Dhruv Bhutani / Android Authority
TL;DR
- Plex’s new remote viewing limitation is now live, but there’s a significant bug.
- Users are being told they need a Remote Watch Pass subscription, even when they don’t.
- A restart of the server will fix the problem.
Last month, Plex upset many people by announcing significant changes to how its service functions. Previously, anyone was allowed to stream as much media as they wanted from a privately owned Plex server for free. Starting today, though, the new rules are that a Plex server owner must be a Plex Pass subscriber (or lifetime member) for remote streaming to continue to be free. If the server owner doesn’t want to buy a Plex Pass, the streaming user needs a Remote Streaming Pass, which is cheaper than a Plex Pass subscription. We cover all these changes here if this is the first you’re hearing about them.
Now that these changes are rolling out, though, some users are facing an issue. When they fire up a Plex client to stream media from a private server, they are being asked to sign up for a Remote Streaming Pass — even if that server has a Plex Pass attached to it. In fact, this just happened to me!
I have a Plex server and a lifetime Plex Pass, and one of my users reached out to say they had just seen the following alert:
C. Scott Brown / Android Authority
Thankfully, the user knew they shouldn’t need to pay anything to stream from my server. They sent me this screenshot, and I did some testing on my own, but couldn’t replicate the problem.
Then, I came across this Reddit thread, where other Plex users were finding the same issue. Thankfully, a Plex employee jumped into the conversation and said a restart of the Plex server should fix things. I restarted my server, had the user try to stream again, and the Remote Watch Pass alert was gone.
So, if you’re a Plex server owner, restart your Plex server ASAP. You don’t want any of your users to sign up for a Remote Watch Pass (or worse, Plex Pass) if they don’t need to. If you’re not a server owner, but stream from someone else’s, don’t sign up for a Remote Watch Pass. Message the server owner and make sure they have a Plex Pass and have restarted their server. If they don’t have Plex Pass, though, you’ll need to buy that Remote Watch Pass — just be doubly sure before you do so!
