Plex on Raspberry Pi

🔍 Key Features

• Cross‑platform: Runs on Windows, macOS, Linux, NAS devices, and Docker. Clients exist for Android, iOS, smart TVs, and game consoles.
• Metadata & Discovery: Automatically fetches posters, descriptions, cast info, and organizes your library into a polished interface.
• Sharing: You can share your library with friends and family, giving them access to your content.
• Live TV & DVR: Supports TV tuners for live broadcasts and recording.
• Flexibility: Works on modest hardware or can scale up to powerful servers

NOTE: Unlike Jellyfin, Plex is only free if streaming on your local network. There is a cost if you want to stream remotely.

Plex vs Jellyfin

Plex is wonderful. You can have one media directory and dump all your content there (e.x. Movies, TV Shows) and Plex will scan that directory and sort out of it's a Movie or TV Show. Jellyfin, on the otherhand, requires that you have a seperate directory for movies and one for TV shows. Each TV show has to have subdirectories, one per season. It's not nearly as slick as Plex. Since I run Plex (for inside my network use) and Jellyfin (for remote use) and I use the same media directories for both, I had to redo my Plex config to use a Movies directory and a TV Shows directory. That setup is in this guide. Could I use Plex for local and remote viewing? Sure. I'm working on it. I've got tailscale setup on my mac, iPhone, and Pi. I can connect to Plex on my laptop using Tailscale and my iPhone as a hotspot and everything works great but when I try to use the Plex app in my iPhone (with WiFi off), I hit the paywall. I'm not sure why yet. Jellyfin has no paywall which is why I added that to my enviroment.

🚀 Docker Installation Steps

1. Update your system
   sudo apt update && sudo apt upgrade -y
2. Install Docker
   

   curl -fsSL https://get.docker.com -o get-docker.sh
   sudo sh get-docker.sh

3. Install Docker Compose
   sudo apt install docker-compose-plugin
4. Add your user to the Docker group
   sudo usermod -aG docker $USER
5. Enable Docker at boot
   sudo systemctl enable docker
6. Reboot
   sudo reboot
7. Test Docker
   docker run hello-world

📁 Setup Plex

mkdir ~/docker
mkdir ~/docker/plex
mkdir ~/docker/plex/config

🧾 Docker Compose File

In ~/docker/plex create docker-compose.yml

services:
  plex:
    image: lscr.io/linuxserver/plex:latest
    container_name: plex
    network_mode: host
    environment:
      - PUID=1000
      - PGID=1000
      - VERSION=docker
      - PLEX_CLAIM=claim-VFDzv3bHizaXfnhJk8h2
      - PLEX_LOG_LEVEL=DEBUG
    volumes:
      - /mnt/Movies:/Movies      #Where you'll access your Movies
      - /mnt/TV Shows:/TV Shows  #Where you'll access your TV Shows
      - ~/docker/plex/config:/config
    restart: unless-stopped

NOTE: Follow this guide to setup your media folder: Plex Media Structure

Like I mentioned before, you could have just one Media directory and dump everything there and let Plex sort it out. It's about 99% accurate. If it gets something wrong, it's a pretty easy fix.

▶️ Start Plex

From within ~/docker/plex run:

📜 View Logs

🌐 Access Web Interface

Open your browser and go to http://<your-pi>:32400

Bypassing the Plex paywall

Plex used to be free. You could watch your content locally or remotely. Recently, they added a paywall for remote viewing. Here's a way to bypass the paywall (for experimental purposes only). I'll walk through doing this so you can watch remotely from your phone. Same steps for pretty much any device.

1. Install Tailscale on your Pi and phone.
2. On your Pi, run these commands to enable IP forwarding:

   echo 'net.ipv4.ip_forward = 1' | sudo tee -a /etc/sysctl.d/99-tailscale.conf
   echo 'net.ipv6.conf.all.forwarding = 1' | sudo tee -a /etc/sysctl.d/99-tailscale.conf
   sudo sysctl -p /etc/sysctl.d/99-tailscale.conf

   if those commands fail, run these:

   echo 'net.ipv4.ip_forward = 1' | sudo tee -a /etc/sysctl.conf
   echo 'net.ipv6.conf.all.forwarding = 1' | sudo tee -a /etc/sysctl.conf
   sudo sysctl -p /etc/sysctl.conf

3. Now run this to advertise the routes and exit node (Use your subnet for 192.168.0.0/24):

   docker exec -it tailscale tailscale up --advertise-routes=192.168.0.0/24 --advertise-exit-node

4. Log in to Tailscale's website
5. Browse to Machines. You should see your Pi and iPhone listed.
6. Your Pi should now have subnets and exit node badges. Click the three dots to the right of your Pi and select Edit route settings.
7. Check Subnet routes and Use as exit nodei and click on Save
8. Now browse to your Plex server running on your Pi (ex. http://pi:32400). Click on the wrench in the upper right corner. On the left hand side, select Network.
9. Set Secure Connection to Preferred. Make sure Enable Relay is unchecked.
10. This step messed me up and it took me days to figure this out. There are guides out there that say you have to fill in Custom server access URLs. Do not do that. Leave it blank.
11. Scroll to the bottom and click on Save Changes

Test the bypass

Here's how to test if you have it set up correctly. I assume that you already have Plex installed and working on your phone.

1. Turn off wi-fi on your phone. This will put you on cellular only and therefore you'll be off your network.
2. Open Plex on your phone
3. Click on Libraries. You should see your media there.
4. Select any TV Show or Movie and play it. You should not see the paywall pop up and your media should play.