Does anybody else think a dedicated mobile app to administer Plex Media Servers would be useful? Or is the web interface in Safari enough for that? One example of what a dedicated app would bring vs. a web ui is push notifications on mobile devices. The push notifications could say, system-wide and away from home, eg. “The server has rebooted”, “Media X has started playing on Y”, “Indexing of TV Shows has finished”. The app could also show logs of played media, enable user administration and bandwith allocation, managing of media libraries, refreshing of metadata and more, all remotely.
Like this post if you see merit in a dedicated Plex Media Server admin app from the Plex team, and please add your ideas and suggestions what it could do and what advantages a native app could offer!
Edit: Removed references to iOS, I agree that it shouldn’t be exclusive to any mobile operating system.
Only if it was a cross-platform app. I have zero interest in anything that is only iOS. But if it were to be for all platforms, I’m totally onboard. It’s basically doing what some 3rd party apps like PlexWatch & PlexPy already do, and that kind of application is sorely needed to be native to the Plex system.
Can that not be tied to the account that is signed in to the app.
So on my phone I am signed with my admin account that automatically loads up. If there now would be a option to enable notifications, wouldn’t that be an easy solution? I don’t see the need for an extra app. If the argument is that the Plex app can be used by multiple people, that this also applies to the phone itself.
Actually, I’m much more interested in seeing PlexPy or PlexWatch integrated into the Web App. As PlexPy is written in Python already, and Plex Media Server installs it’s own dedicated version of Python as part of the install, this would be much easier to do than some might think.
Push notifications like what you talk about are already available through either of those two apps. And can be set up for both iOS or Android, or PC, or what have you…
As for a dedicated iOS app? I hope not. iOS has a dwindling market share world wide… We need something that covers EVERYONE and not a select few… We need tools like these built into the Web App and interfaces directly to the PMS device. We DON’T need exclusions based on some perceived OS elitism or whatever… We need controls beyond pre-transcoding or deleting a user’s sharing if they don’t play well in my sandbox. We have got to stand together to get our voices heard, across OS lines, PMS device lines or client app lines.
Until we stand up together and make these types of things requirements, we aren’t going to get them, or we’ll get them when someone sees fit to take the time from developing the newest Shock and Awe client…
We have trouble as it is with client parity. This client supports this feature while client B doesn’t. Could you imagine trying to support multiple dedicated admin programs?
We already have a universal admin program built right into the server you can access via any web browser. Seems about perfect to me without “parity” issues.
I agree on the platform independence. But it seems there are features only native apps can provide, like notifications (and other things) which Plex Web can’t do on mobile, as far as I know. But maybe I haven’t explored existing third party solutions enough yet.
I get notified by PlexPy on my Tablet (Android) when someone starts, stops, pauses and buffers media from within Plex via the free Pushbullet app. This is also showing up on my PC, and there are apps for iOS as well.
Yes, like the OS X Server app which runs on the same system as OS X Client. I’d appreciate at least basic server admin controls in the client Plex app, but maybe the devs want to keep it separate for a reason. I don’t know what the reason is though.
The problem I see is simple, though. There are no BASIC admin features present in the Web App, so the clients can’t have those functions yet. They haven’t been truly developed… In order to do the job right the Team is going to have to start making tools that can be used, not just on platform clients, but on the Web App itself.
Things like a comprehensive user manager, bandwidth controls, media management, concurrent session controls, historical session logging. These are examples of what’s needed. To call what we have now administrative tools is sad compared to what so many other client/server environments have. And don’t kid yourselves. Plex and it’s environment is as complex and encompassing as the Outlook/Exchange suite. Without proper tools, we have nothing to curtail abuses.
Once we get these in the Web App, then maybe the discussion can move to tools in the client apps… Until we get those, it’s pretty much a wasted exercise. You can do everything remotely via a web browser on your phone or tablet you can do with the Web App from your PC.
@MikeG6.5 said:
The problem I see is simple, though. There are no BASIC admin features present in the Web App, so the clients can’t have those functions yet. They haven’t been truly developed… In order to do the job right the Team is going to have to start making tools that can be used, not just on platform clients, but on the Web App itself.
Things like a comprehensive user manager, bandwidth controls, media management, concurrent session controls, historical session logging. These are examples of what’s needed. To call what we have now administrative tools is sad compared to what so many other client/server environments have. And don’t kid yourselves. Plex and it’s environment is as complex and encompassing as the Outlook/Exchange suite. Without proper tools, we have nothing to curtail abuses.
Once we get these in the Web App, then maybe the discussion can move to tools in the client apps… Until we get those, it’s pretty much a wasted exercise. You can do everything remotely via a web browser on your phone or tablet you can do with the Web App from your PC.
The issue would seem to be that the user access system is still in it’s infancy as it was only added a few months ago.
There are some Administrative tasks you might want to run remotely such as adding libraries, changing server settings, fixing bad matches and refreshing content.
But I’m not sure the UAC is refined enough to expose those things to the Apps yet…
Not without risking Guests screwing up your server…
I really like this idea. I was under the impression from other posts that I’d be able to get to most of these functions by simply logging into my account on the Plex website but that isn’t the case. I can get to it from the web interface if I use my direct IP address with the correct port and the /web addition for Plex. But it’s not the easiest to navigate to and a cross platform admin app would indeed be quite useful. I’m also one who has no interest or need for iOS only apps.
@raevengel said:
I really like this idea. I was under the impression from other posts that I’d be able to get to most of these functions by simply logging into my account on the Plex website but that isn’t the case. I can get to it from the web interface if I use my direct IP address with the correct port and the /web addition for Plex. But it’s not the easiest to navigate to and a cross platform admin app would indeed be quite useful. I’m also one who has no interest or need for iOS only apps.
If you use a DDNS service of some sort you could use that instead. I do for all of my administrations functions. All I need to remember is the DDNS name and the port number. And you can always make a favorites to the server, assuming you aren’t on a DHCP with your ISP.
@aeonx said:
Yes, like the OS X Server app which runs on the same system as OS X Client. I’d appreciate at least basic server admin controls in the client Plex app, but maybe the devs want to keep it separate for a reason. I don’t know what the reason is though.
I requested this back in the day when the plex server was still a Mac-only application and it came with a native UI to manage the server. This was before Plex/Web.
They eventually did away with that UI to have Plex/Web the same for all platforms. While I still like the idea, I eventually got over it.
I would prefer a more mobile friendly version of plex/web myself.
But for an app, albeit only for Android, that gets pretty close, I like NuVue which is a paid app.
Missing is the ability to update libraries and stopping/starting the server.
But it gets you the following
seeing what’s been added on your server or any server that is shared to you
see who’s playing what on your server
getting notifications on items added or played
sending messages to anyone you share with
Again, it would be nice if this came with Plex, but it’s a good example of what a dedicated app could look like http://nuvueapp.com/
Too bad it’s a pay for app, too… That alone puts it right out of the mix from the get go, AFAIC.
You can get most of the functionality with PlexPy, and PushBullet that NuVue has, and they are free. The only thing is, you need to have another port open on your router… And an interface that doesn’t tie in with the main Plex Web App.
The fact that it’s a paid app , for Android, doesn’t concern me as Google Rewards pays for any app I purchase.
And I use PlexPy and pushbullet as well, it was shown as an example of what an app could look like. For me the ability to send messages to shared users and that it notifies me when anything is added to any server that is shared with me are more than enough reason to have it on my phone.
