As it is today, No.. Users will not be able to access your content. Plex requires users to authenticate against the authentication server they host before seeing any content. I think this is ridiculous and just a way for Plex to see usage, have control, advertise, etc. I’ve even heard that Plex, years ago didn’t have this limitation.
If Plex implemented the proposed feature request above, then Yes, your users would be able to access content, even though Plex Auth server was unavailable. The feature request above would have two paths for users to authenticate. First, it would try the official Plex Auth server. if that failed, it would fall back to the authorization from your server.
Been waiting for this for years. They don’t want us to have it because they want to force us to see their content. Can’t block their IPs if they force you to Auth.
Yesterday our entire state went black on all internet services, yup someone cut the two fibres feeding the state and we were dark for several hours. This highlighted a few dependency issues for my home, one of which is that Plex will not work without an internet connection… Seriously, what is the point in a self hosted service if it has to call home in order for it to function properly?
I couldn’t even open a a WebUI on the fricken server it is hosted on, seriously WTF! Why on earth does Plex need to authenticate devices sitting on my own network, or even the server itself? surely a white list of IP/MACs is all you need within our own LAN.
As of yesterday I was locked out of my own content, on my own network, on my own server…
I didn’t build my own servers and network for some cloud service to lock me out of it.
Even Steam gives me an option to boot into offline mode, albeit half the games call back to home, or are server games. Still, at least Steam isn’t the one doing it.
As much as I have been a lover of Plex for a number of years because it aloud me to manage MY content, lately, I have become much less of a fan with Plex’s “services” and its way of doing business.
At least with KODI I wasn’t locked out of my own content.
have a 3.5 second glance, it looks like a young version of Plex…? so again I ask why cannot plex give me full access to my own self hosted content when internet connections are not available…
How long is this gonna go on?
I get it…you switched to Emby and I have done the same in the past and hope you stay with Emby longer than I managed to.
We all have different wants/needs and expectations of how we want something to perform.
Random (Conspiracy theory) speculation though, on something you no longer use is just pointless.
I know, because I have been there and done it.
I have the bans from the Plex forum to prove it.
If you’ve moved on just move on and watch your stuff in Emby.
hi even i have a plex lifetime plexpass & i fell that this is the most important part of plex because it lockes us users out of our own server just by not having internet which defeats one of the most important feature of having a local hosted server.
My internet went down for several days. I couldn’t watch my local movies. What a bummer.
Im not sure what approach should be taken to solve this issue, but some way to access the plex library in case of external authentication error would be welcome.
We really need this local authentication feature. Due to certain reasons, some regions in mainland China are currently unable to access Plex.tv or related services. This has caused many users to experience issues such as being unable to scrape metadata, log in to the Plex client, or connect to their servers. This has significantly affected many users, as they are even unable to connect to their own servers locally within their LAN. Plex should provide a way to authenticate accounts and servers locally, allowing users to use Plex in a purely local mode, or enable continued use of Plex for local or remote connections when Plex.tv is unreachable.
I know that Plex already provides a ‘List of IP addresses and networks that are allowed without auth,’ which allows access to the server without authentication. However, this feature has many inconveniences. Compared to no authentication, what we really need is a way to authenticate accounts locally, allowing us to access our servers through our individual accounts even when Plex.tv is unreachable.
@OttoKerner would it be possible to know if this feature is something that’s on the roadmap? It’s almost 10 years since it was created and it seems like a simple way to fix a lot of issues, as it seems like a REALLY low hanging fruit.
Why does a self-built media library need extranet authentication? This is wrong in itself. Without the network world, you can’t see your own media library.
I don’t know how this basic function was not implemented by 2025
Why do personal media servers require mandatory binding of online user authentication
Jellyfin and Emby are both fully deployed locally. Emby is only limited to membership authentication. User management is completely localized. It uses reverse proxy software to directly access the Internet. The funny thing is that the certificate encryption key stored by Plex is even displayed in clear text
Once Plex.tv disconnects, the Plex server will be completely unavailable
And now there are already real-life examples, where China’s access to plex.tv has been disconnected since the third quarter of 2024
