Optimal Plex Settings for Privacy-Conscious Users reddit / selfhosted ---------------------------------------------------------------------- selfh-sted · 2023-11-22 10:43 Yesterday's controversy surrounding Plex and their latest e-mail marketing campaign has been a great reminder to review the privacy settings they provide for opting out of data collection. We've compiled a handy list for those not ready to make the jump to alternatives like Jellyfin, Dim, or Emby: [Optimal Plex Settings for Privacy-Conscious Users](https://selfh.st/blog/plex-privacy-settings/) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- ElevenNotes · 2023-11-22 11:03 This, and put plex behind a reverse proxy for WAN access and only allow metadata download. Enjoy your “offline” Plex that works without internet. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- OhMyForm · 2023-11-22 12:44 What is it just a jelly fin instance? ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Azsde · 2023-11-22 13:49 Can you elaborate? I have a Traefik installation working but I did not create a '' Plex routing '' ---------------------------------------------------------------------- IM_OK_AMA · 2023-11-22 15:44 Privacy conscious users haven't been using Plex for ~7 years since they started requiring auth go through their servers. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Coalbus · 2023-11-22 16:06 When a service that I self-host violates my trust in a way that I have no control over, I uninstall it. I'd rather be mad at my own failure to secure/properly configure my shit than be betrayed by a third party. The people still on Plex are looking around at the metaphorical piles of rubble that used to be their neighbors and thinking to themselves, "Well my house is still standing so why would I move?". Eventually Plex the company will find your own personal line and cross it. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- WassiChain · 2023-11-22 16:18 The only thing on that list should be 1. Uninstall Plex 2. Install Jellyfin ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Bresdin · 2023-11-22 16:22 The problem for me with jelly fin is how difficult it is for my users to use it outside of my house. I have it setup for my parents and inlaws who barely know how to use email, plex for them is like netflix but allows them to also view family videos. I cant easily set that up for them unless I am physically in their house and set it up on all of their devices. Plex I can just give them a username and password and it is all set. Once I have an option to do that I might switch to another service. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Goaliedude3919 · 2023-11-22 16:28 How exactly did they violate your trust? When this feature came out, there was a big pop up when you logged in prompting you to set up your privacy settings. I set everything to private and have never had my info sent to others or gotten others info. Obviously it would have been nice to be opt-in instead of opt-out, but basically reading comprehension would have prevented that rant post yesterday. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Xenkath · 2023-11-22 16:28 I share Plex with my parents and a couple other people who struggle just to install and log into a smart tv app. I’m not excited by the idea of trying to migrate them to a new service with a less polished user experience. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Goaliedude3919 · 2023-11-22 16:30 People like to ignore the fact that Plex is simply the most feature complete option available. I'm in a similar boat, in that I share Plex with my parents and in-laws who aren't the most tech savvy. Plex just works. I don't have time to deal with wonky TV apps like Jellyfin has. I need something that just works. I'm sure Jellyfin will get to that point one day, but until then, Plex is the best option for people like usm ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Bresdin · 2023-11-22 16:34 Exactly, if it was just for me/my immediate household, or even if they lived just down the road yeah sure, but Jelly fin is just not there yet. I like Plex, I support them with the lifetime subscription, but it is my self hosted data, I dont really need them looking at what I am watching or anything really beyond providing me the option to self host. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- JuvenoiaAgent · 2023-11-22 16:49 Thanks, this is actually pretty useful! ---------------------------------------------------------------------- IM_OK_AMA · 2023-11-22 16:59 People like to discourage newcomers from getting sucked into the Plex ecosystem, which is easy because of how featureful and compatible it is, and that stickyness is what lets Plex be increasingly dismissive/hostile towards what used to be its core users. If you _start_ with Jellyfin from the beginning you'll be in a much better place because it won't feel like a downgrade when Plex finally does something that makes it unusable to you. I'm running both side by side and gradually moving my users over but it's going to be a multi-year process. My parents and in-laws are getting Firesticks for Christmas this year so we'll see how that goes. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Ken_Mcnutt · 2023-11-22 17:02 I'm confused how JF is more difficult in this respect than Plex? Sure plex has *more* apps, but I've never considered that a difficulty barrier, just a convenience. I can still tell my users to visit https://media.mydomain.com and login with these credentials and they'll be fine. Roku, Browser, whatever. If it **really** became an issue I would just spin up a [wizarr](https://github.com/wizarrrr/wizarr) instance which completely streamlines the user invite/management for JF, Plex, and Emby. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Ken_Mcnutt · 2023-11-22 17:10 The weak will perish and the strong will survive. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Coalbus · 2023-11-22 17:18 You are the people being referred to in my second paragraph. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Goaliedude3919 · 2023-11-22 17:35 And you still have yet to explain how they violated your trust. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- TheRealSeeThruHead · 2023-11-22 17:37 Jelly fin sucks ---------------------------------------------------------------------- discoshanktank · 2023-11-22 17:39 I guess for my less technical users, they just want an experience like Netflix. Go to some App Store and download the app on smart tv, Apple TV, chromecast, mobile devices, etc.. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- discoshanktank · 2023-11-22 17:40 Wow you must be so strong then ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Ken_Mcnutt · 2023-11-22 17:42 Yeah I suppose, I guess I don't have that sort of patience nowadays. It's 2023, opening a link in a browser is going to present to much of a technical hurdle you really have no business using my hosted services in the first place. I'm happy to share but not provide endless free tech support to people who really should have learned by now. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Ken_Mcnutt · 2023-11-22 17:53 it's a joke 🙄 I self host services for my OWN use. Im more than happy to share but I'm not volunteering myself as support engineer for people that don't have the most basic level of tech literacy ---------------------------------------------------------------------- jasonweiser · 2023-11-22 17:55 JF is a hard sell for my house because it [keeps logging users out and forgetting the server](https://github.com/jellyfin/Swiftfin/issues/776) for the AppleTV app. Infuse is a polished replacement but they [have refused to add the ability to have multiple users for seven years](https://community.firecore.com/t/multi-users-profiles/13571) so I don’t have my elementary-school-aged kid accidentally watch Rick and Morty or something. Not going to Plex and Emby isn’t much better, but JF isn’t just a drop-in replacement. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Ken_Mcnutt · 2023-11-22 18:05 Plex fanboys not downvoting any mention of JF or criticism of Plex challenge: level impossible ---------------------------------------------------------------------- BCIT_Richard · 2023-11-22 18:58 Jellyfin however is awesome. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- e3m88 · 2023-11-22 19:07 jellyfin is as simple as input the domain, user and password. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- VexingRaven · 2023-11-22 19:19 I'm a huge FOSS stan but I do not understand how people are caught by surprise by this. It was a full-screen dialog to set your privacy settings, impossible to miss. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Goaliedude3919 · 2023-11-22 19:25 Thank you! Like I said, in an ideal world, this would have been an option-in feature. But it was the next best thing, where they gave you a giant pop up, with not even a ton of words, where it explicitly asked you to set your privacy settings. Anyone who ignored that only has themselves to blame. It's not like they snuck something into a terms of service update or something that no one reads. It was VERY transparent. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- norebly · 2023-11-22 19:36 and you've already lost 50% of the average layman ---------------------------------------------------------------------- norebly · 2023-11-22 19:40 How does Wizarr work for you? I skipped it because I looked at a demo (of which there is only 1), and it looks like you need to login to generate an invite, then you need to manually share it with someone? I searched their repo for smtp and found a class that is never called by anything so my guess is it's on the roadmap? ---------------------------------------------------------------------- CactusBoyScout · 2023-11-22 19:59 Yeah you really have to learn how to use a reverse proxy like NGINX and DuckDNS or your own domain. I did finally get all of that working but it's still not nearly as simple as Plex, especially the app ecosystem. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- jonathanrdt · 2023-11-22 20:06 That was handy. Good post. And shame on plex for making that so hard. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Ken_Mcnutt · 2023-11-22 20:13 To be honest I haven't used it. I'm about to make another server after not having one for a few years and I came across it doing the preliminary research and setting up all the docker infra for the eventual deployment. And while it's a cool project I have never really felt inconvenienced from sending someone a URL and creds. I suppose if you have a lot of users and it can automatically handle stuff like password resets, it does take a bit of work off your shoulders. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- norebly · 2023-11-22 20:20 Gotcha, I was looking for essentially a self service pw reset, invite, notification platform and wizarr didn't seem to fit the bill. Wanted to double check in case I missed it. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- pinkjello · 2023-11-22 20:45 Grow up. Some people care about their friends and family even in spite of their tech illiteracy. Let me know when you figure out what a fulfilling life is about. Might take a few decades, but you’ll get there. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Ken_Mcnutt · 2023-11-22 20:47 Thanks, someday if I work hard I may get to be as condescending and pretentious as you ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Bresdin · 2023-11-22 21:03 That plus get parents and inlaws to be able to sign up for experimental apps on apple tv and then sign in with all of that. I am aware of how to do the reverse proxy, its the getting it to work with other ecosystems that is the problem. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- CactusBoyScout · 2023-11-22 21:04 Swiftfin is just on the regular ATV app store, no? ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Bresdin · 2023-11-22 21:08 When I just checked the official guide says it is not currently ---------------------------------------------------------------------- zfa · 2023-11-22 21:15 I've seen you mention this elsewhere - do you have a config file you'd be willing to share? Is PMS ok with you 'getting in the way', i.e doesn't need certs on its connections to plex.tv etc? ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Pierowtechneeks · 2023-11-22 21:53 Thanks. Good for a quick checkup of my settings! ---------------------------------------------------------------------- csmiler · 2023-11-23 00:47 How does one configure JF on a domain? Cloudflare tunnel? Does this work with the Swiftfin app? ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Ken_Mcnutt · 2023-11-23 00:50 I haven't used swiftfin, but if it can connect to a JF server it should work. You just expose it on your network like you would any other service. Either a bare port forward or run a reverse proxy like traefik or caddy to route incoming traffic to the correct container. Then you create an A record for your domain that points the so domain you want (ie media.yourdomain.com) to your public IP address. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- preclowski · 2023-11-23 01:14 Best privacy tip: \`sudo apt remove plex-media-server\` ---------------------------------------------------------------------- IacovHall · 2023-11-23 05:43 even though I paid for a lifetime pass, the only thing holding me back to switch to jellyfin is that it took me several hoursin total to find custom covers and make sure that the agent got the episode names etc right I simply don't want to do it all. over again with jellyfin ---------------------------------------------------------------------- darkrom · 2023-11-23 12:16 Can you elaborate on the difficulty for users? the laptop users go to a url and log in which has to be the most simple of anything. The Apple TV users will need to use infuse because imhe Swiftfin is just not even close to ready even though I really appreciate a native Apple client being worked on. iOS users I would guess infuse is the best option there. Android I’m not familiar with these days (anyone know the best client?) The only thing I’m not sure at all about is Xbox, Roku, fire stick etc. anyone got input on those? I myself am planning on making the switch in early 2024. I’ve been running them side by side with Jellyfin as a backup but just for me no users, early 24 I’m switching to Jellyfin and eventually shutting down Plex I’m 99% sure at this point it’s just the right move to make. IMO the only thing Plex has over Jellyfin is a native client on every platform. Infuse works great and is well worth $10 a year but I’m not sure what to do for the platforms I mentioned above. Otherwise for actual video playback Jellyfin has always worked much easier and more flawless than Plex. Im not a developer and I truly appreciate Jellyfin and will make a relatively decent donation to the project when I switch fully, but to me it feels like they already did the part I would have assumed was the hard part and got the whole thing working excellent and I’d have thought the clients were the easier part. Clearly that’s not the case and it for sure takes a lot of man hours to make clients for so many platforms. If they improve the client options I think it will make sense for everyone to switch sooner than later. In the meantime I already have to use infuse on my Apple TV because the Apple TV Plex client chokes on certain h265 videos etc. so my actual experience should be the same using infuse for Jellyfin. Only thing missing would be skip into I guess. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- kingb0b · 2023-11-23 16:14 Jellyfin is the optimal Plex privacy setting. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- bobbarker4444 · 2023-11-23 18:25 I use cloudflare tunnels to expose my jellyfin server as jellyfin.mydomain.com. Works perfectly