How many devices is a invited friend logging from

General Discussions
1

Hello all, Apologies if this has been asked before (i searched but couldnt really find something similar, but im sure there is something as im certain someone faced this before).

I recently made the decision to stop letting family members from logging into plex through my plex account; instead, i told each one of them to create their own account so i can invite them as ‘friends’.

The reason i made this switch was two fold, i want to restrict some people from specific libraries in my plex server AND i got annoyed from how whenever someone watches (or is watching) something, it shows as ‘watched’ on my plex app etc…

My question is, for example, now my cousin has created her own plex account and ive added her account as a friend… from what i gather, she can technically use her account to login through multiple devices and all those devices will be able to stream from my server… not only that, she can share her account with her friends and they can all use it to login and stream from my server… Is there a way to stop this (or atleast monitor it)? for example, when i login to my dashboard and go to the friends list, i see the friends that ive added and their usernames, but i cant see how many devices have been logged in using that username, or how many devices from that username are streaming from my server. the fear is that i lose control over how many people are streaming from my server, which may be a slippery slope with regards to bandwidth etc…

Am i missing something? i feel by making the switch from just letting family login through my account (i dont share my account details, i just tell them to send me the 4 digit code whenever they want to login from their appletv/iphone etc) i am actually losing alot of control on who has access to my server.

any suggestions, advice would be greatly appreciated!

2

There is an option in Server Settings > Network > Remote Streams per user.

So you can limit the number of streams allowed there.

afaik, that’s the only setting available

3

From what I can tell that’s a ‘blanket’ rule to all users, including myself (the primary user)… unless I missed something.

4

Yes, I think it is a blanket rule (I don’t know if it includes the server admin, you)

But it only applies to remote connections, so if your server is on your lan and you are on your lan then it would not limit you.

5

It does if you are streaming remotely(not on local network).

Maximum number of simultaneous streams each user is allowed when not on the local network.
6

are you sure… you may well be.

but… I just set the limit to 1 on my dedicated server, and was able to play on both my iPad and iMac.

I would have thought would be classed as streaming remotely.

And the Dashboard shows both streams as remote.

7

LOL! Yes, I’m sure.

Doesn’t mean I’m right though!! :somefunnyemojihere:
Let’s see what the ninja’s say.

8

ha ha, I got curious…

Have a couple of other plex accounts, so I shared my libraries to one of those accounts and then using another comp to login to plex as one of them tried to playback more than one film

Result: not enough streaming slots.

On my iMac logged in as the server admin, 2 streams played back fine…

9

Sounds like it reads wrong or I’m reading it wrong.

Guess the consensus is the admin doesn’t count.

10

I kind of read it the same way as you, that’s why I put that bit about being unsure of the server admin.

From what I found when testing (if that is the expected result), I think it should probably read:

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11

Tautulli can give you a bit more details about playback. Among those are device type and IP address. Armed with these informations, you can determine quite well, if someone has shared their login.

I mean, there is nothing bad if a sharee is using several different devices. But if two devices in the same plex account are streaming different media at the same time, then this is a strong indication of account sharing.

2 Likes
12

Tautulli will tell you everything you seek answers for. in Tautulli on the history tab specifically.

Otto got an easy one :slight_smile: i saw this post, read it and said to myself, i wonder if someone is going to mention tautulli (plexpy for us old folks) and low and behold there was ottos reply.

its just proof that these forums do work.

13

To be honest I think the OP approach to this is all wrong.

  1. I would NOT allow anyone in my Plex Home that doesn’t physically live in the same house as me.
  2. Looks like the OP shares the admin account(PlexHome, admin account accessible)
  3. PlexHome MAX users is 15.
  4. Probably the MOST important thing here is, if your friends ARE sharing their accounts then you got a real problem with security. Those unauthorized users could gain access to the admin account and cause a great deal of damage.

So, the moral of this is.

  1. There is a difference between Home Users(friends) and Shared Users.
  2. Do NOT invite people into your PlexHome if you can’t spit on them.
  3. Do NOT link anyone’s device to your account. This is two fold… In a sense, you become the owner of that device and your admin account is tied to it, and two, that’s a crap ton of devices you(plex) needs to manage.

But yes, Tautulli is a fantastic tool to see who/when/what device/what IP/etc…

14

Update: (sorry for not responding sooner, i found email notifications of these responses in my junk folder).

After digging around some more, i found a workaround to my problem (kind of), in my plex ‘dashboard’ under settings, in the ‘Top Users’ section (towards the bottom of the page), i see a list of the users (friends) who are streaming from my server (including my self as the admin), if i hover on a user from this list and click ‘view play history’ i get a list of everything that user has watched and the time/date they were streaming from the server (i kind of felt like big brother), what platform, and most importantly, the device that was used to stream from the server. So in this case if the user used multiple different devices, this list should be able to let me know of this. below are a few possible issues i may face with this:

  1. If the user gave his account to his/her friends to stream from my server, and all of their devices had same name (like ‘Apple TV’ for example), I dont think id be able to differentiate between them (maybe if the time stamp in the watch history was the same, which would mean multiple devices were streaming at the same time). personally, i think this would be a super unique situation, im guessing the only way to resolve it would be to know the ip address of the viewing device, which would probably be a bit of an overkill.

  2. In this ‘Top User’ section, it only creates a log of the user’s history IF the user streams media until its end… so for example, one user watched half an episode, it shows that the user played ‘10 mins’, but the number of plays is still at ‘0’. This is fine, but i only get access to the information i need (device, platform etc…) if the user watches the entire episode, only then does it get added to the user’s history.

Anyway, Im putting these here just as a fyi more than anything else, not necessarily looking for a resolution, but would definitely like to get anyone’s input or thoughts.

Also, @NewPlaza this is probably the best plex related sentence i read! (actually, i have a feeling im going to use this phrase more than once in my life from now on)

Do NOT invite people into your PlexHome if you can’t spit on them.

I wasnt aware of Tautulli before, havent installed it yet but it seems that it may resolve the above.

also, great advice on the limiting remote streams, this also is a quick way to make sure i stay in control of how shared users stream from my server.

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