is there documentation on how to setup device to connect directly to PMS both inside and outside without using Plex.tv? If so, could some kindly direct me to it’s location?
Thank you.
When a client connects to your server, it connects directly to your server. It only uses plex.tv to identify your public and private IP. if you do not want to use plex.tv, some clients allow you to manually enter your IP. Most clients can also find your server on a local network automatically. This cannot be done if you are using Plex Home as that requires the users to be authenticated which can only be done trough plex.tv.
You’ll need to be more specific if you need help for a specific use.
That is what I am trying to avoid. I want to island my Plex environment and not depend on Plex.tv at all. I own my own domain and use DynDNS so I can create the needed A Records as needed. The IP will work until my ISP updates the connection which is far a few but I would rather avoid that.
For now Plex can only use IP and not a DNS alias. Hoping that will change soon. However I did find an interesting article on this subject and may at least implement this as part of the solution at least with port 80.
http://matt.coneybeare.me/how-to-map-plex-media-server-to-your-home-domain/
So:
- no managed users
- no ‘Guest’ account active
- no PIN on server owner account
- no ‘Secure connections’
- use only Plex clients which do support ‘manual server connection’ (or DLNA clients which don’t support user authentication at all)
pretty much any Plex Pass feature is restricted without internet connectivity
If you use a Premium Music library, you need at least internet when adding new items to it, so the Gracenote servers can be contacted and metadata can be downloaded.
Once that is done there are only the music videos which cannot be accessed, because those are streamed from Vevo.
Same goes for automatic extras in Movie libraries.
Thank you OttoKerner. I am only trying to avoid using Plex.tv, so by the sound of this it is possible but you lose a lot of features and functionality if you do not connect to Plex.tv? I will always have access to the internet, my only concern is the recent Plex.tv outage that completely rendered my Plex environment useless.
What features do I lose if I bypass Plex.tv? Do you have link or a list showing a comparison? I believe that I can still manage users and assign a PIN by using the “My Home” feature.
The way I understand it, you have to have internet access and a connection to the Plex.tv server in order to use any Plex Home features, since it needs to verify you have a Plex Pass subscription. Even a pin will not work when the Plex.tv database is unavailable, since it validates the pin against the password hash on the website (the currently logged in user still works due to cached login). If you want access to your Plex server when you do not have internet, then you have to stay away from those features.
You can visit the features page and look at the Plex Home stuff - that’s what you lose. Movies still work, music still works, you can sever your internet connection and still use everything.
Please read through the links I set.
You can not use any separate user accounts. Because all of that lives on plex.tv
@nilesfoster said:
I will always have access to the internet, my only concern is the recent Plex.tv outage that completely rendered my Plex environment useless.
Which specific plex clients do you use?
The the recent outage of plex.tv should not have rendered all of you clients useless.
Nearly all clients should have cached the most recent login and allow that user to login the client
I have Windows Phone, Android, iOS, and Roku.
I would think the idea would not to lose the connection, however all of my clients could not access my PMS during the outage, not even the web based client.
@NVader2000 said:
I would think the idea would not to lose the connection, however all of my clients could not access my PMS during the outage, not even the web based client.
I understand you are using managed users. This would be the reason why you couldn’t access your server even locally.
There is an “emergency procedure” to deactivate Plex Home which you can use to access your server without any authentication or user restriction.
https://support.plex.tv/hc/en-us/articles/204281528-Why-am-I-locked-out-of-Server-after-password-reset-or-device-token-removal-
I am already using PMS in Home mode. I do not think I understand the difference. I wish there was a side-by-side comparison.
If you’ve enabled Plex Home, you cannot avoid plex.tv. Plex Home is a Plex Pass feature for the server, so for it to work, your server needs to check in with plex.tv to make sure you, the admin, has a plex pass and this feature is allowed and to be able to authenticate all your users. There is no way in Plex to turn this checking off, except to log out, then Plex Home is automatically turned off. You can sing in then use your firewall to block future connections to plex.tv. Without being able to check in, no Plex Pass features will work and things will just freeze as they are. No new users, premium music libraries, online trailers and extras, or automatic subtitles. Your clients can still connect to your server via a local network if your server can be found using GDM or if you enter the server’s IP address manually. However, since you cannot authenticate users, only the last user that was using the client will work. This info is cached and does not need to check in with plex.tv.
The alternative as Ottokerner mentioned above is to turn off Plex Home, sign your server out from plex.tv, then any client can access your server without any problems.
So if you want users, you need plex.tv. If you can do without then you can island your server and clients and they will work happily.
So basically as a Plex Pass user we a completely dependent on Plex.tv (the single point of failure).
So the question now is what is Plex’s backend infrastructure running on? Is it an on-prem solution with gen-power backup, or a multi-site DR, or better a cloud solution like AWS or Azure?
I smell a bait and switch coming sometime in the near future for Life Time members.
