10 Plex Life Hacks Every User Should Know
Plex has been around for almost 20 years, and during that time, it’s added numerous features and capabilities. We’ve previously discussed how it can be useful for creating your own streaming service.
Even a seasoned Plex user will find something useful here, with everything from customizing the metadata used by apps to build your library to improving the quality of your video streams—with a particular focus on movies and TV shows (though Plex can also handle music and photos).
If Plex is giving you an error, edit the metadata of your TV shows and movies.
File names and folder structure should provide Plex with enough information to properly tag TV shows and movies, but the system doesn’t always get it right. If you encounter an error, there are several ways to fix it.
On the movie or TV show’s main page, click the three dots and select “Update Metadata.” This will force Plex to recheck the data against online sources, so if the data was missing or incorrect the first time, this may fix the issue.
The second option is to go to the description of a specific movie or TV series, click the three dots, and then select “Fix Match.” This will allow you to choose from suggested online search results and is useful for titles that are very similar or very common.
The final way to edit metadata is to go to an individual movie or episode and click the “Edit” button (the pencil-like icon). This will allow you to manually edit the metadata, which won’t be overwritten by any online databases referenced by Plex.
Clear out the clutter from your library.
As your media library grows and evolves, clutter can accumulate, especially when it comes to deleted files, which typically leave behind metadata, preview thumbnails, and other digital junk. These remnants are known as clutter.
There are several ways to remove unnecessary packages and keep your library tidy: in the web app, click the three dots next to your media server in the left navigation bar, then select Manage Server > Clean Packages .
A similar option is found in the troubleshooting section of the website’s settings. Click the wrench icon (top right) to open Settings , then select Troubleshooting > Package Cleaner . You can also click the Scheduled Tasks link on the same page to have Plex run this task automatically every week.
Create multiple versions of the same movie.
Sometimes you might have multiple editions of the same movie in your library—for example, director’s cuts or extended versions—and if you have a Plex Pass plan, you can mark them as separate files in your library.
You can either change the filename on the disc by adding the edition name in curly braces after the title—for example, “Blade Runner (1982) {edition-Final Cut}.mp4″—or click the Edit button (pencil icon) on the movie listing page and enter the details in the Edition field.
Add subtitles to your media files with FileBot.
Your content in Plex won’t automatically be subtitled, which is where FileBot comes in. Install the program on your computer, sign up for a free OpenSubtitles account, and you can start searching for subtitles. This can be done through the “Subtitles” panel in FileBot.
Use the green user icon to log in to OpenSubtitles via Filebot, then find your movies and TV shows using the drop-down list at the top and the “Find” button. Once you’ve found the files you need, double-click them to move them to the bottom window. From there, you can right-click, select “Export,” and save them to the appropriate Plex library folder.
There are other options, such as a basic built-in subtitle search available with a Plex Pass, as well as a standalone app called Bazarr , which offers more features than the built-in tool or FileBot but requires more time to set up.
Share your Plex library with friends and family.
You don’t have to keep your Plex library to yourself, but there are a few tricks to sharing it with friends and family. In the web app, click the wrench icon (top right) to open the Settings panel, then select “Manage Library Access” on the left.
Click “Share Library Access” to allow another user access to your media library. You’ll need to provide your Plex username or email address (which will be used to request a Plex account). You’ll then be able to select the servers and libraries they can access. If you have a Plex Pass, you can set additional age rating restrictions and allow your friends and family to download content.
Remote access is a bit tricky. If you, the media server owner, have a Plex Pass, your friends and family can stream content remotely, as well as over the local network. Otherwise, they’ll need a Remote Watch Pass ($2 per month or $20 per year) if they’re not watching content on the same local network as you and the server.
Find out who watched what and when with Tautulli.
Tautulli is one of the best add-ons for Plex, providing a wealth of useful statistics about your media server, including records of who watched what. After downloading the installer for Windows or macOS, you’ll be guided step-by-step through the process of connecting to your Plex server.
If you share your Plex library with family members, you can see, for example, what your kids are watching and when, as well as what devices they’ve used and how much data they’ve used.
This plugin is quite interesting even if you haven’t shared your library: it allows you to break down your viewing into charts by day or hour, see the movies and TV shows you watch most often, get detailed information about your media files, and track the addition of new movies and TV shows.
Create collections to simplify library management.
Collections are a useful way to bring order to the chaos of your Plex media library, and this feature is perhaps not as widely known as it should be. You can add anything to collections, from heartwarming TV series to spy movies.
To get started with collections, click the “Edit” button on the listing page (pencil icon), then select “Tags” and enter text in the “Collections” field. If a collection already exists, it will appear as you type.
You can also create “smart” collections to which media files are added automatically. Set a search filter in the Library tab of the Movies or TV Shows screen, and if you click the “Add to” button (the plus sign with horizontal lines on the right), the “Create Smart Collection” option will appear. Any files added in the future that match your search filter will also be automatically added to the collection.
Make your videos look their best.
In most cases, Plex automatically detects video quality and does a good job, but there may be situations where you won’t get the best possible quality (especially if you’re watching on less powerful devices).
To ensure Plex always plays videos at the highest quality, in the web app, click the Settings icon (the wrench in the upper-right corner), then select Transcoder . If you’re confident your computer can handle it, you can set the Transcoder Quality drop-down to Use CPU and enable Use hardware acceleration when available .
In the device-specific apps, you’ll also find video quality settings in the settings. For best results, set the video quality to “Maximum” —you may need to experiment to determine the limits of each device.
Customize the Continue Watching panel.
You might not have thought much about the “Continue Watching” bar that appears on your movie and TV show pages, but you can customize it on the web to suit your preferences—and maybe remove content you don’t want.
Click the wrench icon (top right) to open Settings , then select Library on the left. You can set a threshold (number of weeks) after which titles disappear from the Continue Watching list, as well as limit the number of titles included in the list. Uncheck “Include season premieres in Continue Watching” to hide new season premieres after you finish watching old ones—otherwise, they will remain visible forever.
The settings you make here should appear in the “Continue Browsing” line in your other apps; if they don’t, try closing and restarting them.
Bring back the joy of channel surfing with QuasiTV.
If you’re missing the traditional way to change channels in Plex, there’s a solution in the form of QuasiTV : this app works on Android TV, Google TV, and Fire TV devices and gives you access to your Plex library and streaming services in a more familiar interface.
Log in to Plex, point it to your library, and it will create a custom program guide with your shows and movies. They can be categorized by genre or channel, and you can browse until you find something you like—just like the good old days.
It’s not the most efficient way to search your Plex library, but it’s fun to use, and when I tested it, I rediscovered several movies and TV shows I hadn’t watched in a while.