Hello Team, sorry if i missed the (obvious) answer to this Q in searching.
I am a Lifetime Plex Pass member but have not yet setup for Family Share. If I did setup family share, would it allow my children to both download/synch and to play directly from our PMS when not on the local (home) network. They would be using iOS and MacOS (iPad and MacBook) devices.
Thanks, B
If you set them up with an actual Plex account and not just a managed account then they would be able to sync to the iOS device. They might be able to sync with a managed account but the managed account only works on the local network, so I don’t think the synced content outside of it, only because they wouldn’t be able to access the managed account outside the local network. Someone can correct me if I’m wrong about that though.
They will not be able to download from the server because that is only allowed for the admin of the server (you).
-Shark2k
Of course what I am hoping to avoid is them having to purchase their own individual Plex Passes in order to have remote access and remote synching to their devices if possible.
sync option works even if is under users, (my brother is under friends) and he can sync if you give access also depends of the software, also they will be able to make a remote sync
I am also interested if you add someone added under users do they have to buy the apps ? or they can download and use it ?
@shark2k said:
They might be able to sync with a managed account but the managed account only works on the local network, so I don’t think the synced content outside of it, only because they wouldn’t be able to access the managed account outside the local network. Someone can correct me if I’m wrong about that though.
It doesn’t matter what type of network they are on whether they are a managed user (Members of a Plex Home) or not. They can be local or remote. They get the same rights with either type of network. My mother and GF were both members of my Plex Home and able to sync or stream when my NAS was in Alaska and they were in the lower 48.
Sync (mobile) is essentially downloading for later playback through the Plex client on the device. This currently works with tablets or phones, as syncing to desktop or laptop devices isn’t currently supported with those apps. There is a Feature Request for this found here: https://forums.plex.tv/discussion/71268/very-popular-plex-sync-for-desktop-clients which you can add your support to by adding a “Like” to the first post of the thread.
Keep in mind that this request is now over 3 years old, and one of the top 10 most requested features of all time, but still hasn’t been implemented. Your guess as to when is probably about the same as using a Magic 8-Ball to tell you how to play the markets… 
So you can set them up as either a “Friend” and then turn on the sync feature, or make them a Managed User as members of you Plex Home and they get the same basic benefits. Look here for the benefits of Plex Home: https://support.plex.tv/hc/en-us/articles/203815766-What-is-Plex-Home- and here for some of the concerns: https://support.plex.tv/hc/en-us/articles/203960236-Consequences-of-Being-in-a-Plex-Home
Plex app from windows store support sync also the Plex Media Player for windows have sync now, the difference between 2 is that app from win store let you chose the location where to make the sync, while Plex media Player let you chose only the device.
@“MikeG6.5” - I know they changed somethings with the Plex Home (this was a couple of years ago) so I might have been remembering reading something about it being a local user or local network but I could have confused that just with a managed user requiring a regular/Full member of the Plex Home to sign in first and then switching to the managed user.
That said, I’m fully aware about the syncing (I have it set up like that myself for my brother). It was because I was mis-remembering/confusing the part about the managed users I mentioned above which is why I stated I wasn’t sure if they could sync outside the local network.
@FlaPlexHead just to add, in addition to what @“MikeG6.5” said in his last paragraph, if you want (if your kids are older/on their own) you can have them create a regular Plex account (sign up on the site) and invite them to your Plex Home where they will inherit the advantages of your Plex Pass.
-Shark2k
OK – so (hopefully) only one more question, is there any need/benefit to even use Plex Home, I am still a bit confused about the benefits. Our situation is two (out of the house - yea!) kids who I would like to have access to my PMS from wherever they are in the world for viewing and synching (with the supported apps) without them having to purchase Plex Pass if not necessary (still trying to save them some $$$).
i was trying to figure that out to @FlaPlexHead with my brother to add him as home user, but is not available yet, so i dont know.
but if you don’t want to buy that software you can use plex media player (from plex webpage) is free and has sync (but like i say you will able to sync on that local device) or buy plex app from win store (3£ one time purchase) and you can sync on a location like a external HDD or USB, and set your kids as users. But from what i understand is if you add someone on your home they will be able to access shared servers.
The biggest benefits are not needing to pay for the mobile apps, and fast user switching. Everything else works exactly the same for Managed Users as they do for Friends. Their “Now Playing” and “Watched” status is tracked, so the know where they are in a TV series for example, or which movies they have seen, etc.
Keep in mind you are limited to 15 Home Users (including yourself, I believe.) and that you are limited to 100 friends (including home users) per Plex Admin login ID across all of your servers. So if you have 2 Plex Servers, and both are using Cloud Sync, that’s 4 servers total for 25 max users for each (or any combination coming to 100 total.) Plex Home means all of the servers are giving up control to the Home owner, so if you have a server and someone shares and wants to add you to their Home, you give up your rights to your own server. Watch the invites you accept.
And no, adding someone to your Home does NOT give them access to servers that are shared to your own main account. (Thank the GODS!) If this ever happens I’m completely done with Plex entirely… If I wanted to share out to your managed users I would have you have them make a Plex.tv account and share out to them specifically. And if someone I shared out to gave their logon info out to others I would drop their share immediately.
@MikeG6.5 said:
Plex Home means all of the servers are giving up control to the Home owner, so if you have a server and someone shares and wants to add you to their Home, you give up your rights to your own server. Watch the invites you accept.
Not quite true. Being a member of Plex Home just means that you cannot then have your own Plex Home setup. You can have a regular Plex server or servers. The admin of the Plex Home you did join will have nothing to do with these.
@MovieFan.Plex said:
@MikeG6.5 said:
Plex Home means all of the servers are giving up control to the Home owner, so if you have a server and someone shares and wants to add you to their Home, you give up your rights to your own server. Watch the invites you accept.
Not quite true. Being a member of Plex Home just means that you cannot then have your own Plex Home setup. You can have a regular Plex server or servers. The admin of the Plex Home you did join will have nothing to do with these.
Has this changed recently, then?
Because there was a flood of posts back in the day that people were joining other Pass member’s homes and then could no longer add friends, modify existing friend’s shares or add to their own Home. Hence, they lost control of their servers.
In some cases, this caused quite a bit of problems for people that had the misnamed restrictions set up for their Managed Users and friends.
I think it’s the same issue. If you already had set up Plex Home, then joining another Home would kick you out of yours. So, yes, you couldn’t do those thing anymore. But it’s not that you lost control, but that since Plex Home doesn’t exist on your server anymore, all that old info is gone, so there was nothing to control anymore.
There was a change quite a while ago, where before if you lost Plex Home, it would remove all sharing info and users. Since that change, you would lose the shares but not the users, so if you reset your Plex Home or regular sharing, the users would still be listed, you just need to reset the restrictions.
