PSA: That Plex alert saying you need a Remote Watch Pass is likely wrong
If you're trying to stream from a known server, but Plex is telling you to spend money, don't do it quite yet.
- 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!
