What you need to know
- Plex is blocking free remote streaming on Roku TVs, now requiring a paid pass to watch your home media library while away.
- Users must buy either the full Plex Pass or the new, cheaper Remote Watch Pass to stream content from their home server remotely.
- While Roku TVs are the immediate target, Plex plans to roll out this change to other major platforms like Fire TV, Apple TV, and Android TV by 2026.
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If you own a Roku TV and rely on it to stream your Plex media library while away from home, you might have woken up to a nasty surprise. Plex is enforcing a new restriction that effectively blocks remote video playback on Roku TV models.
Beginning this week, Plex will require users to pay for a subscription, either a Plex Pass or a new, lower-cost Remote Watch Pass, to stream personal media remotely to Roku devices, the company announced in a forum post (via How-To Geek). So, if you usually watch movies or shows from your home server while away, you’ll now need a paid pass.
Plex has a reason for this change. Earlier this year, the company updated how remote playback works for personal media libraries, so remote streaming is no longer free. Now, it is included as part of a subscription, either with Plex Pass or the new Remote Watch Pass.
Previously, Plex users could connect to their home media servers from anywhere and stream content for free, which was a major draw for fans of self-hosting.
You now need one of two paid passes
Here’s how the new setup works now. If you or the media server administrator holds a Plex Pass, remote streaming remains seamless. All existing features, such as remote access and streaming, plus extra perks like skip-intro and transcoding, carry on as before.
For those who don’t need the full range of Plex Pass features, the Remote Watch Pass provides a more accessible option for unlocking remote streaming of personal media. Previously, it was possible to share a media server with friends or family and allow free streaming on their Roku devices; moving forward, a subscription will be required to continue remote access.
That shift doesn’t just hit Roku. Plex says this paywall will roll out to other TV platforms — like Fire TV, Apple TV, and Android TV — and potentially to third-party clients that use Plex’s API sometime in 2026.
If you’re interested in maintaining flexibility, you have two choices: purchase a pass (Plex Pass or Remote Watch Pass) or explore alternative options.
