Plex managed accounts won’t work because the data isn’t associated with a plex account. I don’t like to use them for that reason- kids move out and then you have to share your personal account info or they’ll lose all of their plex watch history. There isn’t a way to go from a managed to an individual plex account and it feel kind of gimped.
The problem Infuse has is there are Plex accounts, Jellyfin accounts, Emby accounts, and then can also serve media directly without a server backend- This makes the implementation a lot harder because a huge part of Infuse needs to be redesigned for this to all work well.
Apple profiles is going to be a LOT easier to implement and maintain. I’ll take that over nothing. This thread is almost 10 years old and I’m glad we’re getting something. iOS 26 is making a big change in how profile switching works so it’ll feel a lot more like Netflix anyways once everything is setup- you’ll just be doing it when you turn on the TV instead of after opening Infuse.
Yes, Apple profiles is better than nothing. From my brief experiment, it seems a separate Plex account invited to the main Plex server account will not have the Plex Premium benefits, such as Skip Intro, etc. Still, small price to pay. It’s also not really an Infuse issue.
I had no idea so many people used Infuse as a Plex client, I’m just pointing Infuse to an SMB share from my NAS so the Apple profiles are a great solution for me.
Happy this is coming relatively soon!
I use Infuse because it actually renders 4K HDR content better than Plex app. I still connect it to Plex as library manager though. We still prefer Plex’s library UX.
I really like the idea of adding Apple Profiles to Infuse. Having a completely separate Infuse environment for each system profile is a great addition, especially for families or shared devices.
One thing I find a bit unfortunate, though, is that the metadata won’t be shared across profiles. Based on your current plans, each profile will have its own independent Infuse setup, including its own metadata, collections, and adjustments.
I completely understand the reasoning behind this — giving everyone full control over their own experience makes a lot of sense. Still, I think it would be very useful to have an optional way to share metadata across profiles, for example, by syncing from a main profile or the iCloud account.
If you spend a lot of time organizing and fine-tuning your library, it would be great if those improvements carried over to other profiles. At the same time, users could still keep their personal watch history, progress, and playlists separate.
Maybe this could be considered as an additional option in the future — it would be the perfect middle ground for families or groups of friends using the same library.
We had hoped we would be able to pre-populate secondary profiles with library data as a starting point, but unfortunately Apple doesn’t allow any sort of data sharing between profiles at this time.
Unfortunately, I don’t think this would be covered by the changes coming in 8.2, but this could be something we look at adding after the release of 8.2. Best to follow the thread I linked above for updates.
Thanks for the clarification, that makes total sense! I completely understand that Apple currently doesn’t allow sharing data between system profiles — that explains why a full sync for metadata across profiles isn’t possible right now.
I’m already naming my files properly with the year and TMDb ID to help with matching, like:
Dalgliesh 2021 - S02E01 - Death of an Expert Witness (1) [tmdb-137127]
That definitely helps, but sometimes there are still occasional mismatches. Normally that wouldn’t be a big deal — but since my family is also using the library, one small mismatch can quickly turn into 7 mismatches, and 2 small issues suddenly become 14.
But no worries — you’re not getting rid of me anytime soon! I’ve already latched onto Infuse like a tick — I’m staying.
Thanks for all the great work, and I’ll definitely keep an eye on the thread for future updates!
So I see everyone’s points. Apple profiles are great for those that will use them and I don’t see a downside for those that won’t so no reason to vote against it and vice versa for infuse managed profiles. My question is why not both? Why can infuse also have its own profile management system so those that use Apple profiles will just log in once with infuse and never change it and those that don’t use Apple profiles will only have one Apple profile and switch within infuse. Also haven’t a Guest option to all infuse accounts might fix 80% of peoples complaints here without a full account switching functionality.
Regarding the metadata why can’t Infuse just pull Plex or Jellyfin metadata instead of recreating its own? I feel like that’s a negative across the board. It’s already done, no need to redo it all, would fix the multi user issue since the metadata would live on the server not the app/profile, would be available instantly when logging in the first time anywhere, and many first time infuse users already have scrubbed metadata on their server don’t wanna go through 50,000 files and redo it all over again. I know I sure as heck won’t. I mean sure keep a settings option for those that want local metadata but have the option to just use what the server already has and pull that in.
It will require a large amount of work to refactor Infuse to work with it’s own built in profile system and this feature request is almost 10 years old.
I think it would be better to have the multi profile in the app itself.
I’m already in a iCloud Family, but we are only member that family in my household, that means that I wouldn’t be able to add a icloud profile for my kids.
@james Just a thought, with Apple’s changes to Profiles, could a second user purchase their own copy of Infuse and have two copies on the same ATV, one for each profile? That would address the need for the jumping through hoops creating new accounts and emails.
Not sure how often this use case would occur, but with this setup, one could theoretically setup a Jellyfin profile on one apple profile and a Plex profile on the other, correct?
I’m really confused on how purchasing more copies of Infuse would result in not having to create new accounts and emails. People purchasing Infuse still need an Apple account, including Guest accounts.
I’m also unsure on why anyone would want to spend $200 per account (lifetime is better value after 15 years).
Trakt purchase sharing will be the safest way to share for large households as it avoids sharing the primary payment method with everyone. It just sucks relying on a 3rd party service and everyone will have to also setup trakt. That’s what’s really annoying but that’s an Apple problem.
Yes, each Profile is isolated from each other and opening Infuse will be like a fresh installation.
No family sharing set up. Everyone is entitled to have a wish list on how things work and this is mine. Not for everyone but for me it would fit the needs best.
Each user could have their own Pro license and this would be usable without having to set up Family Sharing.
The actual apps which are installed would be shared between all users. This is similar to macOS where there is one Applications folder that is shared between all user accounts. The data for each app is stored in the individual user’s folder, so that is not shared.
Not for everyone but for me it would fit the needs best.