How to Download Movies from Plex and the Work-around You Should Know
Last Updated on May 22, 2023 by Jane Joe
Is it possible to download movies from Plex? It depends on the server owner's settings. If the owner has disabled downloads, you cannot download the video directly with Plex. But due to the transcode, direct streaming, server problem, and more, you still cannot save videos from the Plex server. Here you can learn more about the troubleshooting and best alternative.
Part 1: The Built-in Method to Download Movies from Plex
Plex is an audio-visual aggregation center designed for all devices. You can sync the media files between different devices with Plex. Recently, with the development of Plex and the increase in customer groups, Plex has opened the download function to save videos from Plex for offline watching. Here is the detailed process you should follow.
Step 1: Visit https://www.plex.tv/ in a browser and log in to your account. Find the desired movie you want to download and click on the three-dot icon on the right side of the screen.
Step 2: Click the Download button from the drop-down menu. There is a pop-up window with different download options. After that, select the desired video quality and download location.
Step 3: Once you have downloaded the movie from Plex, you can find the video in the location you specified during the download process. Just double-click it to open with a media player.
What are the Restrictions for Downloading Movies from Plex
No. Just as mentioned above, the download feature of Plex is only limited to subscribed users only. Moreover, there are other restrictions you should know before downloading movies from Plex.
1. Subscribe to Plex Pass to activate the download function.
2. Cannot determine video quality and file formats of movies.
3. Cannot customize the destination folder and other settings.
4. Cannot view the downloaded movies across devices.
Part 2: How to Fix Plex Downloading Feature Not Working
What should you do if you fail to download movies from Plex? Make sure the download icon is available for the movie. Because the secure connection between Plex and the Plex server needs to be re-bound, you need to rebind Plex with the plex.direct domain.
Method 1: Router Setup
Changing the DNS servers that are defined by your router should be the initial choice. But due to the differences in functions and features of each router, there will be slight differences when rebinding DNS settings. You should look up DNS-related information in the router settings for rebinding settings before downloading movies from the Plex server again.
Method 2: Change the router's DNS servers
The DNS router often uses the default ISP server. It weakens the DNS rebinding attacks to a certain extent, which you cannot proceed smoothly when rebinding. You can change this phenomenon by changing the DNS server of the router, mainly including the following DNS settings, such as Google DNS, Cloudflare, OpenDNS, or Quad9.
Part 3: The Best Work-round to Download Plex Movies
Even if you have subscribed to Plex Pass, you cannot play the downloaded movie from Plex on another device. CleverGet Plex Downloader is an all-in-one streaming video downloader, which enables you to download movies from more than 1000 online streaming sites. It saves videos up to 1080P with 320KBPS in audio quality. Moreover, there is a batch download option to save a series of movies with an M3U8 playlist.
1. Download Plex movies
2. Provide a built-in web browser to fetch, play, and download Plex movies.
3. Save video files to MP4, WebM, MKV, MP3, M4A, and other file formats.
4. Preserve the metadata of the downloaded Plex for further management.
Step 1: Download and install CleverGet Plex Downloader. You can launch it on your computer and click the 3-dot button in the upper right toolbar. After that, you can customize some settings, such as maximum download tasks and destination folders for audio/video output.
Step 2: Enter https://www.plex.tv/ in the URL box and log in to your account to download the movies from Plex. The built-in web browser will detect the video automatically when playing the Plex movie. After that, you can find a download icon at the bottom right corner.
Step 3: Click the Download icon floating in the lower right corner to bring up different download options. After that, you can choose the desired download quality, frame rate, video format, and more. Click the Download button to save the Plex movies offline.
Step 4: After the download is complete, you can view the downloaded video in the Video tab from the Library menu. As for the audio files, you can find them in the Audio tab. Double-click the video to open it with a media player or create a DVD from the media files.
Conclusion
There are 5000+ movie resources in Plex for you to watch for free, but you may need to activate the Plex Pass to download movies from Plex. But it only saves the videos within the program. When you need to download Plex movies without any limitations, CleverGet Plex Downloader should be the optimal choice you should try.