I am trying to add my friends iphone to my Plex library. It is not providing a 4 digit link code. Instead, either it wants him to create a plex account or I can login using my admin account but I don’t want to do this. In the past devices have always given me the 4 digit link code which I then accept. Why is the iphone not giving me a 4 digit link code like other device have?
@JDubbedN said:
I am trying to add my friends iphone to my Plex library. It is not providing a 4 digit link code. Instead, either it wants him to create a plex account or I can login using my admin account but I don’t want to do this. In the past devices have always given me the 4 digit link code which I then accept. Why is the iphone not giving me a 4 digit link code like other device have?
Did you share you library with him? He should of received an email with an invite to accept, if i recall no code is needed. Just send an invite to his username.
Thanks for your response. What I am trying to do is bypass having to send an email and having him create a Plex account. I’ve had other friends with streaming devices provide a 4 digit link code with no problems. However, now it is not providing a 4 digit link code. It seems that this problem only occurs on cell phones. For some reason cell phones do not provide a 4 digit link code. Only streaming devices like smart TV’s, Roku and Amazon devices. Why doesn’t a cell phone provide a 4 digit link code?
The iPhone does not support the 4 digit link code.
But even it did: you don’t want to connect his iPhone to your Plex account.
By doing so, he would influence your watched/unwatched status.
Let him create an own plex.tv account. It’s free.
Then share your server (or a part of it) with his account.
https://support.plex.tv/hc/en-us/sections/200295083-Server-Sharing
It would seem phones in general do not support the 4 digit link code (I tried on an SGS7 Android phone and same results as the iphone.) Is there a reason why phones don’t support the 4 digit link code but streaming devices like Amazon Fire TV Stick and Smart TV’s do? What about tablets? Is it some kind of security feature or lack of? And as far as influencing watched/unwatched status I believe I have that fixed by creating managed user profiles and locking them with pin codes and then texting those pin codes to the respective user so we all have our own watched/unwatched status’s.
I’ve always added friends/family via the 4 digit link code so that 1. they don’t have to create a free Plex account and 2. so that they don’t have to pay for the Plex app because if I add them as friends instead of the 4 digit link code they create a free Plex account which provides them with the limited Plex app of I think 3 minutes of playback. If we go the 4 digit link code way there is no problems with having to purchase the app.
I ended up testing the email invitation method with a new Android phone as if I was a new user. I sent the invitation email from the Plex server, accepted it, created a free Plex account and then created a pin code to access the (my) Plex library as if I was a new user. Everything worked fine minus the 3 minute player limitation but what I didn’t expect was that if I logged out of the free Plex account that I just created I was presented with all the managed user profiles that I could access. So I logged into the admin Plex user account and bam Plex app was activated and I was back to accessing my Plex account as if I had used a 4 digit link code from the very beginning. Am I missing something?
A user belonging to a Plex Home always needs to have the owner (the user holding the Plex pass) logging onto the device first. It is first then can you logon with the other members of the Plex Home. It is working as intended.
@Peter_W said:
A user belonging to a Plex Home always needs to have the owner (the user holding the Plex pass) logging onto the device first. It is first then can you logon with the other members of the Plex Home. It is working as intended.
If that is the case then there is a security bug somewhere in PMS. I had purchased an Amazon Fire Stick for my mother. She downloaded the Plex app on it and she selected “already have an account” and it provided her with a 4 digit link code. I then logged into my Plex account on plex.tv/link from a completely different network then the Amazon Fire Stick and accepted the link code. I never had to log into my account on the Amazon Fire Stick, never gave her my password and this was all done 1000 miles away from her. She just gave me the 4 digit link code and I accepted the link code. Done. She was able to see all the profiles for my PMS, she selected the managed user I created for her along with a 4 digit pin code which she typed in and BAM she was in. I’ve done this same setup with 2 smart TV’s, 1 Amazon Fire Box and 3 other Amazon Fire Sticks and they all provide a 4 digit link code and NEVER requires me to log into the device. Instead I just log onto any computer, open a browser, navigate to plex.tv/link, log into my Plex account, type the link code and that device is linked to my Plex library. No problems and very simple.
The process seems entirely different when setting it up with cell phones. When one selects “I already have an account” on a cell phone Plex asks for the username and password and DOES NOT provide a 4 digit link code like the Amazon Fire Stick does. Instead, like you said @Peter_W , I would have to login to my account first on the cell phone or go the other route to add a friend which would require the person to make a Plex account and either have the 5 minute playback limitation or they would be forced to purchase the player or use the chromecast feature which has no playback limit.
I hope I am making sense. It looks like to me that streaming devices like the Amazon Fire Stick can be setup very easily using a 4 digit link code and cell phones require a much more tedious setup. Am I understanding this correctly?
Yes, that is also my understanding of how things work.
https://support.plex.tv/hc/en-us/articles/200878643-Sign-in-to-Your-Plex-Account
Some Plex apps—usually those designed for use on your television—will let you link the app with your Plex account using a one-time code. You’ll see a 4-character alphanumeric code in the app.
@Peter_W thank you for your quick response. I wonder why the Plex devs decided that only devices that are used with a TV have the 4 digit link code but other devices like cell phones don’t. Maybe the 4 digit link code setup was only intended for local devices but I don’t see why there would be a problem with making it available for all devices, intended for LAN or WAN. If all devices supported the 4 digit link code setup my life would be less complicated.
So now that I understand this I am at a problem. I have friends and family that have devices that supported the 4 digit link code in the past when I set them up to access my plex library. Now some are wanting to link their phones. And the 4 digit link code is not an option on phones. So I have a couple options.
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Give them my username and password (last resort and really don’t want family and friends knowing my password)
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Wait until I see them next and I’ll type the username and password in myself(I have family all over the USA so this won’t work)
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or invite them as a friend by sending them an invitation, have them setup a free Plex account and then they are limited to the Plex app trial and are also on a completely different profile then what they use on the devices that supported the 4 digit link code and so there for their watched/unwatch are all unwatched.
Is there another option? Is there a way to force a 4 digit link code on cell phones? Can I sync watched/unwatched status between a managed user and a friend user? There’s got to be an easier way. :’(
I have not tried it myself, and not sure if the ‘home user’ vs ‘real account’ makes a difference, but Moviefan has a database tool that can move view state - https://forums.plex.tv/discussion/120292/moviefans-database-tool-for-plex/p1
@JDubbedN said:
Is there another option? Is there a way to force a 4 digit link code on cell phones?
Phones don’t link to the account, they login to it.
@NewPlaza said:
Phones don’t link to the account, they login to it.
Same thing. Ultimately a login-token is created and stored with both methods.
@Peter_W said:
I have not tried it myself, and not sure if the ‘home user’ vs ‘real account’ makes a difference, but Moviefan has a database tool that can move view state - https://forums.plex.tv/discussion/120292/moviefans-database-tool-for-plex/p1
Thanks @Peter_W for that. I just don’t have the time nor the patience right now to play with and learn another tool. I just don’t get why this can’t be simple. Add the 4 digit link code option for all devices. Done. It would sure make my life easier.
I still don’t see a pain free way of going about my problem. Its either provide my user name and password to friends and family for my Plex account or add them as friends with the invitation code and go that route. Thanks for everyone’s help. I am going to request to Plex to add the 4 digit link code to all devices. Maybe they’ll listen.
Seems like your making a mountain out of a mole hill.
My opinion is it is not difficult to set up remote users. And I do not offer to my remote users the ability to use it on their mobile devices (Tablets need to sign in as well) with the caveat of “unless you sign up for a free plex account and pay the developers the 5 bucks for the app on your mobile device”
Then you do not need to do anything.
@SiscoPlex said:
Seems like your making a mountain out of a mole hill.My opinion is it is not difficult to set up remote users. And I do not offer to my remote users the ability to use it on their mobile devices (Tablets need to sign in as well) with the caveat of “unless you sign up for a free plex account and pay the developers the 5 bucks for the app on your mobile device”
Then you do not need to do anything.
Interesting. That is another way to do it. I just didn’t see the need for my family to pay $5 for each device when I already paid $130. Still it’s another way of approaching half the problem but won’t solve the problem of a seemless way of transferring watched/unwatched status when family used the 4 digit link code that created a profile with supported devices for months and then has to create a friend’s account for their mobile devices. I still strongly believe it would be a much easier setup if all devices supported the 4 digit link code. However, now I feel it is an attempt by the devs to make more money from users paying $5 a device for the player. If that’s the case the devs won’t be supporting the 4 digit link code to all devices any time soon. Devs feel free to chime in and correct me.
@JDubbedN said:
$130. Still it’s another way of approaching half the problem but won’t solve the problem of a seemless way of transferring watched/unwatched status when family used the 4 digit link code that created a profile with supported devices for months and then has to create a friend’s account for their mobile devices.
I get what you are saying here, I guess Iv’e been around here too long(even as a stalker prior to signing up) I created users from old friend profiles when this feature first came out that way I sent them a home invite which transferred.
I created friends profiles for my kids originally because that worked to restrict libraries where I then just had multiple ie: Movies, Kids Movies, Toddler Movies and then only shared those sections. (I have since evolved)
@JDubbedN said:
I still strongly believe it would be a much easier setup if all devices supported the 4 digit link code. However, now I feel it is an attempt by the devs to make more money from users paying $5 a device for the player. If that’s the case the devs won’t be supporting the 4 digit link code to all devices any time soon. Devs feel free to chime in and correct me.
Maybe yes, Maybe no. Smart business plan… Yes! Hmmmm.
That said, I paid for a Plex pass when I first found Plex. I happily paid for all of my apps along with it even though I did not have to. I then Deleted my account by mistake which removed my Plex pass of which I then purchased another.
Call me a Plex Head, fan boy, whatever all sounds good to me. I truly love this software! (Yes, it can be improved, But so can I)
