Emby Premiere User/Device priorities

[Normanos 13]

I'm using Emby for ~5 years. Never exceeded limit, but it's always worries me. 

 Is it possible to create admin panel or something to manage Premiere membership?

For example Give certain users/devices higher priority. 

Also if device limit for transcoding exceeded it could fall back to software transcoding if i's not already happening.  

At the end, as owner, admin I don't wish to be locked out from my server.

At home I have no problems as don't need to transcode and Live TV is for me and recording only.

P.s. Maybe can "auto delete" devices which ones are not been active for X months. 

[GrimReaper 4739]

Related FR/discussion here:

 

22 minutes ago, Normanos said:

Also if device limit for transcoding exceeded it could fall back to software transcoding if i's not already happening.

Hardware accelerated transcoding is a server Premiere feature, there's no such thing as "device limit for transcoding". 

Any transcoding that fails to be hardware accelerated will automatically fallback to software transcoding. 

22 minutes ago, Normanos said:

At the end, as owner, admin I don't wish to be locked out from my server.

You'll shouldn't generally be locked out (unless on new device AFAIK), you should be able to browse/administrate your server, only Premiere features (like LiveTV) will be disabled (on some platforms that includes Full playback also). If you get over the device limit, it won't matter server owner/admin or not. 

22 minutes ago, Normanos said:

Maybe can "auto delete" devices which ones are not been active for X months. 

Inactive Premiere devices/devices not utilizing Premiere features are automatically removed from the list/slot opened after about a week. 

Is there a limit to Emby Premiere?

Emby Premiere Feature Matrix

Edited November 27, 2025 by GrimReaper

[Normanos 13]

@GrimReaper That thread is about to see how many are using Premiere feature. I asking for managing priorities. Just wish to have more power over server. Don't wish to wake up in morning unable to use Emby because of exceeded limit.  More likely it will never happens, but wish to stay in safe side.... .

 

Quote

You'll never be locked out, you'll always be able to browse/administrate your server, only Premiere features (like LiveTV) will be disabled (on some platforms that includes Full playback also). If you get over the device limit, it won't matter server owner/admin or not. 

Sorry, I meant that I may not be able watch myself. At home I using Shields without need to transcode. 

 

Quote

Hardware acceleraed transcoding is server Premiere feature, there's no such thing as "device limit for transcoding". 

Any transcoding that fails to be hardware accelerated will automatically fallback to software transcoding. 

Hardware transcoding is Premiere feature. So if limit exceeded, that means it won't play, but could fallback to software transcoding instead of blocking playback.

 

Quote

Inactive Premiere devices/devices not utilizing Premiere features are automatically removed from the list/slot opened after about a week. 

 

And auto delete, I meant this section:

[GrimReaper 4739]

11 minutes ago, Normanos said:

I asking for managing priorities. Just wish to have more power over server. Don't wish to wake up in morning unable to use Emby because of exceeded limit. 

Not sure how that would work as no usage/user data is transmitted from the server so how would admin (or any priority user) be identified? But that is a question for the Devs anyway. 

On 2/16/2024 at 9:52 PM, ebr said:

That is a very simple communication.  Device -> Hi, I'm connecting now : Return -> Sorry, no, you are over the limit.

Nothing is transmitted back from the servers except a yes/no (actually a simple http response code).

By contrast, for your server to know about each device and its status will require our servers to transmit detailed information that would allow your server to match up device IDs, etc.

 

11 minutes ago, Normanos said:

Sorry, I meant that I may not be able watch myself. At home I using Shields without need to transcode. 

As said, if over the limit - you won't be able to, regardless of transcoding or not. 

11 minutes ago, Normanos said:

Hardware transcoding is Premiere feature. So if limit exceeded, that means it won't play, but could fallback to software transcoding instead of blocking playback.

Again, it's a server Premiere feature. Whether it is active during playback on a client app - it does not matter for device limit nor it counts against. It transcodes - or it does not. If it fails in hardware, it falls back to software. 

11 minutes ago, Normanos said:

And auto delete, I meant this section:

No auto-delete currently. 

IIRC there was a community-made plugin for deleting devices, have no idea if it still works with the latest server version, gimme a minute to find it. 

Edit: Guess not. 

 

Edited November 27, 2025 by GrimReaper

[darkassassin07 652]

48 minutes ago, Normanos said:

@GrimReaper

And auto delete, I meant this section:

Just a note: The 'devices' section of your server has 0 connection to Premiere and its device limit.

Removing a device from that list does not remove it from the list of devices counted against your license.

That list can give you a vague idea of how many active devices you have, but it does not tell you if that device has used premier features. You can also install the same key on several servers, so devices only used on one server will not be displayed on others.

[Normanos 13]

@darkassassin07 I know that, just that list becoming ambitious. Not sure when, but think, when cleaning cookies in browser it's adding new device. 

 Had 100+ web browsers in few years... . 

That section is not important as I not checking it usually anyway. Now trying that Plugin: Devices Database Cleaner. 

For me, important is to get more control with device limit, priorities so I can always use Emby. As I most of time at home, Emby playing in background all day.

[ebr 16169]

Hi.  Something like this would take a fairly significant amount of work and as you already have stated

5 hours ago, Normanos said:

More likely it will never happens

For the vast majority of our users that are using the system as intended (a family server) the device limit is never an issue so spending the effort building something like this does not benefit any of those people.  Therefore, something like this remains a very low priority as we'd rather spend time/effort on features that will be utilized by the majority of people.

Thanks.

[bandit8623 213]

please allow an option to limit live tv to specific devices.  tell users to not log into all phones and tvs is a nightmare.  set up new user and then they use 4 diff devices taking up premier slots.

an optiion for say firesticks only would be great.

[Neminem 1518]

This plugin might do it.

 

[bandit8623 213]

4 minutes ago, Neminem said:

This plugin might do it.

 

not as huge fan of plugins as if the server crashes or has issues i cant  pinpoint problem,  but ill take a look at this.  thx

[Neminem 1518]

And I just found this tool that can inform me of over use and more

connorgallopo/Tracearr: Tracearr is a streaming access manager for Plex, Jellyfin and Emby servers. It answers the question every server owner eventually asks: "Who's actually using my server, and are they sharing their login?"