Plex has confirmed that it will require a Remote Watch Pass or Plex Pass for remote streaming on its TV apps. The change is going into effect for the Roku app first, followed by all other TV apps and third-party clients in 2026.
Earlier this year, Plex increased its pricing for Plex Pass and stopped supporting all options for free remote streaming in the Plex apps, such as adding a custom server connection in the app settings. The company said at the time, “The reality is that we need more resources to continue putting forth the best personal media experience, and as a result, we will no longer offer remote playback as a free feature.” That’s also when Plex introduced the Remote Watch Pass as a less expensive way to enable remote streaming again.
Plex is now rolling out the remote watch changes to its Roku TV app. If you have Plex Pass, or the owner of the server you’re streaming from has Plex Pass, you don’t need to do anything. Otherwise, if you are streaming on a different network from the server’s home network, you need Plex Pass or Remote Watch Pass.
This is total “fuck you, got mine” energy. You’re part of the problem. As somebody else who owns a Plex pass, I’m done with their bullshit. I downloaded Plex as a way to serve my content to my devices. These morons lost their way a while ago and became a dump, and clearly it’s not getting any better.
Hopefully this latest big-brain move of theirs drives more users off their shit platform to one that’s better.
But you have a Plex pass, so I’m sure it won’t affect you when the money disappears and the company folds lol.
I mean, if you already have a lifetime pass, it’s not like you’re giving them anymore money or supporting them from here on out. Not sure how that’s “fuck you, got mine.” Who exactly is being fucked here? It would make more sense if Plex had a limited number of passes that people hoarded early on like boomers with property. In this case the financial side of things is already a done deal, and doesn’t somehow deprive others of a resource.
You’re saying you bought a pass, fuck all the people that didn’t buy a pass. Sure other people could buy a pass, but why would you want to encourage them to do that and incentivize the further enshitifcaiton of Plex?
I don’t think OP said literally any of that, so I’m confused. OP already has a lifetime Plex pass, so OP is sticking with plex, since as the server owner, a plex pass covers everyone streaming from their server.
I’m still not sure who’s being fucked in the context of what OP wrote. Either way, nothing OP is doing is financially supporting Plex, because that ship already sailed back when they bought a lifetime pass.
I’ve been using Plex form 2009-2010 and have watched it slowly enshitify. The purpose of the software was to allow people to host their own media server and making it accessible anywhere. The pass was a nice way to thank the devs and get some small perks. Now it seems like they are yet again stripping features from basic users.
The op’s stance of “I have a pass so it doesn’t affect me” is further supporting and encouraging the enshitifcaiton of what used to be a good service for anybody. Jellyfin seems to be the way to go now.
What would you like OP to do? Nothing they’re doing is helping or hurting Plex. Nor is it helping or hurting anyone else.
Plex is enshittifying. I’m not sure how much they care about the opinions of Lifetime Pass users, or particularly care whether those people continue to use the service, at least when it comes to streaming personal media libraries.
For example, Windows is thoroughly enshittified, but I’m not going to tell users of Win 10 that they need to switch away right now, or that they’re bad people for continuing to use an old product they previously paid for. Just that they should jump ship whenever they’re ready to move on from Win 10.
See, I don’t understand that at all from you. How have they lost their way exactly? Th9jga that you can turn off in settings piss9ng you off? Are you unable to stream your content with your plex pass that you already own? Can others not stream from you? Does your content Metadata not scrape properly? Explain you comment because it seems like you’re part of the problem hating them for the sake of hating them. Getting “on the train” of hate as it were.
I don’t care about my Plex pass, I care about the basic service getting shit on. The pass was never meant to give me a premium product, it was meant to support the devs and give me a few minor feature perks.
I’ve used Plex since 2009-2010. I’ve watched it change into the trash it is becoming. People should trash it and move to Jellyfin.
Again, what do you find trash? Every core feature i need works perfectly fine with plex.