Python-PlexAPI

Overview

Unofficial Python bindings for the Plex API. Our goal is to match all capabilities of the official Plex Web Client. A few of the many features we currently support are:

Navigate local or remote shared libraries.
Perform library actions such as scan, analyze, empty trash.
Remote control and play media on connected clients, including Controlling Sonos speakers
Listen in on all Plex Server notifications.

Installation & Documentation

pip install plexapi

Documentation can be found at Read the Docs.

Getting a PlexServer Instance

There are two types of authentication. If you are running on a separate network or using Plex Users you can log into MyPlex to get a PlexServer instance. An example of this is below. NOTE: Servername below is the name of the server (not the hostname and port). If logged into Plex Web you can see the server name in the top left above your available libraries.

from plexapi.myplex import MyPlexAccount
account = MyPlexAccount('<USERNAME>', '<PASSWORD>')
plex = account.resource('<SERVERNAME>').connect()  # returns a PlexServer instance

If you want to avoid logging into MyPlex and you already know your auth token string, you can use the PlexServer object directly as above, by passing in the baseurl and auth token directly.

from plexapi.server import PlexServer
baseurl = 'http://plexserver:32400'
token = '2ffLuB84dqLswk9skLos'
plex = PlexServer(baseurl, token)

Usage Examples

# Example 1: List all unwatched movies.
movies = plex.library.section('Movies')
for video in movies.search(unwatched=True):
    print(video.title)

# Example 2: Mark all Game of Thrones episodes watched.
plex.library.section('TV Shows').get('Game of Thrones').markWatched()

# Example 3: List all clients connected to the Server.
for client in plex.clients():
    print(client.title)

# Example 4: Play the movie Cars on another client.
# Note: Client must be on same network as server.
cars = plex.library.section('Movies').get('Cars')
client = plex.client("Michael's iPhone")
client.playMedia(cars)

# Example 5: List all content with the word 'Game' in the title.
for video in plex.search('Game'):
    print('%s (%s)' % (video.title, video.TYPE))

# Example 6: List all movies directed by the same person as Elephants Dream.
movies = plex.library.section('Movies')
die_hard = movies.get('Elephants Dream')
director = die_hard.directors[0]
for movie in movies.search(None, director=director):
    print(movie.title)

# Example 7: List files for the latest episode of The 100.
last_episode = plex.library.section('TV Shows').get('The 100').episodes()[-1]
for part in last_episode.iterParts():
    print(part.file)

# Example 8: Get audio/video/all playlists
for playlist in plex.playlists():
    print(playlist.title)

# Example 9: Rate the 100 four stars.
plex.library.section('TV Shows').get('The 100').rate(8.0)

Controlling Sonos speakers

To control Sonos speakers directly using Plex APIs, the following requirements must be met:

Active Plex Pass subscription
Sonos account linked to Plex account
Plex remote access enabled

Due to the design of Sonos music services, the API calls to control Sonos speakers route through https://sonos.plex.tv and back via the Plex server's remote access. Actual media playback is local unless networking restrictions prevent the Sonos speakers from connecting to the Plex server directly.

from plexapi.myplex import MyPlexAccount
from plexapi.server import PlexServer

baseurl = 'http://plexserver:32400'
token = '2ffLuB84dqLswk9skLos'

account = MyPlexAccount(token)
server = PlexServer(baseurl, token)

# List available speakers/groups
for speaker in account.sonos_speakers():
    print(speaker.title)

# Obtain PlexSonosPlayer instance
speaker = account.sonos_speaker("Kitchen")

album = server.library.section('Music').get('Stevie Wonder').album('Innervisions')

# Speaker control examples
speaker.playMedia(album)
speaker.pause()
speaker.setVolume(10)
speaker.skipNext()

Running tests over PlexAPI

Use:

tools/plex-boostraptest.py

with appropriate arguments and add this new server to a shared user which username is defined in environment veriable SHARED_USERNAME. It uses official docker image to create a proper instance.

For skipping the docker and reuse a existing server use

python plex-boostraptest.py --no-docker -username USERNAME --password PASSWORD --server-name NAME-OF-YOUR-SEVER

Also in order to run most of the tests you have to provide some environment variables:

PLEXAPI_AUTH_SERVER_BASEURL containing an URL to your Plex instance, e.g. http://127.0.0.1:32400 (without trailing slash)
PLEXAPI_AUTH_MYPLEX_USERNAME and PLEXAPI_AUTH_MYPLEX_PASSWORD with your MyPlex username and password accordingly

After this step you can run tests with following command:

py.test tests -rxXs --ignore=tests/test_sync.py

Some of the tests in main test-suite require a shared user in your account (e.g. test_myplex_users, test_myplex_updateFriend, etc.), you need to provide a valid shared user's username to get them running you need to provide the username of the shared user as an environment variable SHARED_USERNAME. You can enable a Guest account and simply pass Guest as SHARED_USERNAME (or just create a user like plexapitest and play with it).

To be able to run tests over Mobile Sync api you have to some some more environment variables, to following values exactly:

PLEXAPI_HEADER_PROVIDES='controller,sync-target'
PLEXAPI_HEADER_PLATFORM=iOS
PLEXAPI_HEADER_PLATFORM_VERSION=11.4.1
PLEXAPI_HEADER_DEVICE=iPhone

And finally run the sync-related tests:

py.test tests/test_sync.py -rxXs

Common Questions

Why are you using camelCase and not following PEP8 guidelines?

This API reads XML documents provided by MyPlex and the Plex Server. We decided to conform to their style so that the API variable names directly match with the provided XML documents.

Why don't you offer feature XYZ?

This library is meant to be a wrapper around the XML pages the Plex server provides. If we are not providing an API that is offerered in the XML pages, please let us know! -- Adding additional features beyond that should be done outside the scope of this library.

What are some helpful links if trying to understand the raw Plex API?

lcmeyer37/python-plexapi