Understanding how Emby Licensing works Offline

[rdhardi 42]

Hi @MikoyanThank you for starting this thread! We just had a 23 DAY internet outage (just came back up this week). Emby was pretty much useless during this time! I had similar questions that you asked so you saved me a lotta typing . I'll read through the replies and see if I understand... 

[rdhardi 42]

On 5/31/2024 at 9:12 AM, ebr said:

Hi.  The devices all validate directly.  The apps should cache successful validations for at least 24 hours and probably a few days.  However, there would have to be a successful validation within that period.

IOW - if you picked up your iPad for the first time in a week right after the outage, then it is not going to have any cached validation.

Thanks for clarifying that! All these years, I thought the premiere license validated the clients when they connect to the server.

That would explain why 2 of my 3 Shields couldn’t play Live TV…they were off at the time of the outage and I got the subscription message. The one that was on at the time of the outage continued to play for the entire 23 days! Kinda confused how it validated that long without internet? That’s why I thought the server on the LAN was validating it.

Edited October 27, 2024 by rdhardi
missing word

[ebr 16169]

22 minutes ago, rdhardi said:

The one that was on at the time of the outage continued to play for the entire 23 days!

Is it possible that one was unlocked with the app unlock?

Also, are you in western NC?  Very, very sad what has happened there but it is a beautiful area and will rebound.  Hope you and your family are safe.

[rdhardi 42]

48 minutes ago, ebr said:

Is it possible that one was unlocked with the app unlock?

No app unlock...until recently I didn't even know what an app unlock was, lol! We've had lifetime premiere since it was first available so that's all I know.

Also, are you in western NC?  Very, very sad what has happened there but it is a beautiful area and will rebound.  Hope you and your family are safe.

Close, I'm in Upstate SC, about 45 minutes from Asheville NC. Yes, very very sad and so, so devasting. Thanks, we are safe. Grateful to have power after 7 days, but many folks there lost everything, their lives, homes, and many still don't have power or water. I reminded myself of that everyday during the internet outage...it's just internet, get over it. It was bad here, but it could've been so much worse. We were lucky.

Sorry, looks like I messed up the quotes. Was trying to quote & reply to one line at a time. I don't post often, so I'll have to firgure out how to do that next time I use multiple quotes.

Edited October 27, 2024 by rdhardi
quotes

[Drewskiz 1]

On 10/24/2024 at 6:01 PM, rdhardi said:

Hi @MikoyanThank you for starting this thread! We just had a 23 DAY internet outage (just came back up this week). Emby was pretty much useless during this time! I had similar questions that you asked so you saved me a lotta typing . I'll read through the replies and see if I understand... 

I also had my internet out for over a month due to hurricane Helene, couldn't use my lifetime Emby premiere during this time. Really disappointing. Thinking about switching to Jellyfin so if my internet goes out again I have access to my local media, unless anyone else has any suggestions. It's a shame since I moved from Plex to Emby to support open source software.

Edited November 24, 2024 by Drewskiz

[rdhardi 42]

Hi @DrewskizYes, it was very disappointing. As I mentioned, one of my Shields that was on at the time of the internet outage continued to work, don't really understand how lol, but at least I had Emby access on one TV.

I'm not familiar with Jellyfin, but I'm pretty sure VLC can be used to access local media without internet. I didn't think of it during this outage, but I've used it in the past for brief internet outages. Of course, VLC won't have nice fancy UI features, but in a pinch, you can browse and play your local media.

Also, Emby has not been open-source since the Media Browser days...I think they went proprietary around 2017/2018.

 

Edited November 24, 2024 by rdhardi
Add VLC info

[Mikoyan 15]

Coming back to this topic because it seems many people share the same concerns.

Would it not be possible to have a manual 'for disaster/emergency uses' key issued for temporary use on the server/already-authenticated devices (like a smartphone), because it's a lot easier to authenticate from a phone with a mobile antenna than having to try and get the server and/or individual end-devices without said antenna connect to the internet and authenticate (which is also not something you can trigger on-demand so you just have to wait until it decides to do so?)
The key can only be issued once every quarter or 6 months with maybe 3-4 weeks of "functionality" before the server/client rejects the key and all subsequent "manual" keys until it connects to the internet. I think that would make people affected by natural disasters have some reprieve with this model while maintaining the integrity of keeping the premium features secure.

I still think people should be able to stream their media using the features they paid for locally, especially after a hurricane obliterates all network infrastructure that won't be online for weeks. Obviously this solution won't work if people have no internet at all, but just hopping over to a relief area with even a little public wifi to get the key would allow people to use their local libraries through emby.

[Drewskiz 1]

I see that the new Android TV app allows free playback now, does this mean we won't lose access to our library again if there is another internet outage?

[ebr 16169]

19 hours ago, Drewskiz said:

I see that the new Android TV app allows free playback now, does this mean we won't lose access to our library again if there is another internet outage?

I do not believe that change will have any impact on this.  The free playback is subject to a device limit.

[Drewskiz 1]

On 1/24/2025 at 10:37 AM, ebr said:

I do not believe that change will have any impact on this.  The free playback is subject to a device limit.

Thanks for the info. I guess it's time to finally make the move to Jellyfin. I've had a good run with Emby premiere, but the always-online DRM has become a dealbreaker.

[Luke 42077]

On 1/23/2025 at 3:19 PM, Drewskiz said:

I see that the new Android TV app allows free playback now, does this mean we won't lose access to our library again if there is another internet outage?

Hi, a typical brief internet outage shouldn't be a problem. You should only see disruption if it is long lasting, meaning more than 7-10 days.

[Drewskiz 1]

That's fair, I just want to know I can still play my media if I have another extended internet downtime, an apocalyptic situation, grid goes down, whatever. I've been happy with Emby overall since I switched from Plex when they started their anti-consumer practices, but  premiere functionality and playback tied to internet access just doesn't work for me. Don't think I would have bought Premiere lifetime if I knew it would stop working if my internet went out.

[Jdiesel 1431]

It's not ideal that Emby is required to call home to verify their licence but I understand why after the difficulties that the Jellyfin creator caused by bypassing the Emby licensing. So now we have to live with more stringent licensing requirements.

If I lived in a area with frequent internet outages lasting multiple days I would look into having a way of hot spotting with my phone temporarily when needed just long enough to authenticate with Emby, use web browsers and Kodi clients that don't require premier, and possibly look at a different solution that isn't build around remote streaming outside the home.

[ebr 16169]

There are also free playback options like the web app or even a Roku as a backup in these situations (assuming a Roku itself will work without internet...).

[Drewskiz 1]

I think I'm just going to run Emby and Jellyfin side by side in case of another outage. Would there be any issues with them both accessing the same library on my NAS?

[Clackdor 109]

2 hours ago, Drewskiz said:

I think I'm just going to run Emby and Jellyfin side by side in case of another outage. Would there be any issues with them both accessing the same library on my NAS?

No major issues, perhaps a couple of potential caveats though. If you're storing metadata and images next to your media you'll want to only give Jellyfin read access to the folders so that it doesn't overwrite anything.

If you're not storing images and nfo files next to your media you'll have to fix misidentified movies/shows separately. 

Also you'll have to change the ports used if they're both on the same machine. 

I have a couple of emby instances running as well as Jellyfin on my server. Only the primary emby instance gets read/write permissions to media folders so it can write nfo files and images. All of the others are read only and they pick up the images and metadata written by the primary emby instance just fine.

[ebr 16169]

16 hours ago, Drewskiz said:

I think I'm just going to run Emby and Jellyfin side by side in case of another outage

I believe a cheap Roku stick with the Emby app would provide a much better experience if needed.