Plex Media Server 0.9.8 released

Plex Media Server version 1 isn’t quite ready yet but version 0.9.8 has been released. This release has for the first time support for multiple users so that each user gets their own view state so things like Recently View and Unwatched Lists are maintained for each user separately. You could setup a profile with limited access to certain content for your kids and Plex say its part way to creating parental controls. The changes are already in many of the client apps so the Plex/Web, iOS, Android and Roku apps will already support the multiuser features.

Other changes include Now Playing notifications so you can see how and what is playing via the Plex Server and improved indexing and HTTPS support. It looks like to get access to the new features require the PlexPass subscription, details on the Plex Blog.

Since the inception of the media server, we’ve actually had the concept of multiple users internally, it’s just never been fleshed out or exposed. With this release, we’re changing that. As you know, we already have flexible sharing policies via myPlex (entire library, single section), but those shared users have never gotten their own view state (which drives On Deck, Unwatched, Recently Viewed, etc.) or the ability to select audio stream and subtitles. In this new release, every user gets their very own view state. This applies to people inside the home too, of course. You can create a myPlex account for your kids, and only give them access to certain sections, which is a first baby step towards our vision of rich parental controls.

Client-side changes to enable multiuser mode have been silently made in recent updates, so multiuser works today with Plex/Web, iOS, Android and Roku apps. Updates for our other apps will be coming soon.

This feature is only enabled for servers run by PlexPass holders. Also, because of legacy apps, the permissions for a local client which isn’t signed in or hasn’t been multiuser enabled yet (e.g. Plex Home Theater) are currently “everything”. As the 0.9.8 series progresses, we’ll finish locking things down!

Lastly, if you decide to move back to an earlier release without multiuser support, that works fine, but all users other than the user owning the server will lose their view state.