If so, this is totally unacceptable. I live in Floirda where hurricanes are well known to knock out power, and consequently internet connections. But I have a generator. Not to mention ISPs fail at times, which is how I just discovered this matter…
This is not a feature. It is a bug.
I do not know where you got that idea but my Plex works fine when I loose internet connectivity which happens all too often here in rural Tennessee.
Of course I allow insecure connections on my server and all my clients to connect insecurely on the same network. But if you have no internet and do not use Plex remotely then secure connections are meaningless anyway.
He probably uses Plex Home and switched user -> which does not work without internet.
This ^ but let us all get pitch forks anyway cause it’s the cool thing to do on the forums
melrhombus - How rude and obnoxious to a basic question involving something which is obviously aggravating and should never occur.
Get a life.
Well, pitchforks are warranted. Why on earth does a user need internet to authenticate local user on his/her own local server ?
The only reason internet connection is required is because Plex has baked it in so there was no way users can avoid submitting watch-stats to Plex (think of it as modern way of selling DRM)
How rude and obnoxious to a basic question involving something which is obviously aggravating and should never occur.
Get a life.
It’s baked into Plex Home which is exactly why after reading about it I stayed with Managed Users.
There has always been pros/cons of using the Home feature… to get the convenience of it you require always online.
You stated it was a bug… that’s quite an ignorant and presumptuous remark considering it’s clearly noted under “Consequences of Being in a Plex Home.”
I get that it’s frustrating but it’s right there on the page explaining the feature
Dude, you come here stating, what you should have posted as a question, as a fact. Then you state your incorrect fact as a “bug”. Then you call people names when they explain how to resolve your issue?
You never asked a “question”, boss. So maybe consider your own tone before berating others as “rude”.
EDIT
Looking at your past posts, every thread has a hostile and accusatory tone. You should really consider taking a deep breath and reviewing your posts before clicking save.
We all know what he’s saying and it’s basically this.
He would like to have his clients be able to function as USUAL for a limited time (ie 14 days) without internet access.
When you loose internet you expect to not have access to Netflix, Amazon Prime but you would expect to still be able to access a server and media files that are on your local network.
If the clients got their authentication from the local server this wouldn’t be an issue. The local server could update auth credentials of known users/devices of the system everyday and then allow use for X days (ie 14) without Internet. Once Internet comes back the server pulls down new auth records and you’re good for the next outage.
That is the gist of what a lot of people have requested the last few years.
“Dude”, there is absolutely no reason whatsoever that the software should require an internet connection in order to work.
This is basic common sense, much less basic software design. I happen to have 45 years experience in software development. Too bad it is way over your head to comprehend.
The software does NOT require an internet connection to work. My Plex server and clients work fine without any internet at any time I need it to.
It is the setup that is restrictive for some Plex users and it is VERY easy to correct that problem.
If you really have 45 years software experience you should be able to fix the problems that are preventing you from accessing your local Plex when your internet is down.
I certainly agree with you on premise that this could use a lot of improvement so that you don’t need to change your setup to function when internet is down (poor design). This has come up several times over years and it doesn’t seem like it’s going to change any time soon.
So with that said, don’t take your aggravation out on other users who didn’t design the system. 
The users can help if you listen to them set things up so that your system can work when internet is down. Might not be as fully functional as you would like but being able to play your media vs not being able to play your media is worth a change or two (when needed).
Software developers understand that end users generally have a license to utilize the applications and not ownership. Software developers also understand that corporations track end user metadata and that metadata is commonly capitalized by companies for additional funding. Making PMS able to work in “offine” mode works against the interest of the company. Be grateful you can use this service with sending Plex money.
Honestly, I am against PMS being able to run in “offline mode.” Trading media viewing metadata is a good trade for free use.
Most people using Plex aren’t software developers and don’t want anyone to know anything about the content on their servers, least of all being able to capitalize on that info with other companies (unless said company is providing that content, ie news & podcasts).
If you have read Plex’s user license you would find that what you just said is actually incorrect anyway. Plex gathers overall stats about the media but doesn’t know or care about individual media. For example it can be helpful for them to know how many files you have with X codec in them vs Y codec because that’s helpful in resource planning. Plex makes this volunteer data anyway.
Even that could be done when connected but could be queue when not connected. This still isn’t a reason why you can’t access your in home files from a server in home when you don’t have internet all the time (for a matter of days).
Plex does have some modes that allow this but it stops other Plex pass features like HOME from working. Home is required for some features people count on. So you have to make a decision to give up features in order to have access when internet is out. That’s sort of poor software design as there is no technical reason the whole system couldn’t run on cached data.
Top of my head…
Plex in the end is a company… companies need to make money and will sometimes make decisions based on that. Be it nasty DRM like Netflix due to external pressure or things possibly like always online for any number of reasons. (cost/time of implementing a caching mechanism vs just making it online for now covering 95% of use cases… extra hardware to manage all this… etc). I feel the reason this is being forced is due to how they got the CAs and certs mechanism worked out (which we’re all getting for FREE and is managed transparently so we don’t have to fart around with them as this was done before everyone and their dog used letsencrypt) and this is an unfortunate side affect… pure speculation of course.
If there are things you don’t like or wish to have improvements on you make constructive posts and/or submit a request/feature for vote.
If even then you feel it’s not up to your standards you vote with your dollar… pack up and move on to the next thing or back to that open source project that almost but not quite fits the bill.
The original post was a click bait title that made an accusation based on personal experience backed up with their beliefs on how something should run with no knowledge of internal reasons/factors and ignorance of provided documented materials.
Is it unreasonable to assume your local media, played through your local network would require an Internet connection to work or login to your own server?
Would you be OK if Windows stopped allowing people to login with different IDs if it wasn’t connected to the Internet and you had to make a change so all users of that computer had to login with admin privs? Would you say this is fine because Microsoft needs to be able to track your stats for additional money?
I suppose it would be OK if MS Word and Excel didn’t run either if not online?
How about if you couldn’t use your mobile phone or login to it when it doesn’t have a cell connection?
How about if you couldn’t access your NAS box or files on your server when you didn’t have Internet?
Think about what you;re saying compared to many other devices and programs you use.
It’s not unreasonable to expect basic functionality at the least without Internet and without having to remove your user access and granting full access to your system and having to reconfig all your devices.
It would be if they suddenly did it without warning or documentation but Plex provided both when they created the Home style of accounts. Look at all the games coming out lately… those are installed on my PC and single player… yet clearly say they need a connection to run… so yeah. Plex isn’t the first to require this constant online to authenticate for use.
You’re using their software so they define the use. Don’t use Home or switch to another media server if it’s such an issue
