I have a lifetime Plex Pass since 2013 and have a family of 5. I’ve set up a home with us as members (the Home is owned by an admin account). As there were some issues with managed users in the beginning all members have their own Plex Account.
In order to have all “Plex Pass Features” active on our phones and tablet the admin user needs to log in on each device. But as soon as I switch user the features are deactivated. (The admin user is logged in to the server) I don’t want to share the admin password with the family as that would allow the kid’s full access to all content.
Do I really need to have 5 more Plex Passes in addition to my current pass in order to enjoy all the features of Plex? It doesn’t seem reasonable. Would it make a difference if the users were managed users? (But then we would still be required to log in as admin and switch user, right?)
Any ideas?
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There is a 1 time fee option for your family no admin access each member would have to pay it
Thanks for the quick reply. A one-time fee is fine by me. Would that remove all restrictions on the app side?
Can I use IOS Family Sharing? We are all in an “IOS Family”.
Each family member has its own plex.tv account.
However, you can still invite each of them into your Plex Home.
Which will at least enable them to use the mobile apps and plexamp for free.
(You appear to already have done this.)
So as long as the user in question is a member of your Plex Home, (s)he should be able to use the iOS app.
However, this won’t enable the new feature “Intro skipping” for them.
Thanks @OttoKerner,
Would the one time fee enable intro skipping?
No, the one-time fee is not a Plex Pass. It is solely for unlocking the mobile app.
there are TWO kinds of HOME users.
MANAGED home - which use only the ADMIN account/password
UNMANAGED home - which uses each their own plex account/password
BOTH managed or unmanaged users should automatically unlock the mobile apps without extra cost (for as long as the HOME owner continues to have plex pass).
Unfortunately, plex made the decision to start requiring plexpass at the USER level for a growing number of features.
- plexamp
- plex dash
- skip ahead
these all require each user that has their own account to have plex pass.
this is great for plex, but obviously not so great for everyone else.
@TeknoJunky, I totally agree with you, hence my question. If I understand @OttoKerner correctly I would need 6 Plex Passes (server admin + each user) in my family to be able to use the new “Skip Intro” feature. That can’t be the intended situation, most likely Plex didn’t think it through.
Anyone on Plex Staff, could you clarify? How many Plex Passes do I need to be able to enjoy the Skip Intro/plex amp/skip ahead features? I have a server admin/home owner and 5 users (each with their own plex account but members of the home).
@l33tster, after some investigation I found out that I had actually already paid the one time fee a long time ago. But the root cause of my problem was the new requirement to have active Plex Passes both for the server and for each individual app user.
As mentioned, the skip intro feature requires the user to have a Plex Pass, so if there are 5 members, all 5 of you need the Plex Pass.
that scales really unfairly.
If I switched to managed users (logging in as server admin w/ plex pass) would that make a difference? I.e. Would I be able to use skip intro?
Ok, so let me get this straight: I have a ifetime pass for my server admin and have paid the onetime fee for unlocking apps (even though I didn’t need to as I wanted to support Plex) but I still can’t use the “play feature” of skip intro?
Is this really what I get for being an early supporter (8 years ago)?
Could someone please explain the reasoning behind this decision?
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“You” can. People you just happen to share your server with, no. Like most subscriptions, benefits are not meant to be shared. Most Plex Pass features have been based on the server, but some are based on the account and these cannot be shared. Sometime, these account benefits can be shared with members of Plex Home, some cannot. This is one of those that cannot.
Yes. Manages users as sub-accounts of yours so they will be able to use this feature.
Extended question regarding this: Is there any kind of functionality or supportive tutorial planned to help us switch our family members from unmanaged to managed accounts? As @Alvinger also mentioned, mine are quite old and I would like to avoid loosing their related play data.
I’m okay with editing the database, if you could clarify if that is even possible (if you or someone does know the architecture of the database that well).
I agree completely with @LuminousCore. What is the correct procedure for migrating an unmanaged user to a managed user keeping view history and other settings?
There isn’t a way to migrate users.
Work around would be to create a new managed user than manually edit your PMS database to change the watched status for the user.
@LuminousCore, I took a stab at a migration process and as you are willing to edit the database manually I think I’ve found a way.
Start by creating the new managed user in the Plex Web app.
- Stop the Plex server
sudo systemctl stop plexmediaserver.service
- Navigate to the database directory
cd /var/lib/plexmediaserver/Library/Application Support/Plex Media Server/Plug-in Support/Databases
- make a backup copy of the database file, just in case…
cp -vi com.plexapp.plugins.library.db ~/com.plexapp.plugins.library.db.bkup
- Start the sqlite3 tool and open the database. Either do it as the Plex user or just use sudo.
sudo sqlite3 com.plexapp.plugins.library.db
- List all accounts to find out their respective ids
select * from accounts;
Make a note of the ids for the old (unmanaged) and the new (managed) user, you’ll need them in all of the below updates.
- For each of the following tables, change the account_id from the old to the new id
update [table] set account_id = [new id] where account_id = [old id];
Tables to update:
library_section_permissions
media_item_settings
media_part_settings
media_stream_settings
metadata_item_accounts
metadata_item_settings
metadata_item_views
play_queues
plugin_permissions
statistics_bandwidth
statistics_media
view_settings
- Quit the sqlite3 tool
.exit
- Start the Plex Server
sudo systemctl start plexmediaserver.service
Optionally, start the Plex Web app and remove the old (unmanaged) user.
And that’s it!
Users complain that there aren’t enough good features to justify a Plex Pass. Now there is a feature that people seem to like, but they don’t want to pay for the Plex Pass. It’s a loss-loss situation for Plex.
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