Premiere device limit exceeded.

[OSBuckeyes4Life 7]

Not to worry @Lambtalk, I’m sure per security reasons, the Emby team can’t share that information but they’re tracking it so all is good!! Rest assured!

its the same thing if you have a TV, then get a new one, ops you’ve burned one already so be careful.

its just getting greedy. There is no reason there should be a limit. This is what pushes your most valuable customers away, not to mention….. they control all of that…. Lol

[Lambtalk 43]

56 minutes ago, OSBuckeyes4Life said:

Not to worry @Lambtalk, I’m sure per security reasons, the Emby team can’t share that information but they’re tracking it so all is good!! Rest assured!

its the same thing if you have a TV, then get a new one, ops you’ve burned one already so be careful.

its just getting greedy. There is no reason there should be a limit. This is what pushes your most valuable customers away, not to mention….. they control all of that…. Lol

I'd rather not engage in your bad faith argument, thanks. I'm not the biggest fan of how Emby handles device limits either, but businesses do have reasons outside of just "moar money", so I am approaching the topic with an open mind.

If you're not happy with the software and experience you've been provided with, there are alternatives available that may be better suited to your use case. No one is forcing you to stay here.
 

[OSBuckeyes4Life 7]

Maybe my over reaction yesterday was inappropriate and I’ll say I’m sorry but when I have family calling me who don’t understand why they are getting an error and I’m swamped at work, I get a little pissed. I’ve had Emby since at least 2016, builds it on a ReadyNAS, then Moved it to a computer, then moved it to another computer, installed and reinstalled. I used to talk on the forums all the time learning and helping others posts about how I did things helping people along the way. Recently I had a Linux problem and after looking all over the internet and seeing no one being able to fix it, I posted a long technical and to the point problem statement, screenshots, logs and even background on what needed to be solved for. What I got in return was a smart ass remark from a developer, that all Linux users should watch out. I am also a developer and I want to solve any and all problems that come up to me. So I worked hard for a few days trying to solve for that issue and I got it so hopefully going forward any of those Reddit posts, yeah there is your answer for Linux collections.

now when I bought Emby, I purchased an UNLIMITED license. No where did I read having a limit. Ok so that’s on me. BUT here is my problem. 

a. All of the hardware is on me, I have paid for a server, 1 TB ram, 48 cores, installed Nginx, network controls, Fiber, Synology NAS with over 100TB, ALL on my own money. I have sweat tears and blood into my network.

b. I spent hours making my server better for family so that for those who aren’t “technical” people, they can use it and get enjoyment out of watching things without having to buy 15 streaming services. 
 

Part of this is my frustration that unlimited is not really unlimited, so you’re not really getting an unlimited subscription. The other part of this is not being allowed to manage MY own devices. So I just recently added my server to a Linux distribution and just added my library as normal, I saw “skip titles” and thought ohhhh that’s cool. So I checked it. Also in the past, when Emby comes out with new features, sure I add them and test them and then I know what they are. Some I have kept over the past and some I just wanted to learn. So LIVE TV is a great example. I didn’t know this would eventually count against me so I added it, paid for it not to forget about, and tested it. IMO, awful. I spent hours mapping channels and then an Emby update later, it refreshed and unmapped it. So personally I removed it. 
 

So all that to say, some of us don’t use that 25 limit to sell to people for streaming to make money, I use it for my family. But as soon as I added skip intros, all of a sudden I have well over 25 devices using premium now and a lot of them are now not working. So when you say “you don’t have to stay with Emby”, yeah I do because I love the ahit out of Emby, I’ve spent hours upon hours of my life making Emby better and helping here and there to make it better for others on this Forrum. Same with sickchill, transmission, Radarr, sonarr, windows/linux/readynas users, I’ve been around the block. You want to make a limit of 25, that’s fine BUT, I should be the one in charge of those devices, not oh once you burn it that’s 1. That’s what I call BS and that’s why I’m ticked off.

[ebr 14917]

10 hours ago, Lambtalk said:

Just trying to understand the flow of things to hopefully clear this up for other users.

So when a client app connects to a media server, it retrieves the license key/the server shares the license key with the client app, then the client app shares that key directly with the Emby Admin server?
Emby Admin server presumably checks that the key being shared matches to the server that the client is connected to, and if so, adds +1 to the device list against the key?

What happens in the event that the Key being passed from the client app to the Emby Admin server does not match against the media server the client has connected to? eg. the client device has fraudulently used a valid key from someone else's server and is sharing that with Emby as part of the license check.

Hi. The key is never shared with the app so it cannot be spoofed in that way.

[ebr 14917]

36 minutes ago, OSBuckeyes4Life said:

now when I bought Emby, I purchased an UNLIMITED license. No where did I read having a limit

Hi.  Your initial purchase was in Jan of 2017.  You actually purchased a license with a lower limit at that time.  We instituted the limit in April of 2016 at 15 devices.  In 2019, we raised that limit to 25.

Thanks.

[OSBuckeyes4Life 7]

That’s fine, but every time I get a new phone or TV or iPad, that burns 1, so over time everyone is going to hit 25. There needs to be a way that as a user, I can remove old devices. That’s not fair that I can’t get that 1 back.

[ebr 14917]

1 minute ago, OSBuckeyes4Life said:

but every time I get a new phone or TV or iPad, that burns 1, so over time everyone is going to hit 25.

Hi.  Please read the following article.  Devices that are not used for one week will no longer count.

Is there a limit to Emby Premiere?

[OSBuckeyes4Life 7]

“In our experience over a number of years, this standard license is sufficient for 95%+ of our users. “

 

funny so many people complaining then, it’s like that entire 5% is here.

 

its all good, its a business. You limiting it is just a power play. If you were serving up or I was using your hardware then I understand. But I’m not, it’s turning into Plex 2.0, so it’s all good.

[scott46953 11]

41 minutes ago, OSBuckeyes4Life said:

Maybe my over reaction yesterday was inappropriate and I’ll say I’m sorry but when I have family calling me who don’t understand why they are getting an error and I’m swamped at work, I get a little pissed. I’ve had Emby since at least 2016, builds it on a ReadyNAS, then Moved it to a computer, then moved it to another computer, installed and reinstalled. I used to talk on the forums all the time learning and helping others posts about how I did things helping people along the way. Recently I had a Linux problem and after looking all over the internet and seeing no one being able to fix it, I posted a long technical and to the point problem statement, screenshots, logs and even background on what needed to be solved for. What I got in return was a smart ass remark from a developer, that all Linux users should watch out. I am also a developer and I want to solve any and all problems that come up to me. So I worked hard for a few days trying to solve for that issue and I got it so hopefully going forward any of those Reddit posts, yeah there is your answer for Linux collections.

now when I bought Emby, I purchased an UNLIMITED license. No where did I read having a limit. Ok so that’s on me. BUT here is my problem. 

a. All of the hardware is on me, I have paid for a server, 1 TB ram, 48 cores, installed Nginx, network controls, Fiber, Synology NAS with over 100TB, ALL on my own money. I have sweat tears and blood into my network.

b. I spent hours making my server better for family so that for those who aren’t “technical” people, they can use it and get enjoyment out of watching things without having to buy 15 streaming services. 
 

Part of this is my frustration that unlimited is not really unlimited, so you’re not really getting an unlimited subscription. The other part of this is not being allowed to manage MY own devices. So I just recently added my server to a Linux distribution and just added my library as normal, I saw “skip titles” and thought ohhhh that’s cool. So I checked it. Also in the past, when Emby comes out with new features, sure I add them and test them and then I know what they are. Some I have kept over the past and some I just wanted to learn. So LIVE TV is a great example. I didn’t know this would eventually count against me so I added it, paid for it not to forget about, and tested it. IMO, awful. I spent hours mapping channels and then an Emby update later, it refreshed and unmapped it. So personally I removed it. 
 

So all that to say, some of us don’t use that 25 limit to sell to people for streaming to make money, I use it for my family. But as soon as I added skip intros, all of a sudden I have well over 25 devices using premium now and a lot of them are now not working. So when you say “you don’t have to stay with Emby”, yeah I do because I love the ahit out of Emby, I’ve spent hours upon hours of my life making Emby better and helping here and there to make it better for others on this Forrum. Same with sickchill, transmission, Radarr, sonarr, windows/linux/readynas users, I’ve been around the block. You want to make a limit of 25, that’s fine BUT, I should be the one in charge of those devices, not oh once you burn it that’s 1. That’s what I call BS and that’s why I’m ticked off.

That is the same experience that I personally have, members of my family get rudely interrupted by a message asking them to pay money to watch TV.. nowhere do I have any messages saying that I went over my limit on the server nor do I receive any emails that any of my users/family members are unable to watch because of the limit. So instead if my family members don't contact me, they pull out their wallet and pay the fee, if everybody on the server pulls out their wallet and pays the fee, in return and by community results in a much bigger paycheck... However if they would have notified me by email or some sort of pop-up message or even a text message SMS, I would have happily went on logged in to emby and extended the service connections. But they obviously don't want us to do that instead they want to collect more money by collecting an individually, but then we still don't know if it's legit because we have no way of telling where we're at on our limit currently. So we're at the mercy of the Emby, and then they got people like us that feel like we have been tricked.  To me I feel like that's a wrong way to make money, but then again we have heating and cooling people come to our house when our furnace goes out, and then we take their word on what's wrong with the furnace and pay up so.. as far as jelly thing goes, I've tested it several times and it just didn't have the features that I was interested in, however I did receive several emails and advertisements stating that they have made a big leap, so it may be something that maybe look that soon sooner or later...  But as of right now I don't have any intent on switching. It takes a lot of effort to explain and message every single family member, especially the elderly and have them make the change... So that would result in me having to drive around to every single person's house, I just don't have time for that I got to work to make money to pay the bills, but then I get slapped with the unknown connection limit, there goes my pack of cigarettes...  Maybe I just need to start charging people more myself at my own job. You know there's always karma, and then there's always the saying of what comes around goes around. In time I believe that this is a real issue it will resolve on its own. But to know how much they are actually losing based on their way they do their budget, I have no idea.. gets too much deep into it for me, it's easier just to pay. But generally it always happens at the last minute unexpectedly inconveniently sometimes in embarrassing way. But I guess there is a security issue with letting us know on how many connections we're currently at and which devices are counting on the list.. if I have said anything that offends anybody I'm going to apologize ahead of time I've not had my coffee yet, and then I get dinged early in the morning by updates from connections limits making me feel like, I better get out my wallet.... Don't most internet companies and applications make more money on advertisements? I would much rather see an advertisement once a day, but that's my opinion.

[OSBuckeyes4Life 7]

If you wanna say the “key” isn’t shared because it could be patched, then make a page that shows what devices are connected to it and let me decide to kick it. Not “oh in a week it drops off”. 
 

Or better yet, make the limit 1 per key so you have better control of the puppet community, well 95% as quoted by Emby.

[ebr 14917]

40 minutes ago, OSBuckeyes4Life said:

funny so many people complaining then, it’s like that entire 5% is here.

Hi.  5 distinct users have asked questions in this thread.  That is well under 5% of our user base.

We're very sorry if anyone feels "tricked".  We are extremely up front about the existence of the limit.  It is indicated on the page where you make the purchase.  We do not intend to trick anyone but the fact is the VAST majority of our users do not require any more devices than the standard limit and the limit primarily exists to make it harder for people to use us as a pirate platform.  That's why we don't sell any limits over 75.  We're actively refusing money that some try to give us on that point.

[scott46953 11]

How many members are there today vs 5 years ago?

5% then should be much different today.  Besides, 40% don't know forums are here or don't want to bother.

45% maybe just not logged in silent readers 

10% maybe just fear that emby may get upset and cut them off.

Today's % of cord cutters is a lot higher then 5 years ago

Also it takes time to get to a connection limit and some don't get to that by personal means.

But if you was to take a pole on everyone's sever directly, the response would be more realistic.

Not sure why this is even a question on here.

[OSBuckeyes4Life 7]

Let’s talk Dev to Dev here as you’re not pulling anything over my eyes and I do this for a living.  So you set an alert on your side for those pirates and if they hit 75 devices, then ban the key (not saying 75 is the magic number). When I made the purchase it stated “Unlimited Lifetime”. So yeah to me I don’t have unlimited here. I have multiple devices in my own home (2 iPads, 4 iphones, 2 computers, 9 TVs, most in the mancave, so personally I have 17 devices. So because I want to share my server with family, the server Emby has nothing to do with, I’m allowed 8 members, well mom dad on both side, and my brothers and sisters, op I’m already over the limit because I want to use intro skip, that’s not a premium feature, get real.

all someone has to do and I could if I want to save money and not over pay, is set up 2 docker containers, install Emby, pay for two keys and wallah, I’m up to 50 connections for no additional monthly rate. This isn’t rocket science, if people want to pirate it they can.

[mrwizardno2 0]

4 hours ago, ebr said:

Hi.  Your initial purchase was in Jan of 2017.  You actually purchased a license with a lower limit at that time.  We instituted the limit in April of 2016 at 15 devices.  In 2019, we raised that limit to 25.

Thanks.

Hi there! 

Not to pile on, but as a curious bystander I now have a burning question: I purchased my license in January 28th of 2016 - In this case, how are devices handled for me? 

Thank you!

[Lambtalk 43]

5 hours ago, ebr said:

Hi. The key is never shared with the app so it cannot be spoofed in that way.

Thanks for the response, ebr. So that's where you've got me confused then. If the verification isn't done between the client and Emby directly, that means the verification is occurring between server and Emby. So it should be possible for this to be tracked locally in the server without exposing an unauthenticated API.

You wouldn't get any of the management features, like dropping off devices, but at least you would be able to see a running count of which devices are using premium features.

[Thuzad 42]

Hello, I'd like some clarification. If I have "Intro Skip" activated and I use a browser that is not normally counted in the number of "Premium" devices, is it counted in my number of "Premium" devices at that time?

[OSBuckeyes4Life 7]

It counts it for a minimum of a week, as a premium count. If not used for a week it drops off. Giving you that back, although they monitor that so no way to validate.

Please read the following article.  Devices that are not used for one week will no longer count.

Is there a limit to Emby Premiere?

Edited February 1 by OSBuckeyes4Life

[Thuzad 42]

Yes, but basic browsers are not counted as "Premium". So with "Intro skip", yes. So it's better to disable it to avoid browsers being counted.

As you can see in this image:

[OSBuckeyes4Life 7]

And I’m sorry but that’s total BS.

[Thuzad 42]

Surely, but that's what I'm trying to confirm, as I haven't seen this information explicitly validated by anyone on the Emby team in this thread.

If this is the case, it's very annoying indeed...

[scott46953 11]

What I'm trying to figure out is why myself is counting as 10 devices, I'm not even using those 10 devices at the same time, so to me I think the device counting thing is not even counting properly, yesterday I accidentally hit the play button when trying to select a movie and it transcoded so now my laptop is counting on the device limit, I'm scared to turn on my living room TV. That should never exist, I can't even switch to my laptop on the other side of the house without counting against me. But then I'm waiting in line for my food and I decide to pull up the server, I just wanted to check the football score, now my phone counts on my device limit, this is not right at all, it should be counted as a second connection if the person is watching more than one device at the same time. I shouldn't be scared to have to turn on my living room TV because I decide to go in there once a week, the rest of the time I lay in bed and watch TV at the end of the day...  Besides just because I accidentally pressed to play button and it transcodes while trying to make sure everything's working properly on my server, now it counts.. but I have nothing to show or prove that I'm even being charged properly so.. so basically at any point in time regardless if there's a mistaker error, or any type of manipulation, nobody can prove it because, there's some sort of security issue of the server owner knowing which connection that they already own counts on the limit, I don't know what part of security that I have against myself, but to me I think that that excuse is a way around saying, we're never going to tell you regardless of how many times you ask or complain... So if I write my own code, and it detects every connection that uses premier services for my emby server on the network, is this number going to equal out to be the same one as what they are saying over the limit? I use skip intro and I also use Channel skip, I hope that it don't count every time I skip a commercial, can't tell for sure when it's counting anything, I can't even tell if it's counting properly, because of myself being secured to myself without being able to unsecure myself. Anyways I'm done with this topic, anybody else that hasn't said anything feel free, I don't want to feel like I'm the only one, and I sure don't want to be the one that makes anyone feel that I picked on anybody and if I offend anybody I apologize in advance, I just feel that emby services should collect money but they need to possibly find a better way to handle it. Saying something is lifetime unlimited and then having a limit on the unlimited, is like the cell phone provider saying that you have unlimited data, but in small print it's only unlimited up to.. after that you get dial-up speed, which generally is not dial-up speed... But in this case, the cell phone company will cut you off until you pay.. anyways just a figure what they call slower speed... Why isn't there a pay one time fee of true unlimited? Must be security against myself.

I will keep watching this post but I'm not going to post too much anymore, I want to try to prevent repeating anything. Anybody new is welcome

[tedfroop21 38]

I'm not certain but I know other media players or software that counts clients count browsers used to access their software as clients.  As such browser versions/different browsers used on one PC/phone can count for several clients,  but like the dev's said just for a week.

[scott46953 11]

So what you're saying is if I use Internet explorer it will count as more than one sometimes depending on how it's used? Also using the same computer if I use Google Chrome it will also count as another connection limit? Also if I'm on the computer that has the server installed on it, and I use Google Chrome, and I try to play anything that trans codes, is the server also counted against itself as a connection? So if I got on my phone the emby app installed, and I checked the football game and it trans codes, but then later in the day I accidentally go to the browser open it up and check the football score again, now I have two connection limits from the same mobile device, but then I accidentally open up a secondary browser, check the ending score of the football game, now I have a third connection?

I thought the connection limit was based on just the device itself, so it's incorrectly counting connections on the devices. Good to know, I'll make sure that I use the same way every time I open emby.  Isn't there a way that it can read a serial number from the computer or mobile and only count it as one device? Obviously it can't be watching two channels at the same time, and that would create an unfair counter on the connection limit. But I'm still trying to figure out why if there's a example server that only has 15 devices, how does it go over a 25 connection limit.. now it's starting to make sense. But now I'm scared to even open my laptops.

[Scott D 62]

I have been reading this thread for a few days now and finally feel it is time to add my two cents worth.  First, I too have been a Lifetime Premier user since January of 2017.  So I’ve heard this same concern since the implementation of the device limits.  I too purchased a “Lifetime” license.  I do remember in reading the terms of the license, a clause that I will paraphrase, that indicated that the license was for the current version and subsequent updates until such time as a “major” release or change to the software was provided.  So, for the last 7 years of using Emby, I have not been presented with the need to “update my license due to a “major” upgrade.  THANK YOU EMBY STAFF!

When first implemented it took a while for me to wrap my mind around the concept of device limits.  I too had some concerns that it would be restrictive and limiting access by not only myself, but family member as well.    I have a total of 14 family members/users that are fairly active.  The longest time for inactivity by a user has been around 6 days.  Each family member has more than one device that they use for access to my server.  I personally have 3 televisions using apps (Samsung), 3 roku devices, 2 desktop computers, 1 laptop computer and a cell phone.  Emby tells me there are 45 devices that have been used.  And still my license tells me:

  “You have a Lifetime Emby Premiere plan and your device usage is well within your limit.”

Since Emby is designed, marketed, licensed and to be used as a personal server, I find it hard to believe that personal users are exceeding the limitation on devices as is currently implemented.  And yes, I do use the features that would result in a count of a device.  If you are exceeding the limits, I believe the Emby staff has offered to discuss on a per user basis to determine if an alternate solution is available for your particular situation.

So my summary of this entire discussion is; if you are not exceeding the limits, you probably have nothing to be concerned about.  If you are exceeding the limits, reach out to the staff directly.  Or, take a good look at the system you are running and ask yourself if you are living up to your obligation under the license agreement (are you running a pay to play service?). 

I agree that a more precise display of the number of devices would be helpful, but I have not had issue in 7 years of running my server so I really don’t give it much thought.

As I am writing this, I understand that version 4.8 has become available.  With all the discussion about all the added features, I am pleasantly surprised to see that this has been included in my “LIFETIME” license and not considered a “Major” release.  THANK YOU AGAIN EMBY STAFF!!!

[OSBuckeyes4Life 7]

Well looks like we’re on our own, who wants to build a truly Unlimited Media Server with me? We could start with 75 as the limit since that is where Pirates begin….