I have less need of these controls than some others here but am happy that I can now disable “more ways to watch” in search if I need to for some situations. And discover can be unpinned as always or disabled in my case by blocking “discover.provider.plex.tv” on the router should I decide to do so. Since I don’t share outside my home at the moment, I don’t have to worry about not being able to completely manage these settings for remote users or their abilities, or lack thereof, to manage their own settings.
How many of the 25 million so called Plex users have this knowledge of being able to just go into their routers or firewalls and SIMPLY blocking that address?
Simple for those who perhaps have that ability, sure, but yeah, I’d like to know how this is accessible and easy for those to turn it off the way you’ve done it.
This happens a lot even with Roku users complaining about Roku’s so called excessive intrusion but Roku was never a platform that allowed freedom, causing users to PiHole literally everything. Plex however was, up until the last few years not this way.
The resistance of Plex not allowing the Server app to be independent, having the requirement to phone in on the Plex servers for authentication had been a struggle for years and this along with the other streaming features further solidified that. I don’t think nothing will be done with separating those features as well as not supporting our usage of local authentication. Everything Plex wants is our setups to be talking to the plex.tv api and servers. That’s it. The more we resist on our end, it will just start breaking our own setups. Infact many of these Ninjas INSIST that we don’t use AdBlockers in our browsers and turn off firewalls when we have issues. That’s very telling of what their stuff needs to work and function.
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Ok I just tried this on the Web App with one of my Managed Users (my daughters account) and I have “Discover” turned off on my account (by clicking the little settings Toggle in the search bar) which does not show “Discover Beta” as an option for her Managed Account in the Search Toggle (and no Discover on her side menu either)
But (not in 3 clicks as mentioned before) in 5 clicks could get to (what some may see as) Adult Content. I got here by Clicking >More Ways to Watch> AppleTv> Peter Pan> Pirates of The Caribbean>Astrid Berges
I can see this as still a loop that needs to be closed on Plex’s end.
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What age group are people using in these managed accounts ?
I am not seeing any of it in my groups I set as
Restriction Profile - Younger kid.
You got there on a browser where anyone could type in tv.apple.com or do a search for Apple TV and get to that page. Your daughter could get there just the same without Plex.
Also, don’t use the watchlist and then it’s not a problem because those links don’t even appear on the detail page for local content.
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@JohnAlex No age group (she’s 23) but I thought Discover wasn’t available for managed users period? Isn’t that was was said by Plex Employees?
This is as relevant as telling a Doctor “it hurts when I raise my arm” and him saying “Then don’t rasie your arm!” If it’s not supposed to be available it shouldn’t show up at all .
Then tell me where the switch to turn off the Watch List is please?
Discover isn’t available. That’s why you can’t pin discover to the sidebar and there’s no options in the search to include results from ‘More ways to watch’.
Discover is not the same thing as the Watchlist.
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I was referring to the adult material and the watchlist material
Not seeing it on my managed accounts (I did partly in one but recreated that account and all goods)
I’m not adding to the discussion so I’ll get out, like I said before 
Good luck
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Discover is More Ways to Watch is it not?
Why then would adding a movie to Watchlist then access and show results for “More Ways to Watch”? This is (like I said) a loop that should be closed.
I don’t think I should have to recreate an account to turn off a function that wasn’t supposed to be there.
I could care less about the “Adult Content” since all my “Managed Users” are above age family. But I don’t think it’s unreasonable for someone asking for this to be able to be turned off completely on their server by giving the server owner power to do so.
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No. Discover is a function that lets you discover items across other services. ‘More ways to watch’ is part of the universal details page which is used by both Discover and the Watchlist.
In any event, from what I can tell (from limited testing admittedly), if you’re on an app based OS (e.g. Android) clicking on somewhere different to watch will try to deep link to the appropriate app and launch it. If the app doesn’t exist then it seems to just try and open the app store. It’s only on a PC that the browser launches and tries the streaming service website.
So there’s a minor risk that someone using Plex on a PC with a managed account could add something to the watchlist, could then navigate to the item in the watchlisr, could then click on an external streaming service and that would open a browser to go to the appropriate website. Alternatively they could’ve just opened a browser and gone there themselves.
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I didn’t recreate it for that reason. Wish people would stop making stuff up.
When I set the age group appropriately I am not seeing this stuff. Discover isn’t on any managed accounts irrespective.
If people want to keep searching for stuff, a user can do it far more effectively via other means, not Plex.
Again, Discover is not possible for managed users. That is separate to the other stuff being discussed,
I supported the idea of removing all this new stuff in various threads. The business model says otherwise.
Heck, I’m a lifetime PP so I don’t even contribute financially any more so I guess I’m happy with what they provide.
Now, if Plex removes the option to manage local content, I’m gone.
Semantics in wording as far as I can see. If I turn off “Discover” and can not turn off the “Watchlist” that just shows exactly what “Discover” showed it’s clearly not giving the Plex Server Owner the power to control outside access to the Managed Users on their server!
I too have made minimal testing, but it does in no way negate a server owner wanting to remove all ways for a “Managed User” to have their server be the “launch point” to anything else inside of any OS.
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Dude relax, I didn’t say you did. How am I making things up? You asked a question, I answered, you replied back and I quoted that.
The Plex server can’t magically create access for a user. If the user on a system has access to the relevant apps/programs/internet sites then they can already get to all the same places Plex could possibly get them to. If they don’t have access on the system then Plex can’t create it for them.
And that’s aside from the fact that a circuitous route for a managed user to get to those links and, assuming the relevant app exists or they are allowed access to the relevant website, they should be taken through to the correct place for the item they were looking at on Plex (which can only ever be local content they have access to). So then have to go looking for ‘offending’ content on the third party streaming service themselves.
But who knows, maybe Plex will disable watchlists on managed users as well. Then we’ll no longer have to worry about the menace of users being able to access content they could already access anyway…
No, I mistook other material for Discover. It wasn’t Discover. As some appear to have done in here. I explained that via pm to a Plex employee that asked the question.
I recreated the account as I had the wrong age grouping and a couple of other issues with it, was easier just to recreate it.
A person in here then suggested he shouldn’t have to do that to get rid of Discover, Again, that wasn’t the reason (s) I recreated it but as a consequence, age related material was removed which is what I wanted.
Discover isn’t possible with Managed users.
It’s not a question of Plex creating “access” to the relevant apps/programs/internet sites, it’s telling a Plex Owner that they have no control over their server being a launching point to outside content period.
So the simple act of 1. adding a movie to a watch list then 2. going to that movie in the watch list then 3. clicking on a link in the other ways to watch list and 4. simply exploring that page for any other linked content is what you call a “circuitous route” have you ever seen a child with a touch device?
Kids will look at just about anything.
Despite the condescension in this statement, isn’t that exactly what people are asking for? And just to test your theory that on a OS (like iOS) I tried it on my daughters iPhone and funny enough the “More Ways to Watch” is still there on Cinderella (the one I added on the browser) and you are correct it try to open apps, unless you use the link for something like RedBox which just opens a browser and can still get to all linked content. But oddly enough if she adds a movie to the Watch List while in the Plex app on the phone, it only shows My Server and no “More Ways to Watch” linked Apps at all. So again, A LOOP THAT NEEDS TO BE CLOSED!
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“Watch from these locations” absolutely shows up for managed users when adding an item to the watchlist and then viewing it. You can then click the 3rd party services and be taken to outside content and possibly view suggestive content.
It’s also not cool for kids to be able to navigate outside the app to another app that may or may not even be installed and then opening a whole other can of worms.
Disable that crap for profiles that are parental restricted.
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Did you by chance make that Managed User just to test this?
I’m curious that maybe it is a issue with existing Managed Users vs New/Recreated users?
Compared to just going straight to the app or the browser? Yes.
Well add restrictions to other services, limit their user accounts to not be able to access those services at all, or supervise them. If you’re not already doing one of these things how are you currently ensuring they’re not viewing unsuitable content? What’s stopping them closing Plex and opening up another app or the browser?
Or you could load that 3rd party service outside of Plex and possibly view suggestive content…
