Plex Cloud Shutting Down on November 30 Citing Unmanageable Expenses

Media player app Plex has announced that it will shut down its Plex Cloud service by the end of November, specifically, on November 30, citing high cost of maintaining numerous servers using the service. Plex is supported widely across platforms including Windows, Mac, Linux, NAS devices; and its clients are available on Windows, Web, Android, iOS, gaming consoles, smart TVs, and essentially all major multimedia platforms. Launched in September 2016, Plex Cloud was an attempt from Plex to cut into the mainstream and get casual users into its mix.

The company claims that it has not allowed any new Plex Cloud servers since February this year and had since been working on providing a quality product by simultaneously keeping costs down. Starting November 30 this year, subscribers will, naturally, not be able to access their Plex Cloud server, however none of their content will be lost. All third-party cloud services, including Google Drive and Dropbox, will be unlinked from Plex Cloud on November 30 itself.

Plex recommends users download their cloud content, store it locally on a NAS device, run a data centre hosted VPS server, and point it to their cloud storage. Additionally, users can look to Plex's community forums for more information.

"We hold ourselves to a high standard, and unfortunately, after a lot of investigation and thought, we haven't found a solution capable of delivering a truly first class Plex experience to Plex Cloud users at a reasonable cost," said Plex in an update to its FAQ page. "While we are super bummed about the impact this will have on our happy Cloud users, ending support for it will allow us to focus on improving core functionality, adding new features and content, and delivering on our mission to provide a world-class product that we can all rely on and enjoy."