Plex Notice
Just received the notice below that one of the Plex servers I have linked to my account is going to be blocked next month because the host is hosting so many servers supposedly breaking Plex's TOS. Not sure how the TOS is being violated or which host it is since the email is pretty vague, but if you're hosting a Plex server from any of the deals posted here, be on the lookout.
I have a VPS from these deals linked to my Plex hosting TV shows that were recorded with a TV tuner and over-the-air antenna (nothing shady) -
- Hostbrr Block Storage Server (I'm guessing it's this VPS they are referring to since they lease Hetzner's IP's) - https://lowendspirit.com/discussion/6258/hostbrr-premium-storage-promo-7950xd-w-block-storage-only-7-budget-storage-from-2-8-tb/p1
- Alwyzon Storage Server - https://lowendspirit.com/discussion/3962/alwyzon-backup-day-deals-1-tb-storage-vps-in-vienna-for-just-4-95-month#latest
- Little Creek Hosting LET KVM - https://lowendspirit.com/discussion/5676/double-bandwidth-directadmin-softaculous-kvm-virtualizor-nvme-storage/p1
Here's a copy of the email -
Important notice about the hosting service you may be using.
We're contacting you to let you know about an upcoming action that is likely to affect your Plex Media Server setup. You're receiving this notice because the IP address associated with a Plex Media Server on your account appears to come from a service provider that hosts a significant number of Plex Media Servers that violate our Terms of Service.
Due to the large-scale violations occurring from that hosting provider, we will be taking action soon to block access and activity from Plex Media Servers hosted by that provider. We will start these blocks on Thursday, October 12, 2023.
If you leave your current installation as-is, you will have issues connecting to it from Plex apps as well as managing it. To avoid these issues, we suggest that you consider alternative hosting options, including hosting it from your home.
When moving your Plex Media Server installation, we encourage you to review our article on moving a server install to another system. These instructions will assist you with migrating the install as-is, so that you don't have to set it up from scratch.
If you do run into migration issues, please post specific details in our Plex Media Server forums.
We appreciate your understanding and we apologize for the inconvenience.
Comments
I really hope it's not HostBrrr because @Labze gonna die from chargebacks.
Haven't bought a single service in VirMach Great Ryzen 2022 - 2023 Flash Sale.
https://lowendspirit.com/uploads/editor/gi/ippw0lcmqowk.png
Figure out which IP's are used by Plex, Bend, Profit.
Its the cheapest solution.
Free NAT KVM | Free NAT LXC | Bobr
I'm paying month-to-month on all three, so whichever one disappears I'll just cancel it effective the end of that subscription month.
I just wish Jellyfin had a better interface for the end users, it is very bland, I would have migrated long ago. but if this ends up being a issue with Plex, Jellyfin will get a large influx of users
Not surprised frankly.
Ever since plex started allowing sharing it got pretty murky
https://jellyfin.org/ ftw, they cannot kick you.
What's your basic setup like?
Direct access via your public ip via 32400, plex relay/tunnel, CF proxied, tailscale/wg.
Asking for a friend
No proxy or CF. I could try a proxy, but not sure if the server communicates with Plex through any port other than 32400.
If I did have CF setup and they did block that, it would be crazy! That would probably affect thousands and thousands of users.
I'm also hoping it's not Hetzner because I was migrating everything to Hostbrr, but they have the most servers/IP's of the three that I listed, and likely the most exposure, so that's just my guess. Little Creek's network has become garbage in the last few months.
Thanks for suggesting Jellyfin. I'll take a look.
https://www.reddit.com/r/PleX/comments/16iqwf4/anyone_else_get_this_plex_notice/
seems to be hetzner based services.
Most likely people are selling access to their Plex servers, kind of like a IPTV thing.
There comes the traffic usage.
Can't blame them if you didn't keep your servers private
The all seeing eye sees everything...
Gosh, I must live under a rock. I read the TOS twice trying to figure out what people might be doing and couldn't come to a conclusion.
The majority of my recorded content stays on the thin client at home that I recorded it to. I just upload a few things to a VPS to watch when traveling and thought maybe it has to do with the fact that I'm watching content produced for the US in another country, but I can see how selling access to a server would be a violation of the TOS.
If that's the case, I'm worried they will just move on to another service provider like OVH and get them blocked too. Plex would be better off setting limits to the number of users you can share a server with.
from what I have heard, there is a limit of 15 home users(linked to your main account on plexpass) and 100 shared "friends"
one way around this,
would be to use a cheap yearly VPS that you can get for $8-15 with wireguard,
using gluetun on the plex server and the docker container using container mode networking to pass all outgoing plex requests via that VPS, then have all incoming http requests via caddy/nginx reverse proxy,
there would be no way you would use the monthly bandwidth limits of the VPS, hell, you may even be able to use a NAT VPS if they are not hosted at hetzner
This person is doing that and received similar notice: https://www.reddit.com/r/PleX/comments/16ir9wm/just_got_this_email_about_my_hosting_provider_but/
this person is using a VPN in hetzner by the sounds of it.
Thank you! I'll try switching to a Plex Docker container and give this a try.
I haven't received any notice yet, despite hosting with Hetzner. My Plex instance does run behind CloudFlare with Plex Relay disabled, though. Guess we'll see
Other places you can find me
Same. Haven't received any notice either. No Cloudflare and no Plex relaying.
Website: thomassen.sh
Are you a heavy user?
Not heavy enough to be problematic. I think I might have around 10-15 active users besides myself in total (though my server is shared with more than just 10 users total, majority of my friends/family only use it occasionally).
But if Plex is blocking Hetzner as a whole, as implied by the email, I don't see how that's relevant. It would still affect me in some way.
Website: thomassen.sh
I never received a notice from Plex, but my server has been affected after all 🤷
Other places you can find me