Widevine CDM/Enable DRM Workaround Firefox on Linux

[iwalton3]

If you get the error message “Firefox is installing components needed to play audio or video on this page. Please try again later.” or are constantly asked to enable DRM each time you visit the Plex Web player, you can follow these steps to eliminate the issue:

1. Go to about:config in the address bar.
2. Search for widevine.
3. Ensure that media.gmp-widevinecdm.visible and media.gmp-widevinecdm.enabled are false. Double click the items to toggle them.

Please note that this will break DRM playback on your computer. (This affects most major streaming services, including Netflix, Hulu, and Amazon Prime Video.) That being said, if you had this problem, DRM was probably already broken or disabled.

Plex: This issue can be mitigated by not requesting DRM on page load, but instead requesting it later when the user actually opens a video that requires it. (Presumably for the new ad-supported movie streams that are being added.)

This issue affects the web client version 4.12.2, which is the latest as of writing this post.

[Gigi07]

Please Plex team consider mitigation plan proposed by @iwalton3… Having to refuse widevine every time Plex is opened is a real pain…

[sorvani]

This is so annoying.
Fedora 31 with Cinnamon desktop experience.

[ashneo76]

I shouldn’t have to enable DRM for content that I own all the time. DRM should be enabled only when I play DRM video

[cheeseandcereal]

Just seconding this thread.

It is incredibly annoying to have this DRM pop-up EVERY TIME I load the page since I have DRM playback disabled in my browser.

Only requesting DRM when actually navigating to a video requiring it, or at least providing a setting to be able to disable all DRM content would be greatly appreciated.