Hi there,
Will someone please point me towards some documentation (I know it exist, but I can’t find it) that outlines the differences between a “friends” vs. “Home User” account? I’m wanting to crate an account for my daughter who is away in college, as well as one of my really good friends, but not sure which account type to create (or why). I’m sure that my daughter would love to be able to watch (and download) my movies on her iPhone, MacBook, and Roku TV.
Cheers!
Here you go
For a managed user, you initially need to share your own (admin) account with that user. Usually you then assign each managed user (and yourself) an additional PIN to give everyone the access they need/want.
For people living outside your household/home, regular sharing should do the job just fine.
One benefit of managed users is that they directly benefit from your Plex Pass (e.g. when it comes to free use of mobile clients like Plex for Android / iPhone) – consider it like e.g. Play Store / iTunes Family Sharing. If that’s bothering you when it comes to sharing… keep the following things in mind:
)Personally… before having friends pop up in my user selection screen, I’m ok with them having to pay 5$ once to use Plex on their Android / iPhone / tablet…
I recently shared with my Mom – she’s only watching shared content on her Apple TV and isn’t even aware there’s an iPhone option
Got it. So with my daughter, who pretty much has access to all of my various passwords & accounts, it’s probably best to give her a managed account, and she’d be able to watch on her iPhone, download, etc. This would also mean that I’d have to setup a PIN (or not, if I trust her) to differentiate us, and remove her ability to admin/manage Plex. But that would also mean that I’d have to enter a PIN every time I want to watch on my AppleTV, if I recall correctly.
As far as my friend, a “regular” account would give him the ability to watch where exactly? Just via Plex web on the computer? If he had an Apple TV, Roku, iPhone, etc. then I assume that he’d need to buy something to be able to use those?
You can set your apple TV to sign in automatically.
You can still invite a regular account to your Plex Home and she will be able to use the mobile app without having to buy it. What I would do it have your daughter create her own account with her own password. (or you create a regular Plex account for her) This is because it sounds like you do not live with her at the moment. So you won’t be able to sign in to her device for her if you made her a managed user account. You can then set any other restrictions like allowing her account to sync from your server.
@BigWheel - Thanks!
That is correct, that she’s away in college (actually now at her mom’s house, because of the Coronavirus as school has gone to online classes), and doesn’t live with me very often anymore, unfortunately. I’ve created a “regular” account for her, and allowed her to “download”. I assume that she’ll be able to watch on whatever devices she wants to, or do I need to add her account to Home? Is there some mechanism that allows this, so that she doesn’t have to pay for anything?
As for for my friend that I may want to share with, who has enough money that he can buy/pay for whatever access that he may need, how do I differentiate what I’ve given him vs. my daughter?
Cheers!
most of our player apps are free but our Mobile apps are not. managed users and your shared users that you put in your Plex Home can use them for free.
Even if you are already sharing with her click the Invite Home user button and enter her account and send. and when she goes that same page in her web browser https://app.plex.tv/desktop#!/settings/users-sharing she can accept the invite to your Home.
After she accepts you will see her account listed up top under Home users ( like Marge Simpson in my screenshot) while your other friends you are sharing with but not in your Home will be listed under Friends.
Thanks for the explanation. But for me, what would be really, truly beneficial is something that spelled out the exact differences and benefits between a “regular” & “Home” account. Why & when would I want to create one vs. the other. Does that documentation exist? I think I remember seeing it, years ago.
There isn’t anything called a “Home account”. Many folks seem to call managed accounts, Home accounts as if only one type of account can be in a home. but a “Home” can have regular accounts or managed user accounts in it. The main difference is managed user accounts can only exist in a home and don’t have passwords or emails.
the difference between the two is listed in link that @tom80H provided above https://support.plex.tv/articles/203948776-managed-users/#toc-1
Hmmm, ok. For some reason, I thought I recalled that “regular” accounts had some kind of limitation in terms of the way that they could access shared content. Perhaps, I’m mistaken.
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