I just have try to setup a child account with restrictions about what he can watch or not. Plex will be on his personal device just for him. The ugly part of this story is that i must login with my admin account on the same device. Nothing will prevent him to switch on my account and watch everything, that’s just amazing ! The goal of a managed user is completely bypassed.
I know there is the 4 pin code but i don’t want to put a pin code on my personal Plex device every time i start it.
Why not let managed user login alone ? Or at least be able to remove the admin account from the device after setup is done to prevent easy switching.
You don’t have to.
Go into the settings and activate ‘Automatic logon’.
You can’t do that, because the managed users are some kind of sub-accounts to the main Plex user account -i.e. yours.
Otherwise they would be just regular user accounts.
Could you create a separate plex account (different email) for your child and then add them as a friend and only share certain libraries? Log in with that email instead of with your primary account. Not as clean as you would probably like, but that should work.
I have no dog in this fight so I don’t really care, lol, but the kid wouldn’t need to switch but they could, right (if there is no pin)? Just like if they had a separate account they wouldn’t need to add other friends but they could. And, yes, he (the adult) could have a pin on his username and force it to log in so he didn’t have to enter the pin every time, but then if he has a wife perhaps who has a separate user account, she would then have to manually change to her account when she wanted to watch on a TV for example, then he would have to put his pin in to get back to his account. She would have to have a pin too I suppose if the goal is to keep the child out of adult accounts. Would get messy.
Anyway, good luck figuring something out @hbrunotv
The PIN is a must.
However, as I explained above the admin doesn’t have to type it in every time he opens the Plex app on his personal device.
That’s what the ‘Automatic Logon’ preference is for.
The best would be to login the child account like a Apple TV, go on htttp://plex.tv/pin and use a special pin from the child account. That way on his device there is only his account not mine. Keep a record somewhere that this child account is from admin but don’t display it for switching. This would be the best.
I agree i don’t need the pin with auto login but on main TV with every account i would enter the pin every time. On main TV i don’t care if my child can switch because i’m near and can see what he watch. And as Skyler say, add a second adult account like a girlfriend and we are ready to enter pin all the time.
Device with child accounts only should not have admin account listed.
Emphasis on personal device. As he and I noted, on TVs they would have to put their pins in every time. That would be annoying. Again, I’m not in that situation, but I can empathize.
The admin should be able to create a user account on the server with what ever restrictions they see fit including what device it’s has access to, set a pin for that account and then let the user use it.
The admin should not have to access that account unless they want to ie check that the restrictions work the way they want.
And just imagine if the child account try to brute force the pin. It’s 9999 max now let’s say 1s per try and we have 166 minutes to make every 9999 try. Ok maybe he will spend 2 or 3s on each try but the code can be 1425 and brute force it very fast (or just watch me while i enter it on main TV).
I understand the pin solution is for light security but if the account is not listed it will be way more difficult to hack and get access to my whole library and server settings. A simple login solution for managed accounts can be implemented and keep a track on the main account somewhere on the drive but not listed on screen for switching if not added explicitly.
