So this is kind of a strange one to me and I can’t find any help on it so far (I’ve googled like mad, and read up on the Plex help articles on this subject). Here’s what I’m seeing:
I have a server which is signed in with a Plex Pass (recent lifetime buyer, woo), and no users defined in Plex Home other than my own obviously, with no pin.
At that state, without signing in to an Android app for example (applies to others, like Windows 10’s), I can browse the server freely and watch content with no issues. The INSTANT I add a pin to my user or add a managed user to the list, any application that is not signed-in can see the server. Even turning on the guest account doesn’t work. If I remove the managed users and unlock my own by removing the PIN, suddenly the servers appear on all other apps on the network. Signed-in apps of course don’t have this issue and can always see the server.
Is this by design, or am I missing something here? And if this is answered somewhere else I apologize for not finding it, and would be appreciative of a link. 
Thanks!
This is by design.
Once you put a PIN on your account, you show your intent on protecting it. The server goes now into high-security mode, requesting authentication from every client.
Plex Home is often used to restrict access to certain media for little kids. What good would this restriction be, if you simply could “trick it” by logging your client device out?
https://support.plex.tv/hc/en-us/sections/200641063-Plex-Home
That does make sense. I suppose what I was hoping would happen, would be when non-authenticated accounts connect, and if I’ve enabled the guest account, that would be available to them to use to stream only the content I’ve allowed through that account. For every other user they’d still be able to SEE the server even when not signed in to their app (currently it vanishes from server lists on any app not signed in) and be prompted to pick a user and enter a PIN when they try to connect.
Sorry, it doesn’t work that way.
My recommendation would be to create a real plex.tv account (free) and invite this to your home.
You then log in all the guest clients into this account.
That way, you don’t have to hand out your own plex credentials and fast user switching is still possible.
Or, if you don’t need fast user switching, then treat the extra plex account simply as a Plex friend.
It would lose free access to the mobile Plex apps of course.
Thanks a bunch Otto, that cleared a lot up!
