Yup, I get that centralized authentication is important for a lot of Plex’s functionality. I’m not talking about that—I am perfectly OK accepting that my users (or myself) cannot have access to my server if Plex’s authentication servers are down or if I have no internet connection.
I’m not OK with not being able to use LOCAL SOFTWARE on my LOCAL NETWORK to access my LOCAL MEDIA.
And YES I am completely aware offline mode is a thing and that I can define a local network that does not require authentication. HOWEVER you guys have built in a lot of useful features like manage users and restricting content for managed users—a lot of us rely on those features to make sure kids only have access to age-appropriate content. Turning off authentication entirely is not really an option. And there’s nothing more annoying that getting stuck only being able to access a kids account! In the most recent incident, not even offline mode was still working.
I’m not asking for a fully local authentication system for sharing with external users.
I would be ecstatic if all there was was a fallback authentication method for the server owner and managed users on the local network when Plex’s servers are unavailable.
That keeps all of your corporate interests intact and would go a long long way to mitigate the wave of hatred directed at you every time your authentication servers go down.
Completely agree, being locked out of my server because plex.tv had an DNS outage was not okay. I run Plex off my NAS and was unable to access the server until authentication came back online. I am aware of the local network authentication bypass, however this level of access allows anyone with the right IP address to modify server settings which isn’t acceptable. Having local network guest or read only access would be better than giving unauthenticated users on my network rights to server settings just so I don’t get locked out of my server during an internet or service outage.
Plex PLEASE develop a solution for the dependence on internet connectivity for authentication. Allowing unauthenticated write access to my server cannot be the right answer here.
This request should be pushed up the chain, especially because of today’s outage. We should not have to depend on an internet connection for local authentication, access, and playback of media using the application, especially if we purchased license to the software. I’ve been trying for 10 minutes just to bring up my library, and the auth issues are causing it to be extremely sluggish.
