Plex is locking remote streaming behind a subscription in April

Just gonna... Drop this here...
- In my experience Jellyfin doesn't find or handle subtitles nearly as well, and I can't watch modern movies without subtitles.
  
  I have never had an issue with subtitles on Jellyfin, and my wife has turned our household into an always-on subtitles household. Are you making use of the Open Subtitles plugin?

Yet again, FOSS showing why it's always the way to go vs proprietary tech. So glad I started my self-hosting journey with Jellyfin!
- I’m starting mine this weekend, what timing!
  
  Right on!

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.
What "resources" do you need, exactly, to allow my friends to stream from my server?
- for real though, such a dumb decision on plex's part lol
- Developers to keep things up to date and secure. Which I wouldn't mind paying for, but instead they spend it all on making Plex a social media that emails your friends a list of shows you watch? I can tell you right now that other than "watch together" no one is using the Plex social features on purpose
  
  Pretty sure they’re also sunsetting watch together lol
- As long as you have Plex pass it's all good and nothing changes. That said, this was exactly my reaction. Plex expends exactly zero fucking resources for my server, so wtf is this shit supposed to mean?
  
  I'm pretty sure that's corporate speak for "we need to drive plex pass subscriptions more so we need to lock more feature behind it."
- Paying devs
  
  What does that have to do with my friends streaming from my server?

They would charge you to watch your own DVDs if they could
- .... A fee for adding content to each media, capped libraries? What is next?
  Let's brainstorm guys ;D
  
  nice try Plex

Fuck around with proprietary software and find out.

Lol, OK Plex, cya.
They're honestly lucky I was willing to pay the $2.99 or whatever it was to be able to access MY server, using MY internet and cell data, to access MY media files from MY phone. Plenty fair a price for a nice app, might've paid a few bucks more but they can screw off trying to charge a monthly fee for... nothing in particular in my usage case.
Literally just set up Jellyfin w/ Tailscale which took all of 10 minutes and works just as well. GG no re 🖕

I really don't see how anyone in their hierarchy thought this was a good idea.
There are at least 3 other competitors that moreorless work better than plex already does, without even having a subscription.
I'm amazed they decided to go this route, especially when migrating is as simple as uninstall plex, install competitor of choice(like jellyfin), and then just specify media locations.
the only real annoying part is remaking user accounts and losing watch progress/history, but there is usually a migration tool for that
- The key difference is client app support for various platforms. Jellyfin is far behind Plex on that front, and I say this as a user and advocate for Jellyfin. That’s a huge hurdle for migrating even just family and friends users.
  
  I haven't actually experienced this. I use my JF server on my roku, my Samsung tv (ok that was a pain because you have to side load it which requires a PC for TizenOs), all my families systems, and my tablet. The only systems I've found that seem to lack support of a jellyfin app is my ps5 and my xbox. It's either been on native or been able to be side loaded on every smart tv I've used, and every mobile device has had an app in the app store allowing me to use it. I don't understand the people saying there are no clients for it.

Was a little worried from the headline that it was being moved to another subscription tier.
I've owned a Plex Pass Lifetime subscription since it's basically been available. I've honestly forgotten Remote Streaming was a free service at this point.

Still don’t get why people use Plex over Jellyfin
- In my own house, or just myself. Jellyfin is fine. I haven't spent as much time on it though compared to Plex.
  Plex has its own user auth, I don't need to manage that. My friends and family don't have to hit me up for password resets.
  It has apps on pretty much every device.
  Users can just log in. They don't need to know what server to type in.
  
  Yer it's clear people who go on about not understanding either have small circles of users, or don't actually support people...
  You aren't getting Pop and Nan to understand how to troubleshoot or setup Jellyfin access on their old TV compared to just throwing in a Chromecast or fire stick and having Plex auto logon with an account you setup for them if the couldn't. Makes life a ton easier, even at the cost of other liberties.
  They just want to watch Zulu or Are you being Served again, nothing more.
  
  Just gonna drop this link here for anyone who's interested in a 3rd party Jellyfin user management application. This fixes the issues related to inviting users and allowing them to reset their own passwords. Would obviously prefer all of this built into jellyfin, but solutions do exist for those determined enough.
  
  TIL that jellyfin doesn't support an actual password reset. I've never had to actually try. That's somewhat disappointing.
- I am a lifetime Plex Pass User... I am not affected by their BS... Yet (watch together is going though).
  
  you are, though. your personal information (like usage data) is going through them
- It's a lot easier to setup and get non-techy family to join. Setting up Jellyfin is easy until you want access outside your LAN. Setting up TLS or a VPN is a hassle I don't want unless there is no other option. Plex has features I (and my family) use that jellyfin doesn't support by default yet. Last I checked syncing of files for offline viewing in the official app wasn't very good yet. Plex has a bunch of ad supported live streams baked in that aren't too bad. There is a "How It's Made" channel, a Mythbusters channel, and Top Gear channel. PlexAmp isn't perfect, but it's better than any of the Jellyfin options I've seen.
- Inertia, mostly.
  Of course Plex then takes advantage of that with the slow erosion of the free edition.
- I paid Plex Pass Lifetime for peanuts (maybe $50 or $75) a decade ago, not using it would mean wasting that so yeah..
- Because some of us bought the lifetime Plex Pass for cheap many years ago and it's what our family is used to. Plex also passes the "wife test", and my kids use Plexamp on their phones for music.
  Not gonna stop me from ditching Plex in the not-too-distant future though, once I figure out Jellyfin and another local music streaming app that doesn't have an interface stuck in 1997.
- Because comparitively, jellyfin sucks.
  Once they reach some semblance of feature parity, then you can in good faith ask this question.
  
  Jellyfin does everything it needs to. Movies, tv, metadata, music. What else?
- because it’s actually usable?
  
  I didn’t realize my setup wasn’t usable. What does plex offer that makes the usability so much better? I considered plex for my newish setup but if anything, all the privacy controversies and charging for features was more unusable to me than anything I’ve noticed with Jellyfin
  
  bad take, jellyfin is great.
- For me?
  Remote Play (I've never been able to get it to consistently work on every device with Jellyfin)
  PlexAmp is awesome
  LiveTV
  IPTV
  Way better clients
  Numerous small little issues.
  
  There's FinAmp for jellyfin. There's also support for LiveTV and I wouldn't be surprised if there was at least a plugin for IPTV.
- I will make the switch once they revoke my lifetime pass, but in the meantime I'm really hoping that Jellyfin gets a face lift. I've tested Jellyfin a good bit and it mostly has feature parity for everything I care about, but it's UI is objectively uglier than Plex's
- It syncs all movie covers and metadata automatically. When I used jellyfin last, this was a struggle.
  
  It's only an issue if the files aren't properly named. If you're using *arr this won't be an issue. E.g. "Title (Year) - TMBD/TVDB ID" works flawlessly.
  
  Definitely not an issue anymore

This is why we stremio

It's pleasantly surprising that they aren't deep sixing the lifetime pass.
Yet.
- Yeah this is definitely coming at some point. What are we gonna do? Stop paying?

Glad I moved to JellyFin years ago.

I'm probably gonna set up Jellyfin this weekend. Any tips for a first timer?
- Take it slow.
  Don't ditch Plex just yet but slowly transition the move.
  Test it with your usual browser. If playback doesnt work, test with another browser or the phone app.
- If setting up official docker container looks hard, check out linuxserver.io's docker container for Jellyfin. Even HWA is very easy.
  
  You can't even fucking bring yourself to write hardware acceleration for the newbie asking for help?
  🤡
- Set up docker. I ran an installation on Linux and on Windows for a few years but having it running from docker using external drives for library is a game changer. Always up to date. User files and settings Safed on a seperate folder so you can transfer it to a different os any time. Fantastic.
  
  This, also a recurring thing I keep hearing from people moving from Plex to Jellyfin is that not all media get recognised correctly.
  Which is probably because Jellyfin is less forgiving on file structure, file names. So check their site first for what Jellyfin needs: https://jellyfin.org/docs/general/server/media/shows
  It's not unreasonable requirements just seems somehow Plex didn't care about structure as much.
- I set up tail scale with mine so I can easily access it anywhere.

This headline is misleading. If the owner of the server has Plex pass than the users can use remote streaming as normal. If the owner does not have Plex pass, then the users need Plex pass to use that server remotely
Imo a stupid move by Plex, but as a lifetime Plex pass holder, no one that uses mine will have to worry so I'm relatively unbothered.
- Dito. Every discussion I've seen, people were acting like Plex is already dead. This will basically change nothing for most people
  
  And free local network management is still a fair deal... Pay for extra features makes sense for this kind of service? The software needs maintenance and new hardware is always being released so new bugs. Better methods of netow and transcoding etc, this kind of software isn't a drop and run, it still needs work after release. So I get the need to form some kind of long term sustainability, we all saw it coming.

Thus to all proprietary software!

I deleted Plex from my barely functional home server.
I'll give Jellyfin a try. I just want to be able to access my music away from home
- Use Finamp for offline Music from Jellyfin
  
  I prefer Symfonium
  
  Correction. Use the finamp beta version, unless that recently made it out of beta.

I've never paid even 1 cent to watch something online. Never paid for porn either.
I'm not about to start

I thought it was pretty commonplace for people to just set up a vpn on their router and act like they're on their own network. I guess I'm an idiot, but I'm actually surprised people were paying for this in the first place.

I want to switch to jellyfin, I selfhost but I don't want to open a port directly to my server. I don't understand how everyone else figures this out and I'm apparently an idiot.
Also do people expect all who use my server to start a VPN each time? What if they leave it on and their other streaming services are using my bandwidth.
I don't understand and I have looked it up but I don't see a consensus.
- I just use Tailscale when remote streaming.
  From their docs:
  By default, Tailscale acts as an overlay network: it only routes traffic between devices running Tailscale, but doesn't touch your public internet traffic, such as when you visit Google or Twitter. The overlay network configuration is ideal for most people who need secure communication between sensitive devices (such as company servers or home computers), but don't need extra layers of encryption or latency for their public internet connection.
- Opening a port isn't really bad if you have your firewall configured properly. You will have to open a port either way with jellyfin or wireguard. If you have a TLS/SSL certificate then just doing jellyfin is fine (but have good passwords since it's public facing), otherwise a VPN like wireguard will handle encryption for you.
  As for managing traffic on the VPN you can follow this advice: https://serverfault.com/questions/1075973/wireguard-how-to-only-tunnel-some-of-the-traffic
  Basically setup your firewall to stop extra traffic on your end, and change accessible IPs in wireguard to your service(s) so the peer knows not to talk on that interface for unrelated things.
  
  It isn't bad until an exploit is discovered on jellyfin. Then it can get really bad.
  
  you can do a thing called UDP hole punching for NAT traversal, buuuuuut afaik these days a lot of consumer routers consider it a security risk and attempt to block it

I'm actually using Jellyfin but I hate the fact that there's no easy way to install a client on Samsung TVs (Tizen OS) :(
- Yeah fuck Samsung
- Soon(tm) it'll be on the store. Having to build and push to tizen is the absolute worst part of jellyfin (if you have to) otherwise there's clients for every platform - even LG's webOS.
  There's also finamp for music specific playback, so jellyfin can pretty much do everything
- There is a alpha client and instructions available here: https://smartdigihere.com/jellyfin-on-samsung-smart-tv/
  However as stated further down the article, it's easier to just use a web browser and access your jellyfin server that way. Login, bookmark the URL (don't forget to include the port) and then hit full screen.
  Note: You may need to tweak (server side) your transcoding and subtitle settings.
- You could try emby? Seems to have a Samsung tv app according to their docs https://emby.media/emby-for-samsung-smart-tv.html
- Is there an easy way on any smart tv? I've got a Sony, it's been a pain for some things but I haven't tried jellyfin or emby on it yet.
  
  Sony is AndroidTV, so just install Plex from Playstore? Or Jellyfin if you meant that

I bought a lifetime pass a decade ago. This doesn't affect me, right? Not that it makes me want to stay.
- No it doesn’t change anything for lifetime pass.
  Maybe it will in a few years, but not today.
  
  It will change. They know they're gonna have to figure something out about those of us who aren't paying monthly.
- if it's anything like our guaranteed 'price for life' internet from the phone company here--it lasts as long as they want it to.
  (which, for our internet, was less than two years)

I was about to get a Plex Pass, but I saw this news today.
- If you were going to get the lifetime pass before the price increase then I'd say to still go for it. Personal opinion
  My brother doesn't have Plex pass but I do, so he will still be able to watch stuff from my library for free.
  
  Might have to pull the trigger. I’m really enjoying plex. I’ve used Jellyfin in the past, but it’s not as polished as Plex. However, the plug-and-play remote access feature on Plex is a big plus. I’ll still use Jellyfin alongside Plex.

Charging for remote access is dumb as they are not being the one hosting the contents nor relaying them (if you have it properly set up).
If they want to charge for it they should have inbuilt tunnels to solve CGNAT (like their relay but not stupidly capped).

So I've currently got a yearly Plex Pass, because I didn't want to get locked into Plex or feel any pressure to stay if they went down the dunny, but have been putting off migrating to JellyFin. For anybody who has, how did you find the process?
My media isn't named the most sensibly. I just keep whatever name it came with for the most part. I also liked how Plex just handled the authentication and remote streaming for me - at no stage did I have to open up a port on my router, setup a reverse proxy, etc. Can I migrate my watch history?
I'm fairly new to this. Any migration advice or thoughts would be appreciated!
E: only me, though I stream things externally while out of the house fairly regularly. I'm tech literate enough to follow a readme and read docs, but that's about it. I don't need to worry about other, less tech savvy, users streaming my library
- I switched to jellyfish last year. Though I didn't try to get watch history over. Jellyfin should handle your file structure very similarly to Plex, so if what you have now works, it should work on jellyfin.
  If it's only you and you're only using phones and laptops outside, then you can just skip reverse proxy and all that and just VPN into your system. Wireguard, tailscale, or zerotier are good options with simple easy setups.
  I think you should just give jellyfin a try. You can run it at the same time as Plex, so you can just play around with it and see how you like it.
  
  Thanks rusty for the helpful answer! I'm going to have a look at downloading it and setting it up later tonight. I've heard a lot of good things about tailscale, so I might look for some newbie tailscale guides. When it comes to that kinda stuff, my biggest worry is that I might miss a step or not set it up right and then I've ended up exposing everything to the unfiltered internet and then my PC ends up in a botnet

Plex has been on a downward spiral for awhile now. This will really kill the service for a lot of people, wonder if Plex sharing will be a thing of the past and people switch to jellyfin sharing
- I think most people that host a server already had the lifetime license so this won't affect them

That is so sad. I was just reconfigured my hone server with plex last weekend. Seems like it's time to switch to jellyfin now. Luckily didn't finish the configuration.
- If you have Plex pass (honestly, get the lifetime, it's worth it, jellyfin is pretty shit compared to Plex) it will not effect users of your server.
  
  How exactly is it "pretty shit"? Running Jellyfin on my network with zero issues whatsoever.
  
  I had Plex lifetime and still switched to Jellyfin as an open source and community driven project will always be better in the future compared to a commercial product

I was planning to switch to Jellyfin but having to sideload the app in my Samsung TV is a headache for me. But guess I will be doing exactly that now.
- If you really don't want to deal with sideloading, Jellyfin can be accessed through an add on in Kodi (assuming Kodi is easily installable on the TV)
  
  Jellyfin vue and access it from a browser.

does this mean the server will need Plex pass or each user individually?
Edit:
IMPORTANT NOTE FOR CURRENT PLEX PASS HOLDERS: For users who have an active Plex Pass subscription, remote playback will continue to be available to you without interruption from any Plex Media Server, after these changes go into effect. When running your own Plex Media Server as a subscriber, other users to whom you have granted access can also stream from the server (whether local or remote), without ANY additional charge—not even a mobile activation fee. More on that later in this update.
- I found this elsewhere and it seems to clear up the issue, for me at least:
  The new “Remote Watch Pass” is primarily for users who stream from servers owned by individuals without a Plex Pass. For example, if your friend runs a Plex server but doesn’t subscribe to Plex Pass, their remote users will need a Remote Watch Pass to continue streaming after the changes take effect. Because you have a Plex Pass, your remote users will continue to be able to stream from your server remotely without needing to purchase the remote access pass.
  
  And just found this from the FAQ on the announcement page:
  I do not have a Plex Pass, but stream remotely from a Plex Media Server:
  To stream remotely starting on April 29, 2025, you will need a Remote Watch Pass or Plex Pass subscription on your account or the admin of the Plex Media Server from which you stream will need a Plex Pass subscription on their account.
- I guess the whole idea of this move is to force self-hosters to pay for a Plex pass. But it's a funny demographic to try to strongarm into a subscription. Most tech savvy self-hosters won't think twice about spinning up a Jellyfin instance instead, especially given that it's FOSS. And for those folks with a lifetime Plex pass this makes no difference.,
  
  Yeah but anyone who is seriously using Plex already paid for one so I don't get the outrage
  
  Self hosters do it to absorb the burden and avoid playing subscriptions. I don't pay for Netflix because I don't want to have the monthly fee (among other things), I host Plex myself and deal with all the server and library maintenance. If I have to pay a subscription to self host it's a step backwards lol.
  I bought the lifetime back in 2013 so I have no complaints, but the month to month is a rip off.

Does anyone have any helpful guides on setting up jellyfin with a certificate so they can privately host it while also keeping it secure and up to date? I think if using docker it would make sense to use compose and configure traeffic proxy and use let's encrypt for certificates.
Plex takes care of this for you with their cert and authentication systems. I feel like if user management and secure authentication is easy to set up then that is the primary reason to leave Plex. If I can just hand out accounts to anyone whom I would like to access my instance with ease then my family members could easily access it.
If one was to host from the home, using something like tailscale to host it online with forwarding a port would also be ideal.
- Look into a thing called Caddy. It can do a few things but it makes certificates super easy. You will likely need to buy a domain tho. They can be cheap if you don't care what its called.
  
  Cool. I was just looking to see if someone had a guide because I'm trying to understand the pitfalls of doing it this way and I'm curious if anyone else has opened up Jellyfin to the world.
- Does anyone have any helpful guides on setting up jellyfin with a certificate so they can privately host it while also keeping it secure and up to date?
  You can expose jellyfin via a reverse_proxy like caddy2, godoxy, ssl-proxy, or you can use something like lego to directly manage your certificates without the proxy. Lego is great because it works with dozens of dns providers, even cloudflare.

The “Remote playback with a Remote Watch Pass subscription” just sounds like IPTV with extra steps. I’m kind of ok with them requiring Plex Pass for remote streaming for the server owner, but then I have lifetime so it doesn’t affect me. Might feel differently I was having to pay.
- It also means they will now have official payment info to tie everyones identity to their Plex server. So if the cops come-a-knocking they'll be fully able to comply with information requests.
  
  I mean, that's always kinda been the case. Plex uses their own infrastructure to do remote streaming, and that requires that they know your IP address, and therefore your ISP. I don't think this really changes much in regard to cops. If that's your concern, definitely don't use Plex.

From what the site says it's just putting more stuff behind a paywall due to rising costs. That paywall is a subscription or the lifetime pass from what I can tell.
Since I got the lifetime pass a while back and host my own server, my brother should still be able to watch stuff in my library from his house. I also travel a lot so I'm going to be pissed if that's not the case.
When I chose to use Plex initially it just fit better with what I needed. I can change to something else if I need to but it sounds like my lifetime pass means not much is going to change for me.
- If you have Plex pass, this does not effect anyone using your server.
  It's still a shit asshole move by them, but at least it isn't catastrophic. Hopefully by the time Plex starts to suck jellyfin will not blow chunks.

If you are worried about opening port 443 on your local firewall I suggest trying to get a cheap vps with decent bandwidth and hosting a reverse proxy on it that points back to your local jellyfin over a tunnel.
Ive been doing it for a few months now and finally got all my family off of Plex.
- Can you elaborate more on this? I'm wondering how to set up jellyfin for people outside my lan to use and its unclear to me which method is best.
- Or you can dump your media server on another vlan on your same network. That's what I do.

And so it begins ...
- For me it began since they announced they are killing the watch together feature... For other people it started a long time ago.

Anyone have a good audiobook app to use with emby? I’ve completely switched all my video to emby but still have plex for plexamp with my audiobooks
- Not emby related but for audiobooks, it doesn't get better than audiobookshelf.
  
  +1. Audiobookshelf is fantastic.

I use kodi... Not sure why jellyfin would be better. But sure, I cant stream to other devices than my tv.
- Perhaps you can merge Jellyfin and Kodi, I know you can use your Plex Server with Kodi.