I’d like to share some photos on my recently setup plex server. It seems when I am logged in, I can click the elipses (…) below pictures and download, but i can’t seem to do that as an invited friend. I’ve googled my eyes out and can’t find an answer.
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No. Plex has no ability to share file downloads of library content you share for streaming.
Only the server owner’s account has that ability.
I really wondered about this too. For what it’s worth, this really seems backwards to me… as the owner is likely on the LAN with the server & the “friend” who has been granted access is presumably ALWAYS remote (No account is needed if you are on the local LAN).
I guess this is to sell the Plex-Pass so that a user can “Sync”???
Even so, Sync would not be a needed feature for a web-client & I doubt many would see the need to “Sync” their movies to a phone, etc.
I have to disagree.
A major purpose of Plex is to allow remote usage of our media anywhere we have internet access, and reliable off-network sync access when needed.
I use it for streaming my music, commercial free, instead of Pandora/Iheart/Amazon/whatever remotely all the time.
Though the download feature is nice, I’ve never actually used it.
I wouldn’t want to offer it to shared friends.
If I really wanted to do that, I’d set up a plain http or sftp system.
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Certainly the sharing (watching or listening) anywhere is nice. But recently my brother was “on the road” & though he had access to my media, the limited bandwidth he had was barely sufficient for watching.
Hence the need: use the WONDERFUL plex interface to browse the media, then download it (at the limited speed available) for later consumption.
Hope you see my point.
I completely agree, I would love to have this feature. My friends are not always online when I want to watch their content, and I’d like to be able to download stuff during non-peak times when my bandwidth is unlimited.
But I can imagine why Plex doesn’t include this feature: It would only attract unwanted attention. The Movie and Television production industries seem to be willing to tolerate a service like Plex, but only if it doesn’t constitute a file sharing platform.
Be careful what you wish for.
Indeed @mhamiltonsmith
I’m only theorizing here, but believe the fact Plex devs now allow friends to sync data for off-network consumption is the safest route they could take.
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download would be dumb since the file could be huge. sync puts it in a format with correct codecs for a device. also lets a user choose quality-size of file. if u need the sync buy plexpass.
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Allow your remote users to VPN into your LAN and access Plex Web from there. Then they can download things. This is what I do for my remote users. Granted, they are all trusted family members.
They very rarely download though, just stream stuff normally. But there are times when downloading is necessary. e.g., They want to watch something at a higher resolution than a limited bandwidth connection (say, in a hotel) will allow. They download the movies (slowly) while they’re off at dinner, then watch it locally later, using VLC. Rarely done, but it’s nice to have this option - just in case. When I’m traveling, I use a different technique. Before leaving, I put a bunch of movies I’d potentially want to watch on a large flashdrive, and watch them from there if I encounter a low bandwidth connection in a hotel and can’t access my home server at a high enough speed.
But if you don’t know VPN, and how to set it up securely on your router with good firewall rules and such, I wouldn’t recommend messing with VPN. It’s more of an advanced technique IMHO. Not as simple as what Plex delivers by default for sharing. But more secure and more flexible if you know how to set things up appropriately.
resurrecting an old thread, but why is everyone assuming we only want to allow the download of large files. I’m trying to share photos with family and the best they can do is right click and save as… seems a little lame for plex pass
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Plex is a media streaming app, with the bonus of allowing secondary accounts to also stream.
Plex was never intended to be a web server for friends/family to download files to their devices to keep.
There are many other server applications out there for that.
Though I’m not a lawyer or Plex employee, as a company, once you make it easy for users of your application to keep media files downloaded from others, you start REALLY getting into crosshairs you just don’t want to be in as a company.
@JamminR said:
Plex is a media streaming app, with the bonus of allowing secondary accounts to also stream.
Plex was never intended to be a web server for friends/family to download files to their devices to keep.
There are many other server applications out there for that.
Though I’m not a lawyer or Plex employee, as a company, once you make it easy for users of your application to keep media files downloaded from others, you start REALLY getting into crosshairs you just don’t want to be in as a company.
if I take a photo, put it on my server for people to view, if they like it and want a copy, what legal issues am I running into???
_I’m not asking to pirate music and movies… _
Plex is a media streaming application, not a file sharing application. It is what it is.
@kegobeer-plex said:
Plex is a media streaming application, not a file sharing application. It is what it is.
that’s great. why do I have the option as the primary user to download then? if it’s just a streaming application
mixed signals here…
Perhaps because you own the server, so you can upload/download as you wish.
@lookin4pain said:
_I’m not asking to pirate music and movies… _
That’s just it.
Once Plex opens local download/storage, Plex opens itself to ‘allowing’ copies of files that just might be illegal for friends/family to obtain and store locally.
Plex allows you to download it because Plex and it’s lawyers presume you already have rights to the file.
I’m pretty sure Plex is an American company.
America’s laws for sharing media, any type, even lesser quality, are, imo, draconian.
I can only imagine the RIAA and MPAA racket Plex Inc would have to fight.
They’d consider Plex a Private FTP.
I understand the want to share files/photos.
However, Plex isn’t for you if you want your relatives to have those files.
It seems Plex has heard some of this request - I just got email newsletter stating Apple IOS client has been enhanced so that you can select a photo and ‘share’ it in multiple ways from Plex.
Though Android doesn’t yet have this feature, the email did mention they’re working on it.
This still isn’t allowing download, but as I stated previously, I understand why Plex Inc doesn’t want to allow the feature.
Just to provide some clarification. The download feature in PlexWeb was implemented way before Sync was a thing with Plex. That was the only way to do offline videos at the time. There were no users or sharing at the time either so only the admin had access to this. Once sharing and Sync became features, the download feature was going to be removed but users did not want it removed so it stayed and has stayed ever since. It probably won’t get removed anytime soon, but Plex will not extend that feature beyond what it is now.
As JamminR mentioned above, the iOS app has added a feature to allowing sharing photos like you would any other photo. Plex is also working on getting that onto other clients as well.
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What a pity ! It would have been a good alternative to a NAS solution for me…
For me the great advantage of Plex is that I can manage all my media in one application supported on all platforms and not having to setup additional services like VPN or HTTPS access. Sharing fotos with “friends” is the most used feature by my family. I offen get the request to download fotos. I am sure the Plex developers can implement this securely and it would make a lot of users happy. Is this still a planned feature enhancement?
