Each of my family members has their own Xbox One account. I have purchased Plex Pass so that I can take advantage of the content restrictions for managed home users. However, whenever a different user logs in on the Xbox, this appears to clear the credentials stored with the local profile, meaning that each user actually needs the main account credentials if someone else has logged into their profile - obviously I don’t want to share those details with the kids.
So, how can I take advantage of managed home users on the Xbox without having to share the primary account information with each user?
you can make a regular free Plex account(s) for your kid(s) and share with it. you can set the same content restrictions on a regular Plex account ( you can also put those accounts in the Plex Home so they can use the mobile apps and user switching works within the app )
Xbox forces a 1:1 mapping of live account to plex account is why it happens
If my kids are younger than 13, they cannot register and accept your terms and conditions . So, either I need to lie about their age when creating their account or I cannot legitimately use the main feature that prompted me to purchase a Plex Pass account. What would you recommend?
You can make an account with a secondary email of yours and then you can allow them to use it. Not really any different from what you are doing now. Gmail if you use it has a cool feature. let’s say your email is Nightman@gmail.com you can make a Plex account for your kids with the email nightman+kids@gmail.com and emails for that Plex account will actually be sent to nightman@gmail.com
Thanks for the feedback. I think that you’ve missed the point, though - the question is not around the email address (my kids already have them, and I already have access to their email as their parent if I need it). The issue is that I would have to lie about their age to register their accounts with Plex. It seems, though, that I have no choice in the matter since you don’t support managed user accounts on the Xbox. Is this the only route I can take or is there an alternative?
it is when you change the xbox live account that causes the log out because xbox requires only one Plex account per Xbox live account. There is nothing we can do about that. we would if we could but it is a requirement of Microsoft that only an Xbox live account can only link with one Plex account. ( managed users are not real Plex accounts) So when you switch to a different Xbox account Microsoft requires that we log you out of the app which results in the managed user accounts getting logged out as well.
If you do not log out of your xbox live account on the xbox you should be able switch managed users in Plex without issues.
That’s interesting, since my Netflix app uses the same login for all users and doesn’t force a one-to-one match. So either there is an inconsistency in the policy, or your dev’s are missing a trick.
Now, if you have managed users you could subscribe to the “on profile changed” system event to force the user to select his managed user account in app (and enter a pin).
Can I assume that the mobile functionality for my kids on my local network will be the full plex pass experience because I am a lifetime member? Remember, these are now completely separate accounts (because of the software limitation), but I would assume that this will not pose any restrictions (or if it does, you will be able to provide them full access as needed.
That’s interesting, since my Netflix app uses the same login for all users and doesn’t force a one-to-one match. So either there is an inconsistency in the policy, or your dev’s are missing a trick.
Now, if you have managed users you could subscribe to the “on profile changed” system event to force the user to select his managed user account in app (and enter a pin).
Can I assume that the mobile functionality for my kids on my local network will be the full plex pass experience because I am a lifetime member? Remember, these are now completely separate accounts (because of the software limitation), but I would assume that this will not pose any restrictions (or if it does, you will be able to provide them full access as needed.
I have to agree here, either Plex Dev are missing something, or Microsoft are. Or there’s an arcane condition attached that is forcing a different behaviour than other streaming services clients are required to fulfil - in which case I’d be curious to know the exact condition Plex is faced with.
The question really does become, if others are able to store/share an account login at a top-level, why can’t Plex? If the answer is “we’re doing things differently” then I feel obliged to ask? How so, and have you weighed up whether the ‘difference’ is worth it? If the answer is “because” then that’s pretty disappointing.
We’re mostly good at home now, remembering to switch XB profiles to the one with Plex, but every now and then someone gets absent minded and signs in with a different profile. Then later someone else returns to the ‘regular’ Plex profile and has to sign in again, which is almost always inconvenient.
we get the issue. we did not sit around going “hmm… lets make the xbox app different from all the others and annoy those users just for giggles” .
Netflix was mentioned. Netflix is a huge company with lots of influence and get special privileges on many devices because just having them on devices sells them. That’s why for example they can use Siri in ways smaller third party apps can’t on the Apple TV 4. ( I obviously have no insider knowledge/facts about what deals were made between Netflix/Apple or Netflix/MSFT just an example)
So it really is MS being a massive **** pain about it then. If that’s the answer, I can understand (it also gels with many of their other **** painful decisions of late).
(I’m fairly certain in parts of MS HQ they do sit around thinking up ways to annoy us :D)
If/when the UWA hits - is there any chance the restriction would no longer factor? (probably too soon to ask, but thought I would anyway - in the meantime, must remember to play with the multiple accounts…).
[ed: thought that one would slip through, easily less offensive than what I first typed but I’ll stick with “pain” instead ;)]
It would be extremely unusual for MS to provide dispensation for special permissions at an OS level. Having worked with Microsoft on and off across multiple enterprise and consumer level projects for the last 15 years, their general policy is that they are not prepared to make any changes to allow for non-standard behaviour, and the cost of such OS modifications long term are significant enough to make it preventative.
However, I am not going to belabour the point here - you guys have said it is not supported so let’s just leave it at that for now.
@jungwirth said:
We’re mostly good at home now, remembering to switch XB profiles to the one with Plex, but every now and then someone gets absent minded and signs in with a different profile. Then later someone else returns to the ‘regular’ Plex profile and has to sign in again, which is almost always inconvenient.
This was why I changed from my wife’s account from a managed user account to a free plex account added to the plex home. Not only does it not matter if she or I are logged in, but we both have full access to the server and can switch amount the managed users that are also a part of the home.
So I have my wife and son on my Xbox One. They both have their own accounts setup on the Xbox. They both have Plex Pass accounts. Each Xbox account was been tied to their Plex accounts until recently. I could switch between Xbox profiles and it would switch Plex profiles. Now If I sign in with mine or my wife with her’s and switch Xbox profiles whatever account is signed in stays signed in. Something changed…
So just so I’m clear here, I’m finding I have to re-enter pins and re-link frequently. This is because I’m using home users and when I log a Xbox user out, and login with another Xbox user, Plex cached credentials are wiped to current user? And this is a MS limitation? Thanks.
@donmuraco said:
So just so I’m clear here, I’m finding I have to re-enter pins and re-link frequently. This is because I’m using home users and when I log a Xbox user out, and login with another Xbox user, Plex cached credentials are wiped to current user? And this is a MS limitation? Thanks.
Yes, you have to re-link frequently because every time you link your Plex account to a new Xbox Live account the old link is broken. Microsoft will only allow Plex to link 1 Plex account to 1 Xbox Live Account, so the alternative is to create a free Plex Account, Invite that account to your Plex Home, and then link that new account to your secondary Xbox Live Account. This prevents the links from being broken as each account still maintains a 1 to 1 link but still gives normal access to the server.
Yes, you have to re-link frequently because every time you link your Plex account to a new Xbox Live account the old link is broken. Microsoft will only allow Plex to link 1 Plex account to 1 Xbox Live Account, so the alternative is to create a free Plex Account, Invite that account to your Plex Home, and then link that new account to your secondary Xbox Live Account. This prevents the links from being broken as each account still maintains a 1 to 1 link but still gives normal access to the server.
I actually have just set this scenario up again recently, however it is not quite working as I would like, or as it used to. The secondary xbox account (which is linked to a free plex account) used to be able to log into the primary plex account. This would allow both xbox accounts to login to the primary plex account at the same time.
However now it will only allow the secondary xbox account to log into the free plex account. It has all of the same libraries and files for sure, but it doesn’t keep track of the watched status. Essentially we just want both xboxes to have access to the same database, at the same time, with the same watch status. To be clear this worked fine recently until I had to setup my server again.
Any idea what I need to do get this working again?
EDIT: Nevermind, a hard reset of the xbox seems to have resolved this issue.
Yes, you have to re-link frequently because every time you link your Plex account to a new Xbox Live account the old link is broken. Microsoft will only allow Plex to link 1 Plex account to 1 Xbox Live Account, so the alternative is to create a free Plex Account, Invite that account to your Plex Home, and then link that new account to your secondary Xbox Live Account. This prevents the links from being broken as each account still maintains a 1 to 1 link but still gives normal access to the server.
EDIT: Nevermind, a hard reset of the xbox seems to have resolved this issue.
I have been surprised by the number of different things that are fixed by a hard reset on the Xbox
