Media progress not synced properly between devices with opened player

Plex Players
1

Hello,

Following the scenario below:

  • open a movie on a device, pause the movie, close tab/device or move to another app if you are on tv/mobile
  • open the same movie on another device, let’s say you finish the movie on this device

if you go back to the first device the player is still opened and the progress of the movie will be where you left off before switching to the new device. at this point the actual progress of the movie will be set to the progress of the first device even tho you finished the movie on another device.

Am aware of a fix for this, just to close the player on the first device before switching but this is often forgoten or not intuitive on tv/mobile devices.

Netflix handles it by closing the player before leaving or after a certin amount of time closing the player on mobile/tv devices if the app is in background or the media is paused. (not sure if it is accurate)

Is there a way to fix this problem in plex?

Thank you.

2

The fix is easy: don’t Pause. If you are done watching something on a certain client, stop the playback (and thus, close the player).
The stop position will be stored on your Plex server.
If you then open a different client, the partly watched video will be waiting for you – ready to get resumed at the right time stamp.

Keeping a video in perpetual pause mode will not only create two competing playback positions, but will also keep your server perpetually busy - particularly if the playback is/was transcoded.
So don’t do it. Use Pause only for short interruptions and only if you will be resuming playback on the same client (device).

3

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