Plex Offline download - Poor wording or bug

Plex Players Desktop Players
1

Server Version#: Version 1.22.3.4392
Player Version#: 1.31.1.2262-74fdc6b7

I have a friend attempting to download some movies using the plex for windows version, everytime he clicks download, a plex pass banner pops up.

As per this support article i meet all the 3 conditions.

  • The owner of the Plex Media Sever needs an active Plex Pass subscription
  • Must be running Plex Media Server version 1.16.3 or newer
  • Both the Plex Media Server and the Plex app on Windows or Mac must be signed in to a Plex account

Upon further investigation i found this tiny tiny reference to plex pass subscribers which seems to describe that a plex pass is required for offline downloads to work.

So i decided to login into an old non plex pass account that i had (it has never had plex pass at any stage), and i was successfully able to download from my server to a plex for windows instance.

What is going on? Do you, or do you not require a plex pass for offline downloads on plex for windows (or mac)

1 Like
2

The requirement for Plex Pass applies to new accounts.
If you try it with an old one, it will work without a Pass.

3

Thanks for the info.

Seems kinda arbitrary that plex would make this decision to charge for plex pass to download on desktop when its already free for shared users on mobile devices.

The support article also isn’t very clear imo on the requirements for shared users to use this feature.

4

Just so i understood it correctly: If i setup a new server with a new account and my friends get new accounts, now, to download on windows, not only does the server need an active plexpass, but also every single user who wants to download from that server?
and if everybody has an old account, only the server needs a plexplass?`

in that case, could you define “old”?

5

It is dependent in the age of the shared user accounts, not on desktop vs. mobile.
i.e. for existing users who are used to “sync” being included, nothing changes.

6

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