Currently there doesn’t seem to be any solution to sync content from a Plex server to a local windows laptop for offline viewing. I’ve tried both the Windows Store App and the Plex Media Player. The Windows Store App is buggy and looks to be discontinued. Sync is present in the app but doesn’t seem to function (I’ve googled around the problem, tried the loopback solutions, etc.). The Plex Media Player doesn’t have Sync functionality and consequently doesn’t work offline.
Are there any plans to provide a workable Sync solution for laptops? I use Plex both at home and when I’m away for work. Not being able to view media on a flight or in locations without decent wifi/mobile signal is frustrating, especially when the functionality is operational in the Android/IOS apps.
I’d like to see Sync to Mac or Windows applications, unfortunately it’s limited to mobile devices. It would be nice to just sync to my laptop for flights, or other places without internet access.
djboxny - Sync is there for the Windows App. It takes a little bit of finding, but it’s there. Trouble is it doesn’t work and the app isn’t really supported anymore.
lukejr - I think this would be the most sensible way forward for Plex. To be honest, I expected sync to be present in the Windows Player. The distinction between “mobile” and non-mobile clients makes little sense in a world with laptops, netbooks, etc.
I was just coming here about the Win 10 app and saw this thread. I’m off on holidays soon and had no issues at all syncing my content from my server to my laptop. My only issue was that I want to use the “mobile server” option but it doesn’t seem to work properly. I’m guessing it was designed for an older version of the phone app because on Plex for Android v6.17 I can connect to my laptop offline and see the content but cannot play it (Error says “Unable to play media”). On the new (worse) Plex for Android v7+ I cant even connect to my laptop. Since I can connect with v6.17 it means the issue is something in v7+
I’m also trying to use my laptop to Sync content to my W10 Plex App from my PMS and while I can see and play the content locally on the W10 Plex App when I choose the “act as mobile server” I can see my laptop as a server off my phone but when I click on my library it doesn’t show any content even thought I have a few synced movies. Outside of installing PMS on my laptop and just bringing over the raw content I would like to be able to use the apps native features. Any help on this would be great!
It doesnt’ work well at all. Sometimes you can’t see anything unless you connect for a moment with the server. So, sometimes I have to do tethering with my cell phone just for a moment so the Windows app can get the information it needs. Then you can disconnect and use it without any problems.
I think Plex developers should forget about things like podcasts, webshows and other things we don’t care and give priority to correct and improve things like ‘sync’ in laptops, allow subtitles decoding in the client (avoiding transcoding of 4K videos just because they have forced subtitles), etc…
Thanks for the info I ended up installing PMS and bringing over some videos for our camping trip for the kids. Camping season is over here so I’ll give it another go in the spring.
I fly all the time and it’s stupid to be stuck watching my media staring at phone while on a plane. When you’re stuck on a plane for 10+ hours a week, you really wish that this was a working function!
Unbelievable that this doesn’t work. I just bought a Plex Pass, assuming I would be able to sync content to a Windows 10 laptop I have so that I can take it on trips to watch movies. WTF is the point of having Plex server and client app if I have to manually copy the files from my server to my laptop? I second the person who suggested that, rather than dicking around with podcasts and webshows, the Plex team should be using those resources to get this very basic functionality working.
+1 for me also.
Spend a lot of time in planes and hotels and would really love to be able to sync to my Windows laptop as well like I do my Android Device
Same problem here !
I’ve used the sync function on the Windows app for some time now, it is buggy but you can get it to work when you take the time to…
Doesn’t mean Plex developers shouldn’t add sync to the PMP…
Please guys !
I use the Plex app from the Microsoft Store, on 3 different laptops running Windows 10, and (un)fortunately I have never had an issue myself. My mum had an issue finding the sync button once, but it turned out I just had not enabled Sync for her on my library.
My process:
Click on the sync button, select max quality (obviously), and repeat on all that I want to sync.
Leave the laptop plugged into power and LAN overnight, making sure its set to never sleep.
Check in the morning by checking the “Status” menu.
Change my Location/Library to “This device” and check stuff plays.
Indeed you are lucky, because (for me anyway), the app instability causes it to crash if the wifi is weak, or the sync to stop if not checked often enough.
What I have to do to make it work is :
wait until all sync items are converted on the server (because the synced videos cannot be brought with the subtitles separated and have to be transcoded for the subs to be burnt. urgh)
keep the laptop within reach and refresh the sync page every 5 min or so. Every 5 or 6 refreshing, the syncing has stopped for some reason and the media being transferred at that time has to start transferring all over again.
And if the internet is bad where I am, the process is so painfully slow that i usually end up using syncthing or ssh to get my media across.
The whole thing is infuriating since i bought the plex pass for life BECAUSE of the syncing capabilities…
+1 for this. I have been a Plex user for 10 years now, I love the app but this Apple like approach of treating phones and tablets as “mobile” and laptops as somehow not “mobile” is incredibly frustrating. There should be a single Windows app which allows sync. Surely that would be the best approach, why make things difficult with two apps? I recently ditched my iPad as I wasn’t using it that much and was looking forward o tusing my Dell XPS as a single machine for everything only to find I can have half working sync with an old outdated Windows store app or no sync with an up to date playing client. No use to me at all when travelling with work , which I do a lot.
This has all been discussed many times over the years. Plex don’t care.
I even told them at some point that if they drop support for the Windows Store app, they will effectively stop support for ongoing client development for the Windows 10 platform, whether that be laptop, tablet, or mobile. That appears to be exactly what they are doing.
A couple of years ago, an employee at Plex retorted that there was “Plenty of work being done on the Windows Store app”, when some of us complained about the lack of progress. Whatever this work was, it has never seen the light of day, and never will.
Agreed. This topic goes back many years. (June 2013) An earlier thread has it as the second most requested feature only beat by the request to watch live TV. (proper vote tally only no less, not even including all the +1 people did instead - unrelated but why do people still do that when we are told to heart the first post) https://forums.plex.tv/t/plex-sync-for-desktop-clients/36308#latest
PLEX simply closed the thread and low and behold the same request pops up again, here now. To me that sounds like a long standing need and reasonable request and not a flash in the pan.
I still hold that there must be some sort of licensing/legal/NDA/secret agreement/self preservation reason. I am not aware of any technical reason why, going on 6 years later, this is still unresolved.
