I have a couple TB worth of movies on a usb drive connected to my Intel Macbook. If I install Plex Server on it can I watch my media without internet? I would of course setup the server and get all metadata etc. while connected to the internet but am I good to go if I’m not connected to the internet for weeks, or will Plex want to ‘phone home’ every time I fire it up?
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It IS possible, but takes a bit of prep work. There is a wonderful post with info on it kicking around the forums here. Plex themselves have a help article with info on how to use “local” authentication here.
Thanks for offering to help 
I have seen those posts but they seem to deal with LAN setups. I’m wondering about using Plex Server without internet when it is installed on my laptop that also has my media (no LAN).
Same same
Just to be clear, even if the Plex server is on your laptop you will also need to install the Plex client for the Mac on that laptop too. The server is just the server.
The connection between the Plex client and server is the same even if it’s on the same machine: via the network. So, that process for local authentication is still required.
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One doesn’t need to install a client. The server does come with a built-in web server. Sure, it’s compatibility is pretty weak compared to a client, but at least it can be used quickly to determine if our OP has set up local authentication properly.
OK. but OP was talking about playing media on the machine and AFAIK you do need some other piece of software besides the built in server for that.
Sorryt, I should’ve been more clear. Yes, I would also have the Plex client app installed on my Macbook. I want to be sure I can use Plex to watch the movies on my USB drive if I haven’t connected to the internet for a few weeks.
Question, is do you need Plex to serve to multiple clients? If you are going to view content locally on the same machine as the file server, and you plan to have no internet, you might be better served with a standalone player device similar to Plex, such as Kodi. It can create metadata and a slick UI to display the contents of an attached USB drive, and can do it all without any online accounts (well, needs internet to get the metadata, but other than that…).
Plex is a great program, but it’s main use is in having a single central file store, and sending that media to multiple clients in a consistent UI. Also, remote access to the media is pretty slick. Neither of these strengths appear to be desired by your scenario.
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Cool, just making sure. You hang out here enough you see a lot of misconceptions.
And FWIW I think that @Divideby0 makes a very good point. Plex is overly complex for the use case you described.
Now, if you think you might also want to watch your stuff on an iPad in bed as well as on that Macbook, or any other second client scenario, Plex starts to look good.
Right. Don’t get me wrong, Plex is a fan-freakin-tastic program, once I understood it and went all in on it (re-arranged my libraries to fit the proper naming scheme). If I had to set up Kodi on my Shield, iPhone, Fire, Fire TV, Roku TV, parent’s Fire, ipad, personal computer, etc… and have a consistent poster/description across EVERY device, I’d go insane. It was my FireTV’s limited on-board storage for local metadata (posters) that prevented me from doing this in Kodi, so I ended up working on Plex instead.
But if you just want to watch your movies on a single computer that has the movies (USB Drive), then Kodi (TYPO EDIT) shines. There are some features Plex adds that you won’t get in Kodi by default, such as intro skip and credit skip. But Kodi supports plugins, and there might be those features in it if you know how to look/setup.
Thanks! I just installed Kodi and it suits my needs perfectly 
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