Plex introduce Cloud Syncing and a updated Plex Server

Plex has had a syncing service for devices for some time and it’s a great way of keeping content on sync on Android and iOS devices, over the weekend Plex have introduced a new syncing service that enables syncing with cloud storage providers. Cloud Sync enables syncing with services like DropBox and Google Drive so you can stream your media (with metadata) from your cloud providers, you can set syncing rules and set limits for each provider so you can access your media from whether you are without need to get back to your Plex server. The feature works with their new Plex Media Server v.0.9.8.10 and you need to be a PlexPass subscriber.

The Plex Server v.0.9.8.1 has the following new features:

Cloud Sync. It’s shiny, it’s new, it’s awesome.

It seems like 64-bit is all the rage these days. We’ve updated the OS X version to be 64-bit. It’s faster, more modern and, let’s face it, 64 is bigger than 32. Our media server goes up to way past 11.

We’ve made some important sync fixes. We fixed an issue that could lead to a slow down or hang, and we fixed another issue where the server (in the case of a transient network issue) would re-transcode everything, which could in turn lead to iOS refusing to play synced content.

We’ve massively improved scanning speed. Our canonical test of scanning in 1400 movies from scratch went from taking over four hours to just 50 minutes. Music and photo scanning is also much faster, and will use all your processors. In addition, we’ve eliminated Turbo Scan, and just made the regular deep scan much faster. So the end result is just fast, reliable scanning. Don’t believe me? Ask a PlexPass user who helped us test out the new scanner: “I just ran the new improved scan and nearly got whiplash.  WOW, THAT IS FAST.  I used to dread updating certain library sections often because it took forever … it’s just ridiculously fast now.  THANKS!“

Display of unwatched episodes was very slow.

We fixed some crashes streaming RTMP video.

iTunes playlists were mysteriously missing.

Playback of some videos ended prematurely on ATV 6.0.

There was some annoying green fringing on subtitles (many thanks to Rodger Combs for the fix).

More details on the Plex Blog.

In our untiring quest to make your media consumption as easy and enjoyable as possible, we’ve just released a new PlexPass feature called Cloud Sync, which provides you with a powerful solution for all these scenarios. With Cloud Sync, you can now sync your media to cloud storage providers such as DropBox and Google Drive. Your media is optimized for streaming and uploaded, along with the rich metadata you know and love. It’s like having a media server that’s always on and has great streaming speeds!

One of the coolest features of Cloud Sync is the ability to configure multiple storage providers, and set individual limits for each. You can then create a smart sync rule (“Newest 20 movies added to my Movie library”, for example) and the videos will be uploaded and spread across different providers as needed.

Once your cloud sync completes, you can turn off your server, and access all your media online from any Plex app. No need to worry about limited upstream bandwidth, or whether your mom is streaming that latest soccer video of her grandkids ten times in a row.