Today we’re releasing a new feature that will allow you to keep your watch state and ratings in sync across the entire Plex platform. This is a new, optional, account setting that synchronizes your data across all Plex Media Servers you have access to, our free Movies & Shows streaming service, and our Discover feature.
If you have access to a supported Plex Media Server, then the next time you launch one of the player apps listed below, you’ll see a prompt that allows you to enable syncing for your account. Once enabled, any time you view a Movie or Show on Plex, your watch state and ratings will be consistent, regardless of where you view it.
Please see our support article for more details on the feature and the specific data that gets synced to make this work.
Note: Plex for iOS 8.6 will begin rolling out today using Apple’s automatic update process. If you don’t see it yet, visit the Plex listing in the App Store to download the update sooner.
Interesting feature. Firstly, THANK YOU for allowing us to opt in or out of this feature, plex does seem to be listening on this front after the madness that was the forced roll out of discovery. So, a massive THANKS.
I’ve read the support article and have one follow on question. If I select to opt out is there any implications for how watched status is stored locally to my server in the table metadata_item_settings and the view history in metadata_item_views. I suspect no but wanted to ask.
The support article notes that you should consider refreshing metadata across your libraries before enabling. But on PlexWeb there’s a splash screen that appears, offering to immediately enable the feature for you.
How important is the metadata refresh? And if you turn on sync, and there’s a metadata issue preventing it from working properly, is it complicated to fix, or can you just refresh at that point and Plex will figure it out?
I don’t think it is too important. if you are a person who keeps your library up to date then it should not matter. That was a last minute addition to support doc. Our metadata team was concerned that when they fix an item sometimes the guid might change on our DB vs your servers but that could happen at any time really. and yeah a regular refresh sooner or later should work it out eventually.
The recommendation is because it only works for items which have been matched with the new metadata agents. If you have a library which hasn’t been refreshed after the agent change, the sync will miss a big part of your items.
Great, thanks @BigWheel and @OttoKerner. I have one legacy TV library I need to resolve, then I can enable this.
BTW, I see this doesn’t support Managed Users yet, but the article doesn’t seem to mention Home users without a separate account. I’m guessing those do sync?
Some of this can get confusing, so just to confirm: Managed users (aka home users without a plex account) will not sync. Regular home users (those who have their own plex account) will sync, but IIRC they do not get Plex Pass features unless they have an independent Plex Pass subscription for their account. Is that correct?
If you have a Plex Pass and they are in your Plex Home, they will get to use things like downloads and Skip intro from your server. but they will not get Plex Pass features for their own server if they have one.
If you’ve opted in, but decide to opt out later, is there a method to delete the data? Or is the only way to have that data removed from Plex’s servers to delete your entire account?
We do not sync music. Nice catch.