Plex announced today that its Plex Pass feature, Sync, will now be known as Downloads. Along with the name change, the feature is getting some upgrades that will make it more useful to Plex Pass users.
To use Downloads, you’ll need to be signed into your Plex account and have an active Plex Pass subscription, or be a part of a Plex Home subscription with Plex Pass.
Here’s what’s new:
- Simplicity. Most things can be downloaded with a single tap. No fiddling with settings or item limits, and you can still “subscribe” to TV shows to keep the next few episodes on hand.
- Speed. Start downloading right away at full speed in most cases.
- Reliability. Downloads are more consistently accessible and playback reliability has been improved whether you’re online or not.
- Better format compatibility for less transcoding. Direct download anything your device can play. (You can still choose to limit the quality/size in settings if you like).
- Progressive conversion and simultaneous downloading. Downloads begin even while the source media is being transcoded; no more waiting for the entire transcode to finish before the download can begin.
- Simplified management. Everything is visible and managed in the Downloads list on the device where the media was downloaded.
Downloads are available on Plex for Windows, Plex for Mac, and Android devices. iOS devices will be added soon.