Every argument made about not permitting downloading references this, as if it was stealing. Every time they’ve referenced people I share with they’ve basically called them out for doing something nefarious. I’m simply trying to understand what the policy is and what is to be expected since there are contradictions. If there are options to download then why would a Plex employee tell me to warn them? What for, if downloads are permitted via policy?
If downloads are permitted, then where is the limit on them like there is on streams? Or is that just a third party issue that’s allowing unlimited simultaneous downloads when the option is disabled and Plex itself is working as intended? And if there’s a third party doing something to circumvent Plex rules, then why isn’t that being prevented?
It’s difficult to police people about not doing something when Plex makes the option available.
It’s difficult to police people about not doing something when Plex makes the option available.
The option isn’t available, if using apps provided by Plex.
This option, as you call it, is done with a tool not made by them.
Just like in your previous example about Youtube. I can use a third-party tool like youtube-dl to download content from Youtube, but that doesn’t mean it’s an option Youtube is providing.
Maybe we can get the Plex employee to clarify what their downloading policy is and go from there… You’re saying the option isn’t available, but in your previous post you mentioned Downloads are permitted. This is the contradiction I’m speaking of. Which is it? The Plex employee has danced on the same fine line.
Maybe we can get the Plex employee to clarify what their downloading policy is and go from there…
Not sure what kind of policy you are looking for…
Download/Sync happens in 1 of 3 ways, from with apps/tools that plex created. The server admin can always download. If enabled, a shared user can use a mobile device to download the content to their device. And if using the plex app for window/mac desktop as shared user can download as well if enable by the server admin
All of that is rendered moot when a third party app can circumvent those settings.
To put it another way, if I have all of those options disabled for remote users and they’re still able to download then what is the point of the settings?
To put it another way, if I have all of those options disabled for remote users and they’re still able to download then what is the point of the settings?
The problem is it shouldn’t be happening in the first place. Because downloading is permitted I’m being asked to penalize someone for something Plex apparently doesn’t disallow or enforce. The problem is Plex not the user. If options are presented that allow them to inadvertently subvert rules that those shared users can’t see, that’s on Plex not the user. The user thinks they’re just doing something that’s permitted because it works. If they’re an admin of their own server then they see downloading is an option. That only reinforces their belief they’re doing nothing wrong. That I’ve enabled the setting for them because it’s working.
But just in case you weren’t aware of it -
This ability to go around, circumvent, or what ever you want to call it, isn’t new. You’ve been able to use this exploit for 10+ year with Plex. Probably longer, I just don’t recall for sure.
I only point this out so you can perhaps get an idea of how futile it is to hope that Plex will somehow be able to (or want to expend the resources to) close this exploit.
Except by finally allowing us to see when something is “illegally” downloading, they’ve exposed this problem. I can guarantee you this has been going on for the 7 years I’ve had my server and this type of problem has happened from time to time. I just had no idea why the problems I experienced were happening because I had no idea downloads were occuring. Now I do, so I’m saying something. It wasn’t until very recently, like the last few days, that we could actually see this in real time, so claiming 10 years of futility is a bit of an exaggeration since the majority of us would never have ever known this was even happening until now.,
Ok, let me clarify. Plex offers a downloading feature, it’s called Mobile Sync. This allows user to download a copy of the file to their mobile device. A slightly modified version of mobile sync is available in the Plex for Windows/Mac desktop app. If you are the admin of a server, there is also a way to download your files using the Web client. These are the only official methods to save a file from the server.
When streaming from a server, you are basically downloading a file, except it isn’t saved and just played on the Plex client. The same when viewing video from YouTube or Netflix. The video has to be transferred from the source to the client. Programs like this plugin we are referring to or programs like YouTube-DL take advantage of this and save the file instead of just playing it.
So no, Plex does not allow downloading from Plex Media Server unless it is using one of the official methods I mentioned above. Any program, plugin, or browser extension that circumvents this is not allowed.
The “Allow Sync and Download” option when sharing your server is meant specifically for the official methods. If a plugin is circumventing this, then it is doing something wrong. Plex has the option to limit how many streams a user can have. If a plugin is circumventing this, then again, it is doing something wrong.
Thank you for confirming everything I believed to be true prior to me starting this thread. Without getting into the fact that shared users CANNOT download my files to their computer and every other tangent this thread took…
How does Plex prevent third party apps from taking advantage of a system where temp files can be tricked into downloading instead of streaming?
And then I will take it back to my original question of…
How do I stop this on my end so I don’t have to figure out who is downloading things?
And these are only questions for Plex employees since no one outside of Plex can speak for Plex.
We can’t. It’s the nature of how streaming works. Go ask YouTube, they haven’t been able to stop programs like YouTube-DL and they have a ton more resources than Plex.
Keep in mind that Plex is not meant to be a full scale streaming service with lots of user controls and restrictions. Plex is a home product that allows sharing with friends and family.
The one thing I would ask is now that we can see downloading files, please add the username of the person downloading it. That way I can simply make a phone call to that friend instead of blasting an email to over two dozen people whenever this happens.
Truly grateful you added our ability to see the downloads now. As I mentioned before, I guarantee this has been an ongoing problem I was never aware of until this week.
You can try checking your PMS logs. It should show up in there. Since I’m not sure what that plugin actually does, I can’t say for sure what to look for. But since you’ve already identified 1 user, you can look for them and see what shows up. Try looking for :
Signed-in Token (MovieFan.Plex)
Replace my username with the person you found. Once you can identify the action, you can search for that same action. Or you can send me your PMS logs and the name of that user and I can take a look.
When you are watching a video from Amazon Prime / HBO / Netflix or anywhere else the exact same thing happens, in fact you could download any movie from any provider and by having the same keys the browser uses for playback to actually decrypt them you could technically watch them offline too.
Huge companies like Google, Amazon, Apple, Netflix etcetera have implemented DRM systems to avoid long lived playbacks of course+. “Streaming” as a term is just the same as downloading a file from your Plex Servers perspective.
The only way to prevent fast repeated downloads would be by implementing advanced logic systems like timers, specifying max buffer-size, throttling logic or DRM. Any of which will introduce more load on the host system, making it less ideal in regards to the wide server host support that Plex has (Raspberry Pi’s, Nvidia Shield, +++)
It seems like OP wants Plex to be a commercial product. The only reason to get in a situation like this is if someone is in a customer role and not friend or family. This gets attention from a Plex employee, meanwhile this DNS/certificate issue is an actual bug that just get ghosted on every thread posted about it.
Settings > Users & Sharing > Find Username > Unshare library
That should do it.
This should be the end of thread. The issue is that if someone pays you to use your water hose, you don’t have any business telling them what they can do with it, unless previously agreed upon.
