Plex users’ complaints in November 2023 centered on Discover Together, a feature that let friends see activity and could include it in “Week in Review” emails. The reports described unwanted exposure—not proof that every Plex account or every viewing event was shared. If you use Plex, you can review profile privacy, activity notifications, Discover settings and watch-history syncing separately.
What happened with Plex’s Discover Together feature?
Plex introduced Discover Together in November 2023. The feature let users see activity from Plex friends, and Plex’s “Week in Review” emails could include that activity. Users complained that the emails revealed viewing they had not meant to share. Futurism and 404 Media reported the controversy and Plex’s explanation that it had provided onboarding and announcements. Futurism’s November 29, 2023 report and 404 Media’s November 27 report, updated with Plex’s response document the complaints; neither establishes how many users were affected.
One Plex Forums user quoted by 404 Media said they could see a friend watching “cheesy, soft porn stuff” and believed the friend would be mortified to know. That is an individual’s account, not evidence that Plex routinely exposed every user’s viewing or that all friends received the same information.
Plex combines streaming options with software for accessing personal media libraries. Activity associated with a Plex account can involve Discover, Plex’s Movies & Shows service, or Plex Media Servers a user can access. A synced watch record alone does not show where a title was watched.
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Does Plex share watch history with friends?
Plex’s current help pages describe profile privacy settings that govern whether friends can see activity such as watch history, ratings and watchlist activity. Its Activity Feed documentation also explains that activity can appear in friends’ feeds or notification digests depending on privacy settings. The service documents controls for the profile, feeds, detail pages, email notifications and syncing; these are related but distinct settings.
Plex says it will not generate activity for a title when the title has a Plex GUID and its metadata flags it as adult content. In Plex Support’s words: “If the title has a plex guid and is flagged as adult content in our metadata, we won’t generate an activity for it.” 404 Media reported Plex’s clarification that some titles users described may not carry that metadata flag. This is a conditional metadata rule, not a guarantee that all adult or sensitive content is excluded.
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How to limit what Plex friends can see
Change profile privacy for activity types
In Plex’s web app, open your profile settings and review the privacy controls for Watch History, Ratings, Watchlist activity, your friends list and Account Visibility. Set the activity types you do not want shared with friends to private. Plex’s Profile help page also describes removing activity from your profile’s watch history or ratings. Removing existing entries and preventing future activity are separate tasks.
Disable Discover or hide friends’ activity on detail pages
Plex documents this account-settings route in its web app: sign in, open Account, choose Online Media Sources, then adjust the Discover options. The controls cover Discover availability and whether friends’ activity appears on media detail pages. This is Plex’s published web-app path; labels and layouts may differ among clients. Options for managed accounts may also differ from those available to the account administrator. See Plex’s Discover Source help page.
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Control friend-activity email notifications
Plex’s Activity Feed help page says email notifications for friend activity can be controlled in mobile-app notification settings. This changes which notifications arrive; it does not, by itself, make profile activity private. Review the relevant activity privacy controls as well. Plex’s instructions are in Activity Feed.
Review watch-state and ratings sync
Plex documents account syncing for watched state and ratings. Depending on privacy settings, synced records can appear in profiles, friends’ activity feeds or notification digests. If you do not want watch state or ratings synced to your account, Plex’s Sync Watch State and Ratings help page explains how to disable syncing and delete previously synced data. Deleting watch history alone does not stop new history from being created: review both sync and privacy settings to match your goal.
Quick Recap
Which setting should you change?
| Your goal | Control to review | What it affects |
|---|---|---|
| Keep activity off your profile | Profile privacy settings | Visibility of activity types such as watch history, ratings and watchlist activity to friends. |
| Stop friends’ activity appearing in Discover | Account → Online Media Sources → Discover | Discover availability and friends’ activity on media detail pages. |
| Receive fewer friend-activity emails | Mobile-app notification settings | Email notifications for friend activity; this does not itself make profile activity private. |
| Stop account-level watch-state or rating sync | Sync Watch State and Ratings settings | Syncing of watched state and ratings, with an option to delete previously synced data. |
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