Managed Accounts Unable to Skip Commercials in DVR Content?

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I’ve seen other posts about this, but no confirmation from anyone, just speculation that the feature was removed, or never existed for managed users. Can anyone confirm that Managed Accounts are not able to skip commercials in recorded DVR content by design? Or is it a bug?

I am able to skip commercials with the admin account, but none of my managed users can skip commercials in DVR content.

Server is 1.41.8.9834. I tested on an iPhone (2025.22.0), TvOS (8.45), and Chrome on Mac.

Thanks!

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I run my server entirely on managed accounts, and I noticed that over the last month or so that commercials are not able to be skipped. They DEFINITELY worked before recently. I kind of assumed it was just a temp issue, but I just now checked my Admin account and I can see the commercial skip button. This means it is a recent change that Managed users are not able to use Comm Skip. Very frustrating.

In case it matters, I checked on Plex-For-Windows app v 1.109.0.329-ea562b95, and Chrome browser on hosted app v 4.148.0.

  • Tested on two of my manged users, unable to do comm skip, did not check the third user.
  • Base admin account can do comm skip.
  • Worked at least a month ago for managed users.

Plex server Docker v 1.42.0.9975

Edit:
Checked a Home-invited account I created a while ago. It cannot comm skip either.

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Are there other features unavailable to managed users, which were available before (if the server owner has a full Plex Pass)? (e.g. skip intros, and credits)

Or does this affect only skip commercials?

Are there differences between different client types in this regard?

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Thanks for getting back to me, OttoKerner!

I tested the features listed here: Player Experience . I tested on an iPhone (2025.22.0) and tvOS (8.45)

  • Rewind on Resume: Unsure how to test this one on iOS, I don’t see an option. On tVOS, I have it set to 5 seconds on admin/managed accounts and it works as expected.
  • Skip Intro: Works as expected
  • Skip Ads in Recorded Content: Does not work for managed users. Tried Auto option and Manual Option, no change.
  • Skip Credits: Works as expected
  • Show up Next: Appears at the end of a video, but not during credits. Looks like this isn’t released for iOS or tvOS, yet?
  • Passout Protection: I have not tested this one.
  • Autoplay Countdown Timer: Works as expected, shows up after a video ends.

I can provide logs, if needed, of the admin account and a managed account when DVR content is played and is at a point where it does/does not appear.

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Only Comm Skip does not work for managed users. I tested on Nvidia Shield, iOS, Chrome Hosted web app, Plex-for-Windows.
Nvidia Shield:

  • Intro skip (automatic) and Credit skip (manual press) still work.
  • Play next countdown set to zero seconds works as expected.

Plex for Windows:

  • Intro skip (automatic) and Credit skip (manual press) still work.
  • Play next countdown default of 10 (Player Experience not available)

iOS:

  • Intro skip (automatic) and Credit skip (manual press) still work.
  • An oddity with Credit Skip in a tested video. It was a DVR recording, and the last 5 minutes were commercials. Pressing skip credit put me 2 seconds from the end, at which point the video ended. It brought up the typical “next episode” loading circle, but sat there endlessly. There were no more episodes after the current one, so it appears to have gotten stuck attempting to load a video that wasn’t there. Had to exit manually.
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I have filed a bug report.

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@veeejay I think I’ve found the issue. Could you cycle your users (Managed > Admin > Managed) and maybe restart your PMS in order for the fix to be pushed out to your accounts. Then try to reproduce the issue.

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WOW! Just restarted PMS and switched to one of the managed accounts and the skip ads button appeared! You’re awesome!

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Exxxxxcellent! Skip Commercials for Managed Accounts is working for me now.

I did not know how to cycle my users, did not see any option where I set up Managed Accounts. I quit Plex Media Server then relaunched and now it works. Yeeeea!

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I think by cycle they meant to switch from being a managed user to admin and back to managed user so that is refreshed any library permissions. That’s what I did, in addition to a restart.

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I cycled my personal user from me, to admin, then me again. It now works.

I would reboot my server, but something is recording right now, and I do not want to lose it. I will reboot my server after it finishes, but it does not appear to be required to fix this.

What was the issue? Was this an error in our accounts, or an error in ALL managed users across the Plex ecosystem? Could this happen again in the future, or did some Plex intern accidentally swap a flag on a few (all?) accounts to disable it?

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Shout out to the Plex team for the turnaround time on this - once visibility was finally brought to it.

Fastest bug fix I’ve ever seen. Nice one.

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