Plex sunsets ‘allowed without auth’ setting.

In Winter 2023, Plex introduced an ad for clients accessing a local Plex server without logging in to Plex’s authentication servers (or Facebook, et al). It advertised the benefits of using a Plex account to enjoy a more enriched experience, though a simple press of the back button quickly dismissed it.

That ability was scrapped this week, now requiring clients to authenticate with Plex’s remote auth servers. All clients tested were known to have successful connections with a local Plex server prior to this week’s change.

Roku Ultra (2x)

Firefox on Ubuntu

Firefox on MacOS

The following tested the same, but are not confirmed to have, in the past, succesfully connected without logging in:

Chrome

Plex iOS app

Edge

Roku TV

  • tunEnglish
    25•6 months ago

    That means if there is internet outage, I cannot access my own media through Plex. Right?

    Edit: add “through Plex”

    • The Dark Lord ☑️English
      23•6 months ago

      Sounds like it. The more Plex does things like this, the closer I get to adopting Jellyfin.

      • deweydecibelEnglish
        16•6 months ago

        This was the inevitable outcome. Plex has been on the enshitification path for a while. Been telling people to save themselves some grief and just move to Jellyfin now. You’ll have to do it eventually once Plex hits another step on their path.

        • The Dark Lord ☑️English
          13•6 months ago

          I agree. But I have a list of things Plex still does better. I’m hoping I can hold on until Jellyfin can adopt these features.

          • Intro skip on AppleTV
          • TV Collections
          • Skip credits
          • Editions
          • Hide from on deck
          • Downloads
          • Home Users or some other way to easily switch users on common devices.

          I’m hoping that if Plex pulls something really stupid, we get a dev effort like the Reddexit last year that made Lemmy so much better.

          • @toeEnglish
            1•6 months ago

            what do you as an AppleTV client? I’m in a similar boat, but development around anything official (or nearest) in swiftfin et., al. Appears to have stalled out completely.

        • @dynamic_generalsOPEnglish
          5•6 months ago

          Glad you made that point. For anyone like me who’s been putting it off for ages, this was the motivation I needed. Finally installed it on Monday, immediately after noticing the change.

          Still configuring, so can’t compare.

      • voxelEnglish
        1•6 months ago

        well plex doesn’t even advertise itself as a fully self host thing anymore. it’s a way to watch locally dtored media alright, but a lot of stuff requires reaching out to the online services

    • @EvotechEnglish
      2•6 months ago

      *Through Plex