OK Plex. You win

General Discussions
1

After more than a decade of using Plex daily, this is where we have to part company permanently I’m afraid. And to be absolutely clear about this - it’s not me, it’s you.

Since server version 1.31, you removed plugin and API compatibility. Because of this, I have been “stuck” on this version for several years. I have a large local library that I’ve spent countless hours tweaking & curating, trying to get around basic & obvious inadequacies (like not being able to edit Actors) as best I could.

I have no interest whatsoever in Live TV, or literally anything that has been added to Plex in the last 3 years. I use my server for playing my local media exclusively, and in this, there has been little to no progress. In fact, you have gone backwards quite significantly… by pointlessly removing things which worked fine before, and deliberately breaking other things which I rely upon.

I thought Plex was a forever app, and I felt perfectly comfortable in buying a lifetime pass for it. Believe me, I don’t do these things lightly. Now you have increased the price of that by 1000% from what I paid only a few years ago, which only tells me that your company is in deep doodoo.

When you combine that with having to authenticate against your hosted server simply to play files on my local network, that made me immediately start to migrate everything over to Jellyfin and other open source software to protect it. Who knows how long that auth server will be running. I’ve already had several experiences where the server (or my internet) goes down & I can’t access my local files.

Now you auto-downgraded the Plex app on my FireTVs without warning, first with one of the most dire UIs I could ever imagine, but more importantly - actively blocking me from accessing my server unless I downgrade that too.

Sorry, but that’s just the final straw. Yes, I could sideload the old APK etc, but why should I? What other horrors will you pointlessly inflict on me next?

So I uninstall everything. With sadness, and with no joy whatsoever.

You win. :sleepy_face:

2

Can I ask what the API compatibility issues or removal you’re referring to? As for the actor or cast editing this should be easier now with the support of NFO file, though I won’t assume that is the perfect fix for your scenario. IIRC plugin removal was related to security concerns.

3

Hi, so as far as I’m aware, it was to do with this issue with Python and the change to using OpenSSL v3 with a metadata scraper that relied on it.

Future patch notes claim to have fixed it, but my experience said otherwise. It would sometimes work, but even then took 5+ minutes to bring back any matches, whereas it would be almost instant with 1.31. Something is clearly still not right.

So I stayed on that version, because as I said, I’ve got no interest in live TV (illegal for me to watch here in the UK without paying £180 a year, which I don’t, hence why I have a home media server), and other streaming services that I’m also not remotely interested in.

Now I can’t even use that any more. That’s… unforgivable, really.

As for plugins, security for who? My server is behind two firewalls & a VPN - nobody is getting in unless I explicitly allow it or there’s a massive bug in the network stack. It seems to me that if there was a known security issue with plugins, you should fix it. :man_shrugging: Removing them entirely isn’t a fix I’m afraid. The OpenSubtitles plugin alone was worth its weight in gold for me. Gone.

As for actors - yes, having NFO as a metadata source is a good idea, but it’s not really relevant to the basic issue of not being able to edit/add/change that fundamental info using the web editor dialog. Thanks anyway.

4

Gotcha, I wasn’t aware of that.

While security concerns might not apply to you they may impact others. The entire plugin framework needed an overhaul and would have needed continuous maintenance. Instead we have transitioned to allow developers bring their own provider agents to connect with their PMS. Please see https://forums.plex.tv/t/for-developers-custom-metadata-providers/932780.

Our Live TV streaming service has nothing to do with your server or any one else’s server. I’m not quite sure why you mentioned that.

Modifying actor/role/crew information sounds like a feature request I could get behind. I don’t believe this was a previous feature.

5

I can accept that things might need overhaul, and certainly that they need continuous maintenance - but that’s software development. It’s what your company chose to provide. You can’t just abdicate that responsibility without providing a viable alternative & expect everyone to just be fine with it. :man_shrugging:

“Our Live streaming service” was on my server, because you provided it. I didn’t ask for it, don’t want it, will never use it, and have never understood why development time is being expended on it… it’s not what I (and many others) bought Plex for. Same with streaming services. Plex was meant to provide a Netflix-esque experience for your own media. That’s the attraction of it. The other stuff is simply unneeded fluff.

Which ties into why I’m confused you’re acting like editing Actors is such a wildly radical concept that nobody has ever suggested before. It’s fundamental, obvious, and basic. How can you have videos where you can’t even say who is in it, and then hopefully use that info as a relational query to list other things they’re in? I’ve been waiting years for it to happen… and for reasons that entirely escape me, it’s never happened. It’s not my only frustration with Plex, but it’s a big one.

It’s these kind of tone-deaf development priorities that caused Plex to lose their immense goodwill and market lead on home media servers IMO. I don’t believe the company understands what the software is actually for.

Still, I wish you well, and I hope you rediscover that one day (before it’s too late) & it becomes the home media server of choice again.

6

I’m going to be pedantic, but again it’s not on your server. It’s available to all users on our client apps. You’ve always had a way to disable these services from showing up on your client of choice. The idea that no one asked for it or no one is using it is false. We have millions of users playing content from our streaming catalog and using the social and discover features we have added. Again, if you don’t want to use them, you do not have to or see them if you chose to disable them. The server is “yours”, but the client shared among the million other Plex users.

While I agree editing actor/roles/cast/crew would be cool to have in the WebUI, part of the sauce for Plex is our metadata that each title gets when matched. Taking the need for editing or fiddling away. IMO this minimizes the priority of such a feature. I haven’t seen much interest for such a feature either. So this has become even less of priority. I’d still want it but :person_shrugging:. For now NFO support covers this for most cases.

Which plays into the plugin support and it’s removal. I should have provided a bit more context initially. The overhaul and maintenance comment should have been followed with the lack of usage. Like any feature we sunset, usage plays a huge part in these decisions. Why spend the resources on something very few people use and would require a major dedication of resources to correct, upgrade, and maintain. Instead we opted a different route to allow similar functionality with custom agents. Extracting the built-in part of the plugins and allowing users to create their service external to Plex that can communicate with Plex.

I wish you well as well :plexheart:

7

you guys have actually done a lot in the last 12 months for local media support, unfortunately the OP is stuck in an old build and isn’t gaining from any of those enhancements.

Keep up the good decision making (left hand menu, server maintenance features on TV/phone/NFO support etc.)