I have a managed user for my child. I'd like to be able to allow that user to see specific shared libraries from my friends who have lots of kid appropriate content.
I don't see this as a problem since a managed user is really just a view into the primary users account and doesn't exist outside the home environment.
+1
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I think this would be a tricky thing to implement for a few reasons. Most importantly, I think, is that when someone shares their server with you they are explicitly sharing it with you alone, and not with other users you have in your Plex Home. I don’t think most users would appreciate suddenly having several people using their server instead of just the one user they shared with.
Secondly if you allow managed users to access media from a shared server you actually no longer have control over what content they can view. You cannot control what content the shared server owner adds in the future, and whether they tag that content with the correct age rating.
Moussa,
First of all I am not suggesting that full users in my home get access to shared content. Managed users exist nowhere besides inside my home. They are a convenience to me to allow some filtering of movies for my child. They are an extension of my account and as such are no different than my account to the outside world. Lets consider.
1) Child with managed account K watches shared media A from household Roku.
2) Child without account uses parent account P to watch shared media A from household Roku.
In both cases the shared media A is watched and usage is not distinguishable to the person sharing the media. Additionally your premise that they are sharing with me alone is flawed. Our group of friends is sharing with each-others household and I certainly don't want to have to share with each one of their kids separately.
To your second point, many of my friends have kids and explicitly have a "Family" Movie library. I don't particularly care if it's not perfectly managed and tagged because the alternative right now is zero filtering. I can not use managed accounts as they are currently designed for anything outside my own library. As an aside even netflix and amazon don't have good age filters. At least this way it's coming from someone I trust and can contact.
And if I shared with you I certainly would not want you giving access to my server to your child or any other of your home users.
Big wheel,
That sounds like a conversation that should occur between the concerned parties and not be enforced by the software. What I am proposing is no different to you than what currently exists.
If you really want to have the software control this than it would be easy enough to put a user preference into the control panel "Disallow access from managed user accounts"
Big wheel,
That sounds like a conversation that should occur between the concerned parties and not be enforced by the software. What I am proposing is no different to you than what currently exists.
Well, it is not the same as what currently exist. or else you would not need to ask for it.
Well, it is not the same as what currently exist. or else you would not need to ask for it.
I think a setting similar to the ‘allow sync’ when setting up shared users for ‘allow managed user access’ would allow this, let it configurable by the content owner. For example, I’d have no problems allowing my brothers children managed access to my library, should he wish to set them up their own account, since they watch from his account anyway. But I wouldn’t want my friend with 5 kids to have the same privilege.
As long as it’s just managed users, I don’t see a huge problem with it. Realistically any household can get around this by all using the same account with little drawback, just this option allows them to use the home functions and probably more functions in the future releases of plex
I understand fine.
you guys are talking about it as if it is a simple button to add . what you re talking about is for is letting person B, who person A shared with, limited admin access to person A's server to share with person C, who is a managed user of B. as it is A's server that needs to know what person C can watch.
this statement is not true "they're all logged in with my credentials to access my libraries, after all"
the managed users are not "subset" of the primary user. they are not logged in with your credentials. it is a separate account that simply does not have a saved email or password only an ID number that can only "login" via the switch user mechanism. that is why your managed users cannot use the channels you have installed on your server. because channels cannot be shared.
and to be clear i am not saying it is not an interesting idea, because it is. if person A doesn't mind it then sure why not. it is just not "easy enough"
BigWheel, neither kiyose nor I are “talking about this as if it is a simple button to add”. Both of us are experienced programmers who ply our trades professionally. I’d be more than happy (and pretty sure kiyose would too) to work with the team to help work through the use cases and requirements to make it easier for the programmers to implement (good requirements being the hardest part of our jobs).
And the statement about them all being logged in with my credentials is absolutely true- today. I’m not using managed users today because the others in my household are primarily using the shared libraries from another user- with his knowledge and blessing- and as such the managed user functionality, as implemented, negates one of the essential use cases for which I’ve invested in Plex.
I also think that this is the case. Especially given the many people complaining about the lack of restraint shown by "friends" in sharing their account. I personally wouldn't make a problem if a friends kid would request access to my kids-section. It makes sharing so much more transparent for me as a content-owner. Especially since sharing other persons trust by "resharing" is an absolute no-no in many cultures (even within the same household).I think this would be a tricky thing to implement for a few reasons. Most importantly, I think, is that when someone shares their server with you they are explicitly sharing it with you alone, and not with other users you have in your Plex Home.
I also think that this is the case. Especially given the many people complaining about the lack of restraint shown by "friends" in sharing their account. I personally wouldn't make a problem if a friends kid would request access to my kids-section. It makes sharing so much more transparent for me as a content-owner. Especially since sharing other persons trust by "resharing" is an absolute no-no in many cultures (even within the same household).
Jaap
Jaap,
That's a good point and as such there should be an option to not allow managed account sharing. I think it's important to make sure the owner of the content comfortable with their control as well as allowing the primary account holder control of what is viewable by their managed accounts. There should probably be a continuum of controls that allows for all use cases and privacy.
I see that continuum as going from: user A sharing libraries with household B and not wanting to be bothered about managing or approving further restrictions or shares with managed users all the way to user C wanting transparency and full control over which managed account is accessing their content if at all.
I also think abuse should be handled by expectations set during conversations between users. Software should not be restrictive and force a single sharing model.
the managed users are not "subset" of the primary user. they are not logged in with your credentials. it is a separate account that simply does not have a saved email or password only an ID number that can only "login" via the switch user mechanism. that is why your managed users cannot use the channels you have installed on your server. because channels cannot be shared.
Does this account id exist outside of my local media server?
Also, we are talking about allowing access to shared libraries, not channels and unless they use the same architecture I'd rather leave that to another thread.
As mrmtb said, I'd be happy to work with the team to come up with use cases and specifications to address any raised concerns.
Does this account id exist outside of my local media server?
yes it has an id number on plex.tv just like yours does. when you are allowing access you are sharing with them like a regular user it its basically just auto-accepted. i understand this is not about channels. i only meant to illustrate that it that user is not the same as your user or else they would be able to see them too
yes it has an id number on plex.tv just like yours does. when you are allowing access you are sharing with them like a regular user it its basically just auto-accepted. i understand this is not about channels. i only meant to illustrate that it that user is not the same as your user or else they would be able to see them too
Would someone be able to share a library with them directly? If so, would the account that set them up be able to administer the libraries they may then access?
I don't see the problem of giving kids full Plex accounts. My Kids have full Plex accounts just because their tablets are kept out of my core network (thus need remote connection capabilities). This way sharing can be set up extremely finegrained and friends of mine know who is hogging his bandwith. As I see it, this introduces a lot of complexity just trying to avoid to make full Plex accounts.I see that continuum as going from: user A sharing libraries with household B and not wanting to be bothered about managing or approving further restrictions or shares with managed users all the way to user C wanting transparency and full control over which managed account is accessing their content if at all.
I thought as well, but in discussions with people about connection restrictions I noticed people really are afraid to talk to people about undesired behaviour.I also think abuse should be handled by expectations set during conversations between users.
I completely disagree here. A single sharing model is extremely simple to build by the devs and maintain by the content owner. By adding more options, you introduce more complexity for both. If there are 50 ways to share content, there are a million ways for it to go wrong. Just keep sharing simple in a two-way relationship. Families aren't that dynamic that you want federated content sharing....Software should not be restrictive and force a single sharing model.
Jaap, any thoughts on my question, above?
I don't know if this works for the "internal" numbers of managed users, but for normal users this isn't the way it works. It is down to the user managing the other server to manage this. AFAIK, there is no hierarchy in the accounts in that respect...Would someone be able to share a library with them directly? If so, would the account that set them up be able to administer the libraries they may then access?
someone else cannot share with a "managed" user directly. only the server owner can share with his managed users
