For those of you with busy home lives, you will no doubt appreciate the fact that pretty much all streaming platforms out there can stream multiple shows at once. It means no arguments over the remote, at least. But there are of course limitations to what you can expect from this.
For example, it can all begin to crumble if the internet connection isn’t strong enough to keep up. Likewise, the platforms themselves have limits as to just how much content can be streamed into a single household. After that point, it begins to get a bit problematic for the end user.
Though Plex are a reliable and decent streaming company, the same rule hods true for them. For example, if the end user is streaming 4 different shows/movies at once, errors can begin to crop up.
In that same vein, if the user happens to be watching their content in HD, it may be the case that only 3 streams can run simultaneously.
As soon as you have exceeded the limits of what Plex’s platform can reasonably handle, you will then get the dreaded “Plex too many active streams error”. So, this has many people wondering what to do and if there is any way around the problem. We’ve had a look into it and the following is what we found out.
How To Fix Too Many Active Streams Plex
The following is everything that can possibly be done to avoid getting the above error message and get you back to enjoying your content again.
- Try Checking your Active Streams
As we mentioned above, it is entirely possible to stream several things at once via Plex. But there is a limit as to how far you can push it; and that line isn’t solely dictated by the strength of your internet connection.
The app can only take so much before it begins to struggle. For some of you though, this line may be getting crossed long before you would expect it to, and there are reasons for that.
What we find is the most common culprit behind the ‘Too Many Active Streams’ error is that there may be another user signed into the app on another device that the main user may not yet be aware of.
The thing about this is that, even if that other device isn’t currently streaming anything, the mere fact that your account is logged in on it will cause Plex to flag it as an active streaming session. So, that’s already one stream from the projected maximum of 3 or 4 removed from the equation.
Luckily, there is a really easy way to figure out if this is happening to you without having to do any complicated detective work. What we would suggest is that you go into your Plex app on the device of your choice.
Then, navigate to the ‘now playing’ section that you will find in the app’s dashboard section. From here you will then be able to see exactly what is logged in. If there are other users currently singed into the Plex app, their names will be displayed here.
Now all that remains is to log out any devices that aren’t currently being used for streaming. Just like that, you should now have total control over the app again.
- Change the settings for Active Streams per User
If the last fix didn’t quite work out, the next most likely cause of the problem that you are having may be caused by a simple setting. Though not exactly common knowledge, there is a settings choice that occurs in the process of making a new user to add to the Plex account.
What it does is limit the number of streams that each user can have. So, let’s say that you were able to broadcast 5 active media on one user, this will then mean that the number will decrease to 2 or 3 streams per user for all users after the first. This can be changed, though.
To alter that Plex setting, all you will need to do is head over to the ‘network settings’ section and then select the user in question’s streaming capacity from the drop-down box given. With a bit of luck, this should resolve the issue.
- Try Disabling Download and Sync for Users
Another thing that could be causing the too many active streams problem on Plex is simply that it is being overloaded by the download and sync capabilities it has. Though really useful features both, they can also trick the system into thinking that there is an active streaming session when really there isn’t.
So, if you have several users who have each downloaded some content from the server, Plex will also flag this as an active stream, reducing the app’s capacity to give you a stream in live action. Even stranger than that is the fact that Plex will still flag it as such even if the user is not currently active or streaming.
Seeing as this will inevitably reduce your capacity to stream at some point, we would always recommend disabling the download function when you are making a new user. For now, we should probably get to showing you how to fix that problem retroactively.
To get started, you will need to head over to the ‘user’ section of the app and then go to the ‘select user’ tab. Next up, you will need to go to ‘restrictions’ and then just turn off the sync feature, thus disabling downloads for that user.
You can do this for every user if you really want to make sure that the issue won’t crop up again. Now, all that remains is to check that you can stream again, which we fully expect you should be.
- Get in touch with Plex Support
If, for some odd reason, the issue is still there after the above fixes, it is quite likely that the issue is on Plex’s side of things as opposed to yours. Really, the only logical course of action that remains at this point is to report the issue to Plex.
Reporting issues such as these is key because the more people that do it, the more important the problem seems to them. If no one else reports it, it will likely be bumped down the list of priorities. We hope this helped.