We are also changing how remote playback works for streaming personal media (that is, playback when not on the same local network as the server). 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. This—alongside the new Plex Pass pricing—will help provide those resources. This change will apply to the future release of our new Plex experience for mobile and other platforms.
Not here to defend Plex’ enshittification but you can still use Plex offline just fine. I had 0 issues yesterday when I had no internet all day.
I’ll probably get the details wrong but my understanding is that when you sign in, you get an authorization token. That token is valid for some period of time, let’s say 48 hours. You can use that cached token but let’s say it’s on your phone and not your TV. Maybe you haven’t used Plex on the TV this week. Want to use your TV, out of luck. Want to use a different local account, out of luck. Want to use Plex longer than the token is good for, out of luck.
Wow, I had no clue it worked like that. That’s actually really bad.
Yeah, so I have local accounts for my family, but only the last person signed in can get back in if the Internet goes down. We still have temporary access to most of the media, but it sucks.