That’s different discussions and not what’s being discussed in this thread (while I appreciate you’re trying to make a reasonable point).
That’s not to shut-down discussing it… just don’t use any opportunity to make different threads about if Plex should or shouldn’t have introduced the new features this way or another – there’s already quite a number focusing on exactly that question.
This thread is about the question if the new features will at some point be made available to managed users. Users have made the point that parental controls / restrictions need to be considered (nobody disagrees with that).
Tangs gave an example that despite disabling it, there’s been a bug/glitch where kids got exposed to content they shouldn’t have been exposed to – this got fixed by removing this hub again (as it wasn’t intended to be there for managed users in the first place – at least for now while restriction handling doesn’t seem to be sorted out → which was Plex’ point to begin with)
Bugs happen. I’m not arguing that’s ok or should be accepted… but it’s a reality. It’s when they’re not being fixed, that’s when I start to worry.
I’m sorry, but I don’t understand how it isn’t related.
It’s not fixed, parental controls were not respected, Plex can’t be trusted to respect the parental controls in place, therefore - managed users shouldn’t be eligible for Discover or Watch More features without the ability to disable it.
That’s exactly Plex’ argument → Discover etc. did not yet have parental controls applied – hence it wasn’t made available to managed users. As to that point the discussions are related.
This thread is however about the question when the features will be ready for managed users (or if it’s planned to have them available for managed users at all) – obviously with a properly working set of parental controls (and as expressed above an option to choose not to allow managed users to have it).
The bug was that despite not making the general features available to managed users, this particular hub had slipped through. There’s been a lot of testing and a lot of bugs fixed before release… this one had slipped through.
I just want to avoid that we turn a discussion about a car’s fuel efficiency / MPG into one about how bad inflation is for car owners. They’re certainly related – but still different discussions.
Maybe that’s the misunderstanding here - I’m saying Plex has lost any trust in their parental controls now. The update was forced, it wasn’t tested, parental controls weren’t respected, and rather than do a rollback to fix, it was left in place and the row was finally removed half a day later.
Parental controls for content restrictions are insufficient. Plex can’t be trusted to use them properly, and has shown they care more about the appearances associated with not rolling back a broken feature than they do the kids having access to inappropriate content.
So the only option is allowing it to be disabled entirely for managed users, or Plex is not usable for families.
Whether or not they respect content restrictions later is now irrelevant.
How is that not specifically relevant to Discover for Managed Users?
My wife would probably actually use Plex if I was able to give her access to it (managed user). I don’t want the things she watches being marked as watched on the account I use (the main account) so I guess she’ll never see it. Please allow me to share this awesome new feature with my wife.
Exactly. Currently, as many do, I use the main account for admin only and everyone else is a managed user (even me when just watching). So this new feature would simply not be available to anyone, except the main user who doesn’t watch anything, which is bizarre.
I guess I don’t have any major problem with this long term, as long as a current managed user can be converted to a full account and hence keep all their history. That’s the big issue here. New full users can be created, but losing years of history, what’s been watched etc. makes that, shall we say, undesirable.
However, if that is what we have to do, then I need to know NOW, before we lay down more history that will be lost. If managed users will be able to use Discover once the restrictions have been worked out, then ok, I can wait as I realise these things take time. But I do NOT want to be waiting for something that is never going to happen.
Do we have any definitive answer on this? All very well discussing it, but even if we are understanding and accepting of the need for more time to develop, we do need to know whether or not it is ever going to happen. Is it the plan for managed users to get Discovery?
I agree to a large extent. However, other capabilities, e.g. skip intro for TV Shows, are only available to managed users. “full-fledged” users needs a separate Plex Pass (one per user) to use this feature (even if that user has purchased the app separately).
I don’t really understand why the Plex team is so inconsistent in what features are available to which category of users. There is also a seemingly lack of “customer insight” as to how we all are using Plex.
Is there an official strategy as to when and how we should implement managed users vs. “normal users”? It would really help us and hopefully guide the Plex dev team when deciding on how features should be implemented.
I believe you’re actually mistaken here, I have a few fully fledged accounts in my “Plex Home” and they get access to all Plex pass features (inc skip)
Interesting, then something has changed. Looking at the Plex page for Skip Intro it states:
Requirements
This is feature requires a Plex Pass subscription for the server admin and the account used in the player app (includes Managed users). That means, for instance, that even if there are intro detection markers on a server, a shared user for that server will need a Plex Pass to be able to skip the intros when playing content. Managed Users in a Plex Home will have access to the feature, if the admin of the Home has an active Plex Pass.
I have a Lifetime Plex Pass for the server and Home admin as well as paid apps (one time purchase). But some of the home users have a “real” account but no Plex Pass and they do not get access to skip.
I only have the main admin as a full account, the others are managed users and I don’t share with anyone outside our LAN, so I’m unfamiliar with how it works for other users. However, is it possible that there are different features available to full members when they ‘share’ the server as opposed to being part of the ‘Plex Home’?
They must get access to skip? I just switched users to somebody that doesn’t have a Plex Pass who isn’t a managed user and the skip intro feature worked no problem?
+1 same situation here. Please allow managed users to access the discovery function.
@tom80H If it is not possible to control what is return as recommendations at least let us control it in the settings page together with a big disclaimer stating just that and that it should not be used for managed accounts aimed for kids. I have a managed account for me and my wife and only use the “real” account for admin stuff.
I would have to go digging, but we complained that intro skip wasn’t available to non-Managed Home users, and Plex folks specifically said it was a bug, and it was fixed.
+1 for discover to work with managed users. the “please will somebody think of the children” point seems a little trite. As someone mentioned, you could allow admin the ability to restrict use of discover to certain managed users, or automatically restrict access to discover based on the restriction profile of each managed user (younger kid, older kid, teen, none)
I understand this is still in beta, and perhaps the true reason is that they just have not had a chance to implement it with managed users yet. I really hope they will eventually however, because just like Tidal, this feature is next to useless for my account setup unless it’s supported for managed users.
I also use Plex this way. Sure it could offer something inappropriate, but if it is added as a feature that can be disabled, we can choose not to have it on a “kids” account. It is very limited in its current form, limited to the main account.
Please allow me to share this awesome new feature with my wife.
