I’d like to chime in for that I barely use plugins, but one that I do, and somewhat often is the Soma FM radio plugin. I hope Plex team can work in customized internet radio streams like iTunes does within the music library.
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Very sneaky rather than very clever. I for one will be asking for my money back for one of my two subscriptions of lifetime purchased a few weeks back.
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Bleh, this really upsets me. I finally upgraded to the lifetime pass about 2 months ago(after being a monthly for years), and then this. If they don’t have a way for me to sync with trakt(or similar), It will be useless to me. Forcing me to switch to Emby, which is it’s own problems.
Feels like I wasted my money.
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[REL] Webhook for Simkl TV, Anime, Movie Tracker there’s the similar you might be after, i can also see maybe something like this popping up for trakt when plugins start to disappear
Thanks, completely missed that one.
It is almost perfect, except I need two-way sync. If I can find some way to do that, I’ll be fine. Sadly, the last posts in that thread mention needing to make a seperate plugin to do that… Which is why we’re here now. 
I’m not just throwing out ropes in hopes they’re grabbed on to.
I’m simply providing information to those who keep trying to say that Plex is pulling in plug-ins due to the potential bad they can do.
Many web search engines and indexing sites have been sued, as @RavenNight linked, simply due to the ‘gray’ area of providing torrent and magnet links to both legal content (linux iso), but also, illegal (commercial movies/songs/apps)
I just found three Plex KB articles (am not going to link to them) that recommends using specific applications that are illegal in much of the “western” world, or recommend conversion from one format to another (another no-no in some countries, including even DVRed content)
I’ve not researched, but I’d bet the ‘core’ Itunes channel feature is probably a no-no in Apples eyes.
One of my points is, if anyone think Plex removing plug-ins saves it from any liability, they’re wrong. For that arument, Plex might as well go back to home video and photos local meta agants only.
I bought the Plex Pass years ago due to it’s extensibility and that it allowed me to stream content to locations other than my home, NOT just because it organized my media (my DLNA and folder setup did that just fine without Plex)
I, like another poster above, disabled analytics where possible using opt-outs settings and firewalls.
They are now removing what (3%, 20%, doesn’t matter, still hell-a-lot) many have used as a core feature to us for years.
More would likely have used them if Plex had not neglected them for so long.
I was a fan boy at first. Over the past two to three years, that’s changed.
I can only hope the environment changes, but I don’t place much faith in ever trusting Plex as I once did.
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Anyone know how to disable individual channel updates on Roku? I’ve seen DNSmasq methods posted somewhere, but my crappy router doesn’t support that, and they block all updates.
Not possible and a VERY bad idea. It would be easier and more productive to build your own app. The info is available and all it takes is time and just a little intelligence. Personally I prefer to let others do the work and adapt what I do to their production.
I’m already working on Roku apps to replace plugins I’ll be losing. As for it not being possible, I sincerely doubt that. If I have to, I’ll get a cheap DD-WRT router and implement the dnsmasq block that way, but that’s a last resort.
Why is it a “very bad idea”? Current version is stable and does what I need it to do.
Because any effective blocking means that everything gets blocked and that means that changes to anything that Roku uses that is external to the Roku can break a Roku app,
There are several other reasons that have been discussed over at Roku and on other sites and one thing I have seen is that except for very limited use cases (like those that have only one app on their Roku) those that block updates on their Roku run into problems sooner rather than later.
In my years (and I do mean years as I still have an old N1000 that was originally sold as “The Netflix Player” ) I have only once had a problem with auto-updates. It is better and safer just to allow updates and if something “special” is needed write what is needed for yourself or use a different device. After all there are a LOT of cheap choices that work great.
Like I said, that’s a last resort. Perhaps I can make the dnsmasq rule specific to Plex, and if I have to, I’ll inpsect the traffic myself and figure it out, but I’d rather check if anyone else has done it yet or not.
Trakt would be an easy rewrite to work without being a plugin.
Frankly I wouldn’t be surprised if someone writes a Plex Server Emulation wrapper for plugins. It would essentially be a plugins and not normal content types and would work with all the clients. If you make a plugin look like a movie or show library it would even fit in with plex better then the current way does. 
@elan to be constructive: I understand that you do not want to maintain a feature which is dead from your point of view, but might it be possible just to remove official support for it and let the current possibility to use at least all “unofficial” visual plugins out there?
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This is what I am thinking they need to do.
End all official support of plugins, period. That means that there will be no further support, nor will they work to make sure the program works with plugins. If an update to the programs breaks a plugin, so be it.
The onus will be on the designers to keep the plugins working.
The problem with that idea and all the others for continued plugin support official or otherwise is that I am pretty sure that Plex will be removing/disabling the hooks that are used to tie the plugins into the Plex system.
If Plex does that then there is no way any plugin can work no matter what the plugin developers or anyone else does.
I think that rather than trying to figure some way to keep the plugins being used working those of us using any plugin (I use Trakt) need to figure another way to accomplish what we need/want to do or make a decision as to how we will proceed without any plugins.
I believe that Plex is making the right move as it will simplify future support and development without the need to assure that the plugin hooks are not adversely impacted by every change and the testing will not even be needed so the whole process will be streamlined. This should make it easier to avoid server bugs sneaking into server releases.
I use Trakt to sync watched status between my two Plex server (one main and one redundant in case the primary one fails and for my Emby server that currently serves as a tertiary backup, just in case.
Thinking about it I really do not “need” all that backup, it is just comforting and appeases my ACD a bit.
I may just drop the redundancy and only fire up the backup servers every month or so just to keep them operational. I may even use my Shield TV as a backup and drop the one on my computers.
I will just have to think it through some more.
If your two Plex servers point to the same media with the same drive letters couldn’t you just use the same DB? So copy out the DB once a week or so for emergencies.
That would work if only one server was active at a time BUT due to several other issues I would be very hesitant to use that idea. But the only watched status I really need is 10-20 TV shows and fixing those manually if needed would not be too much trouble.
If I were to loose my primary server the drives and drive letters would have to be relocated and reassigned and that, again, is just tedious not a show stopper at all.
This has just caused me to rethink part of the way I use Plex and I think I will end up with a more simple setup in the future.
I may even be able to place one fairly power hungry computer in a low use mode and only power it up about once every week or two for only an hour or two. It won’t save a lot of money but it will save a little.
In case anyone cares, you can create a rule in your router configuration to block the IP addresses for the Roku Channel Store (api.cs.roku.com) to prevent the Plex Roku channel from being automatically updated. The addresses are:
34.192.143.185
34.200.18.172
52.45.134.131
52.72.204.192
Set up a rule that prevents the IP or MAC Address (recommended) of your Roku/Roku TV from accessing these four IPs and it should prevent automatic updates.
CAVEAT: This will prevent all currently installed channels from being updated (while still remaining fully functional) as well as make the channel store unusable, so you’ll need to disable this rule when you need to update a channel or install a new one.
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And when you do that all apps will update. When the Roku updates every app with an update available gets updated. There is no way to limit updates to just one app or to prevent one app from updating is you want an update for another.
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there is no way
to be determined.
