommon with apps on the platform, but is frustrating when the service goes down. Especially when your content is local.
We'd like to improve the situation in future, if we can.
Quite possible since the Xbox app has to look up your local ip from the plex servers since 3rd party apps don't have access to libraries to browse the local network. Hopefully MS opens up some of the stuff they are using in the media player app. since obviously it has no trouble with this.
We can't comment on what will/won't be in for the non PP release, I'm afraid.
Having said that - currently we need to hit XBL to connect your gamertag with your plex account. I'd previously considered 'XBL is down' as a relatively infrequent thing, so we hadn't highly prioritised this as a concern. January has kind of shown otherwise, unfortunately.
We'll keep assessing, and are aware it's causing frustration. Thanks!
(And adamskoog's point is also valid - we also need to connect to plex.tv to get your servers)
We can't comment on what will/won't be in for the non PP release, I'm afraid.
Having said that - currently we need to hit XBL to connect your gamertag with your plex account. I'd previously considered 'XBL is down' as a relatively infrequent thing, so we hadn't highly prioritised this as a concern. January has kind of shown otherwise, unfortunately.
We'll keep assessing, and are aware it's causing frustration. Thanks!
(And adamskoog's point is also valid - we also need to connect to plex.tv to get your servers)
Its not just about XBL being down. Its your connection being down, I can still play games, watch hdmi input tv and theoretically play media from my local network without an internet connection. Plex should work this way as a basic function.
This is a requirement for Xbox apps at this point...especially after they go windows 10 they will allow a large amount of windows 8 style apps that have become universal on the xbox so that requirement may (and probably will) go away.
For now stop complaining about this because the plex team can't do anything about it. Use the dlna player when xbox live goes down
They did not say it was something they could not do something about.
They said "Currently we need to hit XBL to connect your gamertag with your plex account. I'd previously considered 'XBL is down' as a relatively infrequent thing, so we hadn't highly prioritised this as a concern. January has kind of shown otherwise, unfortunately."
Clearly the situation is very frequent and frustrating to users.
The question now is:
Does the XB1 system prevent a solution here or could a solution be coded (with enough resources)?
