I was going through responses to this request and OMG, there are a lot :P.
My simple use case
I have a Kids account attached to my Plex account.
They can view anything on my servers rated G, TV-Y, etc.
It has their watch history including where they are in certain TV shows.
What happens when they go to the grandparent’s house? My folks now need their own Plex account (no problem), and I share everything, not just G-rated (they’re adults).
When I shared it, I didn’t turn on any content restrictions. That means they get everything including R-rated stuff.
Solution? Make another Kids account in their Plex account. That doesn’t work either. The Kids account can be created, but it doesn’t have access to my content.
This is where it gets wonky. As a user, this is extremely confusing. It took us 2 hours to figure this out, and it was a lot of going back and forth with various solutions.
Possible Solutions Today
Solutions to this problem; none of them great:
Log into Plex at their house using my account. I can create them a local profile, but they’re tied to me if they wanna do anything else like Plex streaming. If they wanted to host their own Plex Media Server, I’d have to claim it on my account.
Instead of sharing all my content with my folks, I could instead only share G-rated stuff. I can’t watch anything PG or higher when I’m over there. I also can’t do “Watch Together” with them on any more adult content.
I could log in when I’m there and remember to log out, but it’s not a 1-click process. And getting my parents to log in each time will make them not wanna use Plex at all.
Another solution is making separate libraries that are kid-friendly, but that won’t scale as they age up. It’s cumbersome to keep track of, and it’d take forever to move the files and fix all the posters, background images, and content ratings in my already-established library.
Conclusion
I’m sure the Plex folks already know, but I hope I made it clear how this looks for a customer, and how it’s pretty much a non-starter in a lot of cases.
Plex Solutions
Make it so my Kids account can show up on my parents’ Plex account.
This requires separating Profiles from Accounts in a way that multiple Accounts can share the same Profile.
Have fun with that join table and rewriting all your SQL queries. Not sure how you guys do it, but if you used a document store, you could simply add an array of accounts that can access a profile in addition to the field which says which account owns the profile (admin privs).
Allow sharing server access with other profiles attached to your account.
In my mind, this particular solution is simple enough, but your system is more complex than I know :P. This is also a not-good solution. The real solution: When I share with my parents’ account, I choose which other of their profiles have access to my content. They also have to choose which other profiles they want to be visible to my account for content sharing.
This is where the scope balloons outta proportion. I prefer the first solution as it’s much simpler, portable, and easier to test.
No, you would add the Plex Account of your parents to your Plex Home.
That way THEY log in their devices just like now with their own credentials, and they also can receive shares from other Plex servers or setup their own Plex server.
But at the same time that enables fast user switching to the managed account for your kids (or your own account), which has access to all servers the Plex Home admin owns.
“Plex Home” refers to your managed setup which involves yourself, any managed accounts of yours and accounts you’ve invited into said “Plex Home”. It’s designed to facilitate access/sharing with members of your family / household (compared to regular sharing with friends, it’s therefore also more limited → e.g. you can only have 15 members in a Plex home, incl. the admin).
Being a member of a Plex Home will e.g. allow fast user switching.
pommesmatte’s suggestion is that by adding the accounts of your parents to your Plex Home, their devices can use fast-user-switching not only for themselves but also your kids (who are already managed users of your Plex Home).
Thanks! I saw that video, but I was more confused after watching.
Is there a way to add them to my Plex Home after I’d shared my library? Last time I tried, I was only able to do it in specific instances and only when adding the account as a “friend”.
Edit: I see how to add someone once they’re already a “friend”.
And what about access permissions? I don’t have a code on my account. Do I need one in this case?
My kids won’t use my admin account. Only one knows how to use the remote, and there’s nothing in my account that looks appealing to him anyway. It might change in the future, but that’s the current state of affairs.
It’s also a pain to setup a PIN when I just wanna sit down and watch something fast.
When adding my parents to Plex (which I’ve done now), they only get access to their Plex profile right? They can choose my profile, but that won’t give them full access to my Plex account like managing my servers… Or does it?
I’m curious if there’s a difference between Plex Profile and Plex Account when sharing access like this.
How do I make a separate account for myself that’s not the admin account? My admin account has my name on it. Also, I’ve already built up a watch history and “continue watching” on it.
That doesn’t work either. The Kids account can be created, but it doesn’t have access to my content.