Not necessarily related, but I'll take the opportunity to share my dislike of this company. Like others, they built a loyal following around a set of features provided, no questions asked, to stream your content to your own devices.
Over the last couple of years, Plex has continued to strip functionality, add paywalls, make deals with publishing companies, and take other actions that firmly put them in the 'enshittifaction' phase. They've capitalized on the community that gave them their success, so I've cashed out as well.
At this point there is little need for those of us with some technical ability to use this software and all the bloat that comes with it. Jellyfin[1] is an excellent alternative that I've fully switched over to this last year. I will not let a company take ownership of my media library, ever.
> Any account passwords that may have been accessed were securely hashed, in accordance with best practices, meaning they cannot be read by a third party.
I am glad they were hashed, but that's a misleading statement. The point of hashing is to slow an attacker down, even with full best security practices (e.g. salt + pepper + argon2 w/high factors) they can still be reverse engineered. It is a matter of when, not if.
Plex mysteriously began refusing remote connections, so I couldn't share with my friend outside my home LAN. Manually port forwarding didn't solve anything, and my firewall isn't the problem. That's as far as Plex help goes...
I went to Jellyfin (plus Tailscale VPN). Some things are really nice, but others... well, it's an open-source project, and people only fix what they see as broken. So, I've tried restarting, only to lose every single customization I did. It's not worth my time to fill out their tickets and play that lottery, so I just accept the UI issues.
Then, mysteriously, Jellyfin also quit broadcasting remotely. A month later, its server wasn't even visible on my own LAN to my TV.
So I uninstalled BOTH Plex and Jellyfin, and reinstalled both. Jellyfin still doesn't connect right. And Plex works... until suddenly it doesn't, and I have to cycle through Off/On with "Allow remote connections", until it works again, mysteriously.
PRO'S OF EACH:
Plex: Much better support in TV libraries. No need for a VPN. Simpler UI.
Jellyfin: Ability to create Collections, which are basically filter-defined libraries. Without rearranging any files, you can build a Collection of Star Wars movies, or all movies directed by Scorsese, or any arbitrary bunch of media files at all, really. Optionally, you can reduce your library clutter with these Collections: a library named Science Fiction can have all of your Star Wars movies listed as a single item (that Collection). Basically, sub-libraries, but they aren't restricted to one library's contents (Star Wars might contain a documentary on "The Making Of" that isn't actually stored in Science Fiction).
You have to be a fool to use Plex, not only you are pirating, but also relying on a 3rd party company to handle your authentication. They already got hacked multiple times, only a matter of time till there is some copyright law enforcement event too.
If you really have to do it, use Emby or Jellyfin. At least those options are fully self hosted.
I have been using Jellyfin for two years now.
I am yet another happy user with no issues. I am happy that all my data is secure and there is nothing shady to happen.
It was not surprising when Plex had a huge investment coming from VCs who might as well just be connected to the movie industry and Hollywood as a whole, when they committed the act of banning Hetzner and all of their data centers.
They also had slowly become just another low quality streaming service like Tubi or IMDb with really low quality content being pushed down onto the homepage and actually keeping your own media hidden somewhere in the submenus. With their updates they threw the entire UX upside down.
Plex has the most mature platform to be frank. But I am happy I jumped ship as soon as I saw their predatory practices. They are not going to stop.
They had this same thing happen in 2022, too. "a third-party was able to access a limited subset of data that includes emails, usernames, and encrypted passwords"
15 comments
[ 2.9 ms ] story [ 41.5 ms ] threadPlex Update: Notice of a potential security incident - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45174684
Over the last couple of years, Plex has continued to strip functionality, add paywalls, make deals with publishing companies, and take other actions that firmly put them in the 'enshittifaction' phase. They've capitalized on the community that gave them their success, so I've cashed out as well.
At this point there is little need for those of us with some technical ability to use this software and all the bloat that comes with it. Jellyfin[1] is an excellent alternative that I've fully switched over to this last year. I will not let a company take ownership of my media library, ever.
[1] https://jellyfin.org/
What’s the date of this release? There was a similar release a few months ago and I’m curious if I need to again reset my account.
I am glad they were hashed, but that's a misleading statement. The point of hashing is to slow an attacker down, even with full best security practices (e.g. salt + pepper + argon2 w/high factors) they can still be reverse engineered. It is a matter of when, not if.
That said, I shouldn't be blinded by convenience. I hear jellyfin is a good alternative. Can someone share
- how easy is it to administer for clients outside of my network or possibly even outside my country?
- how good is the app support? I transcode all of my media to AAC and h264 for compatibility
-what about for streaming music? I really like Plex amp
- what do you like the most about jellyfin
- what do you miss most about Plex?
Thank you.
I went to Jellyfin (plus Tailscale VPN). Some things are really nice, but others... well, it's an open-source project, and people only fix what they see as broken. So, I've tried restarting, only to lose every single customization I did. It's not worth my time to fill out their tickets and play that lottery, so I just accept the UI issues.
Then, mysteriously, Jellyfin also quit broadcasting remotely. A month later, its server wasn't even visible on my own LAN to my TV.
So I uninstalled BOTH Plex and Jellyfin, and reinstalled both. Jellyfin still doesn't connect right. And Plex works... until suddenly it doesn't, and I have to cycle through Off/On with "Allow remote connections", until it works again, mysteriously.
PRO'S OF EACH:
Plex: Much better support in TV libraries. No need for a VPN. Simpler UI.
Jellyfin: Ability to create Collections, which are basically filter-defined libraries. Without rearranging any files, you can build a Collection of Star Wars movies, or all movies directed by Scorsese, or any arbitrary bunch of media files at all, really. Optionally, you can reduce your library clutter with these Collections: a library named Science Fiction can have all of your Star Wars movies listed as a single item (that Collection). Basically, sub-libraries, but they aren't restricted to one library's contents (Star Wars might contain a documentary on "The Making Of" that isn't actually stored in Science Fiction).
If you really have to do it, use Emby or Jellyfin. At least those options are fully self hosted.
How could only a subset be affected? Any architecture other than a "users" db table wouldn't make sense.
It was not surprising when Plex had a huge investment coming from VCs who might as well just be connected to the movie industry and Hollywood as a whole, when they committed the act of banning Hetzner and all of their data centers.
They also had slowly become just another low quality streaming service like Tubi or IMDb with really low quality content being pushed down onto the homepage and actually keeping your own media hidden somewhere in the submenus. With their updates they threw the entire UX upside down.
Plex has the most mature platform to be frank. But I am happy I jumped ship as soon as I saw their predatory practices. They are not going to stop.