Can someone explain to me why I would want to create a 4 digit PIN for my Plex account? I live alone so nobody has access to my computer but myself.
I assume it’s to keep your account/server safe but in order to log into my Plex account/server, etc…you have to enter your E-Mail or username and password to log into the server. So I’m not understanding why a PIN would be needed as well. This is in regards to the LOCK icon next to your account name.
I tested it out, the PIN was only required when I opened up Plex on my iPhone or iPad, but not required when opening Plex up on my computer, so that kinda confused me as to why I wasn’t having to enter it on my PC but I was on my devices. I also see that on the devices, you can enable automatic login so whenever you open the app it won’t require you to enter the PIN.
But again, I’m a tad confused on why I would want to enable a PIN, if someone could explain it better for me, I’d appreciate it.
If you have other users in your Plex home (Plex Pass feature I suppose), than that PIN would hinder other people from logging into your account. I use it to prohibit my kids from logging into my account.
PIN is used when you have multiple users in your Plex “home”. The way the home works, is that every user added as home user will have access to each of the other accounts too. So lets say I have a partner and kids. And I wanted to restrict admin access and limit kids to not seeing horror for example, I would just remove access to that part of the library.
Now, without the pin, since every login has access to other home users, the only way to protect the admin account (or the other adult account) is to have a pin on them.
I can see why this was designed the way it is, but I still disagree with the design choice. Why the pin is present in non-pass accounts is also something I would rethink. But that’s just my personal opinion.
Yea I get it now, it also would keep people from messing with your server, deleting stuff or changing settings as well. I figured out I needed to close out the media server completely and then logging back into it to make the computer side of Plex ask for the PIN. I kinda like the idea behind it but I wish “top shelf” would be able to still work with the apps but since it requires auto login to be ON, then I lose my top shelf.
But I guess I don’t really need it on in my case since I live alone.
