When I click on settings and then click on users on the left side of the screen MY HOME and FRIENDS come up and I can click on either one. Right now in MY HOME I have myself and my Dad. If I click on FRIENDS my Dad shows up again but I also see other users I must have invited at one point or another. Don’t poke my eyes out with hot needles, but what is the difference between the users in MY HOME and FRIENDS? And how did my Dad get to be in both? I did make my Dad sign up with Plex, so I could share my library with him but I’m just curious on the differences between the two. While MY HOME I can enable guest. While in FRIENDS I can invite user. I don’t even know what a “guest” consist of, but just the stigma behind the word guest I’ll stay away from that anyway.
Thanks-
Check out the support pages:
https://support.plex.tv/hc/en-us/articles/204226753-Friends
Those users which appear under ‘Home’ you have invited into your Plex Home.
You should only do that with members of your own household. So inviting your Dad would be sensible.
‘Friends’ have their own set of Plex username & password.
‘Home’ members who appear also under ‘Friends’ have also their own plex credentials, but they can switch to your user account easily and “become you”, only hindered by your 4-digit PIN. That’s why see above
‘Home’ members which don’t appear also under ‘Friends’ are so-called ‘managed users’. They don’t have their own set of Plex credentials. Instead, their Plex devices are first logged into your Plex account, and are later switched to their ‘managed’ user names. This type of account is intended for children and other members of your household.
liking this info here ! …
am trying to add my kids (well he’s 18 now !)
so have set him up with his own account/userpass etc … (so as he doesn’t abuse my main user/pass)
then added him as a friend, all good 
he can now see all my media perfect …
and then invited into home … so he can see channels, and my shared friends media too… even better !!!
all great but not perfect 
…
as he (and everyone, and anyone he gives HIS user/pass to) has access to MY sensitive settings
like for eg, deleting MY friends …
is there a way of having this set up, but NOT allowing them into the home SETTINGS,
and only giving access to HOME media/friendshares/Channels … ???
There is no need to add him into your Plex Home, for him to see channels. The checkbox to share channels is also available for ‘Friends’.
Then I recommend you to use PlexPy to monitor usage of your server. If you see that he passed on his plex credentials, revoke his access. It is a lesson to learn for him.
(Of course you have to tell him beforehand that he should not give away access to his buddies, as your server can only handle so much clients streaming simultaneously.)
yeah found recently about the channels (is that a Pass exclusive ? as only got that recently too ?)
will check out PlexPy, but thats only to find out whats going on…
to late if somethings altered/deleted …
is changing/restricting of options/friends something that is unable to be protected as a future request ?
due to limitations in setup/structure ?
as would be nice to restrict that for other (younger) family members stopping them rooting around in the settings !
Please don’t take this question the “wrong” way, just trying to establish facts. Are you sure that you’ve actually have enabled Plex Home? I’m asking because I get the feeling that he bottom issue is that your kid has access to stuff he shouldn’t have… And with a Plex Home enabled it wouldn’t be possible, since that puts Plex in a high security mode (essentially locks it down). There are ways of activating Plex high security mode manually, without activating Plex Home, if you have no need for the Plex Home as such.
See these help articles to better understand what I’m talking about -
https://support.plex.tv/hc/en-us/articles/203948786-Plex-Home-Security-Changes
https://support.plex.tv/hc/en-us/articles/200890058-Require-authentication-for-local-network-access
Liking the activeness of the forum here
OttoKerner forgot to say, not too fussed about the load of the streaming etc, just the matter of other people rooting around in settings etc …having the ‘main’ user/pass for setup an access,
but other users/friends etc restricted to content only…
Peter_W will now read to be totally sure, but yes have PINS on, and MyHome set etc i think…
(althou it seems i have gotta disable them due to my LG TV using mediaLink and not liking the PINS so just rejects the server etc !
OR am i thinking of this all wrong … will try an explain …
ok say if Bart was Friend/USER and in Homers ‘Myhome’, and Homer had added Ned as a friend, (Thus Bart can see him when switch user) But i dont want Bart to be able to delete Ned from the Home group …
or would it be if Bart did delete Ned, it would ONLY be from HIS user environment (Homer could still see Ned) …
but Bart cannot see Ned untill selecting Homer in HIS user selection ! …
can Ned not simple show up in Barts ‘servers’ like it does for Homer…
confusing huh !
In general, Plex Friends cannot change any settings or edit any items in the libraries. Only the server owner (you) is able to do it.
There is probably a chance that your son can do it, if he is in your home network. If your server is not in ‘high security mode’, it may not enforce authentication from clients on the local network. But this can be changed.
If you have a setup which employs a ‘reverse proxy’ or if you use a really old FreeNAS version, there maybe a setting active which disables user athentication in general. This situation should be rectified ASAP.
Have you seen someone else than you able to change settings when accessing your server, from outside your home network?
Im ok with the friends access, thats fine, they can only see my shares …
the thing is my Son is a ‘friend’ and then in ‘myhome’
so that he can see all my friends shares too (for eg Bart, is Homers Friend, in Myhome, so able to see Homers Friends like Ned, and Willie for EG)…
but to be able to see the other friends shares, he has to switch user to Homer … (as he can as he’s on the Myhome)
or is there another way that Bart can see the shares of the likes of Ned/Willie like Homer does …
Bart cannot switch to Homer, as he doesn’t know the PIN of Homer.
If Homer actually has a PIN, that is.
but can Bart watch stuff from Neds shares like Homer ? (without the PIN etc)
@gadget78 said:
but can Bart watch stuff from Neds shares like Homer ? (without the PIN etc)
No, he can’t. Because Ned shared with Homer, not with Homer’s family too.
If Homer wants that, he must:
- create real (free) plex accounts for all his family, then invite them into his Home
- ask Ned to also share with each single member of his family
thats a very good and fair point ! … thankyou
