I’ve looked through some other threads asking about this, but I don’t have a clear understanding of why this restriction is in place. I’ve only ever shared out my libraries to family & friends, but another friend shared theirs to me over the weekend. I spent (probably) an unreasonable amount of time trying to add it to a managed user account, which is what I use for all the TVs, streamers, tablets, etc. in my household. I don’t use my primary account specifically so I can lock out certain libraries (e.g. adult content).
I had (at least) an hour-long conversation with a friend this weekend about various Plex topics and we both decided to share some libraries w/ each other. But now it seems I can’t access them unless I use my primary account, which I treat as an administrative account for my use only. Not my wife, kids, mother-in-law, visiting family, or anyone else hanging out at my house who happens to turn on one of our TVs. I don’t understand why, if a managed user is created under my account and can’t otherwise log in independently, it can’t access libraries shared to me. I’m not talking about users who may have been invited into a Plex Home, I’m talking about accounts explicitly created as managed users.
Yeah, that was one of the threads I read through. But the point still stands that this isn’t some random person, it’s a managed user that’s created under my account. It’s a user who can not independently log in. It’s a user who is essentially a branch off of my user account, who my friend shared to.
If the issue is that it may be concerning to see in the Dashboard (or Plex Dash app), then that’s easily mitigated with a presentation adjustment by including the original account’s name as part of the display. So that if an admin account named “John Doe” has a managed user named “Jane Doe”, the Dashboard can list the user as “Jane Doe (Managed User of John Doe)” and it will be crystal clear that it’s not being re-shared out to someone random.
I don’t understand that argument. You claim the world has infinite resources and in the same paragraph complain about Tom needing Google or Amazon scalability.
Okay, so what if Belly has 14 managed users? What’s the difference if Tom just logged into 14 different devices? Tom (who I assume is an adult and was not forcibly bound to share his server) made a conscious decision to share content with Belly. This is not permanent. If Tom sees more viewership than he anticipated, he can work it out with Belly. Or, simply stop sharing. And so what if Anna also has 14 more users. Again, if Tom is sharing it to Anna, he knows Anna. Plex’s TOS doesn’t allow commercial usage so there would need to be a personal connection between Tom & Belly, or Tom & Anna. They can talk to each other and work it out themselves if things get overwhelming.
The point is that a managed user is conceptually no different than the original user you shared to. Every managed user has to use my username and password anyway, so if I log into 14 devices, or have 14 managed users, it’s the same amount of resources needed. It’s not some stranger using the account, it’s me. The difference is that a managed user allows control over what libraries are visible, which Plex does not have a good solution for if using the same account. And again, if it’s more than Tom’s server can manage, just disable it.
IMO, the relationship should be between the servers and ONLY the managed accounts that belong to each server and only 1 to 1. Tom and Belly only, Belly cannot reshare Tom’s content outside of the server, only make it permissible, like LIVE TV, to per managed users only. Anna needs to communicate with Tom directly to receive Toms content.
